March 18, 2017: Pearl Harbor

This morning we went to Pearl Harbor to see the memorial and monument.  I knew a little about Pearl Harbor before going, but not much.  I didn't realize that the monument was built over the USS Arizona where it sank, killing 1,700 men.  Many of those men's bodies are still inside the ship.  From the memorial, you can look down at the sunken vessel.  Oil still leaks from it, and the surface of the ocean around the ship is shiny from it.

I have a very basic understanding of World War II.  Most of what I know came from high school history class, or from the countless historical fiction novels I have read over the years.  I don't do well with remembering facts and dates, but stories stick with me.  I appreciated that the memorial was full of them.  Stories of women who were notified in a single day that they had lost both their husband and their son, stories of men who had pulled their comrades out of the burning water, stories of civilians who watched their harbor burn.  There were stories of Japanese pilots who flew over the harbor and dropped the bombs, and stories of a little girl who survived the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima 4 years later, only to die of cancer a few years afterward. It was her story, Sadako Sasaki's, that made the biggest impression on me.  While she was dying in the hospital, she made paper cranes and sent them all around the world.  These cranes were to remind people everywhere about the importance of peace.  One of her original cranes was placed at the Pearl Harbor Monument.  I think this is a beautiful recognition that war brings tragedy on all sides.

This isn't a picture of her original crane.  These are ones that other kids folded and donated after being inspired by her gesture.