On this day in 1945, the USS Missouri hosts the formal surrender of the Japanese government to the Allies. Victory over Japan was celebrated back in the States.
As Japanese troops finally surrendered to Americans on the Caroline, Mariana, and Palau islands, representatives of their emperor and prime minister were preparing to formalize their capitulation. In Tokyo Bay, aboard the Navy battleship USS Missouri, the Japanese foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, and the chief of staff of the Japanese army, Yoshijiro Umezu, signed the “instrument of surrender.” Representing the Allied victors was Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. Army forces in the Pacific, and Adm. Chester Nimitz, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, now promoted to the newest and highest Navy rank, fleet admiral. Among others in attendance was Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, who had taken command of the forces in the Philippines upon MacArthur’s departure and had been recently freed from a Japanese POW camp in Manchuria.
Shigemitsu would be found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to seven years in prison subsequent to the surrender. The grand irony is that he had fought for concessions on the Japanese side in order to secure an early peace. He was paroled in 1950 and went on to become chairman of Japan’s Progressive Party. MacArthur would fight him again when he was named commander in chief of the United Nations forces in Korea in 1950.
World War II was more destructive than any war before it. An estimated 45-60 million people lost their lives and millions more were injured. Here, Private Sam Macchia from New York City returns home, wounded in both legs, to his elated family.
A crowd gathers in Times Square to celebrate Victory in Europe Day.
A parish priest waves a newspaper with news of Germany's unconditional surrender to elated pupils of a Roman Catholic parochial school in Chicago.
Merchant Marine Bill Eckert wildy impersonates Hitler as a reveler playfully chokes him amidst a crowd in Times Square during a massive V-E Day celebration.
People crowd on top of a van during a V-E Day celebration in London.
Patients at England's Horley Military Hospital, all severely wounded in France and Italy, celebrate V-E Day with nursing staff.
U.S. war veterans returning home from Europe, on a converted troop ship.
Wall Street is jammed as Financial District workers celebrate the reported end of the war in Europe. Celebrants clamber over the statue of George Washington as thousands of others stand amid falling ticker tape.
Wounded veteran Arthur Moore looks up as he watches the ticker tape rain down from New York buildings.
General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, signs the Japanese surrender document aboard the battleship, U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan, on September 2, 1945. At left is Lietenant General A.E. Percival, British Army.
New York City June 17, 1945. Cheering and waving from the deck of the transport which brought them back to the United States today, men of the 86th Infantry Division of the third Army stand on deck of their ship while women on the dock wave to them, awaiting their arrival.
Private B. Potts of the Middlesex Regiment makes a "V" sign from the porthole of the hospital ship "Atlantis" as he arrives home from World War II with an injury.
A British soldier arrives home to a happy wife and son after serving in World War II.
Sailors and Washington, D.C. residents dance the conga in Lafayette Park, waiting for President Truman to announce the surrender of Japan in World War II.
U.S. servicemen in the sick bay of the S.S. Casablanca smile and point to a newspaper on August 15, 1945 with the headline "JAPS QUIT!" after the Japanese surrender in World War II.
An apartment house on 107th Street in New York City is decorated for celebration at the end of World War II (V-J Day).
A V-J Day rally in New York City's Little Italy on September 2, 1945. Local residents set fire to a heap of crates to celebrate the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II.
Joyous American soldiers and WACS fresh from bed parade through the London night celebrating V-J Day and the end of WWII.
A women jumps into the arms of a soldier upon his return from World War II, New York, NY, 1945.
An American soldier with lipstick on his face after V-J day celebrations.
The 42nd Regiment arrive back home to Hawaii on July 2, 1946. They are greeted by cheering friends and loved ones throwing leis.
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