"Nobody wanted to volunteer forthe odious duty," wrote a Japanese diplomat about the surrender on the Missouri. "The Prime Minister . . . was considered unsuitable because he was the Emperor's uncle . . . [The] Vice Premier . . . shunned the ordeal. Finally, the mission was assigned to Foreign Minister Shigemitsu." He was the little Japanese who stumped into history ten years ago this week, grotesque in frock coat and topper amid the tieless suntans of MacArthur's conquerors, to sign the surrender papers and take his nation's disgrace upon his bowed...
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