Yoshijiro Umezu signed the surrender document after Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu. Umezu was Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff and signed on behalf of Imperial General Headquarters.
Shigemitsu signed first for the Japanese government at the ceremony aboard USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. Umezu then signed for the military command. Their signatures represented two connected authorities: the civilian government and the Japanese armed forces. Neither man signed as emperor; the document stated that the Japanese representatives acted by command of Emperor Hirohito.
Umezu had opposed surrender during the final crisis, but he ultimately followed the emperor’s decision. He was later convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and sentenced to life imprisonment. This Umezu was not the same person as Hideki Tojo, Japan’s wartime prime minister, who had been arrested earlier and was tried separately.