What falls today is a particularly important anniversary, one of the symbolic dates of the XNUMXth century: on September 2, 1945, the Second World War ended with the white flag hoisted by Japan.
To present the act of unconditional surrender of the Empire of the Rising Sun was a delegation led by the Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, who signed the document together with the general Yoshijiro Umezu. As seen in the photo, Shigemitsu showed up dressed in ceremonial attire: top hat, black frock coat, striped trousers and black patent leather shoes.
For the Allies he signed the US general Douglas MacArthurcommander in the Southwest Pacific and Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. For the USA he signed the admiral Chester Nimitz. Furthermore, the document was signed by the military representatives of China, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
The ceremony, which lasted approx 23 minutes and was broadcast worldwide, took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Two American flags flew on the deck of the battleship: one of the two - according to a suggestive, but unconfirmed story - flew over the White House on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese Air Force destroyed the US fleet in a surprise attack at the Pearl Naval Base Harbor, in the Hawaiian Islands.
Japan's official surrender had been preceded on August 15th 1945 fromradio announcement by which Emperor Hirohito he communicated acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, which required the country to surrender unconditionally. At the beginning of the same month, on 6 and 9 August, the United States had dropped the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima e Nagasaki, which immediately killed between 100 and 200 thousand civilians, effectively marking the conclusion of the military conflict.
