Mamoru Shigemitsu was Japan’s foreign minister and the first Japanese signatory at the USS Missouri surrender ceremony.
Shigemitsu signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government. He signed before General Yoshijirō Umezu, who represented Imperial General Headquarters. Photographs show Shigemitsu wearing a formal morning coat and carrying a cane, the result of a wartime leg injury.
The Japanese delegation had two principal signatories because the surrender document represented both the civilian government and the military command. Shigemitsu’s signature covered the government side, while Umezu’s signature covered the armed forces. This arrangement reflected the structure of wartime Japan and avoided treating the surrender as merely a civilian or military act.
Shigemitsu had previously served as a diplomat and foreign minister during the war. After the ceremony, he was tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and convicted of war crimes, though his case involved diplomatic and cabinet responsibility rather than command of battlefield operations. He later returned to political life in postwar Japan.