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Japan Surrenders



Surrender of Japan, Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander, reading his speech to open the surrender ceremonies, on board USS Missouri (BB-63).

The representatives of the Allied Powers are behind him, including (from left to right): Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, RN, United Kingdom; Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko, Soviet Union; General Sir Thomas Blamey, Australia; Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave, Canada; General Jacques LeClerc, France; Admiral Conrad E.L. Helfrich, The Netherlands and Air Vice Marshall Leonard M. Isitt, New Zealand. Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, U.S. Army, is just to the right of Air Vice Marshall Isitt. Off camera, to left, are the representative of China, General Hsu Yung-chang, and the U.S. representative, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN. Framed flag in upper left is that flown by Commodore Matthew C. Perry's flagship when she entered Tokyo Bay in 1853. Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

[Milhous]

Allow me as a rank amateur to share some of my research and thoughts.

American officers appear tie-less at the surrender ceremony to disrespect the Japanese delegation's sense of decorum.

"Nothing that happened during the war was a surprise ... except the kamikaze." - Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz

Like Germany and Russia before it, China seems to mostly pose a land based threat to the "big island" of Europe-Asia-Africa. IMHO Japan alone possesses the seafaring heritage to present a credible threat to America's navy.