The Surrender of Japan in the Pacific (1945)

An American newspaper headline about the end of World War II. Americans celebrating victory over Japan in a square.

Faces of jubilant people.

A seascape with a view of Mount Fuji.

The American fleet off the coast of Japan.

The barrels of the rotating turret guns of American battleships.

Faces of American sailors.

American warships off the coast of Japan.

A Japanese officer orders his subordinates to lay down their arms.

A Japanese infantry regiment on the march.

American soldiers inspect captured Japanese artillery guns mounted on a platform.

A view of a Japanese airfield with captured Japanese aircraft.

Japanese amphibious tanks captured by the Americans as trophies.

Japanese artillery guns in a firing position.

A view of a destroyed settlement.

Japanese refugees left homeless walk along the roads past the ruins.

A panorama of the area (from above).

Views of destroyed industrial plants and residential buildings.

View of a destroyed village, people leaving the ruins.

Arrival of a Japanese military delegation to discuss the terms of surrender.

Landing of an American military transport plane.

Soldiers of one of the US airmobile divisions exit the plane.

American soldiers on the armor of a tank.

View of the bay.

American soldiers disembark in Yokosuka.

A Japanese officer walks along the port ramp, waving a white flag.

View of the superstructure of an American warship.

Landing of an American plane at an airfield in Okinawa.

Japanese planes at an airfield in Okinawa, captured by the Americans.

Japanese prisoners of war doing excavation work at the beginning of the construction of a US military base on Okinawa.

American trucks with soldiers on the edge of the airfield.

Soldiers in the back of a truck.

Landing of an American military transport plane.

General Wainwright, freed from Japanese captivity, exits the plane.

Wainwright descends the gangway, greeting the military personnel who meet him.

Members of the Japanese delegation walk along the deck of the battleship Missouri to sign the surrender document on September 2, 1945. Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender.

The instrument is signed by Chief of the Japanese General Staff Yoseijiro Umezu.

General MacArthur delivers a speech into a microphone after the signing of the Instrument of Surrender of Japan.

General MacArthur signing the Instrument of Surrender, with General Wainwright standing at the table.

View of part of the deck of the battleship Missouri during the signing ceremony of the Instrument of Surrender of Japan (top).

MacArthur delivers a speech.

Map of the Pacific region, with the flags of the states that accepted Japan's surrender appearing on the map and the islands where US military bases were located (animation).

View of the barracks building at one of the US military bases in the Pacific Ocean, an hour passes.

A flag-raising ceremony at a US military base in the Philippines.

The flag flutters on a flagpole.

US military personnel inspect the grounds of the new base.

Wreckage of US aircraft shot down during military operations in the Philippine Islands.