What was the name of the document that formally ended Japan’s war with the Allies?

The Japanese Instrument of Surrender formally ended Japan’s war with the Allies.

The document was signed on September 2, 1945, aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. It recorded Japan’s acceptance of the terms set out by the Allied powers and brought the Second World War’s major hostilities to a formal close.

Japan’s representatives signed two principal copies, with Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signing for the government and General Yoshijirō Umezu signing for Imperial General Headquarters. General Douglas MacArthur then accepted the surrender for the Allied powers, followed by representatives of the United States, China, Britain, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.

The instrument should not be confused with the Potsdam Declaration. The declaration was an ultimatum that stated the Allies’ terms; the instrument was the capitulation document Japan signed. A later peace treaty, the Treaty of San Francisco, addressed Japan’s postwar peace settlement in 1951.