Which Canadian representative signed below the intended line on the Japanese surrender document?

Lawrence Moore Cosgrave signed below the intended line on the Japanese surrender document.

Cosgrave represented Canada at the September 2, 1945 ceremony aboard USS Missouri. He accidentally signed on the line beneath the one intended for Canada, creating a visible problem in the printed order of the Allied signatories. The error resulted in the names and titles that followed appearing out of alignment on the Japanese copy.

General Richard K. Sutherland, Douglas MacArthur’s chief of staff, corrected the document by crossing out the preprinted Allied titles and rewriting them in their proper positions. He initialed each alteration. The Japanese representatives reportedly objected at first, but accepted the corrections after Sutherland authenticated them. The incident did not affect the legal validity of the surrender, yet it remains one of the ceremony’s most frequently discussed small details. Cosgrave was a Canadian Army colonel and a veteran of the First World War who had been blinded in one eye during that conflict.