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The Japanese formally surrendered to the Allies on the morning of September 2, 1945, onboard the USS Missouri. The ship was commissioned for the war effort in January of 1944, and supported the Iwo Jima invasion and subsequent raids on the Japanese islands a year later. It had a long and storied career, culminating in the Persian Gulf War of 1991. The USS Missouri currently resides in Pearl Harbor as a national memorial. The official surrender ceremony, which lasted about a half an hour, was a well-documented affair. A comprehensive site from the U.S. Naval
Historical Center features a number of amazing photographs, including this one. Notice that the Japanese were required to stand as they signed the documents, while the Allied Forces sat. The Japanese had suffered disastrous casualties the preceding month in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These bombings, coupled with an imminent Soviet invasion from the north, convinced Emperor Hirohito to accept the Allied surrender demands on August 14. The ceremony that occurred two weeks later in Tokyo Bay was a formality,
but an important one.
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