World War II formally ended at 9:08 on Sunday morning, Sept. 2, 1945, in a knot of varicolored uniforms on the slate-gray veranda deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. When the last signature had been affixed to Japan’s unconditional surrender, Douglas MacArthur declared with the accent of history, “These proceedings are closed.”
To sign the surrender, a small delegation of Japanese diplomats and military appeared promptly at 8:55. As they slowly mounted the boarding ladder of the world’s biggest battleship, the boarding ladder of the world’s biggest battleship, the Japs saw stern ranks of U.S., British, Chinese, Dutch, French, and Russian officers and, behind, the gleaming whites of the Missouri’s watchful crew. The Allied men saw 11 dumpy figures in black morning coats or the Japanese army’s styleless drab. Each Jap seemed to be trying to hold his features expressionless. At sight of them, hate flared undisguised in the Chinese faces. General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell’s cheek muscles flexed angrily.
Lieut. General George Kenney’s lips curled. From time to time the Japs glanced across at tough talking, tough-fighting “Bull” Halsey with what appeared to be genuine apprehension. Four minutes after their arrival, Douglas MacArthur strode out from a cabin.
In contrast to the Japanese shoddy correctness, MacArthur had not bothered with a necktie. He read his preliminary remarks sonorously from a sheet of paper. He called on those present to rise above hatred “to that higher dignity which alone benefits the sacred purposes we are about to serve….” He stood stiffly erect, but the hands that held the paper trembled. Then, amid a silence that was almost palpable, the signing began, losers first.
The morning had dawned with a gray overcast through which the hundreds of other naval units surrounding the Missouri’s loomed darkly. But as the last name was written, the sun burned through brilliantly. MacArthur announced that he would effectuate, as soon as possible, the Potsdam stipulation that the Japanese people be freed from oppression and intellectual enslavement. Still wooden, but aureoled with weary resignation, the Japanese left. Climactically, echelon after echelon of U.S. planes roared overhead in perfect counterpoint to Pearl Harbor.
By week’s end Allied forces were moving out through Japan, occupying Wake Island, Singapore, Korea, the Chinese coast. In Tokyo, MacArthur ordered the U.S. Flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 7, 1941, and subsequently over Casablanca, Rome and Berlin, raised on the U.S. embassy with a typically MacArthur command:
“General Eichelberger, have our country’s flag unfurled and in Tokyo’s sun let it wave in its full glory as a symbol of hope for the oppressed and as a harbinger of victory for the right.”