USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor

The USS Arizona Memorial stands over the sunken battleship USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. On 7 December 1941, the ship was destroyed during the attack on Pearl Harbor, which pulled the United States into World War II. The memorial marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines who died aboard.

The white memorial was built in 1962 and can only be reached by boat. It stretches across the sunken hull without touching it. More than two million people visit each year. The National Park Service runs the visitor center, which opened in 1980, and the wreck was named a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

How the memorial began

After the war, the wrecked upper parts of the ship were removed. In 1950 Admiral Arthur Radford added a flagpole to the ship's main mast and began a tradition of raising and lowering the flag. The same year a small temporary memorial was built above the remaining deckhouse.

Robert Ripley, creator of 'Believe It or Not!', had urged the Navy to build a lasting memorial. A commission was set up in 1949, and the present memorial opened in 1962.

Visiting today

Visitors take a short boat ride from the visitor center to the memorial. From its open center you can look down at the ship's hull resting in shallow water, about 12 metres deep according to our data.

The Arizona memorial is one of several sites that make up Pearl Harbor National Memorial. It is a quiet place, so people are asked to be respectful.

On the globe

The model shows the white memorial bridging the sunken battleship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.