Honolulu Archives - National Parks With T

Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!

Aloha➢

My family and I took a cruise around the Hawaiian islands in 2019. We embarked in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. Prior to embarkation, we spent a few days on land and explored Oahu. Using Hilton’s Hawaiian Village as our base, we enjoyed visiting many interesting sites before boarding the Pride of America. We spent a week on board cruising the Hawaiian Islands. When we returned to Honolulu, we visited Pearl Harbor National Memorial before flying home.

When I first visited Pearl Harbor in the eighties, it was called the Arizona Memorial. In 2008, President George Bush made it part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. That included sites in California and Alaska as well as Pearl Harbor.

Now it is a separate unit again. Legislation in March 2019 designated it The Pearl Harbor National Memorial. The National Park Service manages the site in cooperation with the US Navy. Since we were visiting only a month after the law passed, they hadn’t yet changed the sign.

A Date that Lives in Infamy➢

The Memorial commemorates the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan and the United States’ subsequent entry into WWII. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and other areas on Oahu in a two-wave surprise attack. They sank or damaged nearly every vessel in the Harbor, killing over 2400 people.

Though devastating, the attack did not cripple the US fleet as our aircraft carriers (Japan’s intended target) were out at sea. And the U.S. raised and repaired most of the damaged vessels. The Navy then sent the ships back into action. Only the USS Arizona, Utah and Oklahoma remained unrecoverable.

The Arizona➢

The Arizona still rests where she fell. She serves as a burial ground for the thousand crewmen whose bodies remained beyond reach. The US Navy gave the survivors the option to be interred there after their passing. Forty-four chose to be reunited with their brothers-at-arms. Lou Conter, the last known survivor, died in 2024.

In 1962, the government erected a concrete memorial over the Arizona’s remains so that visitors could pay their respects. The boat ramp to the memorial was damaged in 2018, closing it to the public. Our Navy-run boat tour took us along Battleship Row near the memorial but did not dock there.

This closure prevented the elderly survivors from coming to Hawaii to observe the anniversary in December 2018. The park service completed repairs in time for the 2019 anniversary.

The USS Missouri faces the Arizona Memorial. Together, they represent the beginning and the end of the United State’s war with Japan. The Missouri was the site of the Japanese Empire’s surrender.

Visiting Pearl Harbor is a moving experience even without boarding the actual structure over the Arizona. Military personnel are on hand to talk about the events of the day and they, along with the museum and film presentation, do an excellent job of humanizing the story.

Oahu Posts➢

Location: 1 Arizona Memorial Place, Honolulu, Hawaii
Designation: National Memorial
Date designated/established: March 12, 2019
Date of my visit: April 20, 2019