Pearl Harbor Memorial: A Brit's View

Pearl Harbor Memorial: A Brit's View

Our day begins with a 50-minute wait for the bus on Honolulu's main thoroughfare. An hour later we are crawling in the capital's multi-lane traffic - not what we had imagined when we planned our 13 kilometer journey to the supposed island paradise.

Kia gives me a look. “I hope this is worth it,” she says in a tone that sounds sweet to the ears but promises a lot of pain.

“It will,” I assure her, swallowing quietly.

As the son of a history teacher, I have long been fascinated by the groundbreaking events of days gone by. It started with small, poignant findings like the fact that more soldiers die from disease than from violence, or that more soldiers die after the war than before because of depression in veterans. These people, their lives, their decisions seemed so much bigger, so much sadder than mine.

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I remember visiting the beaches of Normandy, the site of the D-Day landings in World War II, when I was 13; the site of nearly 20,000 victims. The air felt heavy and still, the places simple and unadorned. It had a feeling of sadness–but not the big, exaggerated, patriotic kind. More of a reserved, gentle kind; the kind that gets to your bones and makes you shiver with cold.

As an Englishman, I have always felt very connected to the events in Normandy.

Pearl Harbor, on the other hand, always felt distant. It happened in a different place in a different time with different people. As we travel to the scene of the attack, I sit and wonder if the same thing will happen to me.

Our visit begins with a security guard asking us to leave our bags in the cloakroom at a cost of $3 per bag. I start to roll my eyes (what more could I ask for from capitalism gone mad?), but I stop when he winks and says, "One of your bags is bigger than the other, so if I were you I'd take the small one in the large one and only pay for one."

I smile. After depositing our bag(s), my second surprise comes when I realize that entry to the memorial is free. This seems far more appropriate than charging for memorials to men who lost their lives.

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We get tickets to the main monument, one of several sections of Pearl Harbor Historic Sites. The sites are all part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Park, run by the excellent National Park Service. Other areas and exhibits include access to the Battleship Missouri, USS Submarine Bowfin, and the Pacific Aviation Museum, among others. It may take several hours or even days to see each section.

We have one day in Oahu, so stick to the main monument. Memorial sessions begin on the hour, but be warned that there may be a wait of two to three hours during the summer months.

Our session begins with a 15-minute film reel shown in a darkened theater. A park ranger speaks about the events of December 7, 1941. Her tone is friendly and respectful, without the belligerent nationalism so often present in conversations about modern American (and British) warfare.

We see footage of that historic morning, we hear stories of soldiers wiped out in seconds, of entire ships destroyed in minutes. We imagine the fear and hysteria, the chaos and courage, and even though it happened in a different place at a different time with different people, Pearl Harbor manages to put a lump in our throats.

When the role ends, the house lights come on. Members of the audience stand dazed, straightening hair and buttoning coats to regain composure.

We leave the theater and board a boat to the site of the sunken USS Arizona, which still lies beneath the surface of the water just a few hundred meters from the coast. Its sunken hull is rusting and decaying, weathered by decades of corrosion and still leaking inky oil spilled that tragic morning.

We walk around the white, serene memorial, taking in the names of the 1,102 sailors who died on the Arizona that day. There were 1,512 on board.

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When the last and final bomb hit the Arizona during the two-hour air raid on December 7, 1941, it penetrated the armored deck near the ammunition stores and detonated the magazines in a catastrophic explosion. Over half of the people who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor died aboard the USS Arizona.

With this in mind, visitors explore the installation almost silently. As we walk around, it strikes me that this monument, like the beaches of Normandy, encourages quiet remembrance. There are no explainer videos or big infographics and shocking statistics plastered across the walls. In fact, I worry that it might be overwhelming for the non-history buff.

I turn to Kia. “I’m sorry there’s no more to see.”

She smiles back. "It doesn't have to be this way. Not here."

She holds my hand and together we take the boat back to the shore.

Whether you are an American or not, a history buff or just an interested party, the Pearl Harbor Memorial strikes the same poignant note. The right hint.

Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack turns the buildup to the most infamous day in American history into a ticking time bomb thriller. Never before has a story you thought you knew proved so impossible to put down.
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