Japan signs the instrument of surrender
In the instrument signed in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, Japan proclaimed the unconditional surrender of its military headquarters and armed forces to the Allies.
What this does and does not establish
The instrument establishes the formal act of surrender; it does not date the last fighting in every theater or determine later peace terms.
- Region
- East Asia
- Theme
- Politics and institutions
- Kind of record
- Placed in a year. A source places this in one year. It is listed under that year; no day precision is invented.
How it is dated
- Date reference
- 1945
- How we use it
- The instrument establishes the formal act of surrender; it does not date the last fighting in every theater or determine later peace terms.
The date reference is this project’s reading of the source’s date. It may give an era name, a reign or a calendar in a normalised form rather than in the source’s own words; the dating notes say what the source prints.
Dating notes from the research record
Year of the act or policy, as identified in the cited document or its institutional dating.
File names and line numbers in these notes, and in the limits above, refer to the project’s retained copies of the cited sources. Names such as calendar_headers are the project’s calendar look-ups, and “the investigator” is the research step that prepared the record.
Sources and quoted text
Line and character numbers under “Location” refer to the project’s retained copy of the source. For database rows, “Edition” names the batch of rows that was fetched together.
Source 1 · Supports the statement
Instrument of Surrender
Japanese and Allied representatives; text prepared by the U.S. War Department
Quoted text (English)
We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General HeadquartersSource credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: U.S. federal official text, public domain in the United States (17 USC 105). Credit the named author and repository; text only, no images or seals.
Exact source version
dd2d1563987186b3788a355363a35838bddf01bd63911b9649222215dffdacafSource 2 · Supports the statement
Instrument of Surrender
Japanese and Allied representatives; text prepared by the U.S. War Department
Quoted text (English)
and of all Japanese armed forces and all armed forces under Japanese control wherever situated.Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: U.S. federal official text, public domain in the United States (17 USC 105). Credit the named author and repository; text only, no images or seals.
Exact source version
dd2d1563987186b3788a355363a35838bddf01bd63911b9649222215dffdacafChecks and changes
Source checked 2026-11-13. An independent AI evidence review supports this bounded, attributed wording. That review does not guarantee historical truth. How records are checked
This is a corrected version of this record. During research, before this release, an earlier version was set aside after independent review. This wording was reviewed separately.
Revision tp20_ww2_r2
Exact revision fingerprint
c94b288bc40447e93ee56d36acfc3e38d5e078ae127c15f9b14ef4535d7d31c8