On September 2, 2015, the 70th Anniversary of the end of World War II was commemorated in simple ceremonies at the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor Hawaii. Philippine Consul General Gina Jamoralin together with other high level Hawaii State officials, USPACOM officials, members of the consular corps and WW II veterans attended the ceremony at the decommissioned battleship, USS Missouri, where Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Army Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu boarded in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945 to sign documents to formally surrender witnessed by US General Douglas McArthur, Commander of the Allied Forces. The surrender ceremony officially ended World War II. The USS Missouri was decommissioned in 1992 and now served as a memorial in Pearl Harbor.
Among the distinguished guests and speakers during the ceremony were US Congressman Mark Takai who led a US Congressional delegation from Washington D.C. , US Congressman Tulsi Gabbard, US Senator Mazie Hirono, US Senator Brian Schatz, US PACOM Commander Admiral Harris Jr. and US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift.
A Filipino-American student from James Campbell Highschool, Isaiah Casintahan, won the student essay contest on the 70th anniversary of World War II and read his award –winning essay entitled “The Day that Launched a Better Future” at the ceremony.
Capt. Michael Lilly, US Navy (ret) also spoke about his efforts to bring to Hawaii the original pens used to sign the surrender documents as part of the USS Missouri Memorial exhibit to mark the occasion. A film clip on the 1945 surrender ceremony held at the USS Missouri was shown during the commemorative ceremony in the presence of a few surviving US Navy veterans who were present during the historic surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay,now in their 80s and 90s. END
