Pearl Harbor is not a tourist site, even though 1.6 million people visit every year, the most of even Hawaiian site. It is first and foremost a memorial.
A five minute ferry ride, skippered by two Navy sailors, takes you to the wreck of the USS Arizona, the third turret still rising above the water line.
You get a sense of the gravity and tragedy of the Japanese attack of the harbor when you see the wall of names of those who perished when the USS Arizona was bombed. Our guide, a retired Marine, told us 39 sets of brothers and one father and son died in the blast. (After, the Navy would not permit brothers to serve on the same ship.) A survivor passed away last year and had asked that his ashes be buried with his fallen sailors. A diver took his ashes down to midship on December 7, 2021. His may be the last burial at sea for the USS Arizona, as the two remaining survivors, both 100, have said they would like to be buried on the mainland.
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