Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz signing surrender document on board the USS MISSOURI (BB-63), at left are Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Adm. William F. Halsey, and R. Adm. Forrest P. Sherman, Deputy Chief of Staff for Adm. Nimitz. (Image credit: Library of Congress)
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The scene below is well-known worldwide. On September 2, 1945, representatives from nine Allied nations and Japan gathered on the deck of the USS Missouri to sign an Instrument of Surrender, officially ending World War II.
In this photo from the NOAA Heritage collection, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz signs the document on behalf of the United States. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Admiral William F. Halsey, and Rear Admiral Forrest Sherman stand behind him.
Nimitz sent this photo to the US Coast and Geodetic Survey (NOAA’s predecessor agency) along with a handwritten note. It reads:
“To Rear Admiral H. Arnold Karo, USC&GS - with best wishes and great appreciation of the assistance of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in making possible the above scene.
C.W. Nimitz, Fleet Admiral, U.S. Navy”
During WWII, the USC&GS sent more than a thousand civilian members and over half of its commissioned officers to the military services. Coast Surveyors served as hydrographers, artillery surveyors, cartographers, army engineers, intelligence officers, and geophysicists in all theaters of the war. Civilians, on the homefront, produced over 100 million maps and charts for the Allied forces. Eleven members of the USC&GS gave their lives during WWII.
Have an idea for an artifact, photo, or document from NOAA’s history that you think we should feature in “Friday Finds!”? Send an email with a description and, if possible, a photo to heritage.program@noaa.gov.
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