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Veneration at Pearl Harbor
77 years ago, today, December 7, 1941, America was formally at peace, while much of the world was in flames. It was a sunny Sunday morning in Pearl Harbor, when the skies filled with Japanese attack aircraft and a peaceful day exploded into war. The strike was aimed at the old heart of the U.S. Pacific fleet, the battleships floating at anchor in Pearl Harbor.
Before dawn on 7 December 1941, the American strategic center of gravity in the Pacific reposed in the seven battleships then moored along “Battleship Row”, the six pairs of interrupted quays located along Ford Island’s eastern side. Quay F-2, the southernmost, which usually hosted an aircraft carrier, was empty. Northeastward, Battle Force flagship California was next, moored at F-3. Then came two pairs, moored side by side: Maryland with Oklahoma outboard, and Tennessee with West Virginia outboard. Astern of Tennessee lay Arizona, which had the repair ship Vestal alongside. Last in line was USS Nevada, by herself at quay F-8. These seven battleships, ranging in age from eighteen to twenty-five years, represented all but two of those available to the Pacific Fleet. The Fleet flagship, Pennsylvania, was also in Pearl Harbor, drydocked at the nearby Navy Yard. The ninth, USS Colorado, was undergoing overhaul on the west coast.
The fleet at Pearl Harbor represented America’s responses, since the beginning of the 20th Century, to the last naval arms race, the race to build the most powerful floating artillery platforms. One of the oldest, the USS Arizona had been the “next step of the US Navy’s response to the naval arms race that had begun in 1906 when the Royal Navy completed the HMS Dreadnought.” In a single morning, the race to build the biggest, fastest, battleships was ended, replaced with the new race for superiority through naval air power.
The USS Arizona was struck by several bombs, but it was the massive secondary explosion of ammunition on board that doomed the ship and her crew.
[T]he battleship was utterly devastated from in front of her first turret back into her machinery spaces. Her sides were blown out and the turrets, conning tower, and much of the superstructure dropped several feet into her wrecked hull. This tipped her foremast forward, giving the wreck its distinctive appearance.
Blazing furiously, Arizona quickly settled to the bottom of Pearl Harbor, a total loss. She burned for more than two days and was subsequently the subject of only partial salvage. Over 1100 of her crew were killed, including Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, Commander Battleship Division One, and the ship’s Commanding Officer, Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh. Their sacrifice, and that of the other men lost at Pearl Harbor, is now permanently memorialized by the USS Arizona Memorial, erected over her sunken hull in the berth it has occupied since shortly after 8 AM on 7 December 1941.
Damaged beyond repair, the USS Arizona was left in place, a watery grave for at least 900 sailers. The next year, as much material was salvaged as possible, leaving the submerged hull, visible through the water. Many other places, at sea and on land would take on great significance through the course of the war, but “Remember Pearl Harbor!” was a rallying cry, amplified within days by a hit song of that name. The singers urged: “let’s remember Pearl Harbor, as we did the Alamo.”
While a memorial was proposed shortly after the war, the bureaucratic gears were still grinding slowly when the Korean War erupted. The men on the USS Arizona were not ignored, as “Admiral Arthur Radford had a flagstaff placed on the wreck in 1950 and ordered that the colors be raised at the site every day.” President Eisenhower signed legislation in 1958, authorizing the creation of a memorial, along with public fundraising.
The fundraising was slow, and seemed stalled until the King took an interest in 1961. Elvis Presley headlined a fundraising concert that, while it did not raise all the required funds, reignited public interest, completing the fundraising that year. The USS Arizona Memorial was dedicated the next year.
The memorial has over 1 million visitors, from around the world, annually. It was closed to visitors after its dock became unsafe earlier this year, due to harbor bed settling. In response, expedited contracting was authorized to get the repairs done early in 2019. While survivors will not be able to go onto the Memorial this year, there will be a ceremony on the shore, overlooking the USS Arizona.
