1573, 1591, 1796 UNITED STATES (Hawaii) - USS Arizona Memorial

1573 Hawaii - USS Arizona Memorial

Posted on 11.05.2015, 18.05.2015, 31.07.2015
USS Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship built for and by the United States Navy in the mid-1910s. Although commissioned in 1916, the ship remained stateside during WWI, and practically didn't participate in any battle, until she was bombed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. She exploded and sank, killing 1,177 officers and crewmen. Unlike many of the other ships sunk or damaged that day, Arizona could not be fully salvaged, though the Navy removed parts of the ship for reuse. The wreck still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial, dedicated on 30 May 1962 to all those who died during the attack, straddles the ship's hull, without touching it.

1591 Hawaii - USS Arizona Memorial (aerial view)

The national memorial was designed by Honolulu architect Alfred Preis who had been detained at Sand Island at the start of the war as an enemy of the country because of his Austrian birth. The United States Navy specified that the memorial be in the form of a bridge floating above the ship and accommodating 200 people. The 56m-long structure has two peaks at each end connected by a sag in the center of the structure. It represents the height of American pride before the war, the sudden depression of a nation after the attack and the rise of American power to new heights after the war.

1796 Hawaii - USS Arizona Memorial; USS Arizona after the atack; Punchbowl National Cemetery; USS Arizona in 1920.

Accessible only by boat, the memorial has three main parts: the entry, the assembly room, and the shrine. The assembly room features seven large windows on either wall and ceiling, to commemorate the date of the attack. The memorial also contains an opening in the floor overlooking the sunken decks. It is from this opening that visitors come to pay their respects by tossing flowers. The shrine at the far end is a marble wall that bears the names of all those killed on the Arizona. To the left of the main wall is a small plaque which bears the names of thirty or so crew members who survived.

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