Chronology of World War II

September 1945

Sunday, September 2nd

Indochina

Ho Chi Minh proclaims the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi.

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Japan

A little after 8:00a.m., on board the battleship Missouri at anchor in Tokyo Bay, the Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and the Chief of Staff Gen Yoshijiro Umezo, representing the Japanese government and armed forces, sign the instrument of capitulation in the presence of Gen MacArthur. Then MacArthur too, in the name of the Allies, signs the document, which has been prepared in duplicate, with copies in Japanese and English. At MacArthur's wish, the ceremony is attended by the American Gen Wainwright, the hero of Bataan, and the British Gen Percival, defeated at Singapore, both of whom have just been freed from prisoner-of-war camps.

The document is countersigned by Adm Chester W. Nimitz for the United States, Adm Sir Bruce Fraser for Great Britain, Gen Sir Thomas Blamey for Australia, Gen Hsu Yung-chang for China, Gen Kuzma N. Derevyanko for the USSR, Adm Conrad E. L. Helfrich for the Netherlands, Gen Jacques Leclerc for France, Col M. Moore-Cosgrave for Canada and Air-Marshal Leonard Isitt for New Zealand.

So ends the greatest conflict in history. It has lasted 5 years and cost the lives of 55 million people. 3 million more are missing. The material damage cannot be calculated. The legacy of devastated lands, starving refugees, broken homes, and the wholly new political framework emerging from the rubble of Europe and Asia, must now be faced.

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