To anybody with an interest in history this is a special and solemn place. It is the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. It commemorates 1,102 sailors and marines who went down with the ship during the Japanese surprise attack on Dec 7, 1941. You can only visit the memorial by Navy shuttle-boats, so visitor numbers are controlled. The memorial hall is built above the remains of the battleship and you can see some of it from the open windows of the hall. At the far end of the hall is a shrine with a large marble wall containing the names of those who died during the attack, and a small plaque with the names of crew members who survived the attack and chose to have their ashes placed in the wreck after they died. When we were there the tide was low enough for us to see the bases of some gun turrets and part of the main deck. A small oil slick was being washed away. On both sides of the memorial you can see rows of floating white markers with ships' names on them. These mark the spots where other ships were destroyed during the raid. Pearl Harbour is a very moving place to visit and everyone who gets the chance to go there should do it. There are other things to see at Pearl and images will be posted here soon.
Labels: boats, Hawaii
# posted by Bart Bear @ 2:33 pm
