- Author
- Newspaper, The Australian
- Subjects
- History - WW1
- Tags
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- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 1998 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
The two ships that marked the beginning and the end of World War II for the US were linked yesterday, as the USS Missouri arrived at Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor.
The battleship, on which the Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945, was moored 300m from the shrine that straddles the sunken USS Arizona in remembrance of the 1177 crew who died there.
More than 2,000 people lined the Pearl Harbor channel as the ocean-going tug Sea Victory pulled the awesome 270.3 m, 58,000 tonne battlewagon up to its berth, ending an 18-day crossing from the west Coast.
“I think it is fitting that this ship be here. I like to think this is where it belongs … near the Arizona in Pearl Harbor where the war began,” said spectator Henry Walker. Walker witnessed the surrender signing ceremony on the ship in 1945 when he was a junior officer on watch on the navigation bridge.
Former President George Bush, the honorary chairman of the USS Missouri Memorial Association, said the ship “will be an enduring symbol of peace“.
“It’s fitting that this journey, which began in the midst of great conflict for our nation and the world, should end at the very place that brought America into World War II”, he said in a telephone call to a small gathering on the Missouri’s Surrender Deck. The Honolulu-based Missouri Memorial Association plans a $US1 million ($1.65 million) refurbishment before opening the ship as a floating museum.
The Australian. June 24, 1998.