The September 2, 1945 ceremony for Japan’s formal surrender aboard USS Missouri took place in Tokyo Bay.
The U.S. battleship was anchored in the bay, near Japan’s capital, when Japanese representatives signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. The document formally ended hostilities between Japan and the Allied powers in World War II.
The ceremony was held on the ship’s deck shortly after 9 a.m. Japan Standard Time. General Douglas MacArthur accepted the surrender for the Allied powers, followed by representatives of the United States and eight other Allied governments.
Tokyo Bay is sometimes confused with Yokohama, because the Japanese delegation departed from Yokohama to reach USS Missouri. The ship itself, however, was anchored in Tokyo Bay. The location also connected the event to earlier U.S.-Japan history: the bay had been entered by Commodore Matthew Perry’s squadron in 1853.