TOKYO: The Japanese surrender was … signed aboard the United States battleship Missouri here at 10-30 a.m. Tokyo time today [Sept 2]. General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander, in a speech at the ceremony declared: I announce it is my firm purpose in the tradition of the countries I represent to proceed in the discharge of my responsibilities with justice and tolerance while [ensuring] that the terms of the surrender are fully, promptly and faithfully complied with. We are gathered here … to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored. Issues involving divergent ideals and ideologies have been determined on the battlefields of the world and hence are not for discussion or debate. Nor is it for us here to meet representing as we do a majority of people of the earth in a spirit of distrust, malice or hatred, but rather it is for us both victors and vanquished to rise to that higher dignity which alone benefits the sacred purposes we are about to serve….

General MacArthur then invited the Japanese representatives to sign the instrument of surrender. After they had signed, General MacArthur himself and then one by one called other Allied representatives to sign….

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2020