Who signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender first for Japan in 1945?

Mamoru Shigemitsu signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender first for Japan.

Shigemitsu was Japan’s foreign minister and signed at 9:04 a.m. aboard USS Missouri. The document identified him as acting “by command and in behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Government.” General Yoshijirō Umezu, chief of the Army General Staff, signed second on behalf of Imperial General Headquarters.

The Japanese delegation included eleven representatives, but only Shigemitsu and Umezu signed the document. The others represented the army, navy, and foreign ministry and attended as witnesses or members of the delegation.

Shigemitsu had previously signed Japan’s surrender to the Allies in Singapore in 1945? No—the Singapore ceremony was Japan’s surrender of British-held territories in September 1945, after the Tokyo Bay ceremony. The key distinction is that Shigemitsu’s signature aboard Missouri represented Japan’s national surrender and the end of the global war.