Arizona Memorial 2015 Pearl Harbor Hawaii

 

We, meaning my wife and me, along with our 2 children and luckily for me my parents also, visited Pearl Harbor just before Christmas, 2015. Unfortunately scheduling did not permit us to go to Hawaii and visit during the anniversary of Pearl Harbor on December 7.  It would have made the visit even more special.  As it was we picked a fabulous day, though everyday was the exact same in Hawaii, PERFECT, so I don’t know if there would have been a bad day.

Located in Oahu, Hawaii is a shallow lagoon just west of Honolulu called Pearl Harbor. The setting for the early morning hours December 7, 1941 attack by the Empire of Japan on U.S. soil.  This attack brought the U.S. into the long resisted World War.

Japan’s plan, under the direction of Admiral Isorokua Yamamoto, was not to invade the U.S. but to destroy the U.S.’s main fleet, located in the Pacific, so that the U.S. would not be able to interfere with Japan’s invasions of China and the South Pacific.

With airplanes and midget submarines, the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor whilst many of its vessels where docked and manned. Though the attack lasted only 2 hours it was a complete surprise to the U.S. Navy and the damage ensued was horrifying.  Twenty naval vessels and 300 airplanes were destroyed.  Two thousand four hundred and three American sailors and soldiers died and over 1000 were wounded. There were 68 civilians dead.  The Japanese themselves only lost 64 people.

All nine battleships that were docked at Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack were seriously damaged. They were the:  USS Arizona, USS California, USS Maryland, USS Nevada, USS Oklahoma, USS Pennsylvania, USS Tennessee, USS Utah, and USS West Virginia.  All but 3 managed to make it back into battle after
major repairs.

The USS Arizona was hit by an 1800 lb. bomb. The Arizona exploded then sank.  There were 1177 men still trapped inside its hull who perished.  The USS Oklahoma, was also pierced by torpedoes and with 400 sailors still on board she sunk.

During the attack, to ensure that the U.S. forces could not easily retaliate, Japan also bombed Wheeler airfield, its hangars, buildings and aircraft.

On December 8, 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan.  Fortunately the U.S. Navy was able to rebound quickly after Pearl Harbor and the war against Japan began in earnest.

Eventually, Japan surrendered on the deck of the USS Missouri, ending WWII.

Great history lesson for all.  Some of the “stuff” we did while at Pearl Harbor was:

  1. We took a tour of the Battleship Missouri and saw where the official surrender of Japan, ending WWII, was signed on the deck of the Missouri.
  2. We took the shuttle boat to the Arizona Memorial and of course visited the memorial.  This is sitting upon  the still sunken remains of the USS Arizona which is now a burial site for the 1177 plus men in its depths.
  3. We checked out the Arizona Memorial Museum with the history of Pearl Harbor and its attack.
  4. We visited and went inside Bowfin submarine.
  5. We watched a film with actual footage of the attack.
  6. Of course we spent lots of time at the several souvenir shops and snack pits, spending our hard earned money!  It was almost Christmas after all!

It was a full day and would highly recommend as a must to for all. Check out some of the pictures from Pearl Harbour and be sure to come back next week to read about our trip to the Hawaiian Punchbowl Military Cemetery and others.

Doug

Find this interesting or useful then -

SHARE THIS: