Posted on 07/28/2015 11:36:12 AM PDT by zot
Here is a moving tribute to the veterans of the USS Arizona that I didn't know about.
Ping to a video on the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor.
Bump
I can still remember my first rip to the Arizona Memorial. It was 1979. We were in Hawaii for a convention. I'd taken my family, so I took the wife and two young daughters. They didn't quite understand it all yet, but they instinctively knew it was a special place. The other thing that struck me was that more than half of the visitors on board that day were Japanese. Every one with one or two cameras.
Teach American history through these eyes.
Bump
I’m Ok until they start playing taps. Then for some odd reason my allergies kick in at the same time.
Wife and I took this Navy boat out to the Arizona Memorial a few years ago. When we got within 100 feet of the wreck, I caught a whiff of the N6 fuel oil that continues to bubble up. The Arizona went down with full bunkers, we were told.
Another issue is the age of the BB, now underwater for going on 75 years. There is concern that she could collapse, turning out the million plus gallons of oil and the remains of those who were lost in the attack.
The Navy has considered building a cement sarcophagus around the Arizona but the memorial is a very tender subject and no commander wants to take up this challenge.
Shame how GHW Bush minimized the 50th anniversary in consideration for Japanese 'feelings'.
I would love to see Her in person, sacred ground for us squids. I was sixth fleet, Mediterranean.
Thanks for posting.
Thanks for posting. When I was out there in 2000 for our honeymoon, I thought that perhaps it would be like visiting any other war memorial, but it really is treated like sacred ground. The film that you watch before going out to the ship does not minimize the underhandedness of the Japanese aggression. I was glad to see that, and wondered what the many Japanese tourists were thinking.
I doubt that the tourists look upon this as anything more than history.
There are so many Japanese residents of Hawaii they all came to terms with it many years ago.
I’d feel the same way about visiting Hiroshima,painful,but in the past.
.
That is a wonderful video, thank you. RIP sailors, RIP.
Army Brat.
1951-1961, Japan.
After the Arizona memorial, we went over to the Missouri and took that tour. This BB had just come out of the paint shop and looked like a million bucks, or several million.
We stood where MacArthur took the Japanese surrender and walked through the interior of the ship. The galley featured the Missouri dinnerware, set out as if the Captain and officers were five minutes away from chow.
The bridge was a curious mix of 1940s primitive and 1980s missile components. This BB was one of the battleships briefly brought back to action by the Gipper during his presidency.
BTW;
Someone on this discussion mentioned the large number of Japanese touring the Arizona (and everywhere else in Hawaii.) I asked one of the young ladies on the Navy boat why they wanted to see the memorial and she said she and her friends wanted to see close up what their Oji-san grandfathers had done; they couldn’t believe it really happened.
The usually chatty Japanese were silent while inside the memorial...
It is a very moving experience.
I got the see where the war began and where it ended. It is difficult to express how it made me feel at both times.
I will always be grateful that I was able to see both.
It is a moving tribute indeed, it moved this old Navy man. I wasn’t aware of this video, I have bookmarked it, thanks for the link.
Thank you
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.