Surrender On The USS Missouri

Funding for this program provided by... This program was made possible by support from the Surface Navy Association, promoting recognition of the role of the Navy and surface forces in United States security.

Additional support provided by... Support for this program was also made possible by... If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of the ruin the like of which has never been seen on this earth.

Through progressive advances in scientific discovery, revises the traditional concept of war.

To all the military, naval, and air authorities of Japan and all the forces under their control, wherever located, cease active operations.

Attention, the peoples of the world, World War II is about to come to its official closing.

We're on the Pacific Fleet flagship, U.S.S.

Missouri, in Tokyo Bay for the signing of the surrender of Japan.

The electric sign up the street, which just flashed a big sign "The Japs have surrendered."

Believe me, that's hitting electric signs on... On August 14, 1945, the world let loose, recognizing the end of World War II.

[ Crowd cheering ] In New York City, as throughout a rejoicing nation and world, vast throngs of grateful, happy people celebrate the end of fighting, the dawn of peace.

American sailor George Mendonsa was in New York City's Times Square and about to become famous.

Mendonsa was on leave from the American destroyer the U.S.S.

Sullivans.

He found himself a little drunk and in the mood to celebrate, similar to tens of millions of others across the United States.

Mendonsa came across a total stranger dressed in white, dental assistant Greta Zimmer.

The iconic "kissing sailor" photo came to symbolize the emotional release of six years of global war.

66 million people had been killed.

The world, at least for now, was at peace.

Mendonsa didn't know the snapshot even existed until a good friend asked him a question one day.

And he says, "Where the hell were you the day the war ended?"

And I says, "I was in Times Square the moment the war ended."

He says, "Well, I know you was."

I says, "How the hell do you know where I was?

You're asking me where I was."

He says, "Well, I got a Life magazine here, and there's a picture of a sailor grabbing a nurse," and he says, I know it's you."

I says, "You're kidding me."

And he brings the Life magazine, and I looked at it, and my first reaction, what I saw was the hand, was the first thing.

I guess it was -- The sensation I got was like looking in a mirror.

I said, "That is me."

I hadn't remembered nothing about the kiss.

And the excitement in Times Square was a few years.

But the minute I saw it, and he picked out, this guy Francis Sylvia, and I looked at it, and then I began to study it, and then I found my initials tattooed on my right arm.

That's in the photo.

The photo of George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer's brief embrace embodied the excitement of Japan's unconditional surrender.

However, World War II's official end would have to wait.

It would come more than two weeks later in circumstances that were much more solemn and businesslike than a party in Times Square.

There were no wild celebrations in Tokyo Bay off the coast of Japan on the morning of September 2, 1945.

Just an eerie silence broken only by the whispers and feet shuffling across the spotless teak deck of a very large ship.

Today, the battleship that hosted that historic moment, the U.S.S.

Missouri, is anchored at Pearl Harbor, just a couple of hundred yards from The USS Arizona Memorial.

The battleship Arizona was sunk on December 7, 1941, that day of infamy in Hawaii that catapulted the United States into World War II.

1,177 of the Arizona crew died that Sunday morning during Japan's surprise attack on the American Pacific fleet.

Fittingly, today, the beginning and the end of America's involvement in a horrific world war rest with a direct view of one another.

The surrender ceremony that unfolded on these decks that we're standing on right now was one of those crystalline moments in history that if I said, "Where would you like to be?"

I would have liked to be here.

Sailor Tony DeFilippis, from Long Island, New York, was on board the U.S.S.

Missouri that history-making day of September 2, 1945, to witness Japan's formal surrender to the Allies.

See the crowd, the people who come on?

Yeah, look at this.

So was United States Marine Gerry Pederson, from Sacramento, California.

Sailor Don Fosburg, from Whittier, California, was also a crewman aboard the U.S.S.

Missouri.

We're aboard the ship.

More than 3,000 people crammed on the battleship that September morning to watch the proceedings.

