Whose 1850s flagship flag was displayed during Japan's 1945 surrender ceremony?

Matthew Perry's flagship flag was displayed during Japan's 1945 surrender ceremony.

The flag had been associated with Commodore Matthew Perry's expedition to Japan in 1853–1854. Perry commanded the U.S. Navy's East India Squadron, and his mission helped compel Japan to open its ports to American trade through the Convention of Kanagawa.

In 1945, the flag was brought from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis for display aboard USS Missouri. Its presence created a deliberate historical connection between the arrival of American naval power in Japan in the nineteenth century and the surrender ceremony nearly a century later.

Photographs from the ceremony show the flag displayed with the reverse side visible. This was not a different flag or an accidental replacement; American flags displayed on the right side of a ship or formation can appear reversed so the stars face forward.