Yoshijiro Umezu signed Japan's surrender document for Imperial General Headquarters after Mamoru Shigemitsu. Umezu was chief of the Japanese Army General Staff and signed at 9:06 a.m. on 2 September 1945.
The two signatures represented different parts of Japan's authority. Shigemitsu signed for the Emperor and the Japanese government, while Umezu signed for Imperial Japanese General Headquarters, the military command structure. This division made the document explicit about who was accepting the Allied terms and on whose behalf.
Umezu had opposed surrender during the final stages of the war and was one of the senior officers involved in Japan's wartime leadership. He nonetheless carried out the emperor's command at the ceremony. He later faced trial before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and was convicted of war crimes. Umezu is sometimes confused with General Douglas MacArthur, who presided over the ceremony but signed on behalf of the Allied command.