Army & Navy – OPERATIONS: Historic Table

Through the Panama Canal last week steamed 48 heroic ships of the U.S. fleet carrying 57,000 veterans of the Pacific war—and one historic metal table.

The table was an ordinary folding mess table. On the September morning, in Tokyo Bay, when Japan’s representatives were due aboard the Missouri to surrender, somebody discovered at the last minute that there was no table on hand big enough for the ceremonious signing. A table from the enlisted men’s mess was carted topside and set up on the Missouri’s teak-planked veranda deck. The ceremony over, the table was taken back to the mess where it belonged. A dozen men had eaten spaghetti at it before the ship’s officers shouted, “Where’s the table?” They retrieved the now historic object and stowed it reverently away in an officer’s room. Washington will decide which museum gets it.