It was 75 years ago today that Japan officially signed surrender documents ending WWII aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu led the enemy delegation that signed the Instrument of Surrender. Gen. Douglas MacArthur (USA), the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces--Pacific Theater, signed for the United Nations and US Naval Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz signed for the United States. The US is believed to have suffered some 125,000 military and civilian casualties in the conflict with Japan between Dec. 1941 and Sept. 1945. Foreign Minister Shigemitsu and a dozen other Japanese officials were later found guilty of having committed war crimes.

Once again, it was our "greatest generation" that stood tall throughout some of the bloodiest conflict known to mankind. God bless those brave and patriotic men and women.