Who was the second Japanese signatory at the 1945 surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri?

Yoshijiro Umezu was the second Japanese signatory at the 1945 surrender ceremony.

Umezu was chief of Japan’s Army General Staff and signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender at about 9:06 a.m. on September 2, 1945. His signature represented the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, while Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu had already signed for the emperor and government.

Umezu had opposed accepting the Allied terms during Japan’s final wartime debates, but he ultimately followed the emperor’s decision. His participation showed that both Japan’s civilian government and military command were formally bound by the surrender. After the ceremony, Umezu was arrested and tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, where he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.