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The 184-foot memorial straddles the sunken hull of the battleship USS Arizona and honors those who died in the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
At approximately 8:10 am, on the 7th December 1941, the 31,400-ton USS Arizona exploded, having been hit by a 1,760-pound armor-piercing bomb that sliced through her deck and ignited her forward ammunition magazine.
"On board Arizona, the ship's air raid alarm went off about 07:55 am and the ship went to general quarters soon thereafter. Insofar as it could be determined soon after the attack, the ship sustained eight bomb hits; one hit on the forecastle, glancing off the face plate of Turret II and penetrating the deck to explode in the black powder magazine, which in turn set off adjacent smokeless powder magazines.
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A cataclysmic explosion ripped through the forward part of the ship, touching off fierce fires that burned for two days; debris showered down on Ford Island in the vicinity.
The blast that destroyed Arizona and sank her at her berth alongside of Ford Island consumed the lives of 1,103 of the 1,400 on board at the time - over half of the casualties suffered by the entire US fleet on the "Day of Infamy." (Source United States Navy archives)
For more information contact Hawaiian Holidays.
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| Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial |
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| Acts of heroism |
on the part of Arizona's officers and men were many, headed by those of Lt. Cmdr. Samuel G. Fuqua. The ship's damage control officer, whose coolness in attempting to quell the fires and get survivors off the ship earned him the Medal of Honor.
Posthumous awards of the Medal of Honor also went to Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd, the first flag officer to be killed in the Pacific war, and to Capt. Van Valkenburgh, who reached the bridge and was attempting to fight back when the bomb hit on the magazines, and destroyed her.
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