The final resting place for 1,102 crewmen of the U.S.S. Arizona who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. They are still entombed within the Arizona herself. The Sunken battle ship is commemorated by a 184 foot-long memorial structure that spans its mid-portion. No part of the edifice touches the ship. There are three sections in the entry and assembly room, (a central or middle area) used for observations of the sunken ship and for ceremonies. Many visitors drop flower leis into the water from this section, honoring the dead. The third section is the shrine room. The room contains the names of all those killed on the Arizona and their names are engraved on a marble wall. Upon entering the shrine room, the reverence and honor it is was intended to inspire is immediately noticeable.
There are several Pearl Harbor tours to choose, from Roberts Hawaii tours, Discover Hawaii tours, and E NOA tours. There are many Pearl Harbor tour combinations.
Pearl Harbor Hawaii is one of the most popular tours on Oahu; in fact, it is the most popular tour in Hawaii, with millions of people visiting the Arizona Memorial every year. Since the USS Missouri made Pearl Harbor Hawaii her home, Mighty Mo has become one of the most popular Oahu activities.
Hawaii activities ebb and flow in popularity, but the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor Hawaii is a constant. Since the attack on Pearl Harbor Hawaii on December 7, 1941, people from all over will always Remember Pearl Harbor. Elvis Presley and other celebrities from Hawaii and around the world helped to raise money for the Arizona Memorial, and even though tours are free of charge, visitors' donations help keep the Arizona Memorial and the Arizona Memorial Visitors' Center a lasting memory for visitors to Hawaii.
Self-guided tours of the museum at Pearl Harbor Hawaii are available, with recorded narration on the tours. Queue up early; savvy Hawaii visitors know that Pearl Harbor tickets can sell out within a few hours. Leave your purses, bags, and diaper bags in the trunk of the car, back at the hotel, or in a nearby locker. Pearl Harbor has very strict regulations about what people on tours can bring on to the Arizona Memorial.
Watch a free movie outlining the attack on Oahu that fateful Sunday morning the USA was catapulted into World War II, when Hawaii was attacked by Japan, now our allies. The tours continue on a motor launch that takes visitors directly to the Arizona Memorial, with the USS Missouri keeping watch over her resting place from a nearby berth. Inside the Arizona Memorial, you can see oil leaking from the wreck, where over a thousand of her crew still sleep in the now-peaceful waters of Oahu, Hawaii. In the shrine, you can read the names not only of those killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, but also those survivors who asked that their ashes be laid to rest among their fallen shipmates.
Many people who visit Pearl Harbor Hawaii then take one of the tours to the National Memorial Cemetery at Punchbowl, the Hill of Sacrifice, which overlooks the island of Oahu. Hawaii has many sacred places, and Pearl Harbor and Punchbowl are two from our own lifetime. Oahu has a rich seafaring heritage, and visitors who go on tours to Pearl Harbor will see that tradition continues on Oahu, with many Hawaii shipbuilding companies and military ships alike converging in Pearl Harbor.
