Which Soviet general signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender in Tokyo Bay in 1945?

General Kuzma Derevyanko signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender for the Soviet Union in Tokyo Bay.

Derevyanko signed at approximately 9:16 a.m. Japan Standard Time on 2 September 1945, aboard USS Missouri. He represented the Soviet Union among the Allied officials who signed after Japan’s representatives and General Douglas MacArthur.

His appearance reflected the Soviet Union’s decisive late entry into the Pacific War. Soviet forces invaded Japanese-held Manchuria beginning on 9 August, defeating much of the Kwantung Army and occupying territory in Manchuria, northern Korea, southern Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands.

Derevyanko is less widely remembered than MacArthur or Chester Nimitz, but his signature was part of the formal multinational settlement ending the war with Japan. Other signatories represented China, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. The Soviet representative was therefore not Zhukov or Malinovsky, despite their prominence in other Soviet campaigns.