Who was the first Japanese representative to sign the Japanese Instrument of Surrender?

Mamoru Shigemitsu was the first Japanese representative to sign the Japanese Instrument of Surrender.

Shigemitsu was Japan’s foreign minister at the time of the ceremony. On September 2, 1945, he signed aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government. His signature came before that of General Yoshijiro Umezu, who signed for Imperial General Headquarters.

Shigemitsu had previously served as a diplomat and had been Japan’s foreign minister during the final stage of the war. He signed while wearing a formal morning coat and using a cane, having lost a leg in an earlier assassination attempt in Shanghai in 1932.

The surrender ceremony included eleven Japanese delegates, but only Shigemitsu and Umezu signed the instrument for Japan. General Douglas MacArthur then signed for the Allied powers, followed by Admiral Chester Nimitz and representatives of the other Allied governments. The signing ended the formal hostilities of World War II.