| :: Hawaii >Oahu
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Attraction >Landmark
| Pearl Harbor |
Address:
1 Arizona Memorial Place
| Hawaii |
Region:
Oahu
Rating:
 
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Description and Basic Information ::
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 Pearl Harbor is a natural deep-water harbor and longtime naval port. Located about 20 miles west of downtown Honolulu, it still serves as headquarters for the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The USS Arizona Memorial there is also a centerpiece in a series of attractions highlighting and commemorating the U.S. Navy in World War Two.
Few dates stand out in American memory like that of December 7, 1941. It was just after dawn on this Sunday morning that aircraft of the Japanese Combined Fleet under the command of Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto staged a surprise attack on elements of the American Pacific Fleet docked at Pearl Harbor, and with it brought the United States into World War Two. The attack was centered upon Pearl Harbor, where the American fleet with its nine battleships was harbored, but actually encompassed the combined military facilities on all of Oahu. A few bombs even fell in downtown Honolulu.
Almost sixty years later, that 'day which will live in infamy' is far from forgotten. Portions of the site of that dawn attack on Pearl Harbor are now a National Memorial Park. If you get an early start, you can take in the three major sites at Pearl Harbor in a single day: the USS Arizona Memorial, the USS Bowfin (a World War Two-era submarine and its adjacent museum), as well as the recently refurbished USS Missouri, docked on nearby Ford's Island. As the site of the signing of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, the USS Missouri makes a fitting bookend to the USS Arizona in the naval history of World War Two. |
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