Darn it, our vacation was already starting to wind toward
its conclusion. No one was anxious to go home. In fact no one wanted to go home
at all! Our condominium was cramped but serviceable. The weather was beautiful,
the feeling relaxed and it didn’t seem fair that it had to end and we had to
go back to short days and cold weather again. Perhaps it was for that reason
that we saved the somber occasion of the USS Arizona Memorial visit for near the
end of our vacation. We also figured it would be way too crowded before
Christmas, so it was best tackled at the end.
The USS Arizona was one of many ships in Pearl Harbor that
was hit by the Japanese on December 7th, 1941. However, it was sunk
and killed almost everyone on board, in excess of a thousand sailors and
marines. As you probably know it is something of an underwater memorial and
gravesite sitting in the middle of Pearl Harbor, with its occupants permanently
entombed. A small memorial site rests above the ship and is accessible only from
the visitors’ center by boat.
We noticed coupons in some of our travel magazines that
offered transportation discounts to and from the memorial. The one we selected
took us there and back for about $9 a person, which seemed fair since it was
about 30 miles away. In addition we got something of a tour from Paul, our very
talkative native Hawaiian tour guide. Before leaving Waikiki we had to make
stops at an additional half dozen hotels. Paul was fun to listen to and
something of a heart attack driving through Waikiki. But we learned things about
Waikiki that we hadn’t really discovered before, like the three-story aquarium
built into the side of a little mini mall on the strip. All the way there and
back Paul kept up a nearly nonstop description of things, and gave us a detailed
background on the history of the Japanese period of conquest in the Pacific. I
had forgotten little details like it started when Japanese invaded Manchuria in
the early 1930s.
Admission to the visitors’ center and tickets to the
memorial are free, but that doesn’t mean it is without a cost. In this case
the cost was time, not money. The line just to get in the building was about 45
minutes. Fortunately it was yet another lovely morning. Brisk breezes and
temperatures in the high seventies made standing around almost enjoyable.
Security requirements had changed the nature of the experience, however. While
no one had to pass through scanners, no purses or other bags were allowed in the
Visitor’s Center. Fortunately our tour guide Paul gave us a thorough briefing
of what to expect. Once inside we could get a ticket, but we had to wait about
two hours before we could use the ticket to take the boat out to the Memorial
itself.
So we did a lot of loafing at the Visitor’s Center. It
doesn’t take too long to take in the exhibits there. It had frontage on Pearl
Harbor, of course, and there in the shade we rested and enjoyed the spectacular
view. To the right was a large submarine where you could go and take a tour for
a reasonable sum of money. We opted not to do that. Straight ahead was the USS
Missouri, where General MacArthur accepted the Japanese surrender in Japan in
1945, I believe. That is a separate tour. Hawaii lobbied for years to get and
restore the ship, and it is a profitable new tourist attraction.
There was also a snack bar at the visitors’ center. No
cheeseburgers were available for Rosie, but she seemed content with snack food
instead. There is of course the compulsory gift shop with everything you could
ever want to purchase about World War II in the Pacific, as well as Hawaii in
general.
One of the amazing things were there were a couple actual survivors of the USS Arizona wandering around. I guess they try to do make sure the story is told, and to show respect for their shipmates. If you wanted you could stop and ask them questions about that morning. I would imagine there are very few of them around and the guy I saw looked like he was in his 80s, which was about right. I figured anything I could ask them they had answered a million times before, and there seemed to be others who wanted to talk to them anyhow. But I appreciated the little bit of living history at the place, a service that unfortunately won’t be available much longer. In addition some other retired General had just completed a book about the war in the Pacific and was signing copies of the book outside the bookstore.
Before taking the boat out to the memorial you had to go
into a theater for a 20-minute movie about that fateful day. I was amazed by how
many ships were actually sunk by the Japanese. However all but two were raised
and returned to service. I also learned that at the time the concern of the base
commander were Japanese citizens on the island. He was concerned about that some
were spies, and they might infiltrate the base. So he parked the aircrafts
wingtip to wingtip in the center of the adjacent airfield. Needless to say this
made destroying our aircraft very simple for the Japanese. The attack was a
success on a tactical level but obviously a failure on a strategic level. It
brought us into the war. Even before the attack Japan knew that if we chose to
we had both the manpower and the materials that they could never match.
A vessel takes you out to the memorial. It seats about 150
people and is run by actual US Navy sailors. This surprised me because the
memorial itself is part of the National Park Service. Our sailors looked good in
duck. Once parked at the memorial we had 15 minutes to pay our respects. People
were generally reserved, as they should be at such a solemn site. At the far end
is a large marble war where the names of all who died are listed. In addition a
number who survived and subsequently died had the option of having their ashes
buried with their sea mates. Their remains were in a crypt near the wall of
names.
On the harbor the wind was still brisk. Scattered squalls
could be seen and occasionally felt. There wasn’t too much to actually see of
the battleship, in spite of the clean and clear harbor water, but a few parts of
the battleship were above water. As another group of visitors entered we took
their place for the return trip. Rosie had a hard time relating to the memorial.
I guess for someone born in 1989, 1941 is ancient history. And after September
11th, Pearl Harbor, as awful as it was, seems a little less awful.
Our tour guide Paul was glad that all of us hustled back to our tour bus. I gave him a $5 tip for being so amusing and eloquent. We were soon back in Waikiki and chilling, with the hardest decision of the evening being where to go for dinner.
The answer was we wanted to go back to Tiki’s one last
time before we left. It was close, the food was great and we loved the view of
the sunset. We ended up with the same friendly waiter we had the first time.
Except for Rosie, who had the cheeseburger of course, we had different entrees
this time. And I am glad to report that whatever I had was really good, although
I can’t remember what it was! Alas, clouds on the horizon obscured our perfect
sunset so there was no second opportunity to see a green flash. But the weather
was otherwise nice, but perhaps a bit breezier and cooler.
A couple tables away from us two gay guys were doing
dinner. They were quite a cute couple. For a while I thought they were brothers
because they looked about the same and had crew cuts. One guy pulled out a lei
and put it over the other one. We all watched it and Terri and Rosie smiled. It
was such a cute scene, in a good way. We’re obviously not homophobes.