Who served as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers when Japan formally surrendered in 1945?

Douglas MacArthur served as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers when Japan formally surrendered in 1945.

MacArthur accepted the surrender on behalf of the Allied powers during the ceremony in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. He opened the proceedings with a short statement and signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender after the Japanese representatives had signed it. His position gave him a central role in the public ceremony and in the occupation that followed.

MacArthur was an American Army general who had commanded Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific Area. He had left the Philippines in 1942 after promising to return, and he did so in 1944. In 1945, his forces recaptured the Philippines before Japan capitulated.

After the surrender, MacArthur became the leading Allied authority in occupied Japan. He supervised major political, legal, economic, and military reforms until the occupation ended in 1952. He was not the overall commander of every Allied force in every theater during the entire war; his 1945 role concerned the occupation and surrender of Japan.