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Built in wartime
The Missouri’s keel was laid at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 6 January 1941. She was launched on 29 January 1944, sponsored by Margaret Truman, and commissioned on 11 June 1944. On 11 April 1945, a kamikaze aircraft struck her starboard side.


The surrender in Tokyo Bay
On 2 September 1945, in Tokyo Bay, representatives of Japan and the Allied powers signed the Instrument of Surrender on the Missouri’s deck, ending the Second World War. A plaque on the deck marks the place where the ceremony was held.
Service and a memorial
The Missouri served in the Korean War and was decommissioned in 1955. Recommissioned in 1986, she took part in the Gulf War in 1991 and was finally decommissioned on 31 March 1992. In June 1998 she arrived at Ford Island, and on 29 January 1999 she opened to the public as a memorial, close to the USS Arizona Memorial.


