USS ARIZONA MEMORIAL
Submerged Cultural Resources Study:
USS Arizona and Pearl Harbor National Historic Landmark
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Chapter VI: SIGNIFICANCE: Memorials, Myths And Symbols (continued)


The ARIZONA as a War Grave

The USS ARIZONA is a war grave, in addition to being a naval and war memorial. These values are closely interrelated and complementary. The greatest single loss of life at Pearl Harbor (and in United States naval history) came when the ARIZONA's munitions exploded, killing 1,177 of its crew. The collapse of the vessel's forward sections and the intense heat of the blast and the fires that followed made recovery of only a few bodies possible. Given the nature of the destruction, possibly only a few others would have been recovered even if the battleship had been raised and systematically dismantled during the war. Thus the ship became a tomb for hundreds of its crew. The men aboard were declared buried at sea. Now the ship serves on occasion as the burial site for survivors who in recent years have had their remains interred in the No. 4 turret's barbette.

Other burial places of servicemen killed in action have become national memorials and shrines. Many Civil War parks in the National Park System first were designated as national cemeteries. Another memorial to military defeat and disaster is Custer Battlefield. Recent archeological work has indicated that the battlefield contains scattered remains from the men of the 7th Cavalry (see Figures 6-3 and 6-4 ). Blood-shedding to protect an ideal or defend a nation is a sanctified ritual that creates "hallowed ground." Gettysburg is a prime example of this phenomenon. It is also for this reason that the ARIZONA is first and foremost a reminder of December 7, 1941. Without the dead aboard, the site would be less compelling -- empty memorials do not have the drawing power of tombs. The desire to visit the graves of famous and noteworthy dead is strong, and reaffirms common cultural bonds and ties. Humans seem to possess an inherent need to confront their own mortality, and visiting a war grave provides a means for doing so.

survivors and wives of Little Big Horn
Figure 6.3. Survivors of the Little Big Horn (Reno Benteen Battlefield) and wives pose at Custer Battlefield in 1886, photo by D. F. Barry.
(Custer Battlefield N.M. collection)

Custer Battlefield
Figure 6.4. Modern view of Custer Battlefield, one of the few U.S. memorials to military defeat.
(Custer Battlefield N.M. collection)

Although sunken naval vessels lost in battle in the deep sea are considered worthy war graves, the rusting, visible hulk of the USS ARIZONA was not unanimously regarded as appropriate for a final resting place for its crew. However, wartime priorities, the difficulty of salvaging the vessel and recovering the bodies resulted in most of the dead being left on board. As early as 1955, the commander of the 14th Naval District (headquartered at Pearl Harbor) wrote the Secretary of the Navy of his determination that the Navy do some thing with the wreck because "this burial place for 1,102 men is a rusted mass of junk . . . an appropriate memorial should be constructed..." (Slackman 1984:57). The continued existence of the ARIZONA as a visual vault for the dead was disturbing to others. Proposals ranged from dismantling the ship and burying the dead with other war losses, including other Pearl Harbor dead, at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific to burying the ship beneath landfill.

The memorial, originally intended for the ARIZONA's dead, became a statement on war, with the ship and its crew serving as a metaphor. The original design concepts of Alfred Preis were reflective of the site as a grave. In 1950, Preis had envisioned a floating "eternal flame." The design he submitted for the actual memorial was similar to European crypts visited by Preis in his youth. It included a submerged viewing chamber open to the sky with portholes where visitors would "view the underwater remains of the ship, encrusted with the rust and marine organisms that reminded the architect of the jewelled imperial sarcophagi" (Slackman 1984:73). That design, with its stark confrontation of death, met with a lack of enthusiasm from the Navy. Preis designed the present memorial with its emphasis as a war memorial inspired by, but not confronting, the reality of the ARIZONA's destruction and sinking. While the plaque inside the memorial and the ARIZONA's bell commemorate the ship, the basic purpose of the memorial itself, as decreed by Congress and designed by the architect, is (as per Public Law 87- 201, the authorization of funds for the memorial in 1961) "in honor and commemoration of the members of the Armed Forces of the United States who gave their lives to their country during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941."

Unresolved questions about the ARIZONA's loss, as well as the desire to seek and identify submerged "relics" from the attack, not for recovery but for archeological study, were factors in the National Park Service decision to conduct research dives on the ships ARIZONA and UTAH, and the area of Pearl Harbor. However, as the first NPS superintendent of the memorial noted, "Visitor curiosity first spurred our need to learn more about the battleship" (Cummins 1984:4). Interest continues to focus on the raison d'setre: the ARIZONA.


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Last Updated: 27-Apr-2001