Which Japanese army chief signed the surrender document aboard USS Missouri?

Yoshijiro Umezu signed the surrender document aboard USS Missouri as Japan’s representative of the armed forces. He signed immediately after Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu during the September 2, 1945, ceremony.

Umezu was the final Chief of the Army General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army. In that position, he represented Japan’s military leadership at the formal surrender, while Shigemitsu represented the civilian government.

Umezu had opposed surrender and was one of the senior officers involved in the government’s final wartime decision-making. Nevertheless, Emperor Hirohito’s acceptance of the Allied terms and the cabinet’s decision required him to participate in the ceremony.

Unlike several other senior wartime leaders, Umezu was not executed after the war. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East convicted him of war crimes and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He died in prison in 1949.