History Spotlight, 1/6

On this day in 1941, the keel of the Iowa-class fast battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) is laid at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, NY. She was the last battleship built by the United States. She was completed in 1944 and served in the Pacific Theater of Operations. The Missouri's main guns were 9 16-inch naval guns, which could fire 2,700 lb armor-piercing shells nearly 25 miles.

A 16" shell compared with a VW Bug

On April 11, 1944 she suffered a hit by a kamikaze pilot. The crash started a fire that was quickly brought under control and the pilot's body was recovered. Captain William M. Callaghan allowed the pilot to be buried at sea with full military honors.

The Big Mo is probably most famous for being the site of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay that ended WWII. After the second atomic bomb was dropped on Japan on August 9, 1945 rumors that Japan was prepared to surrender began to circulate. On August 15, President Truman announced Japan's acceptance of unconditional surrender. On August 29, the Missouri entered Tokyo Bay.

Between 8 and 9 am on September 2nd, various dignitaries for the warring power boarded the ship. These included General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, and Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu. Shortly after 9 am, MacArthur opened the ceremony by stating, "It is my earnest hope — indeed the hope of all mankind — that from the blood and carnage of the past, a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance, and justice." By 9:3o am the ceremony was over, the Japanese dignitaries had departed and, by the next day, the Missouri sailed, unescorted, to Guam and from there to Pearl Harbor to ferry passenger back to the states.

Surrender aboard the Missouri

After the war, the Missouri was assigned to various training cruises and participated in the Korean War. In 1955, she was place into the "Mothball Fleet" on active reserve status in Bremerton, Washington.

In 1984, as part of the Reagan Administration's 600 ship naval policy, the Missouri was taken out of the Mothball Fleet and its weapons were upgraded, including Harpoon anti-ship misslies and Tomahawk missiles.It's final combat was seen during the Persian Gulf war and the Missouri was formally decommissioned on March 31, 1992. It was kept back in the Mothball Fleet in Bremerton when it was struck from the Naval Register and, on May 4, 1998 it was donated to the non-profit USS Missouri Memorial Association in Honolulu where it opened as a museum. It sits to this day in Pearl Harbor, watching over the sunken wreck of the USS Arizona. Because of the extensive post-war modifications, it is not eligible to be listed as a National Historic Landmark.

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