Yasuji Okamura signed the 1945 surrender document in Nanjing on behalf of Japanese forces in China.
Okamura was commander-in-chief of the Japanese China Expeditionary Force. On September 9, 1945, he signed the regional surrender document at the Central Army Military Academy in Nanjing.
The ceremony followed the global surrender aboard USS Missouri by one week. It addressed the Japanese forces operating in China and was accepted by General He Yingqin, representing the Chinese Nationalist government and the Allied powers in that theater.
Okamura’s role is sometimes confused with that of Yoshijirō Umezu, who signed the main surrender document for Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo Bay. Seishirō Itagaki, meanwhile, accepted surrender terms in Singapore on behalf of Japanese forces in Southeast Asia.