Who was the first Japanese signatory of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender in 1945?

Mamoru Shigemitsu was the first Japanese signatory of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender.

Shigemitsu was Japan’s foreign minister and signed on behalf of Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese government. He signed at 9:04 a.m. Japan Standard Time on 2 September 1945, aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

General Yoshijirō Umezu, chief of the Army General Staff, signed next on behalf of Japanese Imperial General Headquarters. The two men were the only Japanese representatives who signed the instrument itself, although nine other Japanese delegates attended the ceremony.

Shigemitsu’s artificial leg and formal morning dress made him a distinctive figure in photographs of the event. He had lost his right leg in an assassination attempt in Shanghai in 1932. The ceremony lasted about 23 minutes, and the instrument took effect at 9:25 a.m., formally ending hostilities in World War II.