Today, just a handful are still alive who can say they were there in Tokyo Bay when World War II came to its official close, not with a rifle shot but with the stroke of a pen.

Don Fosburg was just 17 when he joined the Navy.

The visit to his local recruiting office went smoothly, for the most part.

There was just one minor issue.

They said that there's one form we need to be signed before it's final.

Does anybody need a pencil to do it?

And about four guys said yeah.

And so they gave them a pencil and said, "You step over here.

You're in the Marines."

About 20 minutes later, I was in the Navy.

I have carried a pencil and pen in my pocket ever since.

Tony DeFilippis wasn't sure where he'd end up when he joined the military.

It ended up being the Navy because Uncle Sam sent him a letter saying so.

Drafted.

I had no choice.

I was on the U.S.S.

Missouri for two years and a couple of months.

Jerry Pederson decided he wanted to be a United States Marine.

In 1943, I was in high school, graduating in June, and I decided I wanted to go in the Marine Corps.

At the time, anybody that was in the United States was patriotic because we were in a war.

But there was no question, I wanted to go in because I wanted to contribute to our nation's effort.

After Marine boot camp, Pederson was on his way to the Pacific.

In Guam, he found out he would not be fighting on the beaches and in the jungles like his fellow Marines earlier in the war.

Pederson would fight on the high seas.

We went to duty on board this ship, and as soon as we can, we can go aboard.

It's a big -- it's a battleship.

Hey, you get three square meals a day, and they even have showers on.

And that sounded good to me.

And I said, "Let's go."

And -- And next morning, first thing, we'd taken off.

When we got on there, we learned that it was the U.S.S.

Missouri.

At that time, I didn't think anything.

It was just another ship.

I later learned that it had only been commissioned the year before and only got out into the Pacific about the first of the year.

When I went aboard, I became part of the Marine attachment on the Missouri, one of the 3,000 men serving on the Missouri, but only 40 of those were Marines.

The first sighting of the Missouri, which is rather impressive.

It's a beautiful ship, Beautiful.

Tremendous.

It was the same for Marine Jerry Pederson.

Well, I was amazed.

I had no idea this thing, longer than three football fields.

It was the era of the massive battleship in American naval history.

Pederson was impressed by the sheer size of his new home.

I remember going aboard, and I was just overwhelmed.

Construction on the U.S.S.

Missouri began on January 6, 1941, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 11 months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On January 29, 1944, Margaret Truman, daughter of then Senator Harry Truman, from Independence, Missouri, launched the nation's newest battleship with her father looking on.

The Mighty Mo, as Missouri was nicknamed, slid off her supports into the East River and towards her destiny.

The Iowa-class battleship was almost 900 feet long and 110 feet wide and weighed in at 58,000 tons when fully loaded.

She could make more than 30 knots of speed.

During World War II, the U.S.S.

Missouri had 189 officers aboard and over 2,700 crew.

She had nine 16-inch guns and 10 twin 5-inch gun mounts, 20 quad 40-millimeter antiaircraft gun mounts, and another 49 20-millimeter antiaircraft guns.

The massive 16-inch guns could fire projectiles 23 nautical miles.

But when we left the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the ship went under the Manhattan and Manhattan Bridge -- bridges, and everything came to a stop -- cars and trucks and subway trains and trolley cars.

It was a sight to remember.

The ship did fit under the bridges, only 7 feet.

Just made it by 7 feet.

Low tide.

[ Laughs ] In late 1944, the U.S.S.

Missouri headed towards battle via the Panama Canal.

Pearl Harbor was the first stop, then the war in the Western Pacific.

She barely squeezed through the canal.

When we went through the Panama Canal, there was only 12 inches on either side.

They had railroad cars pulling it, you know, outside the... Cement flying all over the place.

[ Chuckles ] Don Fosburg trained for the job of radio operator on the Missouri.

He would have to hook up with the battleship in Hawaii.

So I went to a class A radio school in San Diego at the Naval Training Center.

Then, when that was finished, we were put on a troop ship and sent to Hawaii.

