Which Allied representative made a signing error on the Japanese copy of the 1945 surrender document?

Lawrence Moore Cosgrave made a signing error on the Japanese copy of the 1945 surrender document.

Cosgrave was the Canadian representative at the ceremony aboard USS Missouri. He signed below his designated line rather than above it, reportedly because he was blind in one eye and misread the layout of the document.

The mistake affected the placement of the signatures that followed. General Richard K. Sutherland corrected the document by crossing out and rewriting the printed titles of the Allied nations. He initialed the alterations, after which the Japanese representatives accepted the corrected copy.

The incident did not invalidate the surrender. Two versions of the Instrument of Surrender were prepared: an Allied copy and a Japanese copy. The ceremony proceeded, and the completed documents became important historical records of the formal end of Japan’s participation in World War II.