On September 2, 1945, World War II formally came to an end in Tokyo Bay. Aboard the battleship USS Missouri, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Emperor and Japanese government. General Yoshijirō Umezu then signed for the Imperial General Headquarters. General Douglas MacArthur accepted the surrender as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, followed by representatives of the United States and the other Allied nations.
The brief ceremony aboard Missouri was solemn but unmistakably triumphant. The ship had been selected in part because it was named for President Harry S. Truman’s home state, and it also served as Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey’s flagship in the final weeks of the war. Allied officers, journalists, and sailors crowded the deck as the signatures were affixed; the ceremony lasted roughly half an hour before waves of American aircraft passed overhead.
One of the day’s most resonant symbols hung above the signing area: a historic 31-star American flag associated with Commodore Matthew Perry’s 1853 expedition to Japan. Perry’s arrival in Tokyo Bay had helped force the opening of Japan to Western trade and diplomacy; displaying the flag at the surrender ceremony created a powerful historical link between the beginning of modern U.S.-Japanese relations and the war’s conclusion.
The flag appeared backward in photographs, with its stars at the upper right. That was not a calculated attempt to confront the Japanese delegation, however. The original was too fragile to fly, so it was placed in a protective framed display; its mounting left the reverse side visible. The orientation also followed a military visual convention intended to make the flag appear to be moving forward rather than retreating.
