Matthew Perry's 31-star U.S. flag was displayed aboard USS Missouri during Japan's 1945 surrender ceremony.
The flag had been flown from Commodore Matthew Perry's flagship during his 1853–1854 expedition to Japan. Perry's mission helped force the opening of Japanese ports to American trade, making the historic flag a deliberate symbol at the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay nearly a century later.
The original flag was fragile and was displayed with protective backing, leaving its reverse side visible. Photographs therefore show the stars in an unusual position, which has sometimes led viewers to think the flag was hung incorrectly. The flag was not the one that had flown over the U.S. Capitol during the attack on Pearl Harbor; that claim is a persistent historical mix-up.
The original flag is held by the U.S. Naval Academy Museum. A replica is displayed at the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor, where visitors can see the ship associated with the 1945 ceremony.