On Sept. 2, 80 years will have passed since representatives of Japan and the Allied powers signed an agreement formalizing the end of World War II aboard the USS Missouri. That document formalized Japan*s surrender and initiated a postwar occupation that would last for seven years.

The goal of the Occupation: reform Japan into a country that would never again wage a war of aggression, and one that would espouse the values enshrined in the recently signed U.N. charter.