If you come to Oahu, then one of the most meaningful attractions you could possibly visit is the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. On my recent visit to the Hawaiian Islands, just as soon as I checked into my Oahu Hotel I headed out for a visit to this revered site.
The memorial honors those who died in the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an event that entered the United States into World War II. 350 Japanese bomber planes attacked Pearl Harbor, killing 2,383 people and wounding another 1,178. The attack on Pearl Harbor also sunk eight huge American battleships, damaging 21 ships in all and destroying 347 planes.
The Arizona Memorial is 184 feet long and located directly over the wreck of the U.S.S. Arizona, the ship where 1,177 died and 900 remain entombed.
The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial was designed by an Austrian architect named Alfred Preis. Preis had fled the Nazis in 1939 and he later moved to Hawai’i. President Dwight Eisenhower approved the building of the Arizona Memorial in 1958.
An Elvis Presley benefit concert at Bloch Arena in Honolulu on March 25, 1961 raised about $64,000 toward the Memorial’s $500,000 price tag. On May 31, 1962, which was Memorial Day, the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial was officially dedicated. In 1989 the Memorial was designated as a National Historical Landmark, and is now one of Hawaii’s most visited historic sites, with more than one million people visiting each year.
Once I am comfortably ensconced back in my Oahu Hotel that I got as part of my Oahu Vacation Package, I sit and think about the sacrifices that have made by the U.S. military. We are so lucky to be able to live here in the greatest country in the world, and I think about the fact that freedom isn’t free, it is earned by the brave men and women of our military.