As the articles of surrender were being drawn up, there was much discussion as to what ship the ceremony was to take place on. The Navy Admirals recommended the most battle storied ships for the ceremony and history about to unfold. However, President Truman being a lad from Missouri, pulled rank on them all and it was the USS Missouri named to host the surrender, even though she was barely 6 months old.

Story goes that during the ceremony, ALL the navy's guns were trained on Tokyo, full armed battery. If any of the enemy tried some guff, they were onboard for a front row seat of 16" rounds headed downtown.

The morning of the ceremony, the official documents of surrender arrived onboard, with the signing to be on an elaborate engraved table made for such an occasion. However, it was found that the documents were very large in size and the table was too small. Hurriedly, there was a scramble on board to get a table big enough. The only table large enough was found in the enlisted mess, and it was said to be engraved itself by lonely sailors, out at sea too long, in the midst of war. A tablecloth was taken from officers quarters minutes before boarding of General officers.