He Yingqin accepted Japan’s surrender at the September 9, 1945 ceremony in Nanjing.
The Nanjing ceremony formally ended Japanese military operations in China. It took place at the Central Army Military Academy auditorium at 9:00 a.m. on September 9, one week after the shipboard surrender in Tokyo Bay. He Yingqin represented the Chinese Allies and accepted the document from General Yasuji Okamura.
Okamura was commander-in-chief of the Japanese Expeditionary Force in China. The ceremony lasted about fifteen minutes, and the surrender document was written in both Japanese and Chinese. It covered Japanese forces in the Chinese theater rather than serving as the single global surrender document signed aboard USS Missouri.
He Yingqin is easy to confuse with Hsu Yung-chang, who signed for China at the Tokyo Bay ceremony on September 2. The two ceremonies were connected but distinct: Hsu represented China at the multinational formal surrender, while He accepted Japan’s surrender in the China theater.