More than 700 people attended the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the official end of World War II on Wednesday aboard the battleship Missouri, where the Japanese surrender was signed on Sept. 2, 1945.

The conflict that resulted in 50 to 70 million dead continues to be contentious historically, politically and militarily in an evolving Asia-Pacific.

China, for example, is commemorating victory in what it terms the “War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression” with a big military parade Thursday.

The “Mighty Mo” battleship, now a memorial and museum in Pearl Harbor, was anchored in Tokyo Bay seven decades ago for the signing of the unconditional surrender.

Michael Carr, president and CEO of the Battleship Missouri Memorial, noted that the event was being streamed live so viewers could “reflect on the day that launched a better future 70 years ago today.”

Carr also asked those present to “take a moment and think about where we are.”

Just a few hundred yards from the Missouri lies the sunken battleship USS Arizona, a grave for most of the 1,177 crew members killed on Dec. 7, 1941, the date that represented the starting point for America’s involvement in the war.

“The USS Missouri, a majestic setting for today’s event, served as the site where Imperial Japan formally surrendered to Allied forces 70 years ago, bringing light to what felt like a never-ending darkness,” Carr said. “These two iconic battleships represent America’s bookends for history’s most destructive war — a beginning and an end, a conflict and then peace.”

Germany had surrendered nearly four months earlier. About 10 World War II Missouri crew members who were present for Wednesday’s commemoration are now in their upper 80s and 90s.

Donald Fosburg, who was 18 when he came aboard, remembered the battle wagon pounding the Japanese mainland with its big guns and plans for the invasion that were made moot by the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“I don’t think as a teenager you were too concerned about anything,” Fosburg, now 89, recalled of what he might have faced. “I would be now. But almost everyone aboard ship was aware that we were going to have an invasion in October or November.”

Carr said more than 2,000 sailors and Marines took advantage of every foothold on the ship to watch the surrender signing. Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu, chief of the army general staff, placed their signatures on the “Instrument of Surrender.”

Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the supreme Allied commander, also signed, along with Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz. China was next to sign.

Art Albert witnessed the historic moment. A kamikaze attack on the ship on April 11, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa had caused injuries to his knees when he was thrown against a ladder.

“Well, little hard feelings, but it was good to be done with it,” Albert, now 88, said of how he felt at the surrender signing officially ending the war.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, the keynote speaker, said Japan’s surrender ushered in a period of relative peace.

America had learned lessons from the previous great conflict “when revenge and demands for reparation from the first world war sowed the seeds of fascism in Europe, and isolationism gave way to imperial tyranny in Asia,” he said.

The United States set out to democratize and reform Japan and sent billions in aid, he noted.

“Today, Japan is a leader in the Western world,” and the U.S.-Japanese relationship is stronger and closer than ever, Schatz said.

Through its actions in World War II, the greatest generation showed how the United States “is the indispensable nation — and we are always needed as a force for peace and stability,” Schatz said.

Reflecting the shift in world events, Chinese reporters packed the battleship Missouri event.

Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, who also was a speaker, said “the challenge for us going forward is to ensure that prosperity that rose from the ashes of war continues into the future.”

America’s legacy “will be how well we preserve the peace presented to us as a gift from these decks 70 years ago,” Swift said.