CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Carl Mydans, The Japanese Surrender on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. September 2, 1945. Gelatin silver print. General Douglas MacArthur stands at the lower right, back to the viewer. General Yoshijirō Umezu leans over the table, signing the document of surrender. Courtesy Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Gift of the artist.  P1985.27.106. © Carl Mydans/LIFE Magazine, Time Inc.

When President Trump, supported by Israeli Prime Minister Natanyahi, launched a war against Iran four months ago, he did so with an image of enemy surrender stuck in his head like a catchy tune, an earworm. It was probably the photo above by Carl Mydans, reproduced and widely distributed for decades after the war, of Japanese military and civilian officials gathered on the deck of the USS Battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, to sign the document of surrender ending war in the Pacific. General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, stands in front of a microphone to the right, with his back to the viewer.

Mydans’ viewpoint was from the front-right of a wooden platform built atop a gun turret, as can be seen in a photograph taken a few minutes earlier by another (unknown) photographer. The bag behind the dark haired, un-hatted Mydans was likely his kit, which included a spare 35 mm camera, Zeiss 50 mm telephoto lens, film, and a Rolleiflex.

Photographer unknown, The Japanese Surrender on the USS Missouri, Sept. 2, 1945, Wikimedia Commons.

Mydans was an excellent photographer. He worked for the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s, along with Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, and Dorothea Lange, and then for more than 30 years at Life, where his photo of the surrender was first published. Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, Chaplin-esque in his morning coat, top hat and cane, stands at center right in Mydans’ picture. At left, a diagonal line of naval officers leads the eye past two pairs of protruding ventilation cowls, crisply linear naval rifles, and hundreds of uniformed seamen, extending almost to the horizon. The guns establish a second set of diagonals that direct us toward the upper right margin of the image and another battleship, probably the USS Iowa. Of course, Mydans didn’t choreograph the scene. He only shot what was in front of him, but he knew enough to stand in the correct place, point his camera in the best direction, and press the shutter at the right time. The result is an image of Japanese abjection and U.S. invincibility.

Trump’s war on Iran on the other hand, did not end in enemy surrender. The president’s pal Steve Bannon put the best spin he could on the ceasefire deal, telling The New York Times:

“[Trump is] a deal maker and a pragmatist;” he knows “he is not having a surrender ceremony on the battleship Missouri.” If anything, it’s Trump who offered at the Palace of Versailles the “unconditional surrender” he earlier demanded of his Iranian foes. Didn’t anyone tell him it was there, in 1919, that Germany formally capitulated to the Entente powers? Not even his confident, black, Sharpie signature on the “Memorandum of Understanding” — or the protective gaze of Marco Rubio – could lessen the appearance of defeat.  Just a year and a half before, things were different. Following his inauguration, the same Bannon described the tech billionaires Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos as “supplicants” bowing before the president. Bannon said to reporters: “I view this as September of 1945 – the Missouri – and you have the Imperial High Command … and he (Trump) is like Douglas MacArthur.”

“[Trump is] a deal maker and a pragmatist;” he knows “he is not having a surrender ceremony on the battleship Missouri.” If anything, it’s Trump who offered at the Palace of Versailles the “unconditional surrender” he earlier demanded of his Iranian foes. Didn’t anyone tell him it was there, in 1919, that Germany formally capitulated to the Entente powers? Not even his confident, black, Sharpie signature on the “Memorandum of Understanding” — or the protective gaze of Marco Rubio – could lessen the appearance of defeat.  Just a year and a half before, things were different. Following his inauguration, the same Bannon described the tech billionaires Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos as “supplicants” bowing before the president. Bannon said to reporters: “I view this as September of 1945 – the Missouri – and you have the Imperial High Command … and he (Trump) is like Douglas MacArthur.”

President Donald J. Trump, seated beside French President Emmanuel Macron, signs a Memorandum of Understanding between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States at the Palace of Versailles, France on June 17, 2026. Above the presidents at left and right are Secretary of State Marco Rubio and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. Photo: The White House.

The atmosphere at Versailles was anything but triumphant. For one thing, the Iranians didn’t show. Without them (they’d already signed electronically), the whole affair seemed a tad onanistic – Trump was the only........

© CounterPunch