China’s representative signed Japan’s surrender immediately after U.S. representative Chester Nimitz.
At the USS Missouri ceremony on 2 September 1945, General Douglas MacArthur signed first for the Allied powers. Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz then signed for the United States, followed by General Hsu Yung-chang for China.
The order reflected the formal participation of the principal Allied governments in the Pacific War. China had been fighting Japan since 1937, when the Second Sino-Japanese War began, and was one of the governments named in the Potsdam Declaration. Hsu’s signature therefore represented the Nationalist government of the Republic of China.
After China, representatives signed for the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. The sequence is sometimes mistaken because MacArthur’s signature came before the national representatives, while Nimitz represented the United States rather than presiding over the entire ceremony.