Anniversary of Canada's Pacific Mistake

Today is the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Japan.  When I first visited the Edo Museum in Tokyo, I noticed that the signing page of the Surrender was off.  When I went back this past February as part of a group tour, I took a photo and also showed the page to the students who got a kick out of it.  Once I saw tweets today indicating that this is the big annviersary, I just had to tweet thusly:

as this is the 75th anniversary of Japan's Surrender, here's a pic reminding us that Canada signed in the wrong place, forcing all subsequent signers to do likewise. pic.twitter.com/gBWO7UBr2k

— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) September 2, 2020

I put in the tweet here instead of the picture alone because, well, it has gone about as viral as anything I have ever tweeted.  At the time I write this, it has been liked more than 13k times and retweeted over 3.3k.  That is a lot for me.

The responses fall into a few categories:

1. Sorry or some version of "Sorry, eh?"  
2. Is this how the Canadians learned to apologize so well?
3. Blame Canada, thanks to South Park
4. Oh Canada, thanks to the national anthem
5. Why didn't the French (next in line) just sign where the Canadians should have?
6. Some people who signed the wrong spot on a marriage license and were "married" to the wrong person.

This is the only tweet I can remember where I received responses in more than a few languages.

My fave response (at least of those I read, as I have something like 250 people commenting back at me) was this:

Story time.

Family legend has it that my great-uncle had a copy of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. He served in the Philippines as a clerk in 1945 and apparently got his hands on a copy. He never showed us. 1/6 #WorldWarII #Japanese #japanesesurrender https://t.co/ddWildJ9mu

— Ashley (@ashleythetexan) September 2, 2020

I am sure the old Colonel who signed in the wrong place was mighty embarrassed.  I am grateful to him for giving us a laugh at a time where we desperately need it.  No need to apologize.