 She served as a popular tourist attraction, logging about 250,000 visitors per year, who came to view the "surrender deck" where a bronze plaque memorialized the spot () in Tokyo Bay where Japan surrendered to the Allies, and the accompanying historical display that included copies of the surrender documents A small cottage industry grew in the civilian community just outside the gates, selling souvenirs and other memorabilia.Nearly thirty years passed before "Missouri" returned to active duty.Under the Reagan Administration's program to build a 600-ship Navy, led by Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman, "Missouri" was reactivated and towed by the salvage ship to the Long Beach Naval Yard in the summer of 1984 to undergo modernization in advance of her scheduled recommissioning.