The surrender of Japan, announced by the Japanese emperor Hirohito on August 15, 1945, brought the hostilities of World War II in Asia to a close. In this photograph, taken by a soldier of the United States Army Signal Corps, Mamoru Shigemitsu, Minister for Foreign Affairs, signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese government aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, formally ending the war. U.S. Army general Richard K. Sutherland watches on the left of the photograph, and Shigemitsu is assisted by Toshikazu Kase, an official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, on the right.Photograph credit: Stephen E. Korpanty; restored by Adam Cuerden