Arranged a tour to visit Pearl Harbour and the memorial to those lost in the attack, especially those in the USS Arizona.

Pearl Harbour was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. Just before 8am on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels—including eight battleships—and over 300 airplanes. There was lots more information on how the Japanese spied on the base leading up to the attack, especially to determine the best day and time to attack.

More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. The whole site is a memorial to those who lost their lives, very sobering.

The USS Arizona was struck by an armour piercing bomb on the forward deck which ignited the ship’s powder magazine, causing a massive explosion that sank the ship rapidly. A total of 1,177 service members (sailors officers and marines) died, of which aporox 1,102 of the men who died aboard remain entombed inside the ship, only 107 of those have been positively identified.

There is a memorial structure straddling the sunken hull of the battleship, which you can only access by a Navy boat shuttle, prior to boarding one of the Park Rangers reminded people that this was not a fun activity, but a memorial and there may be friends and relatives of those that perished in the group. The most upsetting thing for me was that 45 survivors of this tragedy have been interred here, following their death so that they could lie with their colleagues.

There is a wall inside the memorial listing all those lost. The Park Ranger there actually said with recent technical advances, they are hoping to positively identify more of those still interred.