Japanese Surrender On Air This Eve
Dixon Evening Telegraph September 1st, 1945 pg. 1
Radio Networks to Broadcast Historic Ceremonies at 8:30
Last of the Actors Taking Their Places Aboard Battleship Missouri

Washington, Sept. 1 —(AP)— The White House announced today that the Japanese surrender ceremonies on the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay will go on the air at 8:00 p.m., Central War time tonight. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, supreme allied commander in Japan, notified the White House to this effect. From Washington, President Truman will broadcast a speech of about eight or nine minutes during the ceremony, after which the broadcast will be switched back to the Missouri for brief addresses by General MacArthur and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Pacific fleet commander.

Radio Broadcast of Surrender Ceremony on the Battleship Missouri September 1st, 1945

The White House also announced that the president will take part in a two-hour radio program, beginning at 8:00 p.m.. Central War time tomorrow night to be conducted by the Armed Forces Radio Service.

Message Not Clear
The president’s brief address on the Sunday program will begin at 8:19 p.m. and all networks are expected to carry at least part of the program. Presidential Secretary Charles G. Ross said he did not know whether the broadcast of the surrender ceremony aboard the Missouri will be a delayed and recorded affair or whether it will be simultaneous with the actual signing. The MacArthur message did not make this clear. All it said was that the ceremony would go on the air at 10:30 a.m., “on the second” September 2 (Tokyo time) in Tokyo Bay. It was not known this morning how long the ceremony will last.

The president will be standing by in the broadcast room of the White House listening in on the surrender-signing ceremony and waiting for the signal for him to speak.