Japanese forces held a major surrender ceremony in Nanjing on 9 September 1945.
The ceremony took place at the auditorium of the Central Army Military Academy, one week after Japan’s formal surrender aboard USS Missouri. General Yasuji Okamura, commander-in-chief of the Japanese China Expeditionary Force, signed the surrender document for Japanese forces in China.
General He Yingqin accepted the surrender on behalf of the Chinese Nationalist government and the Allied powers. British Major-General Eric Hayes also attended. The document was written in both Japanese and Chinese, and the ceremony lasted about 15 minutes.
Nanjing had been the capital of the Republic of China during much of the Second Sino-Japanese War. It had also been the site of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre after Japanese forces captured the city. The 1945 ceremony therefore carried particular significance in the history of the war in China, separate from the global surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay.