Remember Pearl Harbour

"When the last survivor of the USS Arizona joins his lost shipmates, the tears of the Arizona will stop".

In 1941 the Japanese launched a devastating attack on Pearl Harbour. Nearly the entire US battleship fleet was bombed and 3 ships were sunk, including the Arizona, which was unrecoverable. To this day, she sits at the bottom of Pearl Harbour, so massive that her gun turrets break the surface of the water, a war grave for more than 1100 souls including 23 sets of brothers and 1 set of father and son.

On my last day in Hawaii, which was also 26 January Australia Day, I went to Pearl Harbour. I was joined by Aij from Melbourne and Lisa from Birmingham. It was a bright sunlight day and after spending 1 1/2 hrs on a Honolulu local bus, all the Japanese tourists were disgorged into the expensive shopping districts and the rest of us, particularly a lot of pensioner American white folks from the mainland made it to the Harbour.

Pearl Harbour is well worth a look-see for any history buff or military afficiado, or both. The facilities set up for tourists were excellent. At a respectful distance on the shore a "Mess Hall" was set up, a forerunner no doubt to the sets of *MASH* with the same feel about it. Glen Miller and the Andrews sisters blared from hidden speakers, banners hung from the roof depicting Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter and apparently the food was deep fried enough to satisfy the US military (or hungry, gluten-eating tourists).

The Arizona Memorial sits in the middle of the Harbour, suspended directly over the sunken ship, with a shrine room and a dedication wall to the fallen. Most moving, a separate plaque of all the survivors who have died since and elected to have their ashes brought back and buried with the Arizona, the most recent being 2006.

The girls left me after our video screening of the disaster and trip to the memorial (everyone must watch it before being taken by US navy ferry out to the memorial). What was interesting in the video was that the US lack of action in WWII prior to Pearl Harbour was underplayed significantly, in fact they slipped up and indicated that the US was selling oil to the Japanese for at least the 1st year of the war).

The "tears" of the Arizona is the slow leak of oil that has continued, unchecked from it for the past 60 years. I am absolutely baffled as to why some environmental boffin hasn't successfully put a proposal for how to stop it to the government without disturbing a war grave. The locals believe it will stop when all the survivors have died. More than likely they are right as after more than 60 years, there can't be much oil left.

I went on the the USS Missouri, which was well worth the visit and the guided tour. Phil, our little and stocky ex-US Marine was an excellent guide. As I frantically made unsuccessful mental conversions from pounds to kilos, Phil told us about how much gunpowder the Missouri could load etc. We were shown through the Captain's staterooms which was also awesome.

The Missouri was significant in that it was named by a certain Mr Truman's daughter before the war. Mr Truman later went on to become the US President and when the Japanese were to declare their unconditional surrender, he sent the Missouri (named for his home state and by his daughter) to Tokyo bay for the signing of Japan's unconditional surrender on its deck. According to Phil, the USS Missouri was fully loaded and armed in readiness for any dodgy tricks (my words) on the part of the Japanese and they were ready to blow up Tokyo harbour and be sunk rather than walk away from a fight.

It was quite an experience to stand in the same place of the signing of the surrender on the deck of the Missouri. One original of the peace accord is also installed on the deck in a display cabinet. The accord was almost not finalised when the Japanese looked over the document and saw the Canadian representative had signed his name in the wrong space and correspondingly, all the allies had also signed in the wrong spaces below it, like a domino effect. The Kiwi representative, who was not suprisingly last to sign, had to find space in the footer at the end of the page. The Japanese were reassured that the allies would not reneg on the agreement and they left the ship.

And that's how the war in the Pacific ended. Not with a bang but a New Zealander forced to the bottom of the pecking order.

The Missouri has been commissioned and decommisioned several times. Most interestingly, the last time she saw action was during the Gulf War. The radioman had to write and draw maps backwards on clear glass for the war room to view through on the other side. That in itself was impressive as I haven't improved my skills since the 2nd grade.

What was chilling was actually going into the war room and seeing those last maps, drawn during the desert storn campaign, still on the wall.