Japan Surrenders Aboard the USS Missouri

Members of the Japanese delegation sign surrender documents aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri in the Bay of Tokyo.  It is September 2, 1945.  The clip includes comments by General MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers.

With the American destroyer Buchanan positioned nearby, and war planes flying overhead, members of the Japanese government and military sign the Instrument of Surrender at 9:05 a.m. 

The first signing pen is presented to General Jonathan Wainwright (who, with his men, had been forced to surrender at Corregidor in May of 1942).

Credits

Newsreel of historical footage, maintained by the U.S. National Archives.

Move the video forward to 00:30 to begin the relevant segment.

Dignitaries and military commanders present at the surrender:

Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezo of Japan;

Gen. MacArthur; Gen. Wainwright; Brit. Gen. Arthur E. Percival;

U.S. Adms. Halsey and Nimitz;

Chinese Gen. Hsu Yung-Ch'ang;

Brit. Adm. Bruce A. Fraser;

Russian Gen. Kuzma Derevyanko;

Australian Gen. Thomas Blamey;

Canadian Col. L. Moore Cosgrave;

French Gen. Jacques LeClerc;

Adm. C.E.L. Helfrich of the Netherlands;

Air Marshall Leonard M. Isitt of New Zealand.