An
original August 29, 1965 press photo of the Battleship USS Missouri in the
reserve fleet anchored at Bremerton, Washington. The photo shows the Bridge of the ship
through one of the ships life rings. Please see many other original early press photos of the USS
Missouri that I have listed on eBay. The USS Missouri was the Battleship where the
Japanese signed the surrender papers on September 2, 1945 to end World War
II. The USS Missouri is now anchored at
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The photo states
“AP NEWSFEATURES PHOTO (FOR USE SUNDAY, AUG. 29, WITH MURLIN
SPENCER'S U.S.S. MISSOURI APN STORY ON JAPANESE SURRENDER CEREMONY) ON EMERGENCY CALL.
FRAMED BY A LIFE RING, THE BRIDGE OF THE U.S.S. MISSOURI IS
LIFELESS AS THE MIGHTY MO RIDES AT ANCHOR IN THE MOTHBALL FLEET AT BREMERTON,
WASH. BUT THE POWERFUL BATTLESHIP, ON
WHICH THE JAPANESE SURRENDER WAS HELD 20 YEARS AGO, COULD BE READIED IN ABOUT
TWO MONTHS TO SERVE AGAIN IN AN EMERGENCY, ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDER OF THE
RESERVE FLEET 9/65"
The
original 1965 press photo is 7 x 10 inches in size and the photo and has the
newspapers markings around the white border and otherwise looks nice. Payment is by PayPal. Shipping will be
discounted on multiple items won.
Thanks for looking.
USS Missouri (BB-63)
USS Missouri (BB-63) ("Mighty Mo" or "Big
Mo") is a United States Navy Iowa-class battleship, and was the fourth
ship of the U.S. Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state
of Missouri.
Missouri was the last battleship built by the United States, and was the
site of the surrender of the Empire
of Japan which ended World War II.
Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. In the Pacific
Theater of World War II she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
and shelled the Japanese home islands, and she fought in the Korean War
from 1950 to 1953. She was decommissioned in 1955 into the United States Navy reserve fleets
(the "Mothball Fleet"), but reactivated and modernized in 1984 as
part of the 600-ship Navy plan, and provided fire support during Operation Desert Storm in January/February
1991.
Missouri received a total of 11 battle
stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf, and was
finally decommissioned on 31 March 1992, but remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was
struck in January 1995. In 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial
Association and became a museum ship at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii.
trikes on Hokkaidō and northern Honshū resumed on 9 August, the day
the second atomic bomb was dropped.[5]
After the Japanese agreed to surrender, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser of the Royal Navy,
the Commander of the British Pacific Fleet, boarded Missouri
on 16 August and conferred the honor of Knight of the British Empire upon
Admiral Halsey. Missouri transferred a landing party of 200 officers and
men to the battleship Iowa for temporary duty with the initial
occupation force for Tokyo
on 21 August. Missouri herself entered Tokyo Bay
early on 29 August to prepare for the signing by Japan of the official instrument of surrender.[5]
High-ranking military officials of all the Allied
Powers were received on board on 2 September, including Chinese
General
Hsu
Yung-Ch'ang, British Admiral-of-the-Fleet Sir Bruce Fraser, Soviet
Lieutenant-General Kuzma Nikolaevich Derevyanko,
Australian General Sir Thomas
Blamey, Canadian Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave, French Général d'Armée Philippe Leclerc de Hautecloque,
Dutch Vice
Admiral Conrad Emil Lambert Helfrich, and New
Zealand Air Vice Marshal Leonard M. Isitt.
Fleet
Admiral Chester Nimitz boarded shortly after 0800, and General of the Army Douglas
MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allies, came on board at 0843. The
Japanese representatives, headed by Foreign
Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, arrived at 0856. At 0902,
General MacArthur stepped before a battery of microphones
and opened the 23-minute surrender ceremony to the waiting world by stating,[5]
"It is my earnest hope—indeed the hope of all mankind—that from this
solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the
past, a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the
dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom,
tolerance, and justice."[10]
During the surrender ceremony, the deck of Missouri was decorated
with a 31-star American flag that had been taken ashore by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 after his
squadron of "Black Ships" sailed into Tokyo Bay to urge the opening
of Japan's ports to foreign trade. This flag was actually displayed with the
reverse side showing, i.e., stars in the upper right corner: the historic flag
was so fragile that the conservator at the Naval Academy Museum had sewn a protective
linen backing to one side to help secure the fabric from deteriorating, leaving
its "wrong side" visible. The flag was displayed in a wood-framed
case secured to the bulkhead overlooking the surrender ceremony.[11]
Another U.S. flag was raised and flown during the occasion, a flag that some
sources have indicated was in fact that flag which had flown over the U.S.
Capitol on December 7, 1941. This is not true; it was a flag taken from the
ship's stock, according to Missouri's Commanding Officer, Captain Stuart
"Sunshine" Murray, and it was "...just a plain ordinary GI-issue
flag".[12]
By 09:30 the Japanese emissaries had departed. In the afternoon of 5
September, Admiral Halsey transferred his flag to the battleship South Dakota, and early the next
day Missouri departed Tokyo Bay. As part of the ongoing Operation Magic Carpet she
received homeward bound passengers at Guam, then sailed
unescorted for Hawaii. She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 20 September and flew
Admiral Nimitz's flag on the afternoon of 28 September for a reception.[5]