WWII vets mark Japan's surrender aboard battleship

Thursday 03rd September, 09:23 AM JST

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii —

The famous battleship where Japanese officials signed the surrender documents that officially ended World War II played host on Wednesday to about 20 aging U.S. veterans and dozens of observers as they marked the 64th anniversary of the war’s end.

The USS Missouri, which was anchored in Tokyo Bay on Sept 2, 1945, for the surrender ceremonies, has since been decommissioned and moored in Pearl Harbor.

U.S. Rep Neil Abercrombie told those gathered it’s fitting that the battleship—now known as the Battleship Missouri Memorial—is docked just a few hundred yards from the memorial for the USS Arizona.

The Arizona sank when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941, an event that drew the U.S. into the war.

“I can think of nothing more valuable of this complex here ... to enable generations to come to reflect and understand,” said Abercrombie, a Democrat from Hawaii.

The memorial welcomes more than 40,000 tourists each month to exhibits that highlight the Missouri’s role in Japan’s surrender.

Walter Lassen, a 27-year-old first gunner’s mate aboard the Missouri when the war ended, told The Associated Press in an interview last week his fellow sailors had “little love of the enemy” when Japanese officials came aboard to sign the documents.

The Missouri, one of the most powerful U.S. warships at the time, fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa as American forces neared the Japanese main islands.

For months, sailors focused on aggressively protecting their ship and other ships in the U.S. fleet. At one point, the Missouri came under the attack of 95 Japanese planes, Lassen said.

A kamikaze pilot slammed into the Missouri’s hull in April 1945, though the plane’s bomb failed to detonate and only the pilot was killed.

“The mood at the time of the ceremony was the culmination of all this amount of fighting we had been doing and all this shooting that had been going on,” said Lassen.

But with the surrender, sailors began to feel that their country was finally safe, he said. Lassen, 91, had planned to attend Wednesday’s ceremony, but had a last minute change of plans.

Pearl Harbor survivor Delton E Walling, 88, thought back to the U.S. servicemen who lost their lives in the conflict.

“They’re the ones that are on my mind today—those boys that are in the Pacific,” Walling said after the ceremony. “They’re the ones that made your lifestyle the way it is today. They gave their life.”

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Wallace Gregson spoke Wednesday of how much has changed in 64 years.

“While there have been other wars since 1945, the scale and the scope of those conflicts has faded as the Asia-Pacific region has become a model of peace, stability and cooperation,” Gregson said.

mindovermatter at 05:09 PM JST - 3rd September

Given all the revisionism regarding WW2 history, couldn't the USN of at least towed the Mighty Mo back to Tokyo Bay for this anniversary? Now that would be a great spectacle, and the Japanese would have probably appreciated it as well.

Yea... That would be something to see! Although I highly doubt any Japanese would "Appreciate" it in the manner which you suggest... It's more possible that the History Revisionist would have a field day though... I'm sure some-where along the lines they would get it printed in the new History texts that the Missouri actually started the war by shelling innocent Japanese in some beach resort town in Okinawa or something to that effect...

What in the hell is wrong with you people? Can't you see that the Japanese are actually the Victims of WW2...? (LOL...)