Who was Japan’s foreign minister and chief civilian signatory at the 1945 surrender ceremony?

Mamoru Shigemitsu was Japan’s foreign minister and chief civilian signatory at the 1945 surrender ceremony.

On September 2, Shigemitsu signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri with the wording that he acted by command and on behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government. His role represented Japan’s civilian government rather than the armed forces alone.

General Yoshijiro Umezu signed immediately afterward for the Imperial Japanese General Headquarters. The distinction mattered because the instrument covered both the Japanese government and its military command structure. Together, the two signatures showed that Japan’s state and armed forces accepted the Allied terms.

Shigemitsu had previously served as a diplomat and had signed Japan’s surrender to the Allies in China at Nanjing in September 1945. After the war, he was convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, served part of his sentence, and later returned to government as foreign minister.