The last major Japanese surrender of World War II occurred in Taiwan on October 25, 1945. Japanese forces on the island surrendered to representatives of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Chinese government.
Japan’s central surrender had already been announced on August 15 and formally signed in Tokyo Bay on September 2. However, Japanese forces were scattered across Asia and the Pacific, so separate local surrender ceremonies continued for weeks.
Taiwan had been under Japanese rule since the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. After Japan’s defeat, Allied arrangements transferred the island to Chinese administration. The October ceremony therefore represented both the surrender of Japanese troops in Taiwan and the end of Japan’s colonial rule there. It is often overlooked because the USS Missouri ceremony is more widely remembered.