Singapore hosted the 12 September 1945 surrender of Japanese forces in Southeast Asia. The surrender instrument was signed at the Singapore Municipal Building, now known as City Hall.
Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia Command, received the surrender on behalf of the Allies. General Seishirō Itagaki signed for Japanese forces in the region on behalf of Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi, who was the overall Japanese commander in Southeast Asia.
The ceremony followed Japan’s general surrender aboard USS Missouri ten days earlier. Japanese troops across the region surrendered in a series of local ceremonies rather than at one single location. Penang’s surrender occurred on 2 September, Labuan’s on 10 September, Sarawak’s on 11 September, and Kuala Lumpur’s on 13 September.
Singapore had been under Japanese occupation since February 1942, after British forces surrendered the strategically important island. The 1945 ceremony marked the return of British administration and the end of Japanese rule there.