Carl Mydans has been presenet in one of the most historic events of World War II, the Japanese surrender on the U.S.S. Missouri. His life was not always so historic. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. The creative atmosphere had always been present in the Mydans house, because his father was a musician. His family moved to Medford, where he would work at a boatyard after school and sold his stories to Medford Daily Mercury, and later would work up the Boston Globe and Boston Herald. He then graduated from Boston University School of Journalism at age 23 and that would help land him a job as a reporter in New York City. He would later take photography at Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science. Then after finishing school, in 1935, he was recruited by the government to work for the Department of Interior’s Resettlement Administration, which would alter merge into the Farm Security Administration. Working as a photographer, taking pictures of the poor and depressed all over the United States. Then in 1936, he was hired by Life, after seeing his ambition and open mind toward history. He was then sent to Hollywood to photograph the movie, Souls at Sea. He would never again be sent to “waste time”, with this kind of genera. In 1939, he and his wife, Shelly Smith, went to Europe to capture the ragging war. Then upon his return, he was sent out to China and covered the Sino-Japanese war, and the other conflicts that were rising up all over Asia.  In 1942, he was captured by the Japanese and imprisoned until 1943. In 1947, Carl became the chief bureau in Tokyo, for Time-Life.  For the next twenty years, he traveled all over the world, covering the different conflicts and wars. He then retired in Larchmont, New York, keeping photography a hobby and beloved pastime.
 Carl Mydans had the opportunity to be present and record the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945. A turing point in world histroy. The Americans had used the Atomic bomb on two Japanese cities one month earlier, and they now were able to come to grips that there was no way they would have the ability to stand up against such a powerful weapon The Japanese had lost and saw themselves in way to recover the destruction (map).General Yoshijior Umezu, came aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, that was ported at the Tokyo Bay, to sign the surrender document while the United States Navy, including General MacArthur look on with victory in their eyes.  This day would be on the front cover of almost every newspaper in the world, and with every headline stating “The Japanese Surrender, Victory for the United States”. What a sense of pride for all those that were present that day, the years of pain and loss, have finally come to and end.
 
 
 
 
 

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