Remembering the Lost

USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor

On our first day on O'ahu, Caty and I visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial in Honolulu. I had never been there, so it seemed like time.

As with everything, reservations are required. When we first decided to go, all the allotted spots were gone, so we had to book two days in advance. We opted to go to the main site, which includes museums, and to the Arizona, which is reached via boat (that’s what the reservation is for) and did not choose a longer tour that includes more ships.

Shuttles carry you across the harbor to the Memorial

I am not a big WWII fan or, for that matter, a fan of any war. I have visited memorials and battlefields, but they are never our first choice.

We decided to eat lunch close by so that we could make it there in time, but it still got a bit dicey when our reservation time approached. We ate at Restaurant 604 (very good!) right next door, parking in the large lot.

A Red-crested Cardinal entertained us while we were eating

Then, we drove right next door to the Pearl Harbor lot. We circled and circled and circled, but could not get a spot. When they say parking is tough, they mean it!

We ended up going back to the Restaurant 604 lot and walking, now stressed we’d be late. That was complicated by the fact that the site is very restrictive about what you can take in and I had to go to another spot next to the entrance to check my very small bag because it wasn’t allowed in (never mind that I saw people going in with bigger bags).

Darn, I had a clear bag at home; Photos: NPS

Despite the stress, we did make it in in time. 

The area is a bit confusing, because it comprises multiple parts: The Pearl Harbor National Monument, which was carved out of the adjacent World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument in 2019; the USS Arizona Memorial; the USS Utah Memorial; the USS Oklahoma Memorial; six chief petty officer bungalows on Ford Island; mooring quays F6, F7 and F8, which formed part of Battleship Row; and a Visitor Center.

Mooring quay

Honestly, I am not sure what parts we touched and which we didn’t.

USS Arizona visitors reboarding the shuttle

The site commemorates the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which killed more than 2,400 Americans and sank 12 ships.

It is a tomb

We started with the USS Arizona Memorial because that was time sensitive and, by now, we were rushing. We should have come earlier to visit the museums and Visitor Center first. However, much of the Memorial is open air or partially open air and it was HOT!!!. We couldn’t bear to be in some of the areas too long, which made it hard to take everything in. 

It was more pleasant to be outside photographing birds like these Saffron Finches

Hawai’i loves the tropical open-air concept and it works when there is a breeze. But, honestly, most of the time, it’s just miserable.

Anyway, let’s talk about Pearl Harbor, a shallow lagoon that was rich in pearl oysters and fish, and served as a traditional place for local trade and commerce long before the U.S. built a Navy base there in the early 1900s.

Before the attack; Photo: the National Museum of the U.S. Navy

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, at 7:48 a.m., the Empire of Japan launched a surprise military strike on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at its naval base at Pearl Harbor. 

The attack; Photo: History.com

Over seven hours, Japan also launched coordinated attacks on U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island, as well as on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The attack prompted the U.S., which had been neutral in the conflict, to declare war on Japan the next day. The attack on Pearl Harbor was preceded by months of negotiations between the U.S. and Japan over the future of the Pacific.

FDR declares war

The base was struck by 353 planes in two waves launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. battleships were damaged and four were sunk. All but the USS Arizona and the USS Utah were later refloated, and six were returned to service during the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship and a minelayer. More than 180 U.S. aircraft were destroyed.

A total of 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Of the American fatalities, nearly half were due to the explosion of USS Arizona's forward magazine.

The USS Arizona was hardest hit; Right photo: Pearl Harbor Visitor Guide

The majority of U.S. sailors killed were junior enlisted personnel because that’s who was aboard the ships in the harbor on a Sunday morning. The three carriers assigned to Pearl Harbor were at sea at the time.

The names of the victims

Japanese losses totaled 29 aircraft, five midget submarines and 130 personnel.

Japan declared war on the U.S. and the British Empire later that day, but the declarations were not delivered until the next day. On December 8, the United Kingdom also declared war on Japan. On December 11, Germany and Italy each declared war on the U.S., which responded by declaring war on Germany and Italy.

The Pearl Harbor attack remains the deadliest non-natural disaster to happen in Hawai’i.

It was the deadliest foreign attack on the U.S. until the September 11 attacks in 2001

I am not going to go into detail on World War II, but I’ll give a bit more info on the attack, which followed two decades of tension concerning U.S. and British expansion into the Pacific. In mid-1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the Pacific Fleet from San Diego to Hawai’i and ordered a military buildup in the Philippines, in the hope of discouraging Japanese aggression in the Far East.

The attack was intended to destroy critical American fleet units, preventing the U.S. from interfering with Japan’s plans to conquer Southeast Asia without interference. Japan chose battleships as the main targets, since they were the prestige ships of Navies at the time. 

Japan hoped the attack would undermine morale so that the U.S. would compromise

While American Pacific bases had been placed on alert many times, the U.S. expected the Philippines to be attacked before Japan would ever target Hawai’i. They incorrectly believed Japan wasn’t capable of more than one major naval offensive at a time.

Japanese left the navy yard, oil tank farms and submarine base unscathed because they believed the war would be over before the influence of these facilities would be felt.

Japanese bomber; Photo: History.com

American servicemen were caught unprepared, but managed to “respond effectively during the attack.” Although Japan saw Hawai’i as a part of their planned Pacific empire, they did not follow their attack on Pearl Harbor with an invasion of Hawai’i. This may have been a strategic error.

They did not launch a third strike because they felt the risk from the now-activated U.S. troops was too high. While the attack accomplished its intended objective, it turned out to be largely unnecessary; the United States Navy had decided as far back as 1935 to not travel across the Pacific towards the Philippines in response to an attack. 

