The USS Arizona Memorial: A Piece of History in a Piece of Paradise
The Japanese Imperial Army’s fleet of 33 warships and auxiliary craft sailed out of Japan on November 26, 1941. They steered clear of the normal shipping routes and were in launch position, 230 miles north of Oahu, by early morning of December 27. With no formal declaration of war, Pearl Harbor was attacked at approximately 8:00 a.m. that morning. Twenty-one sea vessels and over 320 aircraft were damaged or destroyed, and 2,390 Americans were killed, including civilians. Nearly half of them were entombed in the watery grave of the USS Arizona Battleship.
The USS Arizona served the United States Navy from 1916 to 1941. It did everything from serve as a location for the filming of a movie (Here Comes the Navy) to providing post-earthquake aid, to taking the President (Hoover) on a Caribbean cruise. But on that fateful day, its service and that of 1,177 crewmen came to an abrupt end. A Japanese shell scored a direct hit on the battleship and it sank almost immediately.
The Arizona was left where she fell, a tribute to those whose lives sank beneath the Pacific Ocean with her, and that’s where she lays today. The top of the battleship is only a few feet beneath the surface of the water and part of her gun turrets still rise above the water line. The flag of the United States of America flies above the Memorial, attached to a severed mainmast. These things are visible to the visitors that come from all over the world to tour the memorial built over (but not touching) the hull of the sunken ship.
Even after 50 years, her engines occasionally leak small amounts of oil that bubble to the top of the water and create a rainbow on the surface. The leaking oil is often referred to as “The Black Tears of the Arizona,” and local legend says that the tears will stop when the last Arizona survivor has joined his crew members in death.
The Arizona Memorial is 184 feet long and has 3 main sections: the entry and assembly room, the middle room, and the shrine room.
After getting off the shuttle, you will walk up a dock and ramp that lead to the stairway entry of the Memorial. (There is a lift to assist wheelchairs to the entry.) You step off the staircase and into the Flag Room. One side of the room has the flags of all the battleships that were present on Battleship Row on the day of the Pearl Harbor attack. The other side of the room hosts the flags of the United States, the State of Hawaii, the Department of the Interior, and a flag representing each of the United States Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard).
The middle portion of the Memorial is known as the “Assembly Area.” This is the area used for ceremonial proceedings and many people drop leis (strings of flowers) and loose flowers from over the edge and into the water to honor the fallen. There are diagrams of the sunken ship showing visitors exactly where she lays and identifying the parts that are visible.
The shrine room serves as a headstone of sorts, with the name of every sailor buried with the Arizona engraved on its marble wall. (It also includes the 58 names of those who died on the Utah.) At the left end of the wall, a small, white, boxlike structure sits beneath a United States Flag, displaying the names of Arizona survivors who have chosen to join their shipmates in burial. The remains of the survivors whose voyages on earth have ended are placed inside gun turret number 2, which is not visible from the Memorial, and their names are added to the list. Visitors also leave leis and flowers at the wall to honor the dead.
The creation of the memorial was approved by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958. Both congress-appropriated and private funding was secured (fundraising began in 1950) and the structure was completed in 1961, was dedicated in 1962, and was added to the National Parks in 1980. The architect of this famous piece of history was Alfred Preis.
The structure of the USS Arizona Memorial is a part of a larger 10.5 acre memorial and is only accessible by boat and through the National Park Service/Navy Tours. It takes only a few minutes to get out there, and visitors are allowed to stay for about 15-20 minutes, a time of mostly silent reflecting, and then must catch a return shuttle.
In addition to the visitor center, the land portion of the Arizona Memorial also hosts a museum, a bookstore, a remembrance exhibit, self-guided exhibits and attractions, and two theaters. The two theaters show a 23-minute film (which you view before going out to the structure) that includes actual footage of the blow that ultimately sank the ship. A Japanese armor piercing shell exploded in the ship’s ammunition storage area, igniting a fire that instantly killed hundreds of sailors.
An audio headset is also available for a small rental fee at the front desk of the visitor center that will take you on a self-guided tour of 23 different artifacts and displays located in the USS Arizona as well as the reflections of several Pearl Harbor survivors.
Free tickets are available at the visitor center and tours run about every 15-20 minutes. Reservations are not taken; the tickets are handed out on a first-come, first-served basis and you must be there in person to receive one. Approximately 1.5 million people visit the Arizona Memorial every year, so be prepared to wait for your turn, maybe even as long as 2 hours. But that seems a small price to pay for the opportunity to honor such heroes as these.
