The End of World War II: A Book With the German Instrument of Surrender, Signed by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, Signed by Gen. Douglas MacArthur

In the immediate wake of World War II, Congress ordered the publication of a book containing the full text of the instruments of surrender in that war, along with the addresses of President Truman and the Supreme Allied Commanders. Senator Alben Barkley presented the material for publication on October 1, 1945 as Senate Document No. 93, and the U.S. Government Printing Office published it in 1946 as “Surrender of Italy Germany and Japan/ World War II”. It contained three parts, representing the surrender documents of Italy, Germany, and Japan.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe for the last three years of the war. When the German high command tried to negotiate surrender terms in 1945, Ike instead dictated terms by insisting that the surrender must be unconditional. Signing for the United States, he accepted the German surrender on May 7, 1945, at his headquarters in Reims, France. The instrument of surrender commenced by saying, “We the undersigned, acting by authority of the German High Command, hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the Supreme High Command of the Red Army all forces on land, at sea, and in the air who are at this date under German control.”

General Douglas MacArthur was Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific theater. Signing for the United States, he accepted the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, on board the USS Missouri docked in Tokyo Bay. At the conclusion of the ceremony he famously underlined the end of the 6-year horrific war by saying, “Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world, and that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed.”

Fern Nance Pond was the historian for the Old Salem Lincoln League which helped in the restoration of New Salem, Illinois, a village where Abraham Lincoln had lived and known Ann Rutledge. Pond helped to secure authentic furnishings for the restored cabins. She obtained this book, and in an inscription on the front endpaper, she explains how she acquired the signatures of the two generals in 1947. She first sent the book to Eisenhower while he was serving as Chief of Staff in Washington, and then to MacArthur in Tokyo, Japan, where he was Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, asking them to sign their respective surrender documents. Ike signed on p. 41, above the German Instrument of Surrender, and MacArthur signed on page 94, at the end of his remarks closing out the ceremony and the war.

This is the first item signed by both Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, and MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific, that we have ever had, and perhaps just the second we can ever recall seeing.