Pearl Harbor National Memorial
Standing at Pearl Harbor is unlike almost any other historic site in America. The harbor is beautiful but beneath those waters rests on of the defining moments of the twentieth century. I remember how history suddenly feels very personal here.
ON the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft attacked the United States Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. More than 2,400 Americans were killed, and the attack pushed the United States into World War II. The USS Arizona still lies beneath the water.
The site was first protected in 1962 when the USS Arizona Memorial was established under the National Park Service following years of public support and fundraising efforts led in part by Pacific War veterans and citizens determined to preserve the memory of those lost. In 1980, the memorial became part of the newly created USS Arizona Memorial unit of the National Park System. Then in 2019, Congress redesignated the site as Pearl Harbor National Memorial.
Pearl Harbor is a reflective experience. Visitors from around the world pause to consider
the lives that were forever changed that day. It becomes more than a history lesson; it becomes a place of remembrance.
An entire generation was shaped by the war that followed the actions of December7, 1941. History is found in the landscapes where ordinary lives were suddenly changed forever.
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