By this time the United States had readied an atomic bomb—if it had been ready months earlier it might well have been dropped on Germany—and the Soviet Union, conducting its own military offensive, had swept across Eastern Europe. Russia seemed ready to invade Japan, and on July 24 Harry Truman, who succeeded Roosevelt as president of the United States, had mentioned to Stalin that the U.S. military had a potent new weapon. Through Russian spies, Stalin knew exactly what Truman was referring to, but he did not seem to appreciate the destructive potential of the new American bomb.
On July 16, 1945, an implosion-type atomic bomb with a force greater than 18,000 tons of TNT was tested successfully in an isolated area of New Mexico. President Truman thought the Japanese would surrender before the Soviets launched an invasion, but a surrender was not forthcoming. Perhaps this influenced the U.S. president, who may not have wanted to compete with Russia over Japan, to take a harsh step.
Truman interpreted Japan’s recalcitrance to accept the Potsdam Proclamation as a rejection of the demand to capitulate. Finally, in an effort that was intended to spare Allied lives and hasten the end of the war, Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. Truman did not specify which cities to bomb; rather that would be a military decision based on the importance of Japanese cities militarily and favorable weather conditions for bombing.
As it turned out, two cities were chosen to be bombed. Hiroshima was decimated on August 6, Nagasaki three days later, and on August 10, Emperor Hirohito relayed through the Swiss Political Department Japan’s acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Conference with the stipulation that the emperor be allowed to continue as the sovereign ruler. The next day, August 11, James F. Byrnes, U.S. secretary of state, on behalf of the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China, replied that the emperor and Japanese government would be allowed to rule Japan subject to the terms of the Allied supreme commander, “who will take such steps as he deems proper to effectuate the surrender terms.” On August 14 Japan acceded to the provisions of the Allied joint declaration. A date in late August was set for the formal surrender of Japan, but it was moved back because of a typhoon. Another date, Sunday, September 2, was set; the ceremony was to take place on the 45,000-ton battleship USS Missouri.*
In what was to be the first foreign occupation in its history, Japan became subjugated when Allied forces began arriving on August 28. The next day, August 29, the Missouri entered Tokyo Bay. The flagship of Admiral William F. Halsey’s Third Fleet, the Missouri anchored about a half-dozen miles off Yokohama, with other battleships of the Allied fleet. One day later, Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, landed at Atsugi Airfield outside of Tokyo.
Thousands of soldiers, sailors, dignitaries, and others converged on Tokyo, and all seemed to be in order for the historic ceremony, except for a simple snafu that occurred before the signing on September 2. There were to be two copies of the Instrument of Surrender that the representatives of Japan and the Allied nations would sign. The surrender documents were to be laid out on a stately mahogany table that had been brought on board a day earlier from HMS Duke of York, the flagship of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, commander of the British Pacific Fleet. On the morning of the historic signing it was discovered that the table was too small to hold both sets of surrender documents, and orders were given for an appropriate table to be procured from the officers’ living quarters. But the wardroom tables were screwed tightly into the floor, so crew members scrambled to the sailors’ mess room as it was being cleaned up after breakfast and picked out a table just as it was being put away. Although its pedigree was inadequate for the momentous event shortly to come, the humble folding mess table would have to do. The table was whisked to the veranda deck of the Missouri, where it was set up and a woolen green tablecloth from the officers’ wardroom (which sported a coffee stain in the center) was placed over it.* Two considerably more grand mahogany chairs with black leather seats from HMS Duke of York were placed on either side of the table. Spread out over the tablecloth were the two copies of the Instrument of Surrender (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland, and the Diplomatic Record Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Tokyo) and other documents.**
With the frantic search for a surrender table successfully completed, the ceremony was ready to commence. Having arrived on an American destroyer about an hour earlier, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, General Douglas MacArthur, strode up the gangway of the Missouri with Col. Bernard Thielen, an army officer who had arrived by plane from Washington, D.C.; Thielen carried the surrender instruments, which had been prepared by the U.S. War Department. The Japanese delegation—two signers plus nine representatives of the Navy and War Departments, and the Foreign Office—traveled to the Missouri on the Lansdowne, an American destroyer.
Many witnesses were present for the formal Japanese surrender on the starboard side of the Missouri, and the mess table was the center of attention. Behind the table stood the Allied powers’ representatives; in front of it stood the Japanese delegation. Around the sides of the table, on other decks, and just about everywhere on the ship scores of top commanders, officers, crew members, journalists, photographers, and other visitors were packed together to watch the proceedings. These witnesses included American sailors, soldiers, and marines, high-ranking officers who had directed U.S. war efforts in the Pacific theater, and Americans released from Japanese prisoner-of-war camps.
