Pearl Harbour - a day that will live in infamy

The first thing we did was get on the bus and off to Pearl Harbour to learn some history. We got tickets for the U.S. Arizona Memorial trip that included a film first about the things that led up to the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese navy on December 7, 1942. This of course brought the U.S. into the war the next day (of course Canada had been in it already since 1939).

On the right is the Arizona Memorial and the left is the USS Missouri - the last battleship.

There are only a few pieces of the Arizona's superstructure sticking out of the water. Oil also continues to leak up to the surface a little bit at a time. Basically, the ship was destroyed once its ammunition blew up killing everyone on board.




Then we visited the USS Missouri. This ship was in construction before Pearl Harbour but it did not make it to the war until its end. However, it was the ship upon which the surrender of Japan took place. It was actually in and out of use and the last action it saw was in the Gulf War where it shelled a number of targets in Kuwait. However, the day of the battleship was pretty much over and it was decommissioned and finally made it to Pearl Harbour to be a museum.





















Finally, we returned to the airport and caught our flight to Hilo. They met us at the Hilo Airport with leis. The end of two days of travel. Off to the Hilo Hawaiin Hotel for the next few days and off to bed. Everyone was taped in for the night - but some were so tired that when I checked on them no one answered because they were all asleep already!

Next post - the volcano!!!