General Xu Yongchang represented China at Japan’s formal surrender ceremony in 1945.
Xu signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Republic of China during the ceremony aboard USS Missouri on 2 September. He signed after Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, the United States representative, and before representatives of several other Allied nations.
China had been fighting Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, years before the European war expanded into a global conflict. The prolonged Second Sino-Japanese War caused enormous military and civilian losses across China.
Xu Yongchang was a senior Republic of China military officer and naval commander. His presence at the ceremony reflected China’s status as one of the principal Allied powers in the Pacific. The signatory is sometimes confused with Chiang Kai-shek, China’s wartime leader, but Chiang did not personally attend the ceremony aboard Missouri.