Which French general signed Japan’s surrender instrument aboard USS Missouri in 1945?

General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque signed Japan’s surrender instrument for France aboard USS Missouri.

Leclerc was France’s representative at the Tokyo Bay ceremony. He signed after representatives of the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, and Canada, and before the representatives of the Netherlands and New Zealand.

He is widely known by his wartime name, General Leclerc. During World War II, he commanded Free French forces in Africa, participated in the liberation of Paris, and led the French 2nd Armored Division. His presence at the Japanese surrender connected France’s wartime forces with the Allied settlement in the Pacific.

The French signature is sometimes overlooked because the ceremony is most often associated with American, Japanese, and British figures. France was nevertheless one of the nine Allied governments represented on the instrument.