The National Park Service and the United States Navy will host the National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 77th Anniversary Commemoration Ceremony to honor and remember the 2,390 American casualties lost during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the island of Oahu on December 7, 1941.
Video of the ceremony will be posted at the YouTube page of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument.
Like the Vietnam Memorial, the USS Arizona Memorial is a site of veneration. The number of visitors, and the annual return of survivors and their families, shows the significance of the place. Flying across the ocean to visit year after year is not an act of mourning but of devotion. The memorial structure is built over, but not touching the ship, which is a grave. Flag raising, salutes, flyovers—all these are formal acts of honoring the ship and its crew resting within.
The day that continues to live in infamy.
My grandfather was a marine who served on the USS Arizona during WWI. My parents were intelligence officers who met in Japanese language school during WWII. My mother became a codebreaker and my father served at Pear Harbor translating captured documents and interrogating prisoners.
December 7 has a special meaning for me.
Not only in this case, but in the last few years, the government has expedited the process of identifying and bringing home as many of the 83,000 unidentified remains of service members who died since December 7, 1941 as possible. This was in the local paper two weeks ago.
The link is here, it is a funeral notice and obituary for Bert Eugene McKeeman, age 25, who passed away December 7, 1941 while serving aboard the USS Oklahoma. His funeral service was held last Saturday, December 1, 2018.
I’ve been seeing a number of these in the last few months. It is especially touching after all these years, when they finally come home to those who knew and remember them.
Minor correction: Nevada and Oklahoma, were also present at Pearl Harbor on December 7, and both were older than Arizona. As with Arizona, Oklahoma was too badly damaged to be repaired.
Thanks. Fixed it.
Preach it!
For the first time since they began commemorating the event on an annual basis, there will be no Arizona survivors at today’s ceremonies. The Navy says that there are now just five such men and their advanced age prevents them traveling.
Seems to me that making something happen where they are is appropriate. I hope that is so.
Thank you for your post. Peter Grant at Bayou Renaissance Man has a post which complements it:
Amen!
Indeed, the Pennsylvania, Arizona’s sister in the Pennsylvania class, was 4 months older than Arizona. Apparently, being in dry dock made air attack a bit harder, although the Japanese did try. I had not heard before about one of the heroes of Pearl Harbor remembered in a Business Insider piece.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin recounts George Walters‘ memory:
He used a crane to swat at attacking aircraft.
Of the four oldest battleships at Pearl Harbor, two were destroyed in the attack and the other two were expended in nuclear bomb tests.
This year’s ceremony:
Yes, but in between those events Nevada and Pennsylvania were repaired, refitted, and rained a lot of hurt down on the Axis Powers in two oceans.
Thank you, @cliffordbrown, @seawriter, and all for service and the chance – once again – to learn and remember: Semper Fortis/Semper Fidelis and Rest Easy, Brothers!
Please remember, I just write about history. I am not a veteran and my military experience was limited to ROTC.
FIFY
Absolutely, @seawriter; but your comments and amplifications add to learning and remembering in a more comprehensive way; so thanks are due!
True where “hate and discontent” are operationalized as:
Oh yea baby that is exactly what I’m talking about.
Speaking of which and if memory serves, the last time our battleships fired onto enemy ground was under the sainted Ronaldus Magnus onto the shores of Lebanon.
The USS New Jersey saw action bombarding Lebanon in 1983 and 1984, while the USS Missouri and USS Wisconsin fired their 16-inch (406 mm) guns at targets in Kuwait and launched missiles during Operation Desert Storm:
That’s a man, baby.
I visited two months ago and took this, but I just now realized it looks like the Missouri is guarding the fallen Arizona.
I commend to your reading:
@jamesgawron The Captain of the Nevada: Dec. 7, 1941
@dougwatt From December 7, 1941, to “The Long Awaited Day”
Go Navy!
Thanks for the info.