‘Mighty Mo’ was once a local favorite

On the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender on the deck of the U.S.S Missouri at the end of World War II, it’s also worth remembering that the “Mighty Mo” was once one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Pacific Northwest.

It was September 2, 1945 when General Douglas MacArthur presided over a ceremony on the deck of the famous battleship, while moored in Tokyo Bay, and formally ended World War II.

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The 887-foot Missouri had been launched the year before, with then-Senator Harry Truman on hand at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to honor the ship named for his home state. By September 1945, Truman was president, and the Mighty Mo was as fitting a location as any for the surrender to take place. The solemn event was carried live around the world by radio.

After World War II, the U.S.S. Missouri’s career was not yet over. The ship and its giant 16-inch diameter guns also served in the Korean War before being decommissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton in 1955. A few years later, the vessel was opened up to visitors and quickly became a popular destination and economic development engine for the Kitsap County town. Visitors to the ship were able to observe the spot on the teak deck where the surrender ceremony had taken place, which was marked with a large circular brass plaque.

Other cities wanted to snatch the Missouri away from Bremerton, and in 1963, former President Harry Truman weighed in on the ship’s location. Keeping the Mighty Mo in Bremerton, the retired Commander in Chief said, was like keeping it, “hidden in a closet where nobody can see it.” Ouch.

But the ship remained in Bremerton and tourists kept coming to visit by the tens of thousands every year. Hollywood also came to town in 1981 to use the Mighty Mo as a set piece for the ABC miniseries “Winds of War.” The ship doubled as presidential command vessel “The Augusta,” but she looked good just the same and most people were fooled.

In 1984, the Missouri was reactivated by the Navy and refurbished, serving in the Persian Gulf War in 1991 before once again being decommissioned in Bremerton. This time, other places that wanted to host the vessel began lobbying the Navy to be chosen at the Missouri’s permanent home.

In 1996, the Navy held a competitive process and selected Pearl Harbor as the final and permanent home of the Missouri. But the battle wasn’t over. As it turned out, the process that the Navy had used to decide where the ship would go was rigged. Bremerton actually got the highest score and should’ve been awarded the ship. But a General Accounting Office investigation determined that the Navy had changed the criteria so that Pearl Harbor ultimately won out.

At this point, Republican U.S. Senator Slade Gorton stepped in. Senator Gorton is the guy who, after the Seattle Pilots left town in 1970, sued Major League Baseball (in his then-capacity as Washington State Attorney General) and got us the Mariners. Senator Gorton, along with Democratic U.S. Senator Patty Murray, in a rare instance of Evergreen State bipartisanship, sponsored an amendment to a Senate bill that would have reopened the competition for awarding the Mighty Mo.

It was a dark day for Kitsap County on July 9, 1997 when the Senate voted 53-46 against reopening the process, a narrow margin of just four votes. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, decorated World War II vet from Hawaii, led the charge to defeat the amendment. In the debate, he called Bremerton a “graveyard” not worthy of hosting the esteemed ship. Ouch.

Senator Gorton was conciliatory after the vote and was quoted by the Bremerton Sun. “I’m certain that my colleague meant no harm to the citizens of Bremerton,” Gorton said. “Bremerton will continue to be a great city with or without the Missouri.”

With help from an ocean-going tug, the U.S.S. Missouri departed Bremerton for the last time on Saturday, May 23, 1998. Thousands of people lined the shore and bid the famous vessel farewell as it made its way to Pearl Harbor where it would open as a museum adjacent to the U.S.S. Arizona memorial, serving as giant bookends to America’s nearly four years of fighting in World War II.

It was tough times for Pacific Northwest maritime heritage enthusiasts. But spirits were lifted just a few months later when another historic vessel made its way home to Puget Sound. The old streamlined ferry Kalakala, rescued from a beach in Alaska, arrived on the Seattle waterfront on November 6, 1998. Ouch.