Pearl Harbor
Jul. 11th, 2007 03:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanI'm starting to fall behind in my postings! This post is about yesterday's trip to Pearl Harbor. Getting there was an adventure.
We were aware that we needed to get started early in order to avoid the long delay. We were on a tour leaving at 8:30 (relatively late) and were told that we would be back no later than 2:00. That seemed like a long time, but what the hey, when are we ever going to have the chance again. When we got to Pearl Harbor, we were told that we were in a queue to see the monument (and the compulsory film before the monument) scheduled at 2:00, meaning we wouldn't get back until after 4:00. All the other people on the tour (23 of us total) were told the same as us: we'd be back by 2. Suddenly there was a mutiny, and everyone was demanding to be taken back to their hotels to try to salvage their vacations. We thought, well, if there's a chance to get the day back we'll take it; but once the dust settled, it seemed that the others just wanted a chance to make a scene, and they would stay for the whole program. In the end, only one person was taken back to her hotel. Hopefully the tour operators aren't telling people that they will be back at 2:00 any more.
The visitor's center, with its tiny museum and tinier snack bar is pretty well done, but crowded almost by design. There are some things to see outside--a submarine and a monument to lost submarines for example, and some good interpretive exhibits. Apparently they are working on building a new one, and are fundraising and trying hard to sell audio tours narrated by Ernest Borgnine. I actually learned a lot about the attack on Pearl Harbor, which considering my dad is a history teacher, is pretty embarrassing. Apparently the Japanese attacked an American naval base, drawing the US into the second world war. Just kidding--that was about the only thing I knew before.
It's a pretty harbor today. Tiny details barely visible in this panorama include (left to right)
a radar station, the USS Arizona monument, a big bridge, and the Bowfin--an actual submarine.
On the boat ride out to the USS Arizona monument, you pass markers showing where the other
battleships that were attacked that day were located.
A surviving battleship, the USS Missouri is docked out there, and you can tour it and I think walk on its decks and stuff.
This is the monument to the USS Arizona. It straddles the actual sunken wreckage of the ship.
This is the only part of the Arizona that's still above water--one of the gun turrets.
Round white buoys mark each end of the sunken ship.
The inside of the monument has a hole in it where you can look down directly onto the ship (it doesn't show up in my photographs, sorry) and lose your sunglasses.
After you reflect on the loss of the over 1100 men who were on the ship, another group comes to do so, and you have to leave.
It's a very solemn place and a well designed memorial. The film actually helps immensely with the difficult task of understanding the events of the Day That Will Live in Infamy, and the sacrifices of the people who died. The sunken hulk of the USS Arizona is the final resting place of the sailors and marines who died on board. It was pretty awe-inspiring to be able to see the ship from the monument (if difficult to photograph). A good sense of it can be seen here: http://members.shaw.ca/rskulski/images/s11e.jpg
We were aware that we needed to get started early in order to avoid the long delay. We were on a tour leaving at 8:30 (relatively late) and were told that we would be back no later than 2:00. That seemed like a long time, but what the hey, when are we ever going to have the chance again. When we got to Pearl Harbor, we were told that we were in a queue to see the monument (and the compulsory film before the monument) scheduled at 2:00, meaning we wouldn't get back until after 4:00. All the other people on the tour (23 of us total) were told the same as us: we'd be back by 2. Suddenly there was a mutiny, and everyone was demanding to be taken back to their hotels to try to salvage their vacations. We thought, well, if there's a chance to get the day back we'll take it; but once the dust settled, it seemed that the others just wanted a chance to make a scene, and they would stay for the whole program. In the end, only one person was taken back to her hotel. Hopefully the tour operators aren't telling people that they will be back at 2:00 any more.
The visitor's center, with its tiny museum and tinier snack bar is pretty well done, but crowded almost by design. There are some things to see outside--a submarine and a monument to lost submarines for example, and some good interpretive exhibits. Apparently they are working on building a new one, and are fundraising and trying hard to sell audio tours narrated by Ernest Borgnine. I actually learned a lot about the attack on Pearl Harbor, which considering my dad is a history teacher, is pretty embarrassing. Apparently the Japanese attacked an American naval base, drawing the US into the second world war. Just kidding--that was about the only thing I knew before.
It's a pretty harbor today. Tiny details barely visible in this panorama include (left to right)
a radar station, the USS Arizona monument, a big bridge, and the Bowfin--an actual submarine.
On the boat ride out to the USS Arizona monument, you pass markers showing where the other
battleships that were attacked that day were located.
A surviving battleship, the USS Missouri is docked out there, and you can tour it and I think walk on its decks and stuff.
This is the monument to the USS Arizona. It straddles the actual sunken wreckage of the ship.
This is the only part of the Arizona that's still above water--one of the gun turrets.
Round white buoys mark each end of the sunken ship.
The inside of the monument has a hole in it where you can look down directly onto the ship (it doesn't show up in my photographs, sorry) and lose your sunglasses.
After you reflect on the loss of the over 1100 men who were on the ship, another group comes to do so, and you have to leave.
It's a very solemn place and a well designed memorial. The film actually helps immensely with the difficult task of understanding the events of the Day That Will Live in Infamy, and the sacrifices of the people who died. The sunken hulk of the USS Arizona is the final resting place of the sailors and marines who died on board. It was pretty awe-inspiring to be able to see the ship from the monument (if difficult to photograph). A good sense of it can be seen here: http://members.shaw.ca/rskulski/images/s11e.jpg
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-11 10:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-11 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-11 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-12 02:35 am (UTC)Here's a tidbit I've never forgotten: The admiral who was in charge of Pearl harbor the days leading up to the attack was watching the destruction from a command center atop a hill when a 50 caliber round smashed through the window and bounced off his chest, having spent all of its momentum on the way there. He picked it up and said 'it would have been better if it had killed me.'
Puts your routine bad days at work in perspective.
--G
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Date: 2007-12-07 06:15 pm (UTC)My parents and kid brother went there over Memorial Day a few years back and called my work from inside the the USS Arizona memorial. I was seethingly jealous for days.