[Eric in the Ozarks]

Yes.
The Mighty Missouri had just been moved in and out of dry dock for a complete repaint and tidying up. It looked like a brand new battleship.
Groups of eight or ten people were accompanied by guides who told the ship’s story, the history of the Iowa Class BBs and some little known insights from the signing ceremony.
We could go up inside the gun mounts, inside the control room (ancient round radar screens side by side with 1980s missile control equipment that was added under RR.) We looked in on the ward room, set with dinner service for the officers, awaiting their return. Very cool.
On the ship’s port side, a canvas awning covers about fifty feet of the teak deck where the brass marker is punched into the decking and a plexiglass table displays a copy of the signed documents. There is also a metal sign that recounts the signing ceremony and a 30 star US flag that General MacArthur wanted to have displayed for the event (from the opening of Japan, Adm Perry, 1853.)
The bow of the battleship is about 100 yards from the Arizona Memorial, as if to signify the beginning and end of the war. The Arizona wreck gives up about a pint of heavy oil every day which you can see and smell as soon as you get aboard the memorial. Inside the memorial are the names of the lost sailors from December 7, 1941.
The submarine Bowfin and the memorial to lost submarines on the other side of the harbor is very moving. It consists of a series of stones in a circle that represent each sub and its crew.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

Good stuff. I liked your analogy about the beginning and ending of WWII with the Arizona memorial and the U.S.S. Missouri side by side. I'm sure that is why they probably have the Mizzou there. I got the priviledge of re-enlisting on the Arizona memorial once. Of course it was in the section dedicated to all the Marines that were on board and died that fateful day.

I remember the first time I was out on a float and our battle group was getting an escort for a time from the New Jersey and Missouri. As I looked out over the water at them, what struck me initially was how low they sat in the water. In my minds eye, I had always thought they would be these gigantic ships, but the battleships sat very low in the water so that they have a low profile I imagine.

It was unusual to have both of those battleships together and I got pictures of both of them. At that time both the Iowa and Wisonsin were also in service. All four of the battleships from the Iowa class. Now they are all gone and it was a terrible shame what happened to the U.S.S. Iowa. Not sure if we'll ever know what happened on that fateful day.