Mamoru Shigemitsu signed the surrender instrument for Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese government. He was Japan’s foreign minister and signed first among the Japanese representatives aboard USS Missouri on September 2, 1945.
Shigemitsu signed using wording that stated he acted by command and on behalf of the Emperor and the Japanese government. General Yoshijiro Umezu then signed for Imperial General Headquarters, representing Japan’s armed forces.
Shigemitsu had previously served as a diplomat and had been foreign minister during the final stage of the war. He later returned to government after the occupation and again became foreign minister in the 1950s. He is sometimes confused with Shigenori Togo, another wartime foreign minister, but Togo was not the Japanese signatory at the Missouri ceremony.