Consider: on the deck of the Missouri that day were two special US flags. Mac’s entire career had displayed a sense of the theatrical, as if he were playing a role foreordained by destiny. General Jonathan Wainwright and Lieutenant General Arthur Percival stand behind General Douglas MacArthur as the latter signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on Septemaboard the USS Missouri. Courtesy of the US Department of Defense.īut for all the people, pomp, and power, this was MacArthur’s day. More than 250 warships were at anchor in Tokyo Bay, and soon the sky would be filled with US aircraft, as over 450 carrier planes from the US 3rd Fleet passed in formation overhead, followed by US Army Air Force B-29 bombers. Triumphant military power was in evidence everywhere you looked. Arrayed around him were the crew of the Missouri, and a horde of aides, adjutants, and staff officers, not to mention delegates from the other Allied nations, including China, the United Kingdom, the USSR, France, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and New Zealand: the very men who had played the key roles in laying Japan low. The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur, approached the table bearing the document. There were those present who swear they saw Umezu’s military aides weeping as their boss signed the document. The money paragraph said it all: Japan agreed to “unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers.” Signing for the Japanese-they went first-were Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff. The document was only eight paragraphs long, but then again, it didn’t have a large number of negotiated clauses or compromises. A Japanese delegation had boarded the USS Missouri to sign the official “Instrument of Surrender” to the Allies. On September 2, 1945, World War II was coming to an end. It was one of the most dramatic moments in the history of the twentieth century.
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