The USS Arizona Memorial, located at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors killed on the USS Arizona during the Attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 by Japanese imperial forces and commemorates the events of that day.
The attack on Pearl Harbor and the island of Oahu was the action that led to United States involvement in World War II.The memorial, dedicated in 1962 and visited by more than one million people annually, spans the sunken hull of the battleship without touching it. Since it opened in 1980, the National Park Service has operated the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center associated with the memorial.Historical information about the attack, boat access to the memorial, and general visitor services are available at the center.The sunken remains of the battleship were declared a National Historic Landmark on 5 May 1989.
Design
The national 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 United States Navy specified that the memorial be in the form of a bridge floating above the ship and accommodating 200 people.The 184-foot (56 m)-long structure has two peaks at each end connected by a sag in the center of the structure. It represents the height of American pride before the war, the sudden depression of a nation after the attack and the rise of American power to new heights after the war. Critics initially called the design a “squashed milk carton”.
The architecture of the USS Arizona Memorial is explained by Preis as, “Wherein the structure sags in the center but stands strong and vigorous at the ends, expresses initial defeat and ultimate victory … The overall effect is one of serenity. Overtones of sadness have been omitted to permit the individual to contemplate his own personal responses … his innermost feelings.
Description
There are three main parts to the national memorial: entry, assembly room, and shrine. The central assembly room features seven large open windows on either wall and ceiling, to commemorate the date of the attack. The total number of windows is 21. Rumor says this symbolically represents a 21 gun salute or 21 Marines standing at eternal parade rest over the tomb of the fallen, but guides at the site will confirm that this was not the intention of the architect. The memorial also contains an opening in the floor overlooking the sunken decks. USS Arizona Memorial is a Beautiful Place For Vacations. It is from this opening that visitors come to pay their respects by tossing flowers in honor of the fallen sailors. In the past, leis were tossed in the water, but because string from leis poses a hazard to sea life, leis now are placed on guardrails located in front of the names of the fallen.
One of the three 19,585 pound anchors of the Arizona is displayed at the entrance of the visitor center. (One of the other two is at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix.) One of the two ship’s bells is in the visitor center. (Its twin is in the clock tower of the Student Memorial Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson.)The shrine at the far end is a marble wall that bears the names of all those killed on the Arizona, protected behind velvet ropes. To the left of the main wall is a small plaque which bears the names of thirty or so crew members who survived the 1941 sinking and chose prior to their death, or whose family chose after their death, to have a canister containing their ashes interred within the wreck by US Navy divers. Any surviving crew members of the Arizona (or their families on their behalf) can elect to have their ashes interred within the wreck.
Honors
Every United States Navy, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine vessel entering Pearl Harbor participates in the tradition of “manning the rails”. Personnel serving on these ships stand at attention at the ship’s guard rails and salute the USS Arizona Memorial in solemn fashion as their ship slowly glides into port. More recently, as foreign military vessels are entering Pearl Harbor for joint military exercises, foreign troops have participated in the traditional manning the rails.The USS Arizona is no longer in commission, but is an active U.S. military cemetery tourist place in world. As a special tribute to the ship and her lost crew, the United States flag flies from the flagpole, which is attached to the severed mainmast of the sunken battleship. The USSArizona Memorial has come to commemorate all military personnel killed in the Pearl Harbor attack.
USS Arizona Memorial Facts
- Unaware of the encroaching Japanese, the 185-plus U.S. Navy ships, in defense of sabotage attempts, were moored in small groups throughout Pearl Harbor.
- Struck by an aerial bomb, the forward section of the USS Arizona ignited, causing an explosion that sank the ship in nine minutes and burned for over two days.
- The USS Arizona carried 1.4 million gallons of fuel on board when it sank. Approximately two quarts per day still surfaces from the ship. Pearl Harbor Survivors refer to the oil droplets as “black tears.”
- Thirty-seven sets of brothers were assigned to the USS Arizona on December 7, 1941.
- The majority of the USS Arizona’s crew members went down with the ship; 337 service members survived.
- 1,177 service members perished on the USS Arizona, the greatest loss of life on any U.S. warship in American history.