By the time he got to Pearl Harbor, Missouri had already left, so Fosburg had to play catch-up.

We had to get to the Missouri.

Well, actually, the Missouri was then in the Third Fleet, off the coast, out in the South Pacific.

They put the five of us on the North Carolina, and then we went out to rendezvous with the Third Fleet.

When we arrived at the Third Fleet, this was quite a -- quite a sight.

Of course, I'd never seen anything like this, but there were hundreds of ships.

It was off the Hawaiian coast that Don Fosburg saw a sight he'd never forget.

A new battle plan was just getting organized.

There were carriers, cruisers, battleships, destroyers.

It was really a sight.

But now they had to get us from the North Carolina to go aboard the Missouri, and we're out at sea.

Well, they have what they call a bosun's chair.

[ Clears throat ] I found out what it was.

They shoot a line to a destroyer, and then they run a heavy line over to it.

And then they hook this little -- it's like a metal cube chair to the line, and they drag you across.

Be similar to a zipline today.

But there is a difference.

We're going from one ship to another.

We're going about, I would guess -- they slow down a little bit -- about 20 knots.

And if the ships are running smoothly, it's pretty nice.

But, you know, ships all of a sudden can roll this way or they can roll that way.

If they roll this way, you went in the water because the line slacked.

If they went this way, you went up.

Well, the crew members on the ships were always hoping you'd go in the water.

[ Men shouting ] But I was lucky.

They went the other direction, I went up.

The Navy begins to soften up the island so we can land.

[ Guns firing ] Fosburg soon got his first taste of combat as part of the Missouri's naval support for the Battle of Iwo Jima, beginning on February 19th of 1945.

[ Guns firing ] And they called general quarters.

That meant there was potential trouble, and I went to the battle station like I was supposed to, and we did have -- and immediately that was Japanese attack.

And the first thing that I saw was a kamikaze come in towards a carrier that was running alongside us.

And, of course, the shooting was pretty violent, and they shot the kamikaze down.

It crashed but not on the carrier but right next to it.

While Don Fosburg was tracking attacks on a nearby aircraft carrier, Tony DeFilippis was busy himself, trying to shoot down Japanese planes off of Iwo.

I was a fire control man.

Whenever I turned that director, either one of five 5-inch mounts would turn either way.

Got on a plane.

30,000 yards.

And I would stay on it for a couple of minutes, and the information that I sent down to the computer two decks down.

And after the computer got an answer, they told me upstairs to fire, I would fire.

[ Guns firing ] As a Marine on the battleship, Jerry Pederson knew he had joined a well-trained team with only one goal -- end the war.

I was part of something very big.

Being assigned as a Marine and the whole war -- there was a deep satisfaction in that.

It didn't matter if you were Navy or Marine.

Each of the 2,700 enlisted men on the U.S.S.

Missouri brought something to the table.

My individual assignment was on a 20-millimeter anti-aircraft as part of the team that was on that.

There were five of us... ...on that, and although I didn't fire it, I was responsible for taking magazines and put them in.

And every day, I had to grease and clean that gun to stand inspection.

Following Missouri's involvement at Iwo Jima, the battleship headed on to Okinawa on March 24th.

There she was assigned anti-aircraft defense in support of the aircraft carriers off the island.

The amphibious landings on Okinawa would begin on April 1, 1945.

It would turn out to be World War II's final major battle.

The American Pacific fleet was inching closer and closer to mainland Japan.

On the island of Okinawa, 5,000 from San Francisco, the earth shook from a fearful pounding by our ships and planes.

Bombarding our 16-inch cannons, was firing, and -- because I guess the Army and the Marines had gotten bogged down.

This was the fleet that came to stay, that had to stay.

It was at Okinawa where the Japanese unleashed some of their most aggressive kamikaze attacks of the war.

On April 6, 1945, the first of 10 coordinated kamikaze, or suicide plane attacks, began to hit the American Navy off Okinawa's coast.

Almost 5,000 Navy crewmen died in these strikes.

