Day
9 - Saturday, March 22:
Pearl
Harbor: Arizona Memorial, Missouri Battleship, Bowfin Submarine
View of
Arizona Memorial from the U.S.S. Missouri
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked. The U.S.S.
Arizona Battleship sank to the bottom of the harbor. On September 2, 1945, the
final surrender of the Empire of Japan took place in Tokyo Bay. The peace
treaty was signed on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri. Both ships are now on
display in Pearl Harbor.
Auntie
Gail wrote this haiku for the U.S.S. Arizona Battleship
She said a
haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables:
the first
and third lines have five syllables each, and the middle line has seven
syllables.
I wonder
why her haiku says Oil and Pearly Shells?
 |
| Pearl Harbor Visitor Center |
Inside the Visitor Center, Auntie arranged
for us to take a boat ride to the Arizona Memorial. While we waited our turn for
the ferry boat, we watched a 25-minute documentary film about the attack on
Pearl Harbor. We looked at some books inside the Pacific Historic Parks
bookstore.
Then we went outside to read the plaques.
They tell all about the battleships that were docked at Pearl Harbor the day of
the attack. I spotted a huge anchor on display.
 |
| U.S.S. Arizona Battleship Anchor |
This
anchor was recovered from the Arizona. The ship had three anchors. The crew
used one in calm seas, two during foul weather, and the third as a spare. Each
weighed nearly 10 tons.
War
and Peace
The U.S.S. Missouri Battleship is
on the far left. The Arizona Memorial is in the middle.
A haiku for the beginning and the
end of World War II:
Bookends of the War
Sinking Arizona, then
Missouri Treaty
We lined up to
board the ferry. The Arizona Memorial is in the middle of the harbor. The only
way to get to it is by water. It is a short ferry boat ride to the memorial. I
could see the Battleship Missouri past the Arizona Memorial. It was windy on
the ferry boat and I had to hold on to my hair ribbon so it wouldn’t blow away.
The memorial looks
like a long white building. It covers the sunken battleship. I couldn’t see the
ship underneath. Oil still leaks from the ship’s fuel tanks. It has been
leaking for over 70 years. Two or more quarts leak out every day. There is a
rainbow on the water where oil bubbles up.
Inside the
memorial there is an honor wall. All the sailors who died when Pearl Harbor was
attacked have their names engraved on the wall. People looked at the names on
the wall and read information on signs by the pictures. In honor of the sailors
buried on the ship, everyone stayed real quiet all the time we were at the
Arizona Memorial. I didn’t even whisper while I was there.
After the ferry
boat returned to the Visitor Center, we had to wait for a tour bus to take us
to see the Missouri Battleship and Memorial. We walked over to look at a
submarine. Its name was the U.S.S Bowfin. We went onto the deck and below deck.
I saw bunk beds where sailors once slept, a tiny galley kitchen, and all kinds
of gadgets on the wall.
U.S.S.
Bowfin Submarine
Permanently
home-ported at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
This is the Admiral
Clarey Bridge that goes over to Ford Island. The size of Ford Island is 450
acres, about one-fourth the size of Waikiki. The bridge spans the harbor where
Hawaiians once harvested pearl oysters. It connects Ford Island to the 596-square-mile
Island of OË‹ahu.
The bridge is very
long. We rode across the bridge on a tour bus that took us to the island. There
we visited the U.S.S. Missouri Battleship and Museum.
 |
| U.S.S. Missouri |
This
plaque is embedded in the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri Battleship
It
reads:
U.
S. S. MISSOURI
OVER
THIS SPOT
ON
2 SEPTEMBER 1945
THE
INSTRUMENT
OF
FORMAL SURRENDER
OF
JAPAN TO THE ALLIED POWERS
WAS
SIGNED
THUS
BRINGING TO A CLOSE
THE
SECOND WORLD WAR
_____________
THE
SHIP AT THAT TIME
WAS
AT ANCHOR
IN
TOKYO BAY
LATITUDE
35◦ 21’ 17” NORTH ~ LONGITUDE 139◦ 45’ 36” EAST
* * * * *
