Introduction

Just as the Japanese surrender ceremony was ending aboard the battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, the cloudy skies above Tokyo BayTokyo Bay opened up to a massive display of America’s air power. As planned by allied commander General of the Army Douglas MacArthurMacArthur, Douglas, some 465 Army Air Forces B-29 SuperfortressB-29 bombers had flown from their bases in the Mariana Islands followed 450 carrier-based Navy fighter aircraft embarked on Task Force 38 carriers steaming offshore roared over the armada of 258 allied warships gathered in that harbor.