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

Archeological and Anthropological Values

Some people may be critical of studying archeology of the recent past, particularly for a subject as well-documented as World War II. Archeology, after all, is often viewed as the recovery of lost or forgotten information from the distant past. In truth, archeology actually functions as a scientific tool to extract meaningful information about human behavior from the material record regardless of age. Given an event of the magnitude and emotional impact as Pearl Harbor and the ARIZONA's loss, perceptions and memory -- even the historical record -- are clouded by what the participant or historian chose to see or thought they saw. People see the same event differently, based on their unique psychology and experiences prior to the event. While archeologists suffer from the same "behavioral baggage" in their analysis, they work not from imperfect memory and selective documentation but rather from the wide range of physical remains of an event. The study of the ARIZONA and other sunken remains from December 7, 1941, offers not only first-level impressions of what happened and what survives, but also provides the means for assessing reality against perception and accounting for the differences in human behavior. Hence, the archeology of Pearl Harbor is a laboratory for analyzing society's myths, symbols and images -- the expression of what makes people what they are.

At a different level, the archeology of Pearl Harbor is the means for anthropological assessments of the ships, the crews and the events of December 7, 1941. There can even be anthropological assessment to the reactions of people to the archeological study. That the ARIZONA is indeed a very sacred place in American culture is evident in the decision not to enter the wreck and disturb human remains. The ship presents a unique archeological situation, different from dealing with older human remains, such as Custer's men, Indians, or even the enemy's dead from the Second World War. A variety of reasons -- respect, concern for living relatives, and propriety -- come to mind, but these reflect our cultural beliefs as Americans at this place and time. Other war dead are actively sought, forensically identified and reburied in cemeteries. The United States Army runs the Central Identification Laboratory (CIL) in Honolulu. Primarily created to recover and identify the remains of some 2,500 Americans presumed killed in Vietnam, CIL expanded its mission in the 1970s to include the remains of Americans lost in the Pacific during World War II. The best known CIL case dealing with World War II casualties involved the recovery of 22 men's scanty remains from the wreckage of a B-24 bomber lost on the Owen Stanley Range of New Guinea. CIL's forensic anthropologist, Tadao Furue, analyzed shattered bones and teeth to amazingly provide each "body" with a name. The remains were returned to their families more than 40 years after they died, and the pilot, Robert Alfred, is buried in the national cemetery in Oahu's Punchbowl (Sheehan 1986). The ARIZONA's dead are "buried at sea." Yet Japanese families seek remains of their dead, even from sunken ships, and cremate them with due ceremony. This example provides a contrast to the ARIZONA, indicates how basic cultural behaviors and values are represented in the design of the study.

If the remains of Pearl Harbor dead are sacrosanct, the physical remains of ships and aircraft are not. Artifacts salvaged from the ARIZONA are scattered around the United States like holy relics. The silver set resides in Arizona's capitol building, while one of the ship's bells rests on a pedestal in the memorial. An anchor from the ship adorns the entrance to the visitor center ashore. Fragments and instruments from Japanese planes shot down during the attack are displayed at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere in the United States. The discovery of other Pearl Harbor "relics" have resulted in their recovery from the bottom in the past, most notably a midget submarine recovered in 1960. Public interest was highest in the submerged cultural resource assessment when items that potentially could be recovered were found, notably again a midget submarine. But when a particular "artifact" could not be recovered, the capturing of images on video in drawings resulted in peaks of public interest. The maps and drawings of the ARIZONA impart a fuller sense of what lies beneath the oil-soaked waters of the harbor, and are eagerly sought. Similarly, the scale model of the wreck intrigues visitors who seek more than glimpses from the memorial.

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