Which U.S. Navy battleship hosted Japan’s surrender signing ceremony in 1945?

USS Missouri hosted Japan’s surrender signing ceremony on its forward deck on September 2, 1945.

Missouri was an Iowa-class battleship commissioned by the United States Navy in June 1944. It joined the Pacific War during the final phase of fighting and participated in operations against Japanese positions before becoming the site of the surrender ceremony.

The ship was selected partly because it was a modern American battleship and partly because it carried symbolic significance for President Harry S. Truman, who was from Missouri. Allied and Japanese representatives gathered on the deck while ships of several Allied navies lay at anchor in Tokyo Bay.

The ceremony took place on the ship’s starboard quarterdeck area, where a commemorative plaque now identifies the signing location. USS Missouri remained in service after World War II, later serving in the Korean War and the 1991 Gulf War. It is preserved today as a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, making it one of the best-known surviving symbols of the war’s conclusion.