Which Japanese military leader signed the Instrument of Surrender after Mamoru Shigemitsu?

Yoshijiro Umezu signed Japan’s Instrument of Surrender after Mamoru Shigemitsu in 1945.

Umezu was the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Japan’s highest-ranking army officer at the time. He represented the Japanese military command at the ceremony aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.

Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed first on behalf of the Japanese government. Umezu then signed on behalf of the Imperial General Headquarters, formally binding Japan’s armed forces to the surrender terms.

Umezu had opposed surrender during the final days of the war, but he ultimately obeyed Emperor Hirohito’s decision. His signature is sometimes confused with those of wartime generals such as Hideki Tojo or Tomoyuki Yamashita, neither of whom signed the Instrument of Surrender.