Who signed Japan’s surrender first for the Japanese government aboard USS Missouri?

Mamoru Shigemitsu signed Japan’s surrender first for the Japanese government aboard USS Missouri.

Shigemitsu was Japan’s foreign minister in 1945 and represented the Emperor and the Japanese government at the surrender ceremony. At about 9:04 a.m. on September 2, he signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government.

General Yoshijiro Umezu signed next for the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters. The distinction mattered because the delegation represented both Japan’s civilian government and its military command. Shigemitsu wore a formal morning coat and used a cane because he had lost a leg after an assassination attempt in 1932.

The Japanese government had decided to accept the Potsdam Declaration after the atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and intense internal debate. Emperor Hirohito announced the decision by radio on August 15, but the legal surrender still required a formal document and signatures.

After the ceremony, Shigemitsu served briefly in postwar Japanese politics and later became foreign minister again in the 1950s.