On 10 August 1945, the Japanese government issued a statement accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of July that had outlined "unconditional surrender." The following day, U.S. Secretary of State James Byrnes accepted Japan's offer to end hostilities. Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender to the Japanese people on 15 August.

The official Japanese surrender ceremony took place at 9:00 a.m. on 2 September aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The supreme commander for the Allied powers, General Douglas MacArthur, formally accepted the Japanese capitulation by signing the instrument of surrender. Foreign Minister Shigemitsu Mamoru and General Umezu Yoshijiro signed for Japan. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz represented the United States, followed by General Hsu Yung-ch'ang for China, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser for the United Kingdom, Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko for the Soviet Union, General Sir Thomas Blamey for Australia, Colonel L. Moore Cosgrave for Canada, General Jacques Le Clerc for France, Admiral C. E. L. Helfrich for the Netherlands, and Air Vice Marshal Leonard Isitt for New Zealand.

Scott T. Maciejewski

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Further Reading
"The End of the War in the Pacific: Surrender Documents in Facsimile." National Publication no. 46–6. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1945.; Butow, Robert J. C. Japan's Decision to Surrender. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1954.; Frank, Richard B. Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. New York: Random House, 1999.