Rare Photo Of Japan's WWII Surrender Treaty

Here's a rare sneaky photo of the original signed documents whereby Japan officially surrenders to the United States of America to end World War II.

The photo was taken by a young turk on the sly at the New-York Historical Society in New York City, as photography of this important document is supposed to be expressly verboten. I have no idea why New and York are hyphenated.

According to my source, the document is huge - at least 2 feet wide x 3 feet high.

In the close-up of this photo, you can make out the signature of one General Douglas MacArthur, nicknamed by the Japanese as the Gaijin Shogun.

The treaty was signed by representatives from Japan, the USA, China, UK, USSR, Australia, Canada, France, Netherlands and New Zealand on September 2, 1945 aboard the battleship USS Missouri docked in Tokyo Bay, Japan.

And...while I greatly appreciate the efforts of my friend to present this document to me, let me at least show you Japan's copy of the treaty...

You can see that the Japanese have presented their version of the treaty with some nice matting. Yeesh.

Cheers
Andrew Joseph