“As the President of the United States, I proclaimed Sunday, September 2, 1945, as VJ or Victory Day on the day of Japan’s official surrender,” US President Harry Truman announced on the radio station. The ceremony held on the deck of the USS Missouri on September 2 lasted 23 minutes and was broadcast all over the world. The document was prepared by the United States Department of War and approved by President Truman. Eight short paragraphs formally “surrender unconditionally to the headquarters of the Japanese Empire and all Japanese armed forces and allied nations of all armed forces under Japanese control.”
The document was first signed by the Japanese Foreign Minister Shigemitori “as ordered and on behalf of the emperor of Japan and the Japanese government” (9:04 in the morning). Subsequently, General Umezu Yoshijiro, Chief of the Army’s General Staff, signed the document “assigned and represented the Imperial Japanese Headquarters” (9:06 am). At 9:08 in the morning, General Douglas MacArthur, General of the U.S. Army, Commander of the Pacific Southwest, and Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers accepted the surrender on behalf of the Allied Powers and signed as the Supreme Commander.
The Japanese surrender document officially established what people have known since August 15: the proud Japanese Empire finally succumbed, marking the end of the Second World War. On August 15, 1945, for the first time in history, when Emperor Hirohito announced his surrender, his people heard his voice. People were shocked. Hirohito also told his subjects that he was not exactly a god. This makes them even more disturbed. Throughout their lives, until then, the Japanese worshipped their emperor as a god. Thousands of people died in the name of their god in the bravest way soldiers could do.
General MacArthur, who was in charge of occupied Japan, helped the emperor’s subjects understand Hirohito’s post-war state. In the only photo of him and the emperor allowed by MacArthur, you can see who the boss is. By cooperating with the general, Hirohito avoided war crimes trials. Not everyone agrees with this approach, but the decision-makers on such issues have saved Japan from the heartbreak that will surely be caused by such incidents.
