Who signed Japan’s surrender first at the USS Missouri ceremony in 1945?

Mamoru Shigemitsu signed Japan’s surrender first at the USS Missouri ceremony in 1945.

Shigemitsu was Japan’s foreign minister and signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender at about 9:04 a.m. on September 2, 1945. He signed on behalf of the emperor and the Japanese government.

General Yoshijiro Umezu, chief of the Army General Staff, signed next for Imperial General Headquarters. Their signatures represented Japan’s civilian government and military command. The Japanese delegation then stood aside while Allied representatives signed the document.

Shigemitsu had previously served as Japan’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and had signed the Tripartite Pact in 1940. After the war, he was convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and imprisoned, but he was later released on parole. He returned to public life and served again as foreign minister in the 1950s.