It gave the Allies a stunning example of the tenacity they would face if they eventually had to invade Japan's mainland.

On April 11th, a kamikaze pilot set his sights on the Missouri.

The kamikaze came at 180 -- so, came at the back of the ship.

He was coming in with a torpedo.

But the directors were in the electrical stops.

In other words, the guns would be shooting into the superstructure.

So, luckily, the chief that was in the battle wanted the 5-inch mounts.

That just happened to be able to kick out the shells.

And they hit that one with the torpedo.

It picked the ship up like it was a toy after it exploded.

If it would have hit us, it would have killed a lot of guys.

While the U.S.S.

Missouri and the American Navy was doing all it could to fend off kamikaze attacks, crewmen on board the battleship got some news.

Germany had surrendered on May 7, 1945, ending the war in Europe.

Nobody on the Missouri gave the bulletin much thought, considering what was going on off Okinawa and what lay ahead in the Pacific.

And so at that point, the war in Europe was over.

What remained was the war with Japan.

On May 18, 1945, during the fight for Okinawa, the U.S.S.

Missouri was named as the new flagship for the United States Navy admiral William "Bull" Halsey.

Missouri would now lead the entire American Third Fleet in the Pacific.

In July, the battleship headed for Japan, bombing for the first time industrial targets inland.

And again, we bombarded -- Well, we understood there were munitions on the island that we were called on to disrupt and destroy if possible.

And when that happened, they put me in a new general quarters station.

And it was on the third deck, right back by the thirt-- the 16 mount.

[ Explosions ] I was aware of the noise.

And it really shakes that small compartment pretty good.

And we could shoot a salvo about every -- I timed them on my watch -- about every, oh, I don't know, 45 to 50 seconds.

And they would -- On the battle phone, they would say, "Next raise 60 yards," or something to that effect.

So they knew where they were hitting.

And they were pretty -- very accurate.

If the war went on, Missouri would have supported the eventual invasion of Japan in November of 1945.

Operation Olympic it was to be called.

Estimates say any invasion of Japan would have cost the Allies a million or more casualties.

10 times that amount of dead and wounded were forecast for the Japanese.

The rumor was going around, and all I can say was a rumor, that the invasion of Japan would be happening shortly.

And it was possible that we, the Marines, would be involved in the landing operations.

Following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12 1945, Harry Truman, then vice president, became president.

Truman warned the Japanese that the United States would escalate its air attacks on Japan unless they surrendered.

The warnings were ignored.

Truman never mentioned the words "atomic bomb."

Don Fosburg, down in his chaotic radio compartment on the U.S.S.

Missouri, had been receiving top-secret coded messages for days.

One a few days earlier had certainly stood out.

There was a message on my desk, and I thought -- I picked it up, and I don't know why I have this, but I read it.

And at the time it meant nothing to me.

But the message was the Third Fleet is to move away from the coast of Japan so many miles because of an action or activity that we do not know the final outcome results from it.

There was a good reason to move away.

That activity was the result of something called the Manhattan Project.

The United States had won the race to develop a new secret weapon of devastating power.

On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated in the New Mexico desert 120 miles south of Santa Fe.

The blast was equal to 15,000 tons of TNT.

Just 10 days later, President Truman secretly ordered the bomb to be dropped on Japan.

On August 6th, the sailors of the U.S.S.

Missouri had no idea that a B-29 Superfortress named Enola Gay was set to deliver more destruction on the Japanese empire than the world had ever seen.

At 8: 15 a.m., the first atomic bomb exploded 1,900 feet above Hiroshima.

Father John Siemes, a Jesuit priest and teacher, lived on the outskirts of Hiroshima and saw firsthand the effects of the world's first atom bomb.

I was in my room, which faces the valley, and suddenly I saw light, like magnesium light, flashlight, which filled the whole valley.

I heard a crash.

And immediately I was covered with splinters of the window frames and glass sticking into the wall and actually my flesh itself.

