USS Missouri hosted Japan’s formal surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.
The Iowa-class battleship was selected because it was serving as the flagship of Admiral William F. Halsey’s U.S. Third Fleet. The ceremony took place on the ship’s deck, where Japanese representatives signed the Instrument of Surrender before Allied representatives and international observers.
The Missouri entered Tokyo Bay on August 29, 1945, after weather delayed the ceremony from its initially planned date. It was anchored close to the location where Commodore Matthew Perry’s American squadron had anchored in 1853, creating a deliberate historical contrast between the opening of Japan and the end of the Pacific War.
The ceremony began at 9:02 a.m. Japan Standard Time and lasted 23 minutes. The battleship later became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where the surrender deck remains preserved. It is often called the “Mighty Mo,” a nickname associated with the historic vessel.