Mom and Dads Visit - Day 4

Mom and Dad started their day with a walk up around the temple and behind the temple on the hill. Mom loves all the trees and flowers and the beautiful landscaping at the temple.

This is looking from the entrance to the temple back to Temple Beach.

This is one of the banion trees that is behind the temple. The vines grow down to the ground and set root and become a new trunk and eventual tree.

This is looking from the hill behind the temple across the two chapels and out to the Hukilau Beach. Our home is just past the two chapels towards the beach.

This is behind the temple on the hill.









These are some pretty birds that mom saw and they took a picture of. The are all around the island but very hard to get a good picture of.  Good job dad!!!

I finished some meetings in the morning while they were at the temple and then we headed to town (Honolulu) to visit the War in the Pacific Memorials.

This is the entrance to Pearl Harbor where we started the visit.

We drove over to Ford Island to visit the Oklahoma memorial. The USS Oklahoma had the second highest casualty count during the bombing of Pearl Harbor with over 500 sailors and soldiers killed when the ship was attacked and hit with 6 bombs. It sunk straight down.  They were later able to raise the ship and repair it enough to tow it back to the mainland for more repairs but a violent storm during the towing to California broke the USS Oklahoma free from its tow ship and it sunk.

As you can read from the plaque above, the memorial is constructed with marble pillars behind a black wall. Each pillar has a name on it of one of the sailors or soldiers that died on the USS Oklahoma.










This pillar has the name of Waldern Black on it.  There were a couple of them that were named Black. Probably relatives in some way or another.







We then went over to visit the USS Missouri. It was the battleship where Japanese officials surrendered to the Supreme Allied Commander, Douglas McArthur aboard the Missouri.










This gives you an idea of the size of the ship. It is over 800 feet long (almost 3 football fields).





























This is a view of the Missouri from the boat that took us on the tour of the harbor. Under the antennae you see (the highest point on the ship) below is a covered area where the surrender was signed.











It was right next to the Captain's quarters on the deck of the ship where the surrender took place.




















We then drove over to the USS Utah Memorial. The Utah was another ship that sustained casualties. At the time, the Utah was a practice target ship. In other words, it would go out to sea and the planes would come and drop dummy bombs on the Utah for practice. They did not have sophisticated targeting equipment at the time, so they had to practice hitting what they could see and the USS Utah was the target. It was built with a 12 inch wooden deck so that the dummy bombs would bounce off of it.  Since the ship had no wartime use, it was left sunken in the harbor and remains there today. There were 58 sailors and soldiers who were killed on the ship when it rolled over and sunk.

Here mom and dad are reading the plaque at the monument.

The plaque has a quote on it from Senator Frank Moss from Utah on 7 December 1971. It is a statement he made during the dedication. He said, "While we honor those who here gave their last full measure of devotion, all of us hope and pray that the time will come when we no longer need to dedicate memorials to men who died in battle -- that we will dedicate memorials to those who live in peace -- to all nations and all men."





In these pictures, you see what remains of the USS Utah as it sits as a silent grave for those 58 who died inside.

Here it is from the other side as we passed by in the boat during the tour. The Captain who gave us the tour stopped to render honors. As he and his crew turned and saluted the USS Utah as we passed, dad stood up and joined them. This was followed by all the other sailors on the tour and those of us that are retired.


















Fortunately, I called at just the right time and arranged for a special tour with the Joint Base Pearl Harbor Protocol Office since dad is a veteran of the Korean War. Navy Captain Doug Holderman, Cheif Staff Officer gave us the tour. He took us around the harbor and shared some very interesting insights and facts.

It is his opinion that the attack that day was unsuccessful for the Japanese because with the exception of the Utah, Oklahoma, and Arizona, all of the other ships were back in service, most within six months, and in the war. The Japanese hit less than 20% of our ships and totally missed our shipyard and fuel tanks. They did not sink any aircraft carriers or submarines which ultimately did the most damage during the war to the Japanese fleet. Had they hit the fuel tanks, it would have taken about a year to replenish the fuel and in that time, Japan would have had control of the Pacific. If they had damaged the shipyard, we would have been unable to extend repairs to the ships. This does not undermine the loss of over 2000 soldiers and sailors that day, but the war may have had a different outcome had they hit the fuel tanks or the shipyards.  The other thing it did was threw public support behind the US President and we entered the war as a unified nation defending freedom. The Japanese general that planned the attack made a statement to the effect that he felt that all the attack had done was awaken the sleeping giant.

During the attacks, one ship, the USS Nevada, was able to get two boilers up and start moving toward the open sea. It probably saved many more lives as the Japanese felt that if they could sink that ship in the entrance to the harbor, they could seal off the harbor and trap the remaining ships. As they fiercely attacked the Nevada, the Nevada Captain realized he wasn't going to make it and did not want to block the port, so he ran his ship aground at this location which is now called Nevada Beach.



Then we visited the USS Arizona Memorial. Here 1177 sailors and soldiers are buried in their ship. It was struck by only one bomb which hit the front of the ship and went down about 4 decks before it exploded. The explosion hit the ammo storage at the front of the ship and it also exploded. The ship sunk within minutes killing most of the men that served on the ship.

 It started to rain as we approached the memorial and a rainbow arouse right above it. It was a beautiful site.

 This is the entrance to the memorial.

 This wall contains the names of all the men who died on the ship. There are others here that have the last name of Black. One of them was in the Marine Corp which is listed in the bottom right corner of the picture.

Behind mom and dad is the rear gun turret of the USS Arizona which sits above the water.

Here are mom and dad with Captain Holderman.

We left Pearl Harbor with a better understanding of what happened at Pearl Harbor and with the opportunity to see it up close. May we never forget those who died defending the freedoms we enjoy today.

It is interesting to note that war is usually caused by a few people with hairbrained ideas of power and fame that cause others to have to fight. Most of those involved in the Pearl Harbor attacks have graciously forgiven the attackers and moved on with their lives. May we do the same.