Who was Japan’s foreign minister when he signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender in 1945?

Mamoru Shigemitsu was Japan’s foreign minister when he signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender in 1945.

Shigemitsu signed first for Japan aboard USS Missouri at 9:04 a.m. on September 2. The document stated that he signed by command and on behalf of Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese government. He wore a formal morning coat and used an artificial leg after losing his right leg in an assassination attempt in Shanghai in 1932.

A second Japanese representative, General Yoshijirō Umezu, signed on behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters. The distinction mattered because the civilian government and military headquarters were represented separately in the surrender document.

Shigemitsu later returned to government service in postwar Japan and again became foreign minister in 1954. His role in the surrender ceremony is sometimes confused with that of Umezu, who represented the military command rather than the cabinet.