Eleven Japanese delegates traveled to USS Missouri for the formal surrender ceremony on 2 September 1945.
Only two of the eleven signed the instrument: Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu for the Japanese government and General Yoshijirō Umezu for Imperial General Headquarters. The remaining delegates represented Japan’s Army, Navy, and Foreign Ministry and attended as part of the official delegation.
The Allied authorities had received the full list in advance, but the press was initially told only the identities of the two signatories. The delegation left Tokyo early on the morning of the ceremony, boarded a vessel at Yokohama, and continued to the Missouri, which was anchored in Tokyo Bay.
The figure eleven can be confused with the number of Allied governments represented at the ceremony or with the number of Japanese signatures. The Japanese delegation numbered eleven, while only two Japanese names appear as signatories on the formal document. The ceremony itself lasted about 23 minutes and was broadcast internationally.