Looking out at the house, I saw no trace of the bomb itself, but about a kilometer away from the houses, I saw several peasant houses, which were on fire.

Uh...after a while, we saw a procession of people coming from the outskirts of the city, up the valley, many of them -- most of them were wounded, especially the parts of the body which were not covered by clothes.

We are now prepared to destroy more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have in any city.

We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications.

Let there be no mistake.

We shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war.

It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July the 26th was issued at Potsdam.

Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum.

If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this earth.

Three days later, a second bomb struck Nagasaki.

Between the two bombs, estimates say between 130,000 and 240,000 Japanese died.

Despite pressure from his military to continue to fight, Japanese emperor Hirohito had decided it was time to end the war.

The emperor addressed his defeated nation on the radio on August 15th.

I deem this reply a full acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, which specifies the unconditional surrender of Japan.

In the reply, there is no qualification.

Arrangements are now being made for the formal signing of the surrender terms at the earliest possible moment.

World War II was over.

[ Cheers and applause ] In Times Square in New York City, sailor George Mendonsa was kissing dental assistant Greta Zimmer.

We can see the whole of Times Square, all the way from 42 Street up to 47th Street on the left.

This is one of the greatest celebrations that we have ever seen from the marquis of the Hotel Astor here in New York City.

People -- I should estimate at least 350,000 or more.

Now it was official for all the world to hear -- unconditional surrender, victory over our last enemy, Japan.

From coast to coast, the nation hailed the coming of peace and the return of happier days.

[ Rhythmic beeping ] Word reached the U.S.S.

Missouri that the Japanese had surrendered unconditionally.

A radioman, a friend of mine, came running up and he shook me and he said, "Don, the Japanese have accepted our surrender terms.

The war is over, but don't tell anybody."

Everybody aboard ship knew about it in a very short time, 10 minutes.

And we all sort of cheered, shook hands.

And the first remark was, "When are we gonna go home?"

The Allied fleet, approximately 400 vessels strong, received its cease-fire orders early on the morning of the 15th.

Surrender in the Pacific cut short new attacks.

For all the military, naval, and air authorities of Japan and all forces under their control, wherever located, to cease active operations, to surrender arms.

It was shortly after the second bomb was dropped we heard that -- first it was a rumor 'cause we hadn't heard anything official, but that we had been assigned where the peace would be surrendered.

And then shortly afterward, we heard that it would be in Tokyo.

On August 23rd, the U.S.S.

Missouri was designated as the ship on which the signing of the Instrument of Surrender would take place.

World War II would come to its official end on the Mighty Mo.

Missouri was selected to be the host of the surrender ceremony by President Harry Truman, from Independence, Missouri, who had watched his daughter christen the battleship in 1944.

September 2, 1945, was set as the date for the official surrender ceremony to end the most horrific war in human history.

That was the scuttlebutt on Missouri, anyway.

Allied representatives from all nations would gather on her deck.

Tony DeFilippis' reaction to being chosen as the host ship for the ceremony was pretty straightforward.

Happy.

Gleeful.

In late August 1945, Missouri headed for Tokyo Bay just off Japan's coast.

Immediately, we knew we had to get the ship -- you know, they had to get it looking real good.

And the deck force was going to have to do a lot of work on it.

So, we headed to Japan, to a bay called Sagami-wan to do the work on it.

You have to have a Japanese pilot take you in.

So, I was up on the third deck watching them.

They started to yell at me from the main deck to move aside, get out.

I couldn't figure out why.

And then I looked to my left, and about 2, 3 feet from me was Admiral Halsey.

And they were taking pictures, and they didn't want Seaman Fosburg and Admiral Halsey together.

Then we went on into Sagami-wan and anchored at night.

And, you know, when you're out to sea during wartime, there's no lights.

You can't even -- you can't smoke a cigarette on the deck.

We even had our white hats -- we had to dye them blue so they wouldn't be obvious on deck.

So, everything is totally dark all the time.

