Miscellany: The USS Arizona Memorial

When my family and I went to vacation in Hawaii, one of the places we visited was the USS Arizona Memorial, operated by the National Park Service. The visitor center showed a short film on the events and aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and then we were off to the memorial, which sits above the sunken USS Arizona.

The place is both a memorial and a graveyard for thousands of American sailors. I suppose in this modern era there is no such thing as a formal declaration of war, and even the very legality of war itself can be a source of much debate. But I have to believe that the nation lost part of its innocence that fateful day.

The memorial itself is beautiful; a gleaming white span with numerous openings and a huge wall with the names of all those who were killed there. The silence and the constant ocean breeze are what still remain in my mind though.