Who signed Japan’s surrender second for the Japanese delegation aboard USS Missouri?

Yoshijirō Umezu signed Japan’s surrender second for the Japanese delegation aboard USS Missouri.

Umezu was Chief of the Army General Staff and represented Japanese Imperial General Headquarters. After Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed for the Japanese government, Umezu signed for the military command at approximately 9:06 a.m. on September 2, 1945.

The two signatures reflected the structure of Japan’s wartime state. Shigemitsu represented the civilian government, while Umezu represented the armed forces that had directed Japan’s military operations. Their joint participation made the surrender document applicable to both governmental and military authority.

Umezu had been one of Japan’s senior army officers during the final phase of the war. Unlike Hirohito, he personally attended the ceremony, but the emperor did not. Umezu later received a life sentence at the Tokyo war crimes tribunal and died in prison in 1949.