We arrived at Pearl Harbor early so that we could get tickets to see the USS Arizona Memorial.  Two boats shuttle back and forth carrying people across the harbor to the Memorial throughout the day, but there’s only about 80 seats on the shuttles.  There’s a lot of tickets but not enough for all the people that want to see the USS Arizona and if you don’t get there early you won’t get a ticket.  The memorial is a bridge built above the site where the ship still lies.  It is a solemn place because the Arizona also serves as the tomb for the 1190 crewmen who perished in an instant when the ship exploded on the morning of the Japanese attack.  Of all the battleships moored on battleship row that sunk on the morning of December 7, 1941 in the shallow harbor that is Pearl, the Arizona is the only one they did not raise.

Pearl Harbor is a big place and is still used by the United States as a naval base.  At anchor about 1000 yards south of the Arizona is the USS Missouri and it is fitting and comforting that it be so.  For in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, it was on the deck of the USS Missouri that the Japanese, nearly four years after their attack on Pearl Harbor, signed an unconditional surrender to the allied forces.  The surrender ceremony was performed under the watchful eyes of General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz and commanders from the other great countries that fought against the Japanese.  The American flag hanging above the surrender ceremony was an old one: the same flag flown by Admiral Perry when he entered the same harbor with an American fleet nearly a hundred years before to begin opening trade with Japan (an isolationist country in 1850 that was almost medieval) by bringing her in as a friendly partner into a modern league of nations.

By the late 1930s Japan had become very aggressive and controlled Korea, had attacked and taken a large part of China, committing atrocities while doing so, had built up a large force in Indochina, and wanted to extend their empire all the way down the western Pacific.  The only country standing in their way was the United States and the Japanese figured if they destroyed the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor then they would no longer have to worry about America.  They planned their attack meticulously, knowing  where all the ships would be moored in the harbor, and developed a torpedo that could be dropped in the shallow water and rise to hit the sides of the boats.  They also knew where all the air fields were on Oahu and they would hit them too, to stop any planes from counterattacking.  For their plan to be successful they had to catch the Americans completely by surprise.  So when the Japanese fleet of aircraft carriers steamed out of Japan, they made the trip to Hawaii in complete radio silence.  We didn’t know they were there.

They were completely successful, sending two waves of planes south across Oahu in several diverging paths.  The Americans were on board their ships at dock, raising their flags with bands playing on what they thought was a peaceful Sunday morning.  The group of Japanese planes that flew through a pass in the mountains above Pearl Harbor knew they had caught them by surprise and began dropping bombs.  The attacked lasted two hours but it was the longest two hours in American history: 2400 sailors and soldiers were killed, another twelve-hundred wounded.  The Arizona was hit four times, the last bomb penetrating the deck above the ammunition storage and caused an explosion that sounded like a volcano erupting.

It was a long time ago and the United States and Japan are long-time peaceful allies.  But what happened that morning will never be forgotten.  I’ve known about Pearl Harbor all my life, my father fought in World War II,  and being here was an emotional experience.  After visiting the USS Missouri, having climbed through it and visiting the deck where the Japanese surrendered,  we returned to the parking lot and drove through Honolulu to Waikiki Beach.  Waikiki Beach is far different than Pearl Harbor: with its great stores and restaurants and palace hotels, it is like Rodeo Drive with a wonderful beach.