The ceremony opened with an invocation by the Missouri chaplain, followed by the playing of a recording of America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Then General MacArthur, clad in his military uniform and hat, emerged from a cabin and walked over to a microphone stand to lead the ceremonies. Shortly after nine o’clock, the five-star general began with some introductory remarks about the meaning of the surrender and his vision for its aftermath, his hands trembling as he held his speech:
We are gathered here … to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored. The issues … have been determined on the battlefields of the world and hence are not for our discussion or debate. Nor is it for us here to meet, representing as we do a majority of the peoples of the earth, in a spirit of distrust, malice or hatred. But rather it is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to that higher dignity which alone benefits the sacred purposes we are about to serve. …
It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past—a world founded upon faith and understanding—a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish—for freedom, tolerance and justice. …
As Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, I announce it my firm purpose … to proceed in the discharge of my responsibilities with justice and tolerance, while taking all necessary dispositions to insure that the terms of surrender are fully, promptly and faithfully complied with.
General Douglas MacArthur accepts Japan's surrender in World War II on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. A stately mahogany table had been chosen for the Japanese surrender instruments, but because it was too small to hold all the documents, a simple sailors' mess table was used.
After making his remarks, MacArthur invited the Japanese delegation to come forward to sign the surrender instrument. The eight-paragraph instrument stipulated that the emperor of Japan, the Japanese government, and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters accept the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration; proclaim the unconditional surrender of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese armed forces; command all Japanese forces to cease hostilities; command the Japanese Imperial Headquarters to order commanders of all Japanese forces to surrender unconditionally; command all civil and military officials to obey and enforce all proclamations and orders of the Allied Powers Supreme Commander to effectuate surrender; carry out the provisions o
f the Potsdam Declaration in good faith; and liberate all Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees under Japanese control. To fulfill the surrender terms, the emperor and Japanese government were to rule Japan subject to the Allied forces’ supreme commander.
Japan’s foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, who years before had lost his left leg to a bomb and wore a wooden limb, hobbled with a cane to the table on which the instruments were laid out and sat down on a chair at the table. As the people on deck watched solemnly, he signed the two documents, officially bringing World War II to an end. He signed on behalf of the emperor of Japan and the Japanese government, and after writing his name in Japanese he wrote the time, 0904.* The chief of the general staff of the Imperial Japanese Army, Yoshijiro Umezu, next signed the surrender documents on behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters.
Then at 9:08 A.M., General MacArthur, who had invited Lieutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright and Lieutenant General Arthur E. Percival of the British Army to stand next to him, signed his acceptance of the Japanese surrender on behalf of the Allied nations. Appreciating the momentousness of the occasion, MacArthur used six fountain pens to sign the two surrender instruments, intending to distribute the pens for posterity. Four of the fountain pens were obtained from the headquarters supply in Manila by Major Courtney Whitney, one was the personal property of Whitney, and one belonged to MacArthur’s wife, Jean. The general broke up the writing of his name to use the six pens.
The Japanese delegation stands before the table on which rested the documents providing for Japan's surrender in World War II.
With the first pen he used, the five-star general wrote “Doug,” and then handed the pen over to Wainwright, commander of the Philippine units who had been captured and imprisoned by the Japanese after Bataan fell (the pen is now at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York). With another pen he wrote the second syllable of his first name, then gave the pen to Percival (Cheshire Regimental Museum, Chester, England). MacArthur continued signing with the other pens and distributed them as well (two are at the MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, Virginia; General Whitney’s pen was given to his son Richard; Mrs. MacArthur’s pen was stolen years later from her apartment in the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City).
When he was finished, MacArthur called for representatives of the different Allied countries present to sign the instrument: for the United States of America, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz; for the Republic of China, General Hsu Yung-Ch’ang; for the United Kingdom, Admiral Sir Bruce A. Fraser; for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko; for the Commonwealth of Australia, General Sir Thomas A. Blarney; for the Dominion of Canada, Colonel L. Moore Cosgrave; for France, General Jacques Le Clerc; for the kingdom of the Netherlands, Admiral Conrad E. L. Helfrich; for the Dominion of New Zealand, Air Vice Marshal Leonard M. Isitt.
After the twelve men had affixed their signatures to the documents,* MacArthur ended the ceremony by saying, “Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world, and that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed.”
After the ceremony MacArthur walked to a microphone set up at another area and delivered a concluding speech:
Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has been won. The skies no longer rain death—the seas bear only commerce—men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight. The entire world is quietly at peace. … I speak for the thousands of silent lips, forever stilled among the jungles and the beaches and in the deep waters of the Pacific which marked the way. I speak for the unnamed brave millions homeward bound to take up the challenge of that future which they did so much to salvage from the brink of disaster. …
We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no turning back. We must go forward to preserve in peace what we won in war.
