Which French general signed Japan’s surrender document as France’s representative?

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque signed Japan’s surrender document as France’s representative.

Leclerc was a French Army general and one of the Allied representatives at the ceremony aboard USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. He signed after representatives of the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands.

He was widely known by the wartime name General Leclerc and had commanded Free French forces in Africa and Europe. His presence at the Japanese surrender reflected France’s status among the Allied powers, despite the country’s occupation and the complex political situation of the French state during the war.

Leclerc’s signature is sometimes confused with that of Charles de Gaulle, the leader of Free France. De Gaulle was not the French signatory at the Tokyo Bay ceremony; Leclerc represented France there.