This morning dad and I went to Pearl Harbour National Memorial Park (
http://www.pearlharborhistoricsites.org/). When we were driving, the GPS decided to take us on a tour (we went the wrong way). When we made it to the park we got tickets to go on a ferry tour of the USS Arizona. We had a little bit of spare time before the tour so we looked through the Museum.
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| Replica of the USS Arizona |
These are some of the replica boats that fought in the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbour
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| Japanese aircraft carrier |
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| A replica of one of the shallow-depth modified torpedoes used by the Japanese |
This was a great chance to learn some history about the start of the US involvement in the Second World War against Japan. I was particularly affected by the words and actions of the Japanese admiral Yamamoto
After we had looked in the museum we went on the tour. First you watch a little video on what happened on that day/morning that the attack happened. Then we got to go out on a boat to see the boats that have sunk. You couldn't really see the boats that had sunk, you just saw the "tombstone" of the boat which was a big piece of concrete that had the name of the boat written on it.
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| The rusty metal poking above the water is the gun turret of the USS Arizona - the only part above the waterline |
Thousands of American military died that day, when the Japanese attacked with such surprise and ferocity. All six airfields were destroyed, and 21 ships in the naval fleet were incapacitated - including nine sunk battleships. This served as a perfect indicator that the age of the battleship was over.
The Japanese lost only 29 planes from their attack squadron of 305, and one midget submarine.
Following this, we went on a tour of the USS Bowfin - a WWII era submarine - which fought in the of Midway. Ranked 15th in the world for the number of "kills", it sank 44 Japanese warships in its time of service.
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| Eliza in the control room. Look at all the brass fittings |
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| Standing on the deck looking towards the bow and the conning tower |
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| Eliza in the gunner's seat |
I would have loved to be there. It is quite sad to find out that so many American troops died that day, and the Japs just got away with the attack. Great writing both of you and you must have had a lot of fun without me ðŸ˜. keep having the time of your life in Hawaii. love you 😘 and great writing, this blog is superb.
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Thanks Loges. You rock. When walking on the submarine, both Eliza and I were thinking of you.
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