From the Sept. 2, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser "Day of Surrender"
Marking the 60th anniversary of the event that formally ended World War II, the newspaper interviewed some of the men who were there.
The USS Missouri entered Tokyo Bay Aug. 29, 1945, and the war was already over. VJ Day took place August 15th. Only Japan's formal surrender remained.
Lt. Cmdr. James Starnes, 24, was officer of the deck and in charge of making many of the day's arrangements. Said Starnes, "We carried off this ceremony by the book."
But, the book did not deal with specifics. One of which was which of the two five-star flags should fly, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz's or General of the Army Douglas MacArthur's. Starnes improvised and flew both, "They were equals--neither outranked the other." And, I'm sure MacArthur would have noticed.
The ceremony took place on the Missouri's Veranda Deck, surrounded by a show of America's power: 9 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, a dozen submarines, 48 destroyers and 170 light and heavy cruisers and other combat craft.
Three thousand officers, sailors, Marines and press packed every available inch of the ship's decks as the eleven-man Japanese delegation signed the surrender document at 9:04 AM.
A Great Day for the World. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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