Saturday, February 16, 2013

USS Missouri

The USS Missouri is an American battleship commissioned in June 1944, toward the end of World War II. It served as the flagship of the American Third Fleet under Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr. In early August 1945, the Missouri was bombarding installations on the coast of Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped.

On September 2, 1945 the Missouri was docked in Tokyo harbor. Japanese representatives signed the surrender documents that formally ended World War II. The brass disk (below) is the site where the signing took place.

On Thursday (Feb. 14, 2013) we visited the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.