A little-known site in Hunan province lays claim to receiving the first formal surrender by the Japanese invaders to China, reports He Na in Zhijiang Dong autonomous county, Hunan.

On Sept 9, 1945, the commander-in-chief of Japan's China Expeditionary Army, Yasuji Okamura, signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender in Nanjing.

The historic ceremony marked an end to eight years of Chinese forces fighting the Japanese invaders. The aggressors killed more than 300,000 Chinese during the Nanjing Massacre alone.