Who signed Japan’s surrender for the Imperial Japanese Army at the 1945 ceremony?

Yoshijiro Umezu signed Japan’s surrender for the Imperial Japanese Army at the 1945 ceremony.

Umezu was Chief of the Army General Staff, the senior officer representing Japan’s Imperial General Headquarters. He signed the Instrument of Surrender after Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu had signed for the Japanese government. Umezu’s signature therefore represented the military command structure rather than the civilian cabinet.

The ceremony occurred aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Umezu signed at approximately 9:06 a.m. Japan Standard Time. General Douglas MacArthur then signed for the Allied powers, followed by representatives of the United States and other Allied governments.

Umezu is sometimes confused with Hideki Tojo, Japan’s wartime prime minister and army general. Tojo was not a signatory at the surrender ceremony. Umezu later became one of the defendants tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and died in prison in January 1949.