After a great morning at Hanauma Bay and a quick stop back at the hotel to change, a group of us heads for Pearl Harbor. Fortunately, the next time slot where there are still a number of tickets left is only 1.5 hours away. We spend that next bit of time exploring the Pearl Harbor Museum.
Looking out over Pearl Harbor, you can see the Arizona Memorial and the U.S.S. Missouri across the short water’s distance.
I won’t bother with the history lessons of that December morning, as you can find that anywhere… but physically being here, I could really get a sense of how chaotic it must have been as the enemy planes swooped and bombed the ships and men.
It was, overall, a very sobering moment.
When it was our turn, we saw a short movie on the history of 7 December 1941, then boarded the ferry over to the Memorial. I’m really glad that it’s done in small groups, as the respect is maintained by smaller groups than by a free-flow of tourists…
Once onboard, getting our first view of the submerged Arizona and realizing there are still 1100 men buried below us brings an appropriate awe-filled silence to the group.
The most photographed site is the foundation of the #3 Gun Turret that sticks prominently out of the water.
Walking from side to side, you can see barely submerged pieces of Arizona just under the water’s surface:
The inscription on the memorial wall says it all:
Oil, trapped but slowly leaking from Arizona, still rises to the surface…
I’ll never forget our visit here.
Everyone else in our group was tired from the snorkeling and the Arizona Memorial, so they went back to the hotel.
Andrew and I, however, were not going to come this far and NOT spend a couple of hours crawling over the battleship U.S.S. Missouri when we had the chance… so off we went!
The Missouri is one of the last “great battleships” of the U.S. Navy.
She has a long and storied history, with the most historically important part being that it was on her decks that the Japanese surrender was signed to end WWII.
There is a plaque on the “Surrender Deck” that marks the exact spot:
Now… we all know that battleships are big… and their guns are big… but damn.
These are some BIG GUNS (TM).
Notice, also, the wood decks in that picture.
To give some perspective… here’s Andrew standing next to the #1 turret:
… and the requisite artsy-fartsy shot:
Oh yeah… the anchor chains are pretty big, too.
Okay! Let’s go below decks and poke around, shall we?
The officer’s cabins are much nicer than the enlisted crew bunks…
We thought it was pretty appropriate that the chow line was known as the “Truman Line”:
Back up on deck, Andrew crawled up into the #3 turret:
… while I sat in the Captain’s chair and gave the orders.
“Take us… that way”
A good view of the Arizona Memorial from the Missouri
… and a nice Hawai’ian rainbow to end the day.
Tomorrow’s a travel day as we take the entire family from Oahu to Kaua’i for the rest of our vacation… see you on the next island!
