All Around Pearl Harbor

Growing up, I spent a good chunk of time wandering through museums on our family vacations. And I've gotten pretty expert over the years at smelling out the boring ones.


Fortunately, Pearl Harbor is not one of them.

I admit I was suspicious at first, which is maybe why it took me so long to get here in the first place. I'm just not a big fan of war mechanics- besides the chilling aspect of military operations, machine guns, torpedo physics, and even real-life tank and plane displays usually leave me cold.

But this museum is all about the people behind the machines. There is something here that everyone can relate to- young, old, male, female, veteran and pacifist alike.

Five separate sites scattered around the Harbor keep you on the move. The displays are brief, matter of fact and hands-on. And the information is surprisingly neutral- we hear almost as much from the Japanese perspective in that era as we do from the Americans fighting the war in the Pacific.

And thankfully, nowhere were we overwhelmed by too much data. You can easily read the information at each display in minutes and move on. Which gives visitors to the park time to absorb what they've just read, and come to their own conclusions about what happened during the war. I was really impressed by that.

Here's the USS Bowfin, a fully outfitted World War II sub. We had a blast scrambling around in the cramped spaces belowdecks:


The air traffic control tower on Ford Island, soon to be renovated as part of the Pacific Aviation Museum:


View of Ford Island from a Japanese Zero fighter's perspective. The USS Arizona is in the cluster of ships in the upper right corner:


A plane that President Bush, Sr. flew during flight training:


The USS Arizona Memorial, dedicated in 1962, and opened to the public in 1980:


A submerged part of the ship:


The Arizona's rusty smokestack:


500,000 gallons of oil still remain aboard the Arizona. And only 10,000 gallons have leaked out of the ship's engines since 1941. Oil continuously bubbles up to the surface to this day:


The roster of servicemen lost when the Arizona was bombed on December 7, 1941:



Believe it or not, we didn't actually see all the sites at Pearl Harbor this time. I'm saving a few for when we come back.

Learn more about visiting Pearl Harbor:
USS Arizona
USS Bowfin
Pacific Aviation Museum