Who signed Japan’s formal surrender on behalf of its Imperial General Headquarters?

Yoshijirō Umezu signed Japan’s formal surrender on behalf of its Imperial General Headquarters.

Umezu was the Chief of the Army General Staff and the senior military representative in Japan’s surrender delegation. He signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, shortly after Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu had signed for the Japanese government.

His signature represented the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, the command structure directing Japan’s armed forces. This role differed from Shigemitsu’s political representation of the government, even though both men signed the same surrender document.

Umezu had opposed surrender during the final stages of the war but ultimately followed the Emperor’s decision. After the war, he was tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, convicted of Class A war crimes, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in 1949.