Last week I wrote about Adm. Chester Nimitz and Henry Alexander Walker Sr., who was president of Amfac, at one time Hawaii’s largest company. Nimitz and others called him Sandy, from his middle name.

Henry Walker Jr. was also close to Nimitz and sometimes took him sailing on his 11-foot boat, Windy, in the ocean off Laie. His family and friends called him Hanko, says his nephew, former Hawaii Attorney General Michael Lilly, who’s writing a book about Nimitz and the Walkers.

During World War II, Nimitz arranged for Walker to serve aboard the USS Missouri. He was there in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, the day the Japanese signed the surrender documents.

Before the ceremony the loudspeaker blared, "Lt. Walker, your presence is requested in the wardroom!"

"He knew he was being summoned by Nimitz," Lilly says. Arriving, Walker stood in the corner as two great admirals — Nimitz and Third Fleet Commander William F. "Bull" Halsey — entered from one door, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur from another.

"I stood hat in hand 15 feet away," Walker recalls. "MacArthur, with his rich voice, went up to Nimitz, clasped his hand and said, ‘Chester.’ He took his other hand and put it on Halsey’s and said, ‘Bill, this is the day toward which we have strived for so long.’"

"They stood there for a frozen moment," Walker recalls. "It was history, boy, and there I was, alone watching it."

Halsey and MacArthur left, Lilly says. "Nimitz then shook my uncle’s hand, smiled his wintry smile and followed Halsey and MacArthur to sign the surrender documents."

Walker says he was stationed on the "navigation bridge on the starboard side looking right down on the surrender ceremony 15 or 20 feet below, and I truly believe I had the only unobstructed view of what took place."

Below him, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, in his top silk hat and formal morning dress, limped on an artificial leg, the consequence of an assassin’s bomb, toward the surrender table.

The Missouri was crowded with observers. Uniformed people hung out every window and over every rail. Each signatory sat down and signed the formal Instrument of Surrender. MacArthur signed as supreme allied commander.

Nimitz followed, signing as the U.S. representative — a gesture captured in a now-famous photograph. The ceremony was broadcast by radio worldwide.

Later, Nimitz would tell Walker that "I shook so with excitement, I could hardly sign my name."

After the ceremony, Walker observed something odd. One Russian general (probably Lt. Gen. Kuzma Derevyanko) and a movie photographer remained.

Walker, who was still on the bridge above, saw that the "Russian photographer kept his movie camera running while the Russian general hammered the surrender table, shaking his finger at an imaginary Japanese on the other side.

"I thought, ‘This guy is nuts. What is he doing?’"

Walker thought the film would be edited so Russian audiences would think their diplomats had pounded the table and yelled at the Japanese during the ceremony. They wouldn’t know it was staged.

Walker had another "brush with greatness" eight weeks later for Navy Day, Oct. 27, 1945. The Missouri was on the Hudson River in New York.

"It was to be the final ceremony closing World War II," Walker recalls, "and the Missouri, being the Missouri, was going to be host to President Truman, Mrs. Truman and their daughter, Margaret.

"The ship was in full dress, all flags and pennants flying. They had to get the Trumans aboard the Missouri, so what they did was put a raft alongside the Missouri where the Trumans’ boat could land.

"President Truman, his wife and daughter could tie up, step on the raft and go up the ladder alongside the ship to the quarter deck where the captain would be waiting.

"Captain Murray detailed two of his young officers, both of us lieutenants — we looked alike, we were the same age, we were friends — to assist the Trumans. Up on the ship were 2,500 men watching us.

"The Trumans’ boat came alongside the raft, and President Truman skillfully hopped onto the raft. He had no problem at all," Walker recalled. "My friend, Ted Harbert, always one with an eye for the ladies, quickly and skillfully guided Margaret Truman to the raft.

"It was left for me to bring Bess Truman aboard. That proved more difficult. Mrs. Truman had one foot on her boat and one foot on the raft. They began to separate. Her skirt began to ride above her knee, and I thought, what am I going to do?

"I had her hand, so I reached out and grabbed her underneath her elbow, hung on for dear life and yanked her onto the raft. Just yanked her. The poor woman must have carried a bruise for months! But I got her on the raft. The president tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Well done, young man.’

"The captain later said to me, ‘Walker, if the president’s wife had fallen into the Hudson River, I would have had you shot!’ And he would have.

"I spent the entire day with Margaret Truman. We were assigned to escort her and her mother. They couldn’t have been more delightful.

"The captain, of course, took the president and led him around the ship named for his home state.

"Harbert and I escorted Margaret and her mother. They were charming. I sat next to Margaret at lunch. She couldn’t have been nicer. She had a good sense of humor, and she laughed about her mother almost falling into the Hudson River, but I didn’t think it was funny. Nevertheless, it could very well have happened."

Like his father, Henry Walker Jr. became president of Amfac in 1967. Sales were $150 million a year.

When he retired in 1982, sales had climbed to $2 billion. No Hawaii company has ever matched that figure.

Walker and his nephew Michael Lilly played key roles in bringing the USS Missouri to Hawaii.