Well, the first night that we went into Sagami-wan, every ship turned on all their lights, and there was even lights on the shore, at the homes, I guess, And, to me, that was really a beautiful sight.

I set out on back and watched, looked at it.

And then ship was, of course, put into shape.

Everybody got it -- It looked real good.

And we left Sagami-wan and went into Tokyo Bay.

She arrived a few days before the scheduled surrender ceremony.

The Missouri's crew wasn't sure what to expect from the Japanese, even though the fighting had ceased.

Well, you know, we were very distrustful of them.

So we go on our stations.

Tokyo Bay was quite a sight.

The bay was filthy.

The water was -- There was even a dead body floated by the ship.

You looked at the shoreline, and it was devastation.

Ships -- you could see ships that were ruined.

Now, Tokyo Bay is a big bay, so you're not right next to shore.

But you still could see all the devastation and what had happened.

And it was vicious.

And then we went all the way in, where we dropped anchor.

And I looked out.

We could see some things on the shore and so on and realized -- some of the lands that we could see, we could see the devastation.

And to feel that that's done, it's over and -- Well, the relief that came with that, yeah.

As the September 2nd date approached, marine Jerry Pederson reflected on his time in World War II.

Above all, he was ready to go home.

I've now become an adult.

I've now become -- Now I'm responsible for the world I'm in.

Up to here, I've inherited everything.

Now I'm part of the future.

That was the kind of feeling that started for me when I heard we were going to go be part of this.

On the morning of September 2nd, 1945, all of the world focused on the U.S.S.

Missouri and closure.

More than 250 Allied ships had joined Missouri at anchor in Tokyo Bay.

So had over 200 war correspondents, photographers, and 3,000-plus sailors, Marines, dignitaries, and representatives of all the victorious Allied nations.

They watched for the Japanese delegation's launch to pull alongside the battleship.

U.S.S.

Missouri radio operator Don Fosburg was one of those taking in the scene.

I was on duty.

I dealt with being in the radio.

I dealt with the press.

So, I was in the crew's mess.

We had tables set up, and the press could come down there.

Before the ceremony started, they came down to the crew's mess.

They came through the hatch up on deck, and they yelled that, "We need a table."

Fosburg remembers that an elegant British-made mahogany table was to be used for the Instrument of Surrender signing.

However, it proved too small.

So a simple folding table from the enlisted mess decks was quickly located and covered with a green tablecloth.

The question is always, "Where is it?"

Well, I still think they brought it back, but I can't say for sure.

And I'm on duty, but I wanted to see some of it, so I went up on deck and -- But I didn't get a good view.

I could see all the people and the officers and everything, but I couldn't see as good as I should.

You know, most of the sailors were hanging on the superstructure, looking down on it, but I couldn't get up that high.

Lieutenant Commander Jim Starnes, shown in this photo, was the officer of the deck that September morning on the battleship.

The assistant navigator for the Missouri had one of the best views of the unfolding event.

A friend of mine has a copy of Life magazine of September 1945.

And he was at a dentist office around here not too long ago.

And he saw this magazine on the coffee table.

And he was just fascinated reading about the surrender of the Japanese.

And he asked the lady there, said, "I'd like to borrow this."

She said, "Oh, you can have it."

Somebody who had no idea of the value of it.

But, anyway, he loaned it to me, and I had copies made.

And I didn't realize -- and of course he didn't know anything about it -- there was one that shows Admiral Nimitz escorting Admiral Halsey, and just down below that, at the quarterdeck, it shows me.

Marine Jerry Pederson had an almost perfect view of everything.

That's because Pederson, shown here in this photo, was a part of the ceremonial honor guard on the U.S.S.

Missouri alongside several of his fellow Marines.

Dress rehearsals for the short Instrument of Surrender signing were held multiple times before the actual date, everything timed down to the second.

The Allies would dress in their usual khakis, nothing fancy.

Jerry Pederson watched at 8: 55 a.m. as the Japanese delegation small launch pulled alongside the battleship, their contingent led by Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu, chief of the Japanese Army General Staff.

