Pearl Harbor - Arizona Memorial
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked the Hawaiian/U.S. port of Pearl Harbor. In the attack most of the ships in the harbor were badly damaged. The Arizona was hit and exploded, killing a thousand U.S. seamen and Marines. The Arizona sunk and the men who went down with her remain in the sunken hulk.
Arizona Tour
No visit to Hawaii is complete without a tour of Pearl Harbor and a visit to the sacred site of the sunken Arizona. It is a solemn journey, but it is well to visit this place that turned the world upside down and caused the U.S. to enter World War II. Here are some photos from a tour of the memorial.
This is the anchor from the Arizona. It greets visitors at the front of the memorial site.
The memorial is a white building that sits above the sunken Arizona.
A turret from the Arizona is visible above the water. This turret housed one of the main battery of guns.
You can see the bulk of the ship underwater. Occasionally drops of oil still rise to the surface. The concrete structure here is an old landing used before the memorial was constructed.
The Arizona Memorial is almost like a chapel -- a quiet place to honor the fallen.
A room at the end of the Arizona memorial contains a wall of names of the fallen. To the bottom left is a smaller list of names of survivors of the Arizona who later chose to be buried here with their comrades.
Visible from the Arizona memorial is the U.S.S. Missouri. This is the ship where the Japanese surrendered in 1945. It remained in active duty long after WWII and was retired to Pearl Harbor.