The formal surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri lasted approximately 23 minutes.
The proceedings began shortly after 9 a.m. on 2 September 1945 and concluded at about 9:25 a.m. General Douglas MacArthur opened and closed the ceremony, while Japanese and Allied representatives signed the surrender instrument in a carefully prescribed sequence.
The ceremony was brief but highly structured. Mamoru Shigemitsu and Yoshijirō Umezu signed first, MacArthur accepted the surrender, and representatives of nine Allied governments followed. Speeches were limited, and the document’s signatures supplied the central legal and military act.
The 23-minute ceremony should not be confused with Emperor Hirohito’s recorded radio message. That broadcast, announcing Japan’s acceptance of the Allied terms, was recorded earlier and transmitted on 15 August. Nor does the ceremony’s duration mean the entire occupation began instantly; Allied occupation preparations and regional surrender arrangements continued afterward.