Day 2: Pearl Harbor

If you’ve never been to the site of a military tragedy, it is a solemn one.

There is an honor, a dignity, to the hundreds of lives lost. Silence, respect, as we remember them, and what they did. There is also contemplation, as we, the present generation, reflect on past incidents.

It is powerful.

I’m talking about the Pearl Harbor attack, 76 years ago, on Dec 7, 1941.

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I’m going to give a little background- Pearl Harbor happened on Dec 7, 1941, when Japanese fighter planes attacked the harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. They destroyed 20 naval ships and more than 300 airplanes. Thousands died.

Walking into this place, it’s a site heavy with emotion. The air’s thick with past stories, the general atmosphere serious. It is not so grave, as it is meditative, and thoughtful. The place wants to evoke emotion, and make you think about what happened in the war. But, most of all, it wants you to understand. Understand the history and the reasons behind this attack- on both Japanese and American sides, which is very historically clarifying. It’s unbiased, objective, not trying to point out any side that was wrong, or right; just trying to tell facts.

The attractions here- submarines, battleships, airplanes, and missiles- are authentic, having been used in the war, or are genuine replicas of models used in the war. All throughout the park were scattered displays of these World War 2 artifacts. Rockets, torpedoes, anchors, periscopes of submarines; artifacts, easily lethal, strewn around. It was mortally sobering, touching a thing that could have so easily killed me.

The USS Bowfin was the first attraction we went to. This submarine, deployed on Dec 7, 1942, was called the “Pearl Harbor Avenger” (because it served in the Avengers...no!) What it did serve was 9 tours patrolling the Pacific (after the Pearl Harbor attack), sinking 44 enemy ships, both German and Japanese. So, it was pretty nasty effective.

This was my first time being in a submarine- and it was SICK. Submarines are the minimalists of the boating world; they’re this ingenious design that has to be both spatially conservative, but also big enough to be equipped with all this machinery. We toured the kitchens, control room, bathrooms (all were available by one-person wide entrances, so super cramped). Everywhere, there were controls. EVERYWHERE. On the walls, on switches, on control boards- it was engineering heaven.

I am not an engineer.

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Next, was the Arizona memorial. Perhaps, the most solemn thing I experienced, that day.

The day of the attack, the Japanese bombers detonated a magazine bomb near the USS Arizona, sinking it.

1,177 soldiers died upon that ship.

That’s over half of the 2,403 men who died that day.

Salvage operations were conducted, but the ship was too damaged to be repaired. As a result, the Navy commissioned a memorial on top of it, to honor the soldiers whose lives couldn’t make it out. Today, that memorial stands on top of the wreck- still, atop of those men who couldn’t make it out of the ship.

It’s a haunting, and ghostly image.

Standing on the memorial, you can see still part of the ship’s hull, sticking out of the water. In the center, is a peek down into the sunken depths of the ship. Even more so, there are oil leaks- the “tears of the Arizona”- that are draining, still, out of the engines.

I was standing 6 feet above a thousand dead soldiers.

It is a remarkably close touch with death, in a way that is not imminent, but sobering. Close enough so that you can experience the emotion, but not the situation.

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The second battleship I visited that day was Battleship Missouri.

Y’all.

Y’ALL.

I was on a freaking battleship. What the heck?!

This thing weighs 58,000 tons, is over 98 feet long, and is a behemoth. Like, it’s swoll.

Some cool facts about it: it was launched January 29, 1944, served in World War 2, the Korean War, and Desert Storm, was the last battleship commissioned by the U.S., and nicknamed the Mighty Mo because it was a fucking badass.

You see those guns? Each one weighs as much as a Boeing 747.

A plane.

-And just for kicks-

Check out these guns! ;D

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What blew my mind even more than standing on the deck of a ship that fought in three wars was standing in the very spot where World War 2 ended. On the upper deck, there’s a plaque on the ground that reads "On September 2, 1945, the instrument of formal surrender of Japan to the Allied Power was signed, thus bringing to a close the Second World War."

It blows my mind. I have stood, at the very spot, where a war of millions, of countries fought, of citizenry mobilized, has ended. History ended, right here.

Crazy, huh?

After that, we explored the USS Missouri's interior. (I mean, c’mon! It’s the inside of a battleship- what could be cooler than that? :) )

It was a very decked-out ship (it was called a floating island where troops could spend entire months on board if need be). Tons

of bedrooms (for naval officers, nurses, petty officers), a postal office (lol), a secretary office, dining hall; winding mazes of corridors, and hallways-it’s pretty cool.

The most memorable part of the battleship for me, though, was a display on kamikaze letters. If you guys don’t know what kamikaze is...it’s the most tragic thing. They’re suicide bombers (young men only around 17-20) who volunteer to fly airplanes right down to their very death- all in honor of their own country. To me, it’s so vile, and horrible, to die like that, and yet, they signed up with enthusiasm. It's such a deliberate waste of a human life, in the deluded vision of love. It’s awful.

These were letters that the kamikaze wrote to their family members, before they left for the war.

I choked up while reading them. Just seeing the words-in handwriting; full, fleshed-out handwriting-of someone who’d died is just tragic. It’s like a little remnant of themselves, of a full, human life, and it just hurts so much.

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The last thing we did was visit the Pacific Aviation Museum. If you've been to the National Air and Space Museum in D.C, it's kinda like that! World War 2 airplanes, jets, helicopters, all used for different missions- desert, sea, land. Some of these airplanes were the actual model used in the war too!

What was really, really cool though, were the bullet holes in the windows.

I thought they were fake, but nope. These were the real bullet holes, shot by the Japanese, during the Pearl Harbor attack- still whole, still new. Never repaired, never fixed.

Crazy.

Just, crazy.

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So, if you are ever in Oahu- I definitely recommend you check out Pearl Harbor. Other than being the site of some cool history, there’s this unreplicable feeling of being transported into a different world. Reliving history. Being at the scene of so much condensed emotion, and being a part of that collective feeling.

It was quite an experience being at Pearl Harbor, and I’m glad I visited. :)

Next up: Day 3-Waimea Falls and the Dole Plantation. :)