homepage Forums SimHQ Community Community Hall September 2, 1945

September 2, 1945. World War Two ends in Tokyo Bay six years and one day after it began in Danzig (now Gdansk) Harbor, Poland.






Japanese surrender aboard USS Missouri, September 2, 1945. The 31 star American flag hanging on Missouri's superstructure in the background is the very flag that flew aboard Commodore Matthew C. Perry's flagship when he visited Japan in 1853.

At the far right of the picture is Admiral John S. McCain Sr, Senator John McCain's grandfather. He would die of a heart attack brought on by exhaustion in less than a week of the surrender, age 61.

Great photos of a great historical event.

Here is the background story about the flag and how it came to be at the ceremony.


https://www.smithsonianmag.com/hist...d-with-a-historic-flag-in-tow-180984973/

I had heard of this but not that detail, awesome. Thanks!

I've seen the Missouri picture many times before, but did not know the backstory of the flag or Admiral McCain.

The thing that gets me about McCain is that I'm 62 and I seriously think he looks at least 10-15 years older than I do in that, and other late war, pictures. Hard lives.