Who received Japan’s formal surrender in Singapore on 12 September 1945?

Lord Louis Mountbatten received Japan’s formal surrender in Singapore on 12 September 1945.

Mountbatten was the Supreme Allied Commander of the South East Asia Command. At Singapore’s Municipal Building, General Seishirō Itagaki formally surrendered Japanese forces in the region on behalf of Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi. A celebration and victory parade followed at the Padang.

This regional ceremony came after Japan’s empire-wide surrender decision and after the main surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri on 2 September. The Missouri ceremony ended the war formally at the Allied level, but Japanese forces across Asia and the Pacific still had to surrender locally to the commanders responsible for each theater.

Singapore had been occupied by Japan since February 1942, when British forces surrendered the city. After the 1945 ceremony, a British military administration governed Singapore until March 1946. Japanese troops were temporarily used as security forces because the post-surrender transition created serious instability, including looting, shortages, and damaged infrastructure.