Japan's Surrender and Victory in the War of Resistance
On 15 August 1945 the Japanese emperor broadcast the rescript ending the war and accepting the Potsdam Declaration, bringing China's War of Resistance against Japan to a victorious end. On 2 September Japan signed the instrument of surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, with Xu Yongchang signing for China; on 9 September Okamura Yasuji, commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army, surrendered to Chinese Army Commander-in-Chief He Yingqin in Nanjing; on 25 October the surrender ceremony for Taiwan was held in Taipei. A dispute between the Nationalists and Communists over who would accept the surrender became one of the starting points of postwar conflict. The official PRC figure for Chinese military and civilian casualties is more than 35 million, and in 2014 the PRC designated 3 September by law as Victory Day.
From the Potsdam Declaration to Japan's Announcement of Surrender
On 26 July 1945 China, the United States and Britain issued the Potsdam Declaration calling on Japan to surrender unconditionally. On 6 and 9 August the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; on 8 August the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and the next day Soviet forces entered northeast China. On 9 August Mao Zedong issued the statement "The Last Round with the Japanese Invaders"; on 10 August Zhu De, as commander-in-chief, ordered the forces of the Liberated Areas to attack Japanese and puppet troops and prepare to accept their surrender. That same day the Japanese government sued for peace to China, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union. At noon on 15 August Emperor Hirohito broadcast the rescript ending the war, announcing acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration — eight years after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937.
The same day Chiang Kai-shek broadcast from Chongqing his "Message on Victory in the War of Resistance", declaring "Today we have won". China, he said, regarded "only Japan's militarist warlords as our enemy, not the Japanese people", and "we do not seek revenge".
The Dispute over Who Would Accept the Surrender
Who would accept the Japanese surrender immediately became a dispute between the Nationalists and Communists. On 11 August Chiang ordered the 18th Group Army to "remain at its posts and await orders" and not to disarm Japanese and puppet troops on its own. On 13 and 16 August the CCP Central Committee replied twice in Zhu De's name that "we firmly reject this order", demanding that the Liberated Area armies accept the surrender of the Japanese and puppet forces they had surrounded. On 15 August Zhu De also sent an order directly to Okamura Yasuji, commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army, demanding that his troops in the Liberated Area armies' zones of operation surrender to the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the South China Anti-Japanese Column. Conflict over accepting the surrender and taking over territory became a central issue in postwar relations between the two parties; in late August Mao Zedong went to Chongqing for negotiations with Chiang.
Zhijiang and the Surrender Ceremony in Nanjing
On 21 August Imai Takeo, deputy chief of staff of the China Expeditionary Army, arrived in Zhijiang, Hunan, as surrender envoy to settle the arrangements for the Japanese surrender. On 2 September Japanese representatives signed the instrument of surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay; the Chinese delegation boarded first, and Xu Yongchang, Minister of Military Operations, signed for China.
At 9 a.m. on 9 September the China Theater surrender ceremony was held in the auditorium of the former Central Military Academy in Nanjing. Okamura Yasuji signed and sealed the instrument of surrender to He Yingqin, Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Army and Chiang Kai-shek's special representative. Under its terms all Japanese land, sea and air forces in the Republic of China (excluding the three northeastern provinces), Taiwan and Indochina north of 16 degrees north latitude surrendered to Chiang; Japanese forces in the northeast surrendered to the Soviet army. On 25 October the surrender ceremony for Taiwan Province was held in the Taipei Public Hall, where Ando Rikichi, commander of the Tenth Area Army and "Governor-General" of Taiwan, signed and sealed the instrument of surrender.
Cost and Commemoration
China paid an enormous price for the war. The official PRC figure is "more than 35 million military and civilian casualties"; according to a review of his work, the Oxford historian Rana Mitter estimates that the war left 15 to 20 million dead and 80 to 100 million refugees.