Fortunately, American aircraft carriers were untouched

The Navy was left with no choice but to rely on carriers and submarines, which turned out to be a strategic advantage.

So that’s a brief background on a complicated historical event. Now, let’s talk about the USS Arizona Memorial, which we toured.

USS Arizona Memorial

Built in 1962, the Memorial straddles the sunken hull of the battleship without touching it. 

The USS Arizona Memorial

It serves as a military cemetery for those interred in the waters below. 

The sunken ship is right below the surface

Historical information about the attack, shuttle boats (the Memorial is accessible only by boat) and visitor services are available at the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center, which opened in 1980 and is operated by the National Park Service. 

USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center 1980 dedication

The battleship's sunken remains were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. It is visited by more than 2 million people annually.

Robert Ripley, of Ripley's Believe It or Not! fame, is responsible for creating interest to build a Memorial. His idea was considered too costly, but the Navy ran with the idea. In 1950, they built a temporary memorial above the remaining portion of the deckhouse and, in 1955, they erected the first permanent memorial, a 10-foot-tall basalt stone and plaque.

President Dwight Eisenhower approved the creation of a National Memorial in 1958

The memorial was designed by Honolulu architect Alfred Preis, who had been detained at Sand Island at the start of the war as an enemy of the country because of his Austrian birth. The 184-foot-long structure has peaks at each end connected by a sag in the center. 

Preis said the sag expresses initial defeat and the peaks, ultimate victory

There are three main parts: entry, assembly room and shrine. The central assembly room features seven large open windows to commemorate the date of the attack. Visitors can pay respects by tossing flowers in honor of the fallen sailors into an opening in the floor that overlooks the sunken decks. 

The open overlook

In the past, leis were used, but because string from leis poses a hazard to sea life, leis now are placed on guardrails in front of the names of the fallen.

A small plaque bears the names of 30 or so crew members who survived.

A marble wall bears the names of those killed on the Arizona

Some surviving crew members have their ashes interred within the wreck

The mid-century modern design is the look you find in many churches built in the late 50s/early 60s.

Certainly speaks of a period (and not the period of the attack)

We were surprised at how shallow the harbor is.

 

Parts of the sunken ship rise above the surface

Out of the 1,177 who perished, only 107 bodies were identified early on. Some recovered unknown remains were buried in local Hawaiian cemeteries and later moved to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, while over 1,100 men remain entombed within the ship, officially considered buried at sea.

A mallard ignoring the rules about respecting the structure

The bodies were not recovered because the massive explosion and intense fire instantly obliterated or severely burned many of the men beyond recognition. Plus, parts of the sunken ship were sealed off, heavily damaged, twisted or flooded with a dangerous mixture of water and fuel.

Recovery efforts inside the submerged wreck were simply too hazardous

So, instead of recovering the remaining entombed crew safely and with proper dignity, the U.S. officially designated the sunken hull of the USS Arizona Memorial as a sacred final resting place and permanent mass grave.

Oil leaking from the sunken battleship can still be seen rising from the wreckage to the water's surface and is sometimes referred to as "the tears of the Arizona.” 

The NPS monitors the tanks to ensure that corrosion doesn’t cause a rupture

The Japanese surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, ending World War II, on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. In 1999, the Missouri was moved to Pearl Harbor and docked behind and in line with the USS Arizona, perpendicular to the Memorial. The pairing of the two ships became “an evocative symbol of the beginning and end of the United States' participation in the war.”

The USS Missouri

Our tour began with a presentation in a large auditorium with what I thought would be a brief history lesson similar to what I just gave you. We missed much of it because of the parking and bag-checking, but ended up being relieved because it was not what we expected. Instead, a National Park Ranger was telling a rather odd and overly dramatic story about (I think) reactions to the memorial. I wasn’t clear on the point, but was glad when it ended and we boarded the shuttle to the Memorial.

View from the main area

Once again, I was surprised. I expected some narrative, but instead we were reminded that the Memorial was a grave and we were instructed to remain silent. I get it, but it was odd. And, very crowded.

The silent crowd shuffling through

Fortunately, we were the last tour of the day, so we could get photos minus the hoards.

A rare view of an empty ramp

After we returned to the mainland, we tried to get up to speed in the museums, but eventually decided it was just too hot.

A tactile display for the blind

I felt a bit underwhelmed by the whole thing. The Memorial is quite small and looks a bit dated. The introductory talk was odd. And the silent shuffling with a pack of tourists was strange. I get it. But, since war memorials are not really my thing, I just don’t know how I felt afterwards.

I also grabbed some bird photos and picked up a lifer – a Red-vented Bulbul – that evaded my camera.

I did get nice photos of some Common Waxbills

Nuʻuanu Pali Lookout

Following our time at Pearl Harbor, we decided to take advantage of what little daylight was left to try for the views from the mountains at the center of O’ahu. 

The view from the top

So, we headed for the Nuʻuanu Pali Lookout, perched over a thousand feet above the Oʻahu coastline amid mountain peaks shrouded by clouds.

Nuʻuanu Pali Lookout

The Lookout is the site of the Battle of Nuʻuanu, where King Kamehameha I united Oʻahu under his rule. The battle claimed hundreds of soldiers, many of whom were forced off Pali's sheer cliffs.

The name, Pali, actually means “cliff”

To reach the lookout, we drove up the Pali Highway through tall trees and dense forests. The Pali Lookout is known for strong and howling winds and that (plus a little light rain) is what we got.

We also got some pretty, if a bit too misty, views of Kailua and Kaneohe Bays below.

Looking northeast

I’ll talk about the rest of our O’ahu adventure in the next post.

Trip dates: June 7 -29, 2026