General Order No. 1 assigned Japanese forces north of Korea's 38th parallel to surrender to the Soviet Union.
The order was prepared by the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, approved by President Harry Truman on 17 August 1945, and issued to Japanese forces after the formal surrender on 2 September. It directed Japanese units to surrender to specified Allied commanders and preserve equipment for disarmament.
In Korea, the 38th parallel became the dividing line for surrender arrangements. Japanese forces north of the line were ordered to surrender to the Commander in Chief of Soviet Forces in the Far East. Japanese forces south of it surrendered to the Commander in Chief of U.S. Army Forces in the Pacific.
The order was an operational document, not a peace treaty or a permanent border agreement. Nevertheless, the surrender zones helped create the postwar division of Korea. The Soviet and American occupation zones eventually developed into North Korea and South Korea, making this wartime instruction historically significant beyond the immediate disarmament process.