USS Arizona

One of the more sobering experiences I’ve had in Hawaii (apart from losing my thongs) was visiting the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbour.

The memorial, situated above the rusting body of the Arizona stands as a headstone to the shipwreck and the 1,177 sailors that were killed on her during the December 7th 1941 surprise attack by Japanese forces on the US forces stationed here in Oahu. Many of the men killed that day still lay inside the Arizona, and the site is an active military cemetery.

The white platform built above the site offers visitors a place to remember the sailors killed that day and to look over the hull of the Arizona that lays just below the surface. The prominent gun turret that rises above the surface and the hatches nearby leak “the tears of Arizona”, oil that still seeps from the hold. It pools below the monument, seeping out from the wreck and staining the posts.

The memorial was very interesting to see, and really does make one think about not only the men killed on the boat that day, but the fact that on that day the lives of an entire nation of people changed with the US entering the war. I could not help but wonder how I would feel if I was the radar operator that day who dismissed the incoming blips as “nothing to worry about”.

This is my last post from the US, because I right now I am sitting looking over Honolulu airport, waiting for my boarding call. I’ll be travelling into the future by crossing the International Date Line soon and landing in Sydney before heading to Perth. Hawaii has been amazing and a fitting end to a pretty amazing adventure. I’m sure there will be a couple more debriefing posts from Sydney and Perth but, for now at least, I say farewell and thank you to the United States.