Just finished the tour.

I’m not apologizing.🖕

I’ve been there, saw it from back of the Peleliu as carrier backed out to leave Pearl. You could see it really well fifty feet above the water.

I did that tour December 8, 1991 50yrs +1day and the amount of elderly Japanese that were there wearing their hats and insignias really angered me. I had to take a second and sit down to cool off and say a little prayer because my back was up. As I sat there I saw many American veterans shaking hands and hugging the Japanese men. A peace came over me and I realized that if the men that I “worship” and deeply respect can mend old wounds who the hell am I to carry anger that I wasn’t even alive to witness? I went on to fully immerse myself in that solemn place and I’m glad that I had the change of heart because I think I got so much more out of it and I believe I honored those lives better by releasing my anger….forever.

I was there about 10 years ago. I was really disappointed in the video narrative implying that the only reason Japan attacked us was because we forced them to respond to our aggressive behavior against them.

Very special place. I checked it off my bucket list several years ago. My Dad was in the 25 th infantry division in WW ll. Stationed at Schofield Barracks. Hasbeen

It was all japs there when I went also, pissed me off too!

Beaucoup Japs here today. All very respectful. Dot heads are the loud obnoxious ones today.

It wasn't the Japanese, it was Japan. It wasn't the Germans, it was Germany. The apology is owed from Japan to both us AND the Japanese people.

My Uncle, went down on that ship, he was visiting a friend. If I recall, dad said he was stationed on the California. Went in 97, went out on the memorial, it is everything everyone describes. Somber, subdued. Also went to Punch bowl cemetery and found his stone/marker there.

I've been there twice, almost 50 years apart. There are so many Japanese residents and tourists on Oahu that street signs are in English and Japanese. I thought the movie was respectfully done for both sides. The Japanese people who shared our group honored that. The message of the entire memorial is Honor and Respect. The only loudmouths I saw who didn't "get it" were American teens.

I too was surprised by the number of Japanese nationals at the Arizona Memorial on the morning that I went. As I sat there pondering it, I realized that the average Japanese citizen did not want to go to war with the U.S. any more than the average American today wants to go to war with Russia. Greedy, egotistical, power hungry leaders set the ball in motion in 1941, just the current crew in the Swamp are trying to do today... I realized that Pearl Harbor was a big deal for the Japanese people (maybe even bigger deal than for America)...

I am concerned that Slo Joe's handlers are steering us into the same situation... Deja Vu all over again...

I got a chance to catch a ride on a P-3 from NAS Jacksonville to NAS Barber's Point back in '78, I think it was, and had friends in other VP outfits stationed there. We'd gone through A-School in Memphis together. The group that ended up in Hawaii had an apartment in a high-rise that overlooked the harbor and from their balcony I could see down on the Arizona. It was very sobering to look at it and ponder what had happened there just 37 years prior, even from a half mile away.

Visited the Memorial in '71 during my second tour in Nam. Maybe timing, but it was quiet and sobering.

Get up early and head up to punch bowl. When I was there we were the only people in the whole cemetery for about an hour until the buses started to arrive.

I went in 93 and was profoundly moved by the tour guide that was a survivor. How that man could lead several tours a day and talk about his fallen brothers was astounding.

I went in 2018 with my wife and it was less without veterans guiding the tour. Less because of the loss of those men and less because my wife never experienced the power of that tour. She has her grandfathers bronze star certificate hanging in her office.

My next stop. Pass his name and I will pay respects

Hatari: I can not tell from your posting whether or not YOU enjoyed your tour of the U.S.S. Arizona?
But I know I certainly enjoyed my three visits there.
I went twice with wife and family and then once by myself - that last occasion by myself was a profound and sobering visit.
I hope to get back to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial once more before I cross the great divide.
I have also toured the U.S.S. Missouri many times while it was stationed at the Bremerton Naval Shipyards.
The U.S.S. Missouri was a very favored place to take visiting VarmintFamily out of state relatives.
To a person they ALL enjoyed their visits and many were surprised that battleship, where the Japanese surrendered in World War II, was there/still existed.
Like one of the posters above I have also visited The Punchbowl (three times for me there as well).
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I've been to Oahu and the Arizona. Took a helicoptour that came in over the harbor, after our visit to the Memorial. Pretty cool.

I won't ever go back to Oahu, tho, unless it is to transfer planes at the airport.

Only about half the people speak English.... And there's too many people at 1/4 the number, far as I am concerned.

I've bn to Hawaii 6 or 7 times, only the once to Oahu.

First visit was in 94 and the second was 2000. Very sobering, and yes lots of Japanese folks but all seemed to be very respectful.

I was stationed in Pearl Harbor for a little over 3 years on the USS Willamette AO-180. Saw that memorial daily. It makes you think.

2Lt Elmer Ralph Ziegler
BIRTH 16 Sep 1921
Buckingham, Tama County, Iowa, USA
DEATH 10 Jul 1945 (aged 23)
MEMORIAL SITE*
Honolulu Memorial
Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii, USA

PLOT Courts of the Missing, Court 5, USAAF, World War II

Just finished The Punchbowl.

I very much enjoyed the tour of all three. I got the same feel of reverence at the Arizona or Punchbowl memorials that I feel each visit to the American Cemetery in Normandy. I haven’t the words to describe the deep emotions that well up from standing in the final resting place of these brave men.

Buckingham is not far from us, on a county road. For years I saw the sign to Buckingham when passing it on the highway. Finally decided to take that county road and see Buckingham. We now often take that road as an alternate route. The next time by, I will remember Elmer Ziegler.

Have also visited the Memorial. Same with the loud-mouthed teens. The short Vet guy that's been in a lot of videos and documentaries on Pearl Harbor jumped all over them.

I used to look at from my living room every day I was home. Was in the 25th I.D. for 3.5 years.
It is sobering. Gettysburg is another place you actually "feel".

It should be mandatory for all U.S. youth to tour after they are given a class on our history and the sacrifices given. They have sterilized our history in the schools.

memorial at the University of Arizona

https://speccoll.library.arizona.ed...s-arizona/university-of-arizona-and-uss-



https://localwiki.org/tucson/USS_Arizona_Mall_Memorial_at_the_University_of_Arizona

You’ll be pleased to know I have my college age son in tow. I’ve witnessed what they don’t teach in school and have made a point to show him some of the important stuff. Took him to Normandy. Made him watch The Longest Day before hand.

Made him watch Tora!Tora!Tora! Before this excursion.

He gets it.

Several years ago, my wife and I took a helicopter tour of Oahu and on the way back to the airport the pilot took us along what he said was the flight path of one of the first waves of Japanese aircraft. He brought us over the edge of the anchorage at about the same altitude and hovered for a bit to let us take it in and appreciate what "shooting fish in a barrel" really means in that context. It was freaking eerie.

Mom had a high school classmate, Walt Simon, who was lost on the USS Arizona.

Tip of the cap, thanks for that Hatari.

My pleasure.

1077 good men went down that day. The US Park service has offered to interred the ashes of any survivors of the Arizona upon their passing. 47 have done so. There are still 2 survivors of the Arizona with us today.