The battleship USS Missouri is best known as the site of the surrender ceremony during which Japanese and Allied officials signed the document that ended World War II, but its fighting life had just begun as it lay anchored in Tokyo Bay that early September morning in 1945.
The Missouri was a relatively new ship; one of four Iowa-class battleships built for the Navy. The Iowa, New Jersey and Wisconsin were all completed before the Missouri, so it was the last battleship ever constructed by the United States. Construction started on the Missouri in the New York Naval Shipyard during early January 1941. It was launched in late January 1944 and commissioned in June 1944. By the time it was decommissioned for the second time in 1992, it had received three battle stars for its service in World War II and five more for its service during the Korean War.
Margaret Truman, daughter of then-senator Harry Truman from Missouri, christened the ship. It was the third ship to bear its name. The first was a frigate built during 1841; the second was a Maine-class battleship finished in 1901 that was part of the Great White Fleet that President Theodore Roosevelt sent on a goodwill voyage around the world in 1907-09, and it later participated in World War I; today, a fourth Missouri is a Virginia-class submarine.
The World War II-era Missouri completed trials, shakedown, and battle practice in Chesapeake Bay and left Norfolk, Virginia, in early November 1944, transited the Panama Canal (a feat the ship was designed to accomplish) and was fitted out in San Francisco. It arrived at Ulithi, West Caroline Islands, in mid-January 1945 and quickly began its battle career.
It first served in the screen of the Lexington carrier task group which carried out the first air raids on the Japanese homeland since the Doolittle Raids in 1942. Its next assignment brought it to the heart of battle when it was assigned to Iwo Jima where its guns provided direct and continuous support for Allied landings followed by direct bombardment of the Japanese home islands from the Inland Sea. It also helped open the Allied attack on Okinawa as part of a decoy force that bombarded the southeast coast of the island to draw attention from the west coast beaches that were the actual invasion site.
Three continuous months participation in the Okinawa campaign revealed how useful the ship could be in battle. Its guns shot down five enemy planes during that time, assisted in the downing of six others, and was credited with one probable downing. It helped repel twelve daylight attacks and four night attacks on task groups that it escorted during the campaign. In addition, its shore bombardments destroyed several gun emplacements and military, government, or industrial buildings on the island.
Inland Sea operations followed which included the Missouri being part of 3d Fleet’s first bombardment of major installations within the home islands, in Missouri’s case, moving close to shore and bombarding the Nihon Steel Company and the Wanishi Ironworks on Hokkaido.
As World War II drew to a close during the summer of 1945, Missouri continued to bombard targets on the home islands and to support task groups launching other attacks. Allied attacks were so effective that military historians maintain that the Japanese had no more home waters or control of the air by the end of July. The strikes continued on 9 August after the bombing of Nagasaki, and the Missouri’s crew heard unofficially on 10 August that the Japanese were likely to surrender soon.
The ship entered Tokyo Bay on 29 August to prepare for hosting the official ceremonies ending World War II on 2 September. It sailed from Tokyo Bay on 7 September bound for Guam to pick up homeward bound passengers, stopped at Pearl Harbor for about a week, and arrived in New York in late September.
Refurbishing and a return to service awaited the ship. It served in training maneuvers and routine missions until mid-September 1950 when it was the first American battleship to reach Korea where it supported the Inchon Landings.
Relieved of duty in the Far East in late March 1951, the Missouri returned home for overhaul and training duty until recalled to Korea in 1953 followed by more training duty after the end of the conflict. It entered Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in late 1955 for decommissioning. It was a tourist attraction at the Bremerton, Washington, naval shipyards before being recommissioned in 1986 as part of President Ronald Reagan’s plan to strengthen the United States Navy presence in the world’s oceans.
Missouri experienced one more brush with fame in 1989 when producers for the rock star Cher requested a Navy ship to make a video of her hit song If I Could Turn Back Time. Navy officials originally suggested the deck of the battleship New Jersey as a suitable location. It was unavailable, so the officials suggested Missouri as an alternative site. The Navy did not have funds for recruitment advertising at the time, and the officials hoped that young people watching the music video would turn it into an unofficial recruitment advertisement. The original plans called for Cher to wear a jumpsuit as she and her band performed the song as though they were performing a concert for the crewmembers. Cher, being Cher, showed up for the taping wearing much less than a jumpsuit, and the resulting video was controversial, especially among members of the World War II generation who considered it disrespectful to an honored battleship and recognized historic site. (One account of the incident reported that Cher “made even the Navy blush.”)
Missouri participated in the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91 during which it fired its first Tomahawk missiles and was decommissioned again in 1992. It was subsequently moved to Pearl Harbor and opened in 1999 as the USS Missouri Memorial adjacent to the USS Arizona Memorial, thus recognizing the two major events that began and ended United States participation in World War II.
