Yoshijiro Umezu signed their names to the Instrument of Surrender, which had been approved by U.S. marks V-J Day on September 2, the day three-quarters-of-a-century ago when Japan’s foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, and Gen. V-J Day, an abbreviation for Victory over Japan Day, had been celebrated almost a month earlier on August 15 by many Allied nations, the day the Japanese government announced surrender. But for many people the Missouri’s greatest claim to fame is hosting the signing of the formal surrender in 1945 by the Japanese 75 years ago Wednesday, as the 45,000-ton battleship lay at anchor in Tokyo Bay. The Missouri, a veteran from the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, has a storied history. Then a few seconds later, we could feel the thud of the Missouri’s shells landing on targets twenty miles away. Sharp cracks and thunderous booms followed even before the smoke had dissipated - so ear-piercing that I ripped my neck jerking away from the roar. Then huge orange fireballs spat from her 16-inch guns which were targeting Iraqi positions along the Kuwaiti coast. It was quite a sight when the World War II-era battleship the USS Missouri fired her guns in anger for the final time.įirst there were billows of smoke so dense that we could still see them against the darkness of the night-sky from a nearby warship, Britain’s HMS Gloucester.
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