In another life--and indeed it does seem like a lifetime ago--B and I lived in Hawaii. We probably visited the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial about a dozen times, mostly with friends and family who were visiting the island.
Due to its location, this is one memorial that is a bit off the beaten path, and we were very fortunate to have lived nearby for a few years. During part of our time there, I could see Pearl Harbor on my commute home every night.
The first time I visited, the National Park Service volunteer who escorted our group told us about his experiences on that day. He was a very young sailor on the U.S.S. West Virginia, moored just in front of the Arizona. His dad and brother were aboard the Arizona. All three survived that day, but it took the government until May 1942 to let his mother in Ohio know that they were still alive.
When you visit, you first watch a 20-minute movie, narrated by Stockard Channing, about the lead-up to the attack and the attack itself. There is video footage in that movie that I've never seen anywhere else. Someone had a camera trained on the Arizona when her magazine exploded--the ship literally jumped three feet out of the water. The footage is at once once mesmerizing and horrifying. There was not a single time that I left that theater without tears in my eyes. After the film, you board a small launch that takes you to the memorial itself, which sits over the wreck. Pearl Harbor actually isn't very deep, and part of the ship is still visible above the water--mostly just the turret rings from the massive main guns. The ship settled in an upright position; from the right angle overhead, you can see the outline of the hull (but not from the memorial itself).
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| We took this picture from a seaplane flying over Pearl Harbor. Ford Island is to the right; the memorial can be seen just in front of the U.S.S. Missouri. The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln can be seen to the left. |
The men killed on the Arizona account for nearly half of the casualties that day. Many are still interred on the ship, and the ship seeps oil into Pearl Harbor, something that we witnessed in our many visits.
The ship was moored alongside Ford Island, which sits right in the middle of the harbor. As such, the memorial is away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Honolulu. It is a very peaceful site; people visiting the memorial are usually very quiet out of respect, and the large windows on the sides give wonderful views of the Ko'olau mountains. It is difficult to image the noise, chaos, and carnage that occurred on that very spot so many years ago.
It was a horrific attack, but ultimately not successful. Of all the ships damaged that day, only three--including the Arizona--never sailed again. The Japanese failed to destroy Pearl Harbor's dry dock and repair facilities, meaning that the damaged ships could be moved and repaired almost immediately after the attack. Most significantly, the American aircraft carriers were not at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese struck; they were several hundred miles north. These carriers would exact revenge on the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Midway six months later, where three of the four Japanese carriers involved in the Pearl Harbor attack were sunk. This marked the turning point in the Pacific War, as America gained the initiative and began pushing the Japanese back.
After the attack, as the Japanese ships steamed home, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto--the architect of the attack, although he was not in favor of it--gathered his senior officers together to discuss the events. He is rumored to have said, "Gentlemen, we have woken the slumbering giant." We don't know if he actually said this, but the sentiment was correct.
Winston Churchill, upon learning of the attack at Pearl Harbor, went to bed and slept soundly for the first time in weeks; because, he said later, he knew that America was now in the war, and victory was assured.
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