They made their way past eight U.S.S.

Missouri crewmen, all over six feet tall, who towered over the smaller Japanese.

Allied superiority in every way was being emphasized on this historic day.

One of the people in a platoon always went up and did a search of the person.

They were frisking to make sure they don't have guns or something.

And I think that was more symbolic than it was -- I can't believe anybody really thought anybody could come on there with something, but that's the way it was.

Everybody was happy, but quiet.

You couldn't hear a pin drop.

It was like going to church, and everything is quiet.

There was a reverence to the entire thing, especially with the Japanese, you know, Shigemitsu.

And they walked just right in front of us.

When I think of deeply meaning experiences of my life, they're going up to that.

They're standing there to see Halsey and... Most of the crew was topside because the bottom was where they signed.

They had all kinds of people, you know, admirals, dignitaries from countries.

Well, it was a little crowded.

At 9: 02 a.m., as the small Japanese delegation nervously stood before the Americans, General Douglas MacArthur stepped to the microphone.

We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored.

The terms and conditions upon which surrender of the Japanese Imperial forces here to be given and accepted are contained in the Instrument of Surrender now before you.

A lot of people have, you know, been critical of MacArthur.

But in that moment, when he was chosen to conclude those ceremonies and, in fact, be the master of those ceremonies, Chester Nimitz right over here, all of these fleet admirals here -- but MacArthur with that voice and with those words brought a dignity to the peace of the Japanese, who had come up this deck and themselves being humbled in losing the war.

I now invite the representatives of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters to sign the Instrument of Surrender at the places indicated.

I'll always remember them as long as I live when they signed the peace treaty.

I actually observed the signing of the surrender.

My ship was 1,000 yards from the U.S.S.

Missouri.

And I've got a little certificate to prove it.

And I have a card that we were given.

Now they've become very -- a very good collectible item.

Everybody had a copy of the surrender.

Yeah, all 3,000 got a copy of that card.

And the other thing is that on the day of the of the surrender, I turned 19 years old.

It was my birthday.

I can't think of any greater gift that you could have been given on your birthday than the end of a war.

You think about the representatives that were here from all the Allied countries.

They were all standing in neat rows.

You could see Admiral Halsey here.

You could see a lot of the admirals that had fought the battles here.

Will General Wainwright and General Percival step forward and accompany me while I sign?

And you can also see Jonathan Wainwright and also General Percival right behind Douglas MacArthur.

Now, why are they there?

Well, they were captured, and they were in Japanese prisons during the war.

So, appropriately, when they planned this out, it was a lot of symbolism.

Following the signing, General MacArthur addressed the American people in a prerecorded radio broadcast.

My fellow countrymen, today the guns are silent.

A great tragedy has ended.

A great victory has been won.

The skies no longer rain death.

The seas bear only commerce.

Men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight.

The entire world lies quietly at peace.

The holy mission has been completed.

Boy, though, he affected me.

And this was definitely the feeling I had right there that day is, some way I've got to try to make real what General MacArthur challenged me to and all of us to.

We've got to pursue in peace what we achieved in this war.

That's definitely -- That was the meaning of this time for me.

The entire surrender signing ceremony had lasted roughly 23 minutes.

As the Japanese delegation returned to their launch to leave the Missouri, hundreds of Allied planes swept over the battleship for more than half an hour.

The line of aircraft extended for as far as the eye could see, they were so low, according to those on the Missouri, that they had turned the sky black.

Incredible.

I have talked to some of the pilots in that, and they said, "We all wanted to fly over.

We all wanted to be in that flyover."

So, they came over pretty low.

Well, I don't know if you've ever seen anything like that, but it's really impressive.

Well, after the ceremony, we've had to put everything back together.

People -- most of the -- all the people that had come, the officers and that, left.

It went back to a normal day.

It was a long day, and everybody was dead tired.

[ Chuckles ] You can't celebrate without, you know, a little something.

Probably the thing that impressed me the most was the fact that it was the end.