Accountability for the war was incomplete. According to the journalist Wang Huo, who attended the ceremony, Okamura Yasuji was not tried until August 1948 in Shanghai, was acquitted by a Nationalist military court in January 1949, and was repatriated to Japan soon afterwards together with other Japanese war criminals. In February 2014 the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress designated 3 September as Victory Day of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
Narrative Comparison
| Source | Narrative |
|---|---|
| Telegrams of the 18th Group Army commander to Chiang Kai-shek (August 1945, Selected Works of Mao Zedong vol. 4); Xinhua commentary (2025) | In August 1945 the CCP told Chiang Kai-shek that the Liberated Area armies were "resisting and encircling 69 per cent of the Japanese troops in China (excluding the Northeast) and 95 per cent of the puppet troops", while the Nationalist government had "always adopted a policy of looking on with folded arms, waiting for victory, conserving its strength and preparing for civil war" — so the Liberated Area armies had the right to accept the surrender of the forces they surrounded. Today's official accounts stress that victory came "after 14 years of indomitable, bloody struggle by the Chinese people", with "Chinese military and civilian casualties exceeding 35 million". |
| Chiang Kai-shek, victory message (15 August 1945) | The Nationalist government presented the victory after eight years of war as "the success of the historic mission of the National Revolution". Chiang said: "My fellow countrymen must know that 'not recalling old wrongs' and 'doing good to others' are the highest and most precious virtues of our national tradition. We have always declared that our enemy is Japan's militarist warlords, not the Japanese people." Japan would be held strictly to the terms of surrender, "but we do not seek revenge", for "answering the enemy's past atrocities with atrocities… would mean endless cycles of vengeance". |
| Rana Mitter, Forgotten Ally (2013), as reviewed in Michigan War Studies Review (2014) | Mitter presents China as the "forgotten ally" of Western memory of the Second World War. As quoted in the review, he writes that at the war's end "China was stronger than it had been in a century. No longer a mere semi-colony, it was the sole non-Western power among the Big Five"; yet the war "left 15 million to 20 million dead, and 80 to 100 million refugees", and "the flawed but real economic development that the Nationalists had begun in 1928 was destroyed". Without Chinese resistance, he argues, China would have become a Japanese colony as early as 1938, freeing Tokyo to expand into Southeast Asia sooner and with less distraction. |
| Wang Huo (then special correspondent for Chongqing's Shishi Xinbao and other papers), Dangdai 2015 no. 3 | Wang Huo attended the Nanjing ceremony as a reporter. He recalled Okamura and his officers, "all in field uniform, lined up dejectedly and bowed to He Yingqin"; when the ceremony began at nine, chief of staff Kobayashi Asasaburo presented the credentials "with his head bowed and his hands trembling slightly"; Okamura "took up the Chinese brush on the table and signed both copies", and afterwards "left the hall with his head down, crestfallen". Wang also wrote that Okamura was later acquitted and repatriated, and that "the later strength of Japan's right wing is inseparable from the protection given by the United States and by Chiang Kai-shek's regime". |
Key Milestones
- Potsdam Declaration issued
China, the United States and Britain call on Japan to surrender unconditionally.
- Japan sues for peace; Zhu De orders advance
Japan sues for peace to China, the US, Britain and the USSR; Zhu De orders the Liberated Area forces to attack and prepare to accept the surrender.
- Chiang orders the 18th Group Army to "await orders"
The CCP rejects the order in telegrams of 13 and 16 August.
- Japan announces its surrender
Emperor Hirohito broadcasts the rescript ending the war; Chiang Kai-shek broadcasts his victory message from Chongqing.
- Surrender talks at Zhijiang
Japanese envoy Imai Takeo arrives in Zhijiang, Hunan, to arrange the surrender.
- Surrender signed aboard the USS Missouri
Xu Yongchang signs for China.
- Surrender ceremony in Nanjing
Okamura Yasuji signs the instrument of surrender before He Yingqin; Japanese forces in the China Theater formally surrender.
- Surrender ceremony in Taiwan
Ando Rikichi signs the instrument of surrender at the Taipei Public Hall.
- 3 September designated Victory Day
The NPC Standing Committee adopts the decision.
Last verified: