Arizona Memorial

We spent a morning at the Arizona Memorial. This was my 2nd time here. The museum and the memorial are very powerful reminders of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.


The Memorial sits across the sunken battleship Arizona where it sank within minutes of being hit by Japanese torpedoes. The majority of the crew died with the ship.

Various plaques relate the names of the crew and the valiant efforts made in Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning.

The battleship itself is visible in the shallow waters. In the 60 years that the hulk as sat on the bottom of the harbor oil has leaked in droplets, rising to the surface and creating rainbows and sheens on the water.






The drops of oil known as 'Rainbows of Tears' add to the legend of the sunken battleship. The battleship is a tomb, containing the remains of the crew. Now there are concerns about the rusting metal and the volume of oil that may still be in the hull. The memorial is sinking as the hull collapses. Efforts are being made to secure the memorial more firmly to the bottom of the bay.

If the hull still contains thousands of gallons of fuel oil, an environmental disaster may happen if the hull ruptures before the oil can be removed.