Everything was over.

I didn't realize the significance of how it was that important in the future.

But this was -- It was through.

And I think everybody was -- Most of the remarks were, "Are we gonna go home?

What do we do?

When are we gonna go?

Right now are we gonna leave?"

I don't think anyone realized how important it became in years later.

I know I didn't.

Back home on Long Island, in Whittier, California, and up the road in Sacramento, California, Tony DeFilippis, Don Fosburg, and Jerry Pederson looked through scrapbooks, documents, and memories of their time on the U.S.S.

Missouri.

For all of them, it means that they will always be associated with a moment in time that will resonate for eternity.

They feel the historic weight of the moment still.

You're part of the history now, but at the time, you didn't realize that it was going to be that.

All there to see history's most violent and perhaps most just war come to its conclusion, not with a final burst of loud gunfire, but in an almost eerie silence, where even faint whispers seemed to blare, all blessed to have been a part of it.

I would say -- I would say so.

One of just a few dozen Marines on the U.S.S.

Missouri, Jerry Pederson got an up-close look at the surrender ceremony from start to finish.

Today he still soaks in the realization that he was really there at the moment the war ended.

I know that I didn't have the same kind of part that my buddies that had gone ashore in Guadalcanal and so on, but I was part and had done my part in it.

And, yeah, I'm gonna be going home.

Following World War II, Mighty Mo continue to serve the United States Navy, including combat in Korea and the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

In March of 1992, the U.S.S.

Missouri made what was scheduled to be her final voyage to port as an active U.S. Navy warship.

She was decommissioned at Long Beach Naval Shipyard and put back into the mothball fleet in Bremerton, Washington.

But all that changed in 1998 when the Mighty Mo was handed over to the U.S.S.

Missouri Memorial Association to become a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the Pacific battlefield where it all began for the United States in World War II in December of 1941.

Here, the Missouri lives on as a symbol that a pen was indeed mightier than a samurai sword at the very end of World War II in Tokyo Bay.

The ship, although it was built for war, within two years of its launch, it became an eternal symbol of peace.

And it's that peace message that we want people to take home with them when they come and visit the ship, appreciate all the men that served on this ship in three wars.

This was the last battleship.

But she represents a very important part of the end of World War II.

In Pearl Harbor today, two battleships, the U.S.S.

Arizona, where it all began for America, and nearby on the deck where the war officially came to a close almost four years later.

I think the one thing that always amazes me is I look at that and think, "You know, I was there."

It's hard to believe that you actually were there.

And it brings back a lot of memories.

It reminds me -- I was -- My wife and I were traveling in Seattle about 40 years afterwards.

And I found out that Missouri was in Bremerton, Washington, in mothballs.

And they said you could go to it.

So I got the directions.

My wife and I drove out.

And there's not a person around, but there was a gangway.

You could go up on the ship.

So I thought -- I said, "Well, let's go up on the gangway, and we'll go up to the surrender deck where the plaque is and take a -- And I'll show it to you."

I don't think she'd ever seen.

So, we walk aboard that ship, and all of a sudden -- and it's hard to explain, but the ship became alive.

I was -- It was like I went back into the '40s because there's a moment that there were sailors, the ship looked -- But it only lasted about five seconds.

But there was that one moment.

I'll never experience it again.

A moment in time, September 2, 1944, the day man's most horrific war officially concluded.

The Instrument of Surrender, one of the world's most important documents, signed on a simple table from the enlisted mess decks, here on this exact spot on the battleship, the location memorialized today so that all who visit the Mighty Mo can visualize an historic moment in time, the end to a long, brutal fight that tested the soul of mankind and still resonates even now, especially for all those who were actually here and witnessed the curtain being lowered on World War II's final act aboard the battleship U.S.S.

Missouri.

Funding for this program provided by... This program was made possible by support from the Surface Navy Association, promoting recognition of the role of the Navy and surface forces in United States security.

Additional support provided by... Support for this program was also made possible by...