Chapter VI: SIGNIFICANCE: Memorials, Myths And Symbols (continued)

The USS ARIZONA as a War Memorial

As early as during the war, the Navy discussed plans to make the ARIZONA's visible remains a war memorial. Even then, divergent views on a memorial's nature and purpose reflected the mythic quality of the ship and its symbolism. While ultimately the ship was to serve as a war grave, it was the primary interest of the U.S. Navy to memorialize the ship as a "Navy obligation to what had been one of the fleet's proudest ships and the sailors who went down with her" (Slackman 1984:47). The ship itself, while a naval memorial and war grave, is not the war memorial. That distinction belongs to the concrete arched structure that spans the sunken hulk but -- symbolically -- does not touch it. The sunken ship is the artifact and reminder of December 7, 1941. As such, it is a potent symbol that is enhanced and interpreted by the memorial structure. The 1962 memorial, supposedly dipping in the middle to symbolize the initial low point of U.S. fortunes after the attack and rising at both ends to symbolize the nation's rise to victory, is less a memorial to the ARIZONA than it is to the great experience of American World War II. Architect Alfred Preis:

. . . viewed the United States as an essentially pacifistic nation, one that inevitably would sustain the first blow in any war. Once aroused by that shock, the nation could overcome virtually any obstacle to victory. Because of that characteristic, it was unavoidable -- even necessary, in Preis' view -- that this nation suffer the initial defeat at Pearl Harbor. He meant his design for the memorial to be a reminder to Americans of the inevitability of sustaining the initial defeat, of the potential for victory, and the sacrifices necessary to make the painful journey from defeat to victory

(Slackman 1984:74).

The war memorial's basic message meets Preis's intent. The ARIZONA's loss serves as a vehicle for personal reflection on war's causes, conduct and results. When the shock and initial anger of December 7 had diminished, the ARIZONA transmuted to a symbol of what could happen if the nation were again caught unaware. The battleship stood for the need for military preparedness, for not underestimating potential foes, for alertness, and for mutual understanding and respect (Prange et al. 1986:629).

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