Which Canadian officer signed below the intended line on Japan’s surrender instrument?

Lawrence Moore Cosgrave signed below the intended line on Japan’s surrender instrument.

Cosgrave represented Canada at the ceremony aboard USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. He accidentally signed on the line beneath Canada’s printed position on the Allied copy. Because the mistake shifted the remaining signatures, General Richard K. Sutherland crossed out and rewrote the printed country titles so the document would accurately identify the representatives.

The error was especially noticeable because Cosgrave was blind in one eye from a wound suffered during World War I. Historical accounts attribute the misplaced signature to his difficulty reading the layout. The Japanese initially objected to the handwritten corrections, but Sutherland initialed each alteration, and the Japanese representatives accepted the revised document.

This episode did not invalidate the surrender. The corrected instrument was preserved as an official record, and the signing ceremony proceeded to completion. The incident is a small but memorable detail in an otherwise carefully choreographed ceremony involving eleven Japanese delegates and representatives of nine Allied governments.