Tokyo surrender

On 2 September 1945 the instrument of surrender was signed by the Japanese foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, at a ceremony held on board the upper deck of the USS Missouri. Four minutes after Shigemitsu signed, General Douglas MacArthur signed, followed by the representatives of Allied countries in the following order: USA - Admiral Chester Nimitz; China - General Hsu Yung-Chang; Great Britain - Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser; USSR - Lieutenant-General K N Derevyanko; Australia - General Sir Thomas Blamey; Canada - Col L Moore-Cosgrove; France - General B J Le Clere; Netherlands - Admiral Conrad Helfrick; New Zealand - Air Vice Marshal Sir L Isitt, KBE, Legion of Merit (US). Australian contingent present: Air Vice Marshal W D Bostock, Commodore J A Collins, Rear Admiral G Moore, Air Vice Marshal G Jones, Lieutenant General Berryman, Lieutenant Colonel D H Dwyer, Captain Balfour and A/B Robert Skinner RAN who was the only Australian sailor to be present at the ceremony.