In August 1945, World War II came to an end, and as the U.S. Air Force dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the devastation and devastation forced the Japanese to raise the white flag and formally surrender to the Allies. World War II, which had been fought for more than a decade, finally came to an end.
On September 2, 1945, the signing ceremony for Japan's unconditional surrender was held aboard the USS Missouri on the Ussa Mauri in Tokyo Bay, Japan. Why did this surrender ceremony, which is enough to go down in history, choose a warship? The Army, represented by MacArthur, and the Navy, represented by Admiral Nimitz, fought a fierce "battle for honor" over the choice of place to be surrendered.
At that time, MacArthur was the commander-in-chief of the U.S. forces in the Pacific, and he would execute the Japanese occupation as the supreme allied superintendent. It seems logical that he would preside over the ceremony. However, this annoyed Admiral Nimitz. As we all know, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the US military officially declared war on Japan. However, the Japanese army clearly had the upper hand and quickly occupied southeast Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Burma and other places. The U.S. troops stationed in the Philippines, led by MacArthur, collapsed at a touch and lost.
Seeing that he could not resist the Japanese attack, MacArthur abandoned his army and withdrew to Australia in the submarine that came to meet him. Tens of thousands of American troops were quickly taken prisoner under the Japanese attack, and many people fell in the world-famous Bataan death march, becoming the darkest page in the history of the American army.
Admiral Nimitz, on the other hand, was appointed to the defeated army and was ordered to be in danger. Taking over at the height of the Pacific Fleet's bleakness, it quickly revived the morale of the U.S. Navy, defeating the Japanese in key battles such as the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Guadalcanal, and seizing control of the Pacific. It can be said that in the Pacific theater, the US military can defeat the Japanese army, mainly due to the credit of the navy.
When President Truman appointed MacArthur as Supreme Commander of the Far ASEAN Forces and authorized him to arrange the surrender ceremony, Admiral Nimitz was so disgruntled that he refused to attend the surrender ceremony. How do you make a bowl flat horizontally?
Secretary of the Navy Forrest gave Truman an idea: to hold the signing ceremony on the battleship USS Suri moored in Tokyo Bay. Isn't it the best of both worlds that the warship was named after Truman's home state, and the USS Missouri, which was also the flagship of General Nimitz, and signed by MacArthur on behalf of the United States? Thus the ceremony of surrender was established.
Because MacArthur and Nimitz have the same rank, in the arrangement of the warship, the main mast of the battleship "Missouri" hangs a red and a blue flag, the red flag represents MacArthur, and the blue flag represents Nimitz.
On September 2, 1945, aboard the battleship USS Missouri, Japanese Foreign Minister Aoi Shigemitsu and Chief of Staff Mijiro Umezu signed a letter of unconditional surrender on behalf of the Japanese government and the Japanese headquarters.