Oahu’s Museums and Memorials

By Flint Whitlock There are few places on earth that have as many World War II museums, memorials, and monuments located in such a small area as the island of Oahu. Here are a few of the most significant: Pearl Harbor Over 90 percent of the tourists who come to Oahu visit Pearl Harbor. To begin your tour, start at the U.S. Navy Base at Pearl Harbor and proceed to the Visitor Center, where you will board a Navy launch that takes you out to the USS Arizona Memorial. Here you will find the names of all the American servicemen who lost their lives aboard the battleship that fateful day. You can also view the remains of the sunken ship (which is still leaking oil) in the clear, shallow waters of Pearl Harbor. A visit to the Arizona Memorial is a solemn and moving experience, even for those who had not yet been born when the attack occurred. The launch will also take you around Ford Island, where you can see the upturned hull of the World War I battleship USS Utah (BB-31), which was being used as a state-of-the-art bombing and submarine target and anti-aircraft gunnery training ship at the time of the attack. (The USS Utah memorial can be visited while on a tour of Ford Island.) [text_ad] As one of Hawaii’s most popular tourist attractions, the wait for the tour to begin can

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