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.
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.
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 Oˋahu.
 |
| U.S.S. Missouri |
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
* * * * *
