A 75 minute ride takes me to the site which essentially turned the tide of World War 2. Pearl Harbor is a place which witnessed unimaginable violence on the fateful day of December 7, 1941 when Admiral Yamamoto's forces routed the entire American Pacific fleet.
The place is very solemn and there are a couple of survivors from that day who hang around in the memorial museum to tell their story and to sell their books. A short video is part of the tour and features a recap of events leading up to that day including actual footage from the bombings and the planning of the attack by the Japanese airforce.
How did such a huge air attack not get detected beforehand? The Americans did detect a huge signal on their radar screens but they were mistaken for an American fleet coming in from California that very day and neglected.
The Pearl Harbor memorial is based around the USS Arizona which was the single largest loss of life suffered in combat by the US armed forced. That battleship blew up and sank with 1,177 hands on deck after a torpedo hit its ammunition magazine.
A short ferry takes us to the USS Arizona sinking site and the ship has n
ot been recovered from the sea some 67 years after the incident. It still leaks one gallon of oil a day and I can see that on the water below as I enter the memorial which is built above the sunken hull of the ship. It gives me a very creepy feeling being on the site where hundreds of soldiers lost their lives in WW2; I'm not comforted any further by the fact that today is 2 days after the 67th anniversary of the attack.Makapuu Beach
Hawaiian for "Bulging Eyes", this beach is located below Makapuu Point, a projection of land marking Hawaii's easternmost point. I head here after my trip to Pearl Harbor to refresh myself and get out of the tragedy mindset.
This is one very pristine beach with no shops or homes nearby cluttering up the scenery.
Being the windward side of the island, the waves are very choppy at 8-10 feet in height and I lose my goggles on a particularly rough wave. After getting rolled around a bit by the oceans force, I headed back to the beach to explore the rest of the cove.Rabbit island lies in the horizon. It is aptly named not only due to its shape but due to the rabbit population living on the island.
I stroll the beach till around sunset and right after the sun sets, the cove is flushed with
moonlight. It is a haunting sight, the moon rising to the east, washing the waves in light and the soft yellow ray from the lighthouse on the adjoining mountain.I saw a large blue and yellow colored fish stuck in a little rock alcove; probably washed up by the waves. It was gasping for water and in trying to pick it up to chuck it back into the ocean, I got some painful barbs in my fingers and hunted for a band aid for the next 10 minutes. At least the fish got back into the ocean.....
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