Historical information

The Instrument of Surrender signed at Singapore by Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten for the Allies and General Itagaki for the Japanese.
During his time as Supreme Allied Commander of the Southeast Asia Theatre, Lord Mountbatten's command oversaw the recapture of Burma. A personal high point was the receipt of the Japanese surrender in Singapore when British troops returned to the island to receive the formal surrender of Japanese forces in the region led by General Itagaki on 12 September 1945, codenamed Operation Tiderace. General Itagaki was convicted of war crimes and executed inn 1948.

Significance

The surrender of Imperial Japan was announced on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close.Following the war, Mountbatten was known to have largely shunned the Japanese for the rest of his life out of respect for his men killed during the war, and as per his will, Japan was not invited to send diplomatic representatives to his funeral in 1979,

Physical description

Black frame with silver insert with glass of a photocopy of the Instrument of Surrender of the Japanese Forces. Script is in black on white paper with a red square seal at the bottom left, mounted on cream board.

Inscriptions & markings

Instrument of surrender of Japanese Forces under the command or control of the Supreme Commander, Japanese Expeditionary forces, southern regions within the operational theatre of the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia.
Signed at Singapore at 0341 hours (G.M.T.) on 12 September, 1945.