The Farnsworth Family: Hawaii Trip: Day 4: Pearl Harbor

The adventures of Pearl Harbor.

Tiff and I have had many places we have wanted to see and check off our bucket list. Pearl Harbor was one of our bucket list sites. I have always loved the history of WWII and this was the highlight of our trip for me. We went to a breakfast on our first day and found out they only let out 4,500 tickets into Pearl Harbor and after they reach that mark they stop selling the tickets. I found out from friends that they wished they would have had more time to see things but they stood in line forever and missed out on some of the tours. So we decided to buy a package which guaranteed us to see everything but the tour of the submarine. When we arrived they gave us head sets that talked about the different places on the tour. Now you know what the things around our necks are.

These first three pictures are of the harbor where the memorial of ships that sunk during the raid from Japan. You can see in the distance the Missouri and the memorial for the Arizona.

The first part of the tour was the actual history of what was happening a few days prior to the raid, up to the day the Japanese bombed Hawaii. I thought I knew a lot about what happened during this time period, but as we went through this tour I realized knew very little.

Each area of the tour talked about the American side and of the Japanese side of the story on what led up to this raid. They had model size figures of the Japanese carrier and also the Arizona. They even showed the type of torpedoes the Japanese used. As we were walking around the tour we saw a torpedo that exploded. There was a gentleman standing by it and he said, "I was there when they found this torpedo in the harbor that did not go off. I saw them lifting it out of the water. Once they got it out of the water they had to take it somewhere and detonate it,"This is the skeleton of what was left. Tiff laughed at me because I was taking so many pictures. I did not care I did not want to forget about what I saw.

This anchor is the original anchor that came off the Arizona. It was huge. The picture of the white ball is actually one of the largest radar systems in the world. It is a floating/movable radar station. Outside they had big cement memorials of all the men who died on each ship, airplane and ground. They said that there was a total loss of thousands of men on the Arizona and other ships in the harbor.

The raid started at 0755 in the morning and ended 2 hours later. The Japanese planed on three waves of air raids. The First one to knock out the American's ability to get their airplanes off the ground, and the second one was to take out as many ships in the harbor. The third wave luckily never happened and there really was never an explanation of why it was called off. If they had succeed in the third wave it would have been a big win for Japan. The Japanese planned to bomb all the fuel and maintenance areas on the base.

Before we went out to the Arizona Memorial, we sat and watched a movie on how this tragedy came about. After the movie, we boarded a small boat and headed out to the Arizona Memorial. Here are some close up pictures of the Missouri we took on the boat ride out.

Here we are at USS Arizona Memorial. Under that white building is the sunken ship of the Arizona. The whole experience was amazing to see and be a part of. They asked all the people to talk very softly while at the memorial for respect and reverence.

The picture above with Tiffany, is the room of all the men who were on the Arizona at the time and died. There was also names on smaller plaques at the bottom left and right sides. These names are of the men who survived. Their names were later added to the memorial when they died.

These pictures gave us a feel of how big the Arizona really is. The middle picture is of a memorial plaque that was placed on the Arizona. The big circle shape is where the one of the big three barrel guns went. The small one with the wires is where the mast was.

The Arizona still has a lot of oil in it and is still leaking oil to this day. They say the oil spots are the tears of the fallen. There are some environmentalists who want the government to get the oil out of the ship because it is hurting the sea life. The amount of oil leaking per year they say is around 65 gallons, not enough to hurt anything. If they were to take out the oil, it would mean they would disturb the sacred burial grounds of the dead soldiers.

Here is Tiffany in front of the USS Bow-fin Submarine. This submarine was called the Pearl Harbor Avenger. I sunk hundreds of enemy ship during WWII. Unfortunately we were not able to tour the submarine but we read a lot about it as well as the other submarines used during WWII.

One of the highlights of the whole tour was when we got to meet an actual Pearl Harbor survivor. This sailor was on the USS Wisconsin when the Japanese started bombing Pearl Harbor. He was such a nice man to meet and talk to. It was a great day to learn about history of our country.

