2.2K 
Speaking before Congress on the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the historic address in which he described the sudden and deliberate attack on the American Naval Base in Hawaii as "a date which will live in infamy." Lasting just 90 minutes, the attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in the loss of 2,403 lives, with a further 1,178 wounded, along with the devastation wrought upon the various battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and aircraft that were caught completely off guard by the Japanese. 75 years later, the attack on Pearl Harbor is remembered as a key turning point in the Second World War, as the entry of the United States into the conflict was spurred in large part by the actions undertaken by the Empire of Japan. This week's Throwback Thursday will thus take a look back at Pearl Harbour's day of infamy, and at the site today which is a place of national remembrance whose many memorials and historic artefacts are among the most visited locales in Honolulu.
While the majority of vessels damaged during the attack were salvaged and returned to service within only a few months' time — some entered the war effort against Japan the following February — there were others, such as the USS Arizona, which were completely destroyed and their wreckage left to sink to the bottom of the harbour as a memorial to the brave men and women who died during the attack. After the war, the Pacific War Memorial Commission was created in 1949, followed by the placement in 1950 of what became the first official memorial at the site of the USS Arizona.
A decade later, in 1962, the current USS Arizona Memorial was completed by Austrian-American architect, Alfred Preis, whose design consisted of a simple white "bridge" that straddles the hull of the USS Arizona without making direct contact. The sleek modernist design of the memorial itself, which features a symmetrical dip, is meant to symbolize America's pride before the war, its depression following the attack, and its triumphant victory at the war's end.
At 184 feet long, the USS Arizona Memorial is a large site with an interior space that accommodates 200 people and receives an average of roughly two million visitors per year. Within the memorial, various artefacts from the wreckage can be seen, including the ship's anchor and one of its two bells. The wreckage itself can be viewed through glass observation portholes, as well as from either end of the structure from which it can be clearly made out. The wreckage is more or less intact and covered by only a few feet of water, with various parts of the wreck only partially submerged.
Three quarters of a century after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, veterans and their descendants continue to pay homage to the site. Those who served upon the vessel at the time have the option of interring their cremated remains within the wreckage of the ship, along with their fellow servicemen and women.
Have an idea for a future Throwback Thursday? Let us know by leaving a comment below!
