Stories from the Hawaiian Islands

Episode 2: USS Missouri

September 2nd, 1945: the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) anchors in the Bay of Tokyo. She will be the scene of the signing of Japanese Instrument of Surrender. While several dozens of Allied war planes fly over the USS Missouri and the bay of Tokyo, Generals Yoshijirō Umezu for Japan and Douglas MacArthur for the US sign the document that brings an end to WWII.

^{(photos from my 2001 trip to Hawai‘i)}

The Mighty Mo, as the battleship is affectionately known, had previously participated in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She would later do 2 tours in the Korean War between 1950 and 1953. She would also escort oil tankers in the Persian Gulf in the 1980’s. USS Missouri served in Operation Dessert Storm before being decommissioned in 1991.

She is now moored at a dock next to the USS Arizona Memorial and serves as a museum ship. No visit to Pearl Harbor would be complete without a quick visit to this mighty vessel. We were treated to a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace by a local school choir as they were rehearsing for the ceremonies for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

We visited her for the 1st time back in 2001. So we had a pretty good idea of what to expect. She’s beautifully maintained. She’s even got a new deck in certain parts of the ship. Space is still as cramped as ever. It is hard to imagine having to live and work in those tight quarters along almost 2000 other sailors.

If I would have been a sailor on the USS Missouri, this would probably be my duty station. This repair shop of the electrical engineers of Mighty Mo. It was hard to fathom that there were hardly any computers or digital instruments on the ship. I asked myself how they did al those complex tasks without help from computers, digital radio, etc. Note the overly important drawer with coffee supplies.

The beginning and the end of WWII in the Pacific now lay next to each other in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor. To left, USS Missouri (BB-63) and to the right USS Arizona (BB-39).

Did you know the Mighty Mo is also a famous movie star? She was pulled out to sea by 3 tug boats to star in the 2012 movie Battleship. And in the 1992 Movie Under Siege, Erika Eleniak jumped out of a cake in Missouri’s officer’s mess.