Here and there, the oil mingles with orchid petals that women have plucked from their leis and scattered into the water. Others leave intact leis at the far end of the monument, where a marble wall bears 1,177 names—the men who, in the name of freedom, died aboard the U.S.S. Arizona.
Another Blow
The acts of September 11 have, in a sense, delivered a second blow to Pearl Harbor. Tourism to Hawaii in general has suffered, of course.
The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial Visitor Center was closed for almost a week immediately after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. When it reopened, there was a security policy so strict that people carrying purses, camera bags, and diaper bags, among other things, would not be granted admission. That policy is still in effect.
Most people take about two hours to go through the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial and its visitor center; in yet another of history's quirks, that's the same amount of time the Japanese attack lasted.
But even wars that begin unexpectedly come to an end in due time. Those who make pilgrimage to the Arizona can take comfort knowing that they visit the shrine under the symbolic protection of another American battleship. Since 1998, Battleship Missouri has been moored protectively near the remains of the Arizona.
For $14 and a couple of more hours invested, people can board the U.S.S. Missouri, examine its guns, walk its passageways, peer into crews' quarters, and even eat hot dogs and pizza in its cafeteria.
They can stand on its teak deck before the very spot where, on September 2, 1945, Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers. And if they look up from that spot, past the Missouri's guns and bow, they can see the dove-like memorial of the U.S.S. Arizona.
Copyright 2001, Chicago Tribune
