Visiting Pearl Harbor
Apr. 11th, 2022 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerHawaii April Travelog #8
Pearl Harbor, HI - Sun, 10 Apr, 2022, 10am
We roused ourselves early this morning to visit Pearl Harbor. Looking to beat the crowds as much as possible we bought tickets for the 8am ferry to the USS Arizona Memorial. We set our alarms for 6am. Hawaii's early morning sun helped us rise and shine once again.
We ate breakfast in the room instead of going downstairs to the breakfast buffet. Just because it's free doesn't mean it's good. In fact, the fact it's free almost guarantees it's not good. We ate cold food we bought from a convenience store Friday night.
We arrived at Pearl Harbor plenty early for our 8am ferry. That gave us time to look around the outdoor exhibits.
One big takeaway for me was that the US military presence in Hawaii really only began a year or 18 months before the Pearl Harbor attack. The US established this base for its Pacific fleet in response to Japan invading China and various Pacific island countries in 1939-40. The Japanese, through their diplomats, challenged it as provocative. Of course, aggressors routinely call out maneuvers others make to deter their aggression, "provocative". Look at the nonsense from Russia re: Ukraine the past many months.
Some people think that visiting the USS Arizona Memorial means setting foot on the USS Arizona. That doesn't happen. One big reason is that the Arizona sank. Only small parts of it remain above water. Two, the USS Arizona Memorial is a memorial. I.e., it's the final resting place of hundreds of soldiers whose remains were not recovered from the ruins. Instead the memorial built for visitors is something like a bridge (see above) the straddles the underwater remains of the USS Arizona.
The USS Arizona sank when a high-altitude (~10,000') bomber dropped a huge bomb (1,700+ pounds) on the forward deck. The explosion of the bomb ignited an ammunition magazine. That secondary explosion tore the ship apart. The water the battleship was moored in wasn't terribly deep, though, about 50', so when the ship came to rest on the bottom many parts of it were still above the water.
In the months following the attack on Pearl Harbor the navy worked hard to recover as many ships as possible. All but 3 were raised and returned to service. The Arizona was too badly damaged to be fully recovered. And it lay resting in a spot that wasn't urgent to be cleared— unlike, say, the USS Oklahoma, which rolled over upside down in the channel. The navy recovered what it could of the Arizona and left the rest. The picture above shows one of the rear gun turrets (right) and an access tube (left). The concrete pier adjacent to the turret was constructed as part of the salvage effort. Below the water's surface one of the ship's decks can be seen. It looks like it's only about 10' deep.
The December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 Americans. On the USS Arizona alone 1,177 service members perished. Their names are all recorded in this memorial.
Pearl Harbor, HI - Sun, 10 Apr, 2022, 10am
We roused ourselves early this morning to visit Pearl Harbor. Looking to beat the crowds as much as possible we bought tickets for the 8am ferry to the USS Arizona Memorial. We set our alarms for 6am. Hawaii's early morning sun helped us rise and shine once again.
We ate breakfast in the room instead of going downstairs to the breakfast buffet. Just because it's free doesn't mean it's good. In fact, the fact it's free almost guarantees it's not good. We ate cold food we bought from a convenience store Friday night.
We arrived at Pearl Harbor plenty early for our 8am ferry. That gave us time to look around the outdoor exhibits.
One big takeaway for me was that the US military presence in Hawaii really only began a year or 18 months before the Pearl Harbor attack. The US established this base for its Pacific fleet in response to Japan invading China and various Pacific island countries in 1939-40. The Japanese, through their diplomats, challenged it as provocative. Of course, aggressors routinely call out maneuvers others make to deter their aggression, "provocative". Look at the nonsense from Russia re: Ukraine the past many months.
Some people think that visiting the USS Arizona Memorial means setting foot on the USS Arizona. That doesn't happen. One big reason is that the Arizona sank. Only small parts of it remain above water. Two, the USS Arizona Memorial is a memorial. I.e., it's the final resting place of hundreds of soldiers whose remains were not recovered from the ruins. Instead the memorial built for visitors is something like a bridge (see above) the straddles the underwater remains of the USS Arizona.
The USS Arizona sank when a high-altitude (~10,000') bomber dropped a huge bomb (1,700+ pounds) on the forward deck. The explosion of the bomb ignited an ammunition magazine. That secondary explosion tore the ship apart. The water the battleship was moored in wasn't terribly deep, though, about 50', so when the ship came to rest on the bottom many parts of it were still above the water.
In the months following the attack on Pearl Harbor the navy worked hard to recover as many ships as possible. All but 3 were raised and returned to service. The Arizona was too badly damaged to be fully recovered. And it lay resting in a spot that wasn't urgent to be cleared— unlike, say, the USS Oklahoma, which rolled over upside down in the channel. The navy recovered what it could of the Arizona and left the rest. The picture above shows one of the rear gun turrets (right) and an access tube (left). The concrete pier adjacent to the turret was constructed as part of the salvage effort. Below the water's surface one of the ship's decks can be seen. It looks like it's only about 10' deep.
The December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 Americans. On the USS Arizona alone 1,177 service members perished. Their names are all recorded in this memorial.
