Nanjing hosted Japan’s major surrender ceremony in China on 9 September 1945.
The ceremony took place at the auditorium of the Central Army Military Academy. General Yasuji Okamura, commander-in-chief of the Japanese China Expeditionary Army, signed the surrender document for Japanese forces in China. General He Yingqin accepted it for the Chinese Allies, with British Major-General Eric Hayes also present.
The Nanjing ceremony occurred one week after Japan’s formal surrender aboard USS Missouri. Although the Tokyo Bay ceremony ended the war at the level of Japan’s central government, Japanese forces still had to surrender to local Allied commanders throughout occupied territories.
The date is sometimes confused with 2 September or 15 August. Those dates refer respectively to the formal imperial surrender document and Hirohito’s broadcast announcing acceptance of Allied terms. Nanjing’s ceremony specifically concerned Japanese forces in China and marked the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War there.