What a sobering experience visiting the memorial to the Arizona in Pearl Harbor. The Arizona was one of the many battleships of the U.S. fleet sunk in the surprise attack on Dec. 7, 1941, that day which still does live in infamy, by the Japanese.
The memorial, a white building seemingly floating atop the waters of the harbor is actually above the still sunk battleship. The battleship that contains the bodies of hundreds of the men that died in the attack...the attack from a nation we were not at war with.
You can see the sheen of oil on the water, as it still seeps from the hull of the ship. The gun turrets barely rise above the water, and you can see shadows of the shape of the great pride of the fleet. More men died on this ship than any other in this attack on a quiet Sunday morning.
I had read many accounts of this attack before. I had read the whys and the hows and the blames and the speculations. But nothing can show more the callousness of war, the sheer stupidity of it, than something like this. We had seen in a trip to Japan, Ground Zero at Hiroshima. So this bookended WWII for us. The last truly justifiable war, and still the death makes so little sense. Young men die so old men can fulfill ambition? People suffer so rich can get richer, and powerful gain more power? So one priest can prove to one iman that his god is better? That one sliver of land can be gained for a flag? And for this men are entombed in a hulk of metal under the tropical waters of an island paradise. For this, an island nations saw thousands die with flesh falling off their bones as atomic energy was unleashed.
Pearl Harbor was not exactly the "happy" Hawaii part of our visit, but I am so glad we went. It has stayed with me, as it should everyone.
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