A hot headed working companion was in the Navy and visiting the memorial back around 1969.
A Japanese couple visiting asked him where the Arizona was. He went over to the edge of the memorial and pointed down...
‘RIGHT THERE WHERE YOU PUT IT YOU M**********RS!”
I was there in 1969 and saw lots of Japanese fighter bombers flying around as they were filming the movie TORA TORA TORA at that time.
It is weird to go by the airport and see lots of Japanese fighters coming in for a landing.
> “RIGHT THERE WHERE YOU PUT IT YOU M**********RS!”
My wife’s Uncle Cliff was at Pearl Harbor and to his dying day was similarly opinionated. Plus he would disdain all Japanese products with vicious contempt. But he could distinguish the difference between Japan and Americans of Japanese origin or ancestry. I recall the subject of the 442nd came up because one of his neighbors had served in that regiment, a man he respected for proving his loyalty in a very difficult way. He also knew about the Issei who served in the Navy during the Spanish-American war.
Sadly everyone in my wife’s family thought Uncle Cliff was just an irredeemable racist due to his experience, with no understanding of the nuance.