USS Missouri was anchored in Tokyo Bay when Japan signed its formal surrender. The ceremony took place on the battleship’s deck on September 2, 1945, in waters near the Japanese capital.
Tokyo Bay was chosen because it could accommodate the large Allied naval force gathered for the occupation and surrender. The location also placed the ceremony close to Tokyo, where the Japanese government and imperial institutions were based. Representatives boarded Missouri from Yokohama before sailing to the ship’s anchorage.
The bay’s setting has an additional historical association. A flag connected with Commodore Matthew Perry’s 1853–1854 expedition to Japan was displayed during the ceremony. Perry’s ships had entered the same broad bay nearly a century earlier, helping force the opening of Japan to foreign trade. That historic flag is often mistaken for the flag flown over the White House during the Pearl Harbor attack, but the surrender ceremony prominently displayed the Perry-era flag.