Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial

The first order of business today was visiting Pearl Harbor and the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. The word that I think best describes the whole experience is "moving." It does strike me as a bit of a somber way to kick off a honeymoon, but it truly is a site that all Americans should see. And the Memorial Society and City and State Parks Association have really done an amazing job with it.

The tour begins with a film about the events of December 7, 1941. The film itself is a mix of new footage of the present-day memorial and actual newsreels from right after the attack. What I found so interesting was that they not only had footage of the U.S. troops from before and the attack, they also had footage of the Japanese army preparing for battle. It was striking to see how the Americans just did not realize that the state of war had moved on from battleships to aircraft carriers. The film today actually showed how all of the U.S. planes on the base were lined up wingtip to wingtip in Hickam Air Force base completely unarmed because the Americans were more afraid of sabotage than an enemy air raid. Knowing the tragedy about to ensure leaves you with the most sickening feeling in your stomach.

After the film we boarded a boat to take us to the memorial over the battleship U.S.S. Arizona. 1100 men were trapped and died when the Arizona sank. Yet despite the fact that we were on hallowed ground, there was no shortage of tourists behaving badly! I was stunned at the amount of people posing for pictures and smiling . Doesn't anyone else find that creepy? One couple even asked Mike to take a picture of them together! I was SO tempted to tell them how inappropriate that was, but then I thought better of myself and realized that admonishing strangers and potentially starting a fight in a tomb probably isn't very respectful to the dead either. But still...

4 comments:

  1. Great Stuff Harry (and you to Mitch).

    Photos are great (I'm assuming you figured out the camera download and these are from the Canon). Top picture a to big for my monitor but you probably know that with the layout formatting yet to do.

    Sounds like all is perfect and Groomzilla has now become Hubbyzilla.

    Considering your busy busy itinerary you'll need a 10 day vacation to recover from your 10 vacation!

    Keep up the updates I'll be following closely.

    Luv BaBa

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  2. Chrystalle,
    Glad to hear that you are eating like a normal person. I never knew you were such a girlie girl with the shoes and stuff.

    Mike
    Ughh! Shopping!

    Forgot: Take a ride to South Maui, very posh. Have dinner at Spiga's the food is really good and the sunset is awesome.

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  3. Yeah Chrys! I would felt like shoving them overboard for being such hooligans...but I woulda' been the ultimate hooligan that woulda gotten struck by lighting if I did such a thing! Just kidding...I understood why you were perturbed...I wouldn't shove anyone overboard either :0)

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  4. Would have, I mean! Haha...See?? I need a vacation too!!

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