BYOV: bring your own vegetables: Hawaii Trip: O'ahu (Pearl Harbor)

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

An interesting side effect to having your heart-gutted in the shadows of Hiroshima's A Bomb Dome and Peace Museum is that the memory has a tendency to resurface at every nuclear museum and World War II Historical Site encountered. The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu enticed an echo of the earlier Hiroshima-visit, as well. American portrayals of nuclear technology is frustratingly lacking in the face of the Hiroshima Peace Museum's approach. We show the planes that dropped the bombs. We show to-scale models of Little Boy and Fat Man. But we don't show the countless pairs of children's shoes, their kindergarten owners turned to dust in the attack. A focus on the technological advancement and justifications, and a lighter hand on the consequences.

Nooooooooooow we're in the right spirit to talk about the USS Arizona memorial. We visited the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor which functions as a tomb for those lost in the Pearl Harbor attacks. It is an incredibly solemn site and a very lovely, fitting floating memorial. Survivors of the USS Arizona often request to be buried with their fellow servicemen below, which is a telling sentiment of the event.

Pearl Harbor also has some other sights to see, including the USS Missouri and an aviation museum. The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed aboard the USS Missouri, the last battleship commissioned by the United States. Although, it's since been retrofitted for service in the Gulf War, it's still interesting to see what a 'modern day' battleship might look like.