After we were done with the tour of the harbor we jumped on a bus and headed over to the USS Missouri.

Before we went to the Missouri, just outside of it was the USS Oklahoma memorial. All the white post were made of marble with each of there names on it. The picture of the statue was the one of the Admirals who was over the Missouri.

Here she is the mother of all battle ships. She has seen many battles and have helped win many battles. This battle ship has been in WWII, the Korean War, and then went into storage for awhile and then was pulled out of storage, refurbished and sent to the Gulf War to rage fire and a lot of chaos.

This ship is know for its weaponry. The big cannons can fire as long as 27 miles away and be within an inch away from the target or right on target. This ship has done some major damage in other countries. Now the Government gave it to Hawaii as a token of remembering Pearl Harbor. The guns are facing the Arizona as a way of saying we are protecting those fallen soldiers. On a final note, and fun fact. Our tour guide mentioned to us that at any time the government they can take back the Missouri and have it battle ready in one year. I thought that was cool to hear.

I also got a picture of a submarine coming into the bay while we were on the Missouri. Our tour guide jokingly told us we can take as many pictures as we want until enemy submarines came into the harbor and then there could be no picture taking until it was gone. Luckily this submarines was American! The second picture above is of the view from the Captain's deck.

These three pictures are of the signing of the official surrender of WWII. The surrender was signed aboard the Missouri in Japan. Another fun fact, just after the signing, one of the commanding officers said, "Let them fly!" and hundreds of war planes flew over Japan as a way of saying the war is over. The Japanese officers signing the treaty believed that after signing they would be executed by the Americans but we were bigger than that and graciously shook their hands instead. One of the signing officers from Canada accidentally signed on the French line so as a way to correct the document without reproducing it, they just crossed out the lines and rewrote them in pen. We thought that was pretty funny but the Canadian officer didn't. He was a decorated war hero until that small mistake and then sadly he became the joke of Canada.

Another cool war story our guide told us was about a kamikaze airplane that hit the Missouri. During the Kamikaze raids, an airplane hit the back of the Missouri leaving the plane's shell on the back deck of the ship. As the soldiers were cleaning up the wreckage, they found the body of the Japanese pilot. They asked the captain what they should do with the body and the captain decided to give the Japanese pilot and honorable burial at sea. The crew was kind of shocked by this but willingly did it. This Japanese soldier was given an honorable burial even though he was the enemy. Later, after the war, the family members of this pilot graciously thanked the captain and crew members of the Missouri for honoring their son. The Captain believed that this pilot died for his country just like Americans were doing so he deserved to be treated the same.

After the outside ship tour, we were able to walk inside the ship and see the living areas of the ship.

Here are some cool areas of the ships with some of the old equipment they had in it. You can see the first lap top computer. Tiff and I both laughed when we saw this. Also Captain Tiffany of the USS Missouri. She is plotting her next move and decision as Captain.

As we were leaving, I was lucky enough to see the U.S. Navy Fire Department fire engine. The station was right by the Missouri. After leaving Pearl Harbor, we drove to the the Punchbowl Cemetery. This cemetery was like the Arlington Cemetery of Pearl Harbor. There was fallen soldiers names on the wall with the statue.

After the tour of Pearl Harbor we took a tour of the city of Honolulu and some of the sites. We were able to see the Kings Palace and the Governors Palace also. The Kings Palace is the Police station from Hawaii Five-0. King Kamehameha was in the front of it. I was excited to see this place because I am a big Hawaii Five-0 fan.

Once our tour was done around 4 pm we went down to Waikiki Beach.

I could not leave Hawaii without saying I went swimming at Waikiki. Tiffany relaxed in the sun getting a tan as you can tell from her feet. As for me, I went exploring. The beach had a man made wall about 50 ft out to help the waves not come in. I decided to get on top of the wall before the big waves hit. I tried the first time and missed and got hit by a wave. the second time was a success as you can tell with me walking on the wall. Tiffany got some really cool pictures of some big ships coming in and out of Hawaii.

Everyone told us we need to see a Hawaiian sunset, so we did. We even took a picture to prove that we were there and saw the sunset.