The Mighty Mo

My daughter asked "Do you know the significance of using the Missouri Battleship to sign Japan's surrender in 1945 for this? I sure do! It is really a very simple answer. At the time Harry S. Truman (Also known as "Old Hairy Ass") was President of the United States. It was he who decided to drop the Atomic bombs on Japan which ended the war, It was tragic for the Japanese people who lost hundreds of thousands of people in the bombings (2) but it would have been much worse if the Allied forces would have to invade the Japanese homeland as the Japanese people had sworn to fight to the last man, woman and child if necessary. There would have been tremendous loss’s on both sides. It must have been a difficult decision for President Truman to make. When it was time to sign the surrender papers President Truman chose the Battleship Missouri as the historic site for the ceremony. The reason, He was from Independence Missouri, Pronounced "Mizoura" in that neck of the woods. It was also a show of force to the rest of the world of the might of the United States, the largest Battleship in the world was anchored in Tokyo Bay and the Japanese Emissaries were forced to come on board and surrender formally to the allied forces. The ceremonies were held on the upper deck next to the #2-16" gun turret, My battle station was #2-16" gun turret on the Wisconsin so I can relate to that. the "Missouri" was one of the Iowa Class battleships of WW Two, There were 4 of them. The Iowa, The New Jersey, The Missouri and the one I served on "The Wisconsin, The largest of the 4 ships.