Who was Japan’s foreign minister and first signatory of the 1945 surrender document?

Mamoru Shigemitsu was Japan’s foreign minister and first signatory of the 1945 surrender document.

Aboard USS Missouri, Shigemitsu signed the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government. General Yoshijiro Umezu, chief of the Army General Staff, signed next on behalf of Japanese Imperial General Headquarters.

Shigemitsu attended the ceremony in formal morning dress and used a cane because he had lost a leg in an assassination attempt in Shanghai in 1932. His role reflected the division between Japan’s civilian government and military command structure.

After the war, Shigemitsu was convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and imprisoned. He was released in 1950 and later returned to politics, again serving as foreign minister. His signature is therefore associated both with Japan’s wartime diplomacy and with the formal end of the conflict.