The End of World War II

The signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender

Today's article is dedicated to the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, the document that officially ended World War II 79 years ago, on September 2, 1945. The war that killed 75 million people, the majority of them civilians, ended in 23 minutes as twelve men signed the two copies of the document onboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. We remember the event by collecting a few pieces of trivia you might not have known about the ceremony, and about the ship that hosted it.

Surrender troubles. Japan originally announced its surrender on August 15, 1945, though it was actually announced in the U.S. one day earlier, on the 14th, due to the two continents being on opposite sides of the International Date Line. New of the surrender, however, started circulating even earlier, as Japan had already communicated its willingness to surrender on August 10. The news brought about worldwide celebration, but the merriment went a bit sour in several places. On Okinawa, American soldiers grabbed whatever guns they had on hand and started firing into the air in joy, accidentally killing six people and wounding dozens of others. Several ships nearby sounded the alarm and started firing their anti-aircraft guns – not out of celebration, but because they thought they were under kamikaze attack.

On an even darker note, Los Angeles descended into a three-day riot after the August 15 declaration of surrender. Thousands of drunk men, most of them Navy enlistees who never fought in the war, went on a rampage of vandalism, robbery and looting. 13 people were killed, over 1,000 were wounded, and at least six women were raped.

Japan itself was understandably shocked by the unexpected surrender, which was made public through the first-ever radio broadcast by the Emperor of Japan. Before the pre-recorded message could be broadcast, a group of hard-liners attempted to execute a coup against the Emperor to prevent the surrender, an event you can read more about in one of our articles.

An extraordinary flag. A popular legend claims that on the day of the signing, the Missouri flew the same flag that was flown on the White House on December 7, 1941, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Another story says it flew that day, but on the National Capitol. Yet another version says that wherever it flew on the Day of Infamy, it was also displayed at the Casablanca Conference (Read our earlier article) during the war. The truth is far more mundane. According to Stuart Murray, the captain of the Missouri at the time, it was actually a simple GI-issue flag that was probably taken onboard at Guam in May.

Having said that, there was a special flag on display, an old 31-star flag of the United States that was mounted over the door to the captain's cabin. It was the flag originally flown by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 when he forced Japan to open its doors to foreign trade.

If you look at photos of the flag and the event, you'll notice that the flag seems to be oriented incorrectly, with the stars in the upper right corner. There are situations, such as displaying the U.S. flag on vehicles or uniforms, when this is actually correct: if there's a clear "forward" side of whatever the flag is on, the stars have to be closer to that side as if the flag was moving forward and into battle. In this particular case, however, the reason was much more mundane. The fabric of the flag was in such poor condition that a protective backing had to be sewn over the "correct" side, leaving the other one on display out of necessity.

A goof-up with the documents. The surrender document came in two copies, one to be kept by the U.S. authorities and one by the Japanese. The documents were actually produced in Manila in the Philippines, but conditions in the war-torn city made their production difficult. In the end, they were printed on parchment that a member of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur's (Read our earlier article) staff found in the basement of a monastery.

Each copy had two pages: one with the text of the surrender, and one just for the signatures. On the signature page, each signatory had to write his name above a printed line, under which was printed his title. Things went well until the Japanese copy got to Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave, the Canadian representative, who was blind in one eye due to a World War I injury. Whether due to poor eyesight or a moment of confusion, Cosgrave signed his name under, instead of above, his line, leaving no space for the next signatory, General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque representing France. The error forced all remaining signatories to do the same and sign under their line, creating a misalignment between names and titles. The mess-up was quickly fixed U.S. Lieutenant General Richard Kerens Sutherland, who quickly crossed out the incorrectly aligned titles and wrote them in the correct spots under the names by hand. The Japanese initially protested, so he followed standard military procedure and also put his initials next to each alteration to verify them.

Pens for the POWs. Depending on what source you read, a total of either five or six pens were used for the signing of the surrender documents. Two of these were given to two notable Allied officers who spent much of the war as prisoners of the Japanese, and who were present to witness the signing ceremony. One of them was U.S. Lieutenant General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV. Wainwright inherited the position of Allied commander in the Philippines after Douglas MacArthur fled on March 11, 1942. He held his positions as long as he could but had to surrender on May 6.

The other pen recipient was British Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, who commanded British forces in Malaya until the fall of Singapore at the hands of Japanese Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita. (Read our earlier article)

An unconditional surrender on one condition. The Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945 demanded unconditional surrender from the Japanese. The text of the surrender document also features the phrase. Nevertheless, the surrender wasn't quite unconditional. When the Japanese indicated their willingness to end the fighting, they insisted on one condition: that the Emperor and the Kokutai be preserved. The Kokutai is a uniquely Japanese concept that is hard to translate, but it roughly approximates "sovereignty," "national identity, essence and character," and "the body politic." There were many prominent Allied decision makers who would have preferred to abolish the imperial institution and possibly charge the emperor during the war crimes tribunals, but Douglas MacArthur insisted that the Emperor be allowed to retain his position (even if only as a figurehead), as he considered Hirohito's cooperation vital in transforming Japan into a democratic ally of the United States. Therefore, the condition was accepted on the grounds that it was something MacArthur wanted, anyway.

The crew of the Mighty Mo buried an enemy kamikaze pilot. In April 1945, a kamikaze Zero hit the side of the Missouri, causing a dent that is still visible. The pilot's body was recovered after the attack from the deck. Captain Callaghan insisted on giving the dead enemy a burial at sea with military honors, despite protests from the crew.

President Truman saved the ship. After the war, the U.S. military reduced its inventories to pre-war levels. The other three Iowa-class battleships were decommissioned as part of the process, but Truman’s intervention saved the Missouri. He was fond of the ship, partly because his daughter, Margaret Truman, christened it. This intervention made the Missouri the only battleship remaining in commission at the time.

A close brush with history. In January 1950, the Missouri was on a training mission when she ran aground in shallow water. This incident happened at Hampton Roads, the same area where the Monitor and the Merrimack famously clashed during the Civil War in 1862. The accident of the last American battleship to be built ended up being near the site where the first American ironclads fought.

Death of a captain. The Missouri fought in the Korean War, supporting ground efforts with artillery bombardment. Her last bombardment mission occurred on March 25, 1953. The next day, her captain died of a heart attack.

Too modern for her own good. President Reagan's 600-ship Navy plan in the 80s included the recommissioning and modernization of the four Iowa-class battleships. Like her sisters, the Missouri received Phalanx Close-In Weapon Systems, Gatling guns capable of shooting down enemy anti-ship missiles and aircraft. She was also equipped with launchers to fire Harpoon anti-ship and Tomahawk cruise missiles. Though this significantly increased her battle-readiness, it also disqualified her eligibility as a National Historic Landmark.

Friendly fire in the Gulf. The Missouri participated in the Gulf War in the first two months of 1991, providing support with naval gunfire and Tomahawk missiles, and also destroying Iraqi naval mines. During the campaign, she came under friendly fire from the frigate USS Jarrett. On February 25, during an Iraqi missile attack, several rounds of Jarett’s Phalanx anti-missile system hit the Missouri. According to the official report, Mighty Mo launched chaff into the air as a defense against the Iraqi missiles, and the Jarrett mistook the radar signature of the chaff fibers as a hostile target. It has also been suggested that the Phalanx operator on the Jarrett fired off several rounds manually by accident.

Either way, one stray round penetrated the Missouri's bulkhead and embedded in a passageway.  Another round hit and passed through the ship's forward funnel. One sailor was struck in the neck by shrapnel but only suffered minor injuries.

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