Who was Japan’s chief of the Army General Staff who signed the surrender document in 1945?

Yoshijirō Umezu was Japan’s chief of the Army General Staff who signed the surrender document in 1945.

Umezu signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender at 9:06 a.m. on September 2, 1945. He signed on behalf of Imperial Japanese General Headquarters, representing the military command. Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu had signed two minutes earlier for the Emperor and the Japanese government.

Umezu had been a senior army officer and served as chief of the Army General Staff during the final phase of the Pacific War. His signature followed Japan’s decision to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and end hostilities.

General Douglas MacArthur then signed for the Allied Powers, followed by national representatives from nine Allied countries. Umezu is sometimes confused with Hideki Tōjō, Japan’s wartime prime minister and army general, but Tōjō had left office in 1944 and did not sign the surrender instrument. Umezu later faced prosecution at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.