Matthew Perry's flag was displayed during Japan's 1945 surrender ceremony.
The flag had been flown from Commodore Matthew Perry's flagship during his expedition to Japan in 1853–1854. It was brought aboard USS Missouri and placed near the surrender signing site in Tokyo Bay. The display linked the end of World War II with an earlier turning point in U.S.-Japanese relations.
Perry's expedition used American naval power to pressure the Tokugawa shogunate to open ports to foreign trade. The resulting Convention of Kanagawa in 1854 ended Japan's long policy of restricted foreign contact with the United States. By 1945, the same body of water had become the setting for Japan's formal capitulation to the Allied powers.
The flag is often confused with a flag said to have flown over the U.S. Capitol during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Historians and USS Missouri crew members have rejected that identification for the flag displayed at the ceremony. The Perry flag was an old 31-star U.S. flag and was shown with its reverse side visible because of its placement and protective backing. The original is preserved at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum.