Japan signed its formal surrender in Tokyo Bay in September 1945.
The ceremony took place aboard the USS Missouri, which was anchored in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. The location placed the event close to Japan’s capital while keeping the Allied command ship offshore. Around 250 Allied vessels were in the wider area during the ceremony.
The bay also carried historical symbolism. The Missouri displayed a flag associated with Commodore Matthew Perry’s 1853 expedition, which had forced Japan to open relations with the United States. The surrender ceremony therefore occurred near the same general waters where an earlier American naval mission had announced a new era of U.S.–Japan contact.
Tokyo Bay was not the same place as Tokyo itself. The surrender document was signed aboard a ship in the bay, while Allied occupation preparations were already beginning on land. The ceremony formally ended the war with Japan, although regional surrender ceremonies continued afterward.