Date: 9 September 1945    Length: 90.6cm    Material: Steel, Wood, Copper and Snake Skin

Japan declared surrender on August 14, 1945 and formally signed the surrender letter on September 2 of the year. On the official surrender ceremony held on September 9, Yasuji Okamura handed his Samurai sword to He Yingqin, Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Army, who would give the sword to Chiang Kai-shek. Yasuji Okamura was a Japanese war criminal and the best-known general of Japanese army. Under his brutal “burn all, kill all and loot all” strategy, innumerable Chinese people lost their lives.
The PLA crossed the Yangtze River on April 23, 1949 and seized Nanjing, then capital of the KMT Government. The Samurai sword was found and captured in the Presidential Palace. On both sides of the handle are inlaid with eight gilt-copper imperial flowers of Japan. On the case lid there is inscribed “the Personal Samurai Sword submitted by Senior General Yasuji Okamura, Japanese Surrender Representative and the Highest Commander of the Japanese Army, to Generalissimo Chiang, from He Yingqin, Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Army, in Nanjing on September 9, 1945.”
The item was transferred to the Military Museum by the Weapon Display Office, Armament Division of the PLA’s General Logistics Department in 1959.