General Douglas MacArthur makes comments during the signing ceremony of the Japanese on Sunday, September 2, 1945.
Watching the film 72 years later, it appears very anti-climatic. A delegation of Japanese officials board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Both the Japanese and the Allied leaders are subdued. A couple of men in the Japanese delegation were dressed in morning suits of a definite British flavor. Tails and top hats were the order of the day. Almost all the Allied representatives wore regular issue military uniforms. British representatives of the navy were in shorts.
The ceremony is brief, just 23 minutes by official records.. General MacArthur gives a short speech. Papers are signed and the Japanese delegation leaves.
Occupation of Japan would end less than seven years later in 1952. Just 15 years after the end of occupation, Japan would become the second largest economy in the world. It was a trend of growth unrivaled in the 20th. century. Japan would eventually decimate both the American consumer electronics industry and the U.S. automotive industry.
Never before in the history of war had a former enemy helped another nation recover politically, culturally and economically from the ravages of their own making.