Why is the uss missouri so famous
Footsteps of World War II #2, USS Missouri
hi Sean mugger here that history guy and
welcome back to footsteps of World War
two this is segment number two we're
going we started a segment number one
with the very beginning of world war two
and now we're going to the very end I
did not say we're gonna go in order
so this installment I'm going to take
you to the battleship Missouri which is
now permanently docked in Pearl Harbor
I'll zoom out and show you this is Pearl
Harbor as you can see in near Honolulu
Hawaii where the United States entered
World War two with the Japanese attack
however the USS Missouri is of course
famous for the ship on which the
Japanese surrender was signed on
September 2nd 1945 officially ending the
Pacific War when we talk about the World
War two has two components the Europe
and the Pacific when we talk about the
war against the Japanese we usually call
that the Pacific War so there's a lot of
photospheres here and i can show you
what this looks like this is the deck on
which this surrender was actually signed
Japan surrendered to the Allied powers
General Douglas MacArthur was there he
was standing right on this deck he was
what they call SCAP supreme command Ally
supreme commander Allied powers
essentially the new Emperor of Japan
following the defeat this ship was built
at the Brooklyn Navy Yard beginning in
1941 before the United States entered
the war it has nine 16-inch guns that's
these major guns here and then there's a
host of smaller weaponry like you can
see in the background there it was
envisioned as a capital ship to fight
other capital ships of course that's
what a battleship is supposed to do
however battleships proved to be
disappointing weapons believe it or not
they were so big and so expensive that
usually the forces that had them were
reluctant to commit them to battle
because they could be lost so quickly
and their investments not recouped so
here we see the gentlemen who actually
took this photo loved the glasses so
anyway the Missouri
missed the major sea battles of the war
with Japanese ships last one the only
one in fact among battleships at least
not talking about carriers that
battleships was the Battle of Leyte Gulf
which was fought in late October of 1944
the missouri was not launched until
november about a month later so she
missed the big battle so what that meant
was that the missouri participated in a
lot of will support operations but then
shore batteries so two major battles in
1945 Iwo Jima and Okinawa the Missouri
was sent as kind of a floating battery
to soften up the beaches for invasion
so that was her main task
the Japanese announced their surrender
on August 15 1945 that's what we call VJ
day so the spontaneous demonstrations
for example where people were referring
ticker tape out the window in New York
City and the guy was you know kissed the
nurse in Times Square well that was all
August 15 1944 that was VJ day but that
was not the official surrender the
official surrender happened here on this
deck right about where these people over
here are standing the official surrender
was a formality in it occurred in Tokyo
Bay so the ship steamed into Tokyo Bay
in a rat arrived on August 29th again
this about two weeks after hostilities
had actually ceased the ceremony lasted
23 minutes an American flag was present
and it was a flag that had been carried
by Commodore Matthew Perry on his
expedition to quote-unquote open Japan
in 1854 that event was of course the
beginning of the collision between
American the United States and Japan
which some historians have said that a
war between the two of them was
inevitable from 1854 onward the Missouri
had a career that extended beyond World
War two
she was decommissioned in well she
served in the Korean War 1950
53 and then was decommissioned in 1955
she was however recommissioned in 1986
when President Ronald Reagan part of his
military buildup was what he called a
600 ship Navy and so a couple of old
battleships which were still good were
refit and put into service so as part of
that service the USS Missouri actually
served in the first Persian Gulf War in
1991 and then was decommissioned for the
last time in March of 1992 so now she is
permanently moored in Pearl Harbor has a
museum ship you can see across the bay
here there's some more memorials to
Pearl Harbor such as the famous Arizona
Memorial which we will get to you in a
future installment of this series so
thank you very much for watching and
we'll see you next time
