The United States laid the keel of USS Missouri at the New York Navy Yard in January 1941 as the fourth Iowa-class fast battleship. Designers balanced heavy armor and nine 16-inch guns with machinery capable of accompanying aircraft carriers at high speed. The ship launched in January 1944 and entered commission that June. Thousands of sailors operated propulsion, gunnery, communications, repair, medical, food, and aviation systems within an 887-foot hull. Missouri joined the Pacific War after training, screening carriers and bombarding Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and targets in Japan.

On 2 September 1945 representatives of Japan and the Allied powers assembled on Missouri's veranda deck in Tokyo Bay. Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijirō Umezu signed the Instrument of Surrender before General Douglas MacArthur and Allied representatives, formally ending the Second World War. The ceremony lasted only minutes but made the ship an enduring memorial setting. Its location reflected Missouri's availability and President Harry Truman's home state, not service longer or more decisive than that of every other vessel in the Pacific campaign.

Missouri remained active after the war, conducted training and diplomatic missions, and fired naval gun support during the Korean War. The Navy decommissioned it in 1955 and maintained it in reserve. A major 1980s modernization added Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles, close-in weapon systems, updated radar, and electronics while retaining the main battery. Recommissioned in 1986, Missouri participated in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and decommissioned again in 1992. These layers make the ship a record of changing naval technology from analog battleship warfare into the missile era.

The Navy removed Missouri from its register and donated it to the nonprofit USS Missouri Memorial Association. Towed to Pearl Harbor, it opened as a museum in 1999 near, but not directly above, the sunken USS Arizona. Conservation requires continuous painting, corrosion control, deck repair, machinery care, and periodic dry-docking. Visitor routes, railings, displays, and accessibility systems are modern additions. The hull, turrets, superstructure, surrender deck, and many interior spaces remain genuine ship fabric, while restored compartments and exhibited aircraft or objects are curated presentations.

The memorial association operates the battleship under agreements with the United States Navy within an active military environment. Admission is ticketed, and transportation and security procedures govern access from the Pearl Harbor visitor area. Self-guided and specialized tours reveal different portions of the ship, with operational and preservation closures possible. Missouri's meaning joins combat service, industrial labor, surrender, Cold War deterrence, and museum stewardship. Interpreting all three wars and the people who served aboard prevents the surrender ceremony from turning a complex vessel into a single commemorative platform.