The Surrender of Japan Was Signed on an Ordinary Ship Flag, Not a Relic
In short: The Japanese Instrument of Surrender, which formally ended World War II on September 2, 1945, is steeped in myth. While many believe the event featured historic flags from Pearl Harbor, the ship's captain confirmed they were merely standard, clean GI-issue supplies pulled from storage to mark the historic occasion.
The signing ceremony took place aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, beginning just after 9:00 a.m. Japan Standard Time. The document itself was drafted by General Douglas MacArthur’s staff in Manila, where they famously sourced rare parchment from a monastery basement to create the official record. Eleven Japanese delegates, led by Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijirō Umezu, arrived to sign the instrument on behalf of the Emperor and the Imperial General Headquarters. The proceedings were brief, lasting only 23 minutes, and concluded with the war officially ending at 9:25 a.m.
While the American flags on deck were unremarkable, one historic artifact was present: a 31-star flag flown by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853–54. This flag, which had been used to force the opening of Japanese ports nearly a century earlier, was displayed in a glass case on the veranda deck. Because the fabric was fragile, it was presented with a protective backing that left its reverse side visible, leading to the stars appearing in the upper right corner—a configuration intended to mimic a flag advancing into battle.
The signing process was not without administrative friction. Canadian representative Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave, who was blind in one eye, signed the Japanese copy of the treaty below his designated line. This error forced subsequent Allied signatories to shift their own signatures down, creating a messy document that required General Richard K. Sutherland to hand-correct the titles. The Japanese delegates initially resisted these alterations until Sutherland initialed each change. Today, the Allied copy resides in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., while the Japanese copy is held at the Diplomatic Archives in Tokyo.
The pens used during the ceremony became legendary in their own right. MacArthur used several black pens, gifting two to generals Jonathan Wainwright and Arthur Percival, while his final signature was made with a bright red pen intended for his wife. Other signatories, such as Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, used personal pens that have since been distributed to museums in China and the United States, cementing the physical legacy of the surrender.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Japanese Instrument of Surrender
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