| Inside
the USS Arizona memorial |
| This
is the view north from the memorial, with the remains of the aft gun turret
sticking out of the water. The fires burned for 3 days, and
the Vestal, a support ship moored next to the Arizona, was badly scorched
but didn't sink. |
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| In
the foreground you can see oil still leaking from the wreck, sixty years
after the ship was sunk. It leaks about a quart a day, so with
an estimated half million gallons still on board, it'll continue for some
time yet. |
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| You
can look down onto the ship and see the top deck. The superstructure
was removed many years ago and unceremoniously dumped on Ford Island, where
it was forgotten until very recently. Also forgotten until
recently is the fact that the forward main gun barrels are still in place. |
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| This
display inside the memorial shows the ship before the attack and as it
is today. |
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| The
main focus of the memorial is this wall in the "shrine room" with the names
of all 1177 men who died on the Arizona as a result of the attack.
Over half the people who died at Pearl Harbor died on the Arizona, and
more men died on the Arizona than on any other America ship before or since.
About 900 of them are still entombed within the wreck, and deceased survivors
often have their ashes scattered on the ship. |
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| There's even someone
on the list with the same name as myself, which is not a common name in
New Zealand, though I've seen it a bit more often here in the States.
My family name even
turns up on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC, and on a memorial commemorating
the war dead in Okinawa, Japan. |
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| Contrary
to popular belief, the Arizona is not still a commissioned ship in the
US navy. However, it is a very appropriate memorial to what
happened in 1941, just as the USS Missouri at the top of this photo is
a very physical reminder of the end of the war. |
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