Who led the Japanese delegation that signed the surrender aboard USS Missouri in 1945?

Mamoru Shigemitsu led the Japanese delegation that signed the surrender aboard USS Missouri in 1945.

Shigemitsu was Japan’s foreign minister at the time of the ceremony. Wearing a formal morning coat and using a cane because of a wartime injury, he signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese government. General Yoshijirō Umezu, representing the Japanese armed forces, signed separately.

The delegation arrived aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay shortly before the ceremony began at 9:02 a.m. on September 2, 1945. General Douglas MacArthur presided for the Allied powers, while Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz signed for the United States.

Shigemitsu had also signed Japan’s surrender to the Allies at the ceremony, making his role one of the most recognizable diplomatic moments of the twentieth century. The signing formally ended the Pacific War and World War II’s major hostilities.