On September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, representatives of Imperial Japan signed the instrument of surrender on the deck of USS Missouri (BB-63), ending the Second World War. The ceremony was brief, formal, and watched by thousands of sailors packed onto every ship in the harbor and every vantage point they could find. General Douglas MacArthur presided. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz signed for the United States. The Missouri — newly arrived from operations in the Pacific, her 16-inch guns still carrying the smell of the last bombardment missions — was chosen for the ceremony because she was named for the home state of President Harry Truman, who had made the decision that brought the war to its end. In that moment, a battleship became the stage for the most consequential military ceremony of the twentieth century.
The Ship
USS Missouri (BB-63) is an Iowa-class battleship, commissioned on June 11, 1944 — the last battleship commissioned by the United States Navy. She was the fourth of her class, following Iowa, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, and she was designed to be one of the most powerful surface combatants ever built: nine 16-inch guns in three triple turrets capable of throwing 2,700-pound shells more than twenty miles, a secondary battery of twenty 5-inch guns, and armor sufficient to absorb enormous punishment. At full load she displaced nearly 60,000 tons and could make better than 32 knots. She was, in every measurable respect, a ship built for the kind of war that was already ending by the time she arrived in the Pacific.
World War II
Missouri arrived in the Pacific in time to participate in the final campaigns of the war. She screened carrier task forces operating against the Japanese home islands, providing anti-aircraft protection for the carriers whose air wings were conducting the strikes that would eventually force Japan's surrender. She took part in the shore bombardment operations against Honshu and Hokkaido, bringing the war's destruction directly to the Japanese mainland. On April 11, 1945, a kamikaze aircraft struck Missouri's hull — penetrating the side above the armored belt and killing the pilot, whose body was recovered and given a formal military burial by Missouri's commanding officer, in a gesture that was noted and remembered. The ship was not seriously damaged, and she continued operations through the end of the war.
Korea and Retirement
After the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay, Missouri returned to active service in the postwar fleet, becoming a training ship and then, during the Korean War, a gunfire support platform — her 16-inch guns providing fire support for UN forces along the Korean coast. She was decommissioned in 1955 as the Navy's emphasis shifted to carriers and the missile age made the big-gun battleship seem obsolete. She sat in reserve at Puget Sound for more than two decades, preserved but inactive, while the argument about whether battleships still had a role in modern naval warfare remained unresolved.
The Reagan-Era Recommissioning
The argument was settled — at least temporarily — during the Reagan administration's naval buildup of the 1980s. The decision to recommission all four Iowa-class battleships as part of the 600-ship Navy initiative brought Missouri back to active service on May 10, 1986. She was modernized with Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and Phalanx close-in weapon systems, transforming her from a pure gun platform into a multi-mission surface combatant capable of long-range land attack. The 16-inch guns remained — still capable of the shore bombardment mission that had defined the class in its original service.
Missouri deployed to the Western Pacific and participated in exercises and operations throughout the late 1980s, her presence a statement about American naval power that was as much political as military. There was nothing subtle about a 60,000-ton battleship with nine 16-inch guns. She was theater, and she was effective theater.
Desert Storm
USS Missouri's last combat deployment was also among her most operationally significant. Deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Storm, she and her sister ship USS Wisconsin conducted shore bombardment missions against Iraqi positions in Kuwait and along the Kuwait-Saudi border. Missouri fired more than 750 16-inch rounds during the Gulf War — the largest naval gunfire support campaign since Korea — and launched Tomahawk cruise missiles against Iraqi targets from her vertical launch cells. On February 25, 1991, Missouri came under attack by two Iraqi Silkworm anti-ship missiles; both were defeated, one by a Sea Dart missile fired from the British destroyer HMS Gloucester and one by Missouri's own Phalanx system. She was the last American battleship to engage in naval combat.
If you served aboard USS Missouri or want to honor a battleship sailor, browse the Missouri collection — cruise shirts, license plate frames, and more.
Legacy
USS Missouri was decommissioned for the final time on March 31, 1992, and is now a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii — moored within sight of the USS Arizona Memorial, where the ship that marked the beginning of American involvement in World War II rests beneath the water. The two ships together constitute a kind of bookend to the war: Arizona at its beginning, Missouri at its end. The surrender ceremony plaque is still there on her deck, and visitors can stand where MacArthur stood and understand something about what was given and what was won. The ship deserves that kind of attention. She earned it.