Which New Zealand officer signed Japan's 1945 surrender document for New Zealand?

Leonard M. Isitt signed Japan’s 1945 surrender document for New Zealand.

Air Vice-Marshal Leonard M. Isitt represented New Zealand at the formal signing aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. He was the final Allied representative to sign the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, doing so after the representatives of the Netherlands.

New Zealand was one of nine Allied governments represented on the document. The other Allied signatories represented the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, and the Netherlands. Their participation reflected the broad coalition that had fought Japan across the Pacific and Asia.

Isitt can be confused with Bernard Freyberg, New Zealand’s best-known wartime army commander, but Freyberg did not sign the Japanese surrender document. Isitt’s role was connected to the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Allied ceremony itself.