Which earlier American expedition’s flag was displayed aboard USS Missouri during Japan’s 1945 surrender ceremony?

Matthew Perry’s expedition supplied the earlier American flag displayed aboard USS Missouri during Japan’s 1945 surrender ceremony.

A flag associated with Commodore Matthew Perry’s 1853 expedition was brought aboard Missouri and displayed during the signing in Tokyo Bay. Perry’s ships had entered Japanese waters nearly a century earlier, seeking to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with Japan. His expedition helped lead to the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.

The placement of the flag created a deliberate historical contrast. Perry’s arrival represented American pressure to open Japan to foreign contact, while the Missouri ceremony represented Japan’s defeat and the beginning of Allied occupation after World War II.

The flag is sometimes confused with the American flag flown at Pearl Harbor during the attack on December 7, 1941. Accounts and later research indicate that the surrender ceremony used a flag from the ship’s stock for that purpose, not a flag from the Capitol or necessarily the exact flag associated with Pearl Harbor. The Perry flag’s presence was specifically intended as a historical reminder of the earlier American expedition.