A new era is upon us. Even the lesson of victory brings with it profound concern. … The destructiveness of the war potential, through progressive advances in scientific discovery, has in fact now reached a point which revises the traditional concept of war. …
We have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system Armageddon will be at our door. The problem … involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character. … It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh. …
To the Pacific basin has come the vista of a new emancipated world. Today, freedom is on the offensive, democracy is on the march. Today, in Asia as well as in Europe, unshackled peoples are tasting the full sweetness of liberty, the relief from fear. …
And so, my fellow-countrymen, today I report to you that your sons and daughters have served you well and faithfully with the calm, deliberate, determined fighting spirit of the American soldier and sailor … their spiritual strength and power has brought us through to victory. They are homeward bound—take care of them.
The ceremony was recorded but not broadcast live. After the ceremony the recordings were immediately taken to another ship, from which they were broadcast to the four corners of the earth.
The signing was followed by a spectacular aerial display of about a thousand airplanes roaring over Tokyo Bay and the more than 250 Allied warships anchored there. Other fanfare marked the ceremony. The steel quarterdeck of the Missouri was gaily decorated with ribbons. And displayed on the surrender vessel during the ceremony was the first American flag officially carried into and flown in Japan, the thirty-one-star pennant that Commodore Matthew Perry and his crew had brought into the country in the mid-nineteenth century when the United States tried to open trade and diplomatic relations with Japan.
The genesis of the historic return of the Perry flag for this occasion was when the U.S. Naval Academy superintendent, Rear Admiral J. R. Beardall, wrote in a letter dated October 27, 1944, to the secretary of the navy, “It is not generally known that the first U.S. flag hoisted over Japanese territory is the one hoisted by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, U.S. Navy, on July 14, 1853, when first landing at Uraga … its possible use at some future date is obvious.” In August 1945 the Naval Academy Museum curator sent a copy of this letter to the U.S. Navy’s director of public information, along with a note in which he mentioned radio announcements about MacArthur receiving the Japanese surrender and wrote, “I have no idea whether it has occurred to anyone the implication set forth therein.” On August 29, the flag, packed in a wooden box, was delivered to Admiral Halsey.
With the formal surrender ceremony concluded at 9:25 A.M., the Japanese delegation departed the Missouri. One of the surrender instruments had been given to Foreign Minister Shigemitsu.
In the elation of the aftermath of the proceedings, the Japanese surrender table of World War II would likely have been lost had someone not had the foresight to retrieve this now-historic piece of furniture. After the ceremony, during a coffee break in the cabin of Captain Stuart Murray, it was suggested that the furniture and paraphernalia just used in the proceedings might be appropriate artifacts for the Smithsonian Institution. The table, found in the galley area, and tablecloth, found on the deck, were secured (someone had already obtained the two chairs, but one has been lost over the years). The Japanese surrender items never made it to the Smithsonian. They were instead assigned to a different, permanent home in January 1946 by Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.
With Japan having capitulated, American troops continued entering the country for the occupation, and Japanese forces in the Philippine Islands, Korea, Singapore, Wake, the Marianas, and other areas surrendered. Pursuant to the imperial rescript issued by Emperor Hirohito, instruments of surrender were signed by Japanese commanders for the surrender of Japanese-occupied Southeast Asian battlefields.
World War II was the deadliest conflict in the history of humankind—some 40 million people were killed, 25 million were wounded in action, and millions of soldiers imprisoned or missing in action. Its conclu
sion came only after incalculable suffering. But with the signing of the surrender documents on September 2, 1945, soldiers laid down their weapons, subjugated people were liberated, the terror that had gripped the world faded into oblivion, hope for a new era of peace blossomed in the hearts of people around the world, and an anonymous table from the mess hall of the Missouri,* pressed into service to support the instrument that officially brought an end to the horror that had engulfed the globe, became an immortal artifact.
LOCATION: United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.
Footnotes
*The practice of naming capital ships after states began in 1815 by a decision of the Board of Navy Commissioners, with the approval of the U.S. secretary of the navy. Lots were drawn to begin the ship-naming practice, which waned after the 1830s but returned to fashion in the 1890s, with the naming of such ships as the USS New York and the USS Maine. Later, it became the practice to use the names of states for strategic missile submarines, as well as for some guided missile cruisers in the U.S. fleet.
*An Associated Press dispatch that appeared in The New York Times a few days before the signing reported that the Missouri’s ventilator head was going to serve as the Japanese surrender table.
**There were two identical sets of papers on the table, one in a green buckram-leather volume (kept by the Japanese), the other in a black buckram-leather volume (kept by the Americans). The papers consisted of the two-page Instrument of Surrender (the first page contained the surrender terms in eight paragraphs written in English; the second page was for the representatives’ signatures); an imperial rescript issued and signed by Emperor Hirohito and countersigned by the Japanese prime minister that proclaimed that the signers accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, had ordered the Japanese imperial government and military to sign the Allied Instrument of Surrender on their behalf, and had commanded “all Our people forthwith to cease hostilities, to lay down their arms and faithfully to carry out all the provisions of Instrument of Surrender …” (the two-page rescript was written in Japanese and followed by an English translation); the credentials of General Yoshijiro Umezu in Japanese and English; the credentials of Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu in Japanese and English.
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