U.S. officials mark 70th anniversary of WWII’s official end
People hang paper cranes folded for peace near a memorial to the sunken battleship USS Arizona before a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
U.S. officials are gathering on a decommissioned battleship in Pearl Harbor to mark the 70th anniversary of World War II’s end.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and U.S. Rep. Mark Takai of Hawaii will join U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Scott Swift at a ceremony Wednesday.
The Missouri’s decks are where Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Army Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu signed documents to formally surrender on Sept. 2, 1945. The USS Missouri was anchored in Tokyo Bay at the time.
Allied leaders including Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Adm. Chester Nimitz also signed the surrender documents.
The ship is now a museum called the Battleship Missouri Memorial. It’s moored at a spot overlooking where the USS Arizona sank during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
