As the captain promised, and as the sun was rising, we pulled into Honolulu Harbour at around 6am. The wind was howling, plus 40 knots sustained. The outer edges of Hurricane Nolo were being felt, but thankfully the wind was the only effect we saw. We get up early as we have a day out at Pearl Harbor today, so we enjoy breakfast for the first time in Luminae. We’re on holidays, so most days we miss breakfast. We enjoy eggs, croissant, sausage, ham, juice, and a smoothie.
We then get ready for our tour. We have to pack light. Pearl Harbor is both memorial and active military base. Bags larger than an iPhone aren’t allowed, unless they’re see-through. Our guide explains a little later that there was a shooting at Pearl Harbor a few years ago, so stopping bags was the answer, not stopping guns.
So we fill our pockets, passports, camera, snacks, phones, all shoved in. We go to our meeting point for the tour. Our bus promptly arrives at 9.30, and our host for the day, Robert, starts checking names off. We board and are ready to go. Robert explains it’s about a 30 minute bus ride before we arrive, and we can’t take photos from the bus once we enter the area of Pearl Harbor. When we do arrive, Robert guides us to the security entrance and ushers us in. We’re then transferred to another bus and driven around to the first exhibit, USS Missouri.
After the first shuttle bus drops us off, Robert gets our group together and explains the day’s activities. We’re to meet him in about 90 minutes after touring the ship, then go to the visitor centre for a look around, then a movie, then a ferry to the USS Arizona, the key exhibit. He says he’ll text us, and ultimately we’ll all meet back at the bus at 3pm. He seems a bit disorganised and not really sure about the day himself. Anyway, once at the Missouri, we head off to explore this massive ship.
Big Mo, as she’s affectionately called looms large in front of us. Massive guns at each end. The last of the battleships, and the site where the Second World War in the Pacific finally came to an end following the Japanese surrender. She’s one of four Iowa-class battleships, commissioned in June 1944, and at 887 feet she’s the largest battleship the US Navy ever built. She fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, took a kamikaze strike to her starboard side with only minor damage, and helped shell the Japanese home islands before the war’s end. Missouri wasn’t at Pearl Harbor for the 1941 attack, she hadn’t even been built yet, but on 2 September 1945 she hosted the formal Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay, General MacArthur presiding while Foreign Minister Shigemitsu signed the Instrument of Surrender on her deck. Since 1999 she’s sat permanently in Pearl Harbor on Battleship Row, in the exact spot the USS Oklahoma occupied when she was torpedoed and sunk in the attack, so the ship that closed the war now stands watch over the harbour where it began. She served on through Korea, was reactivated in the 1980s, and was finally decommissioned for good in 1992 before becoming the museum ship we walked through today.
We wander below deck through a rabbit warren of cabins, offices, and mess halls for sailors and officers. We see the dentist’s surgery, recreation areas, communications and armaments rooms. It’s tight, claustrophobic, dangerous, doorways with high steps, overhanging pipes and machinery. We also imagine what it must have been like without the air conditioning we’re enjoying, which is struggling to keep us cool, but it’s still cooler than being on deck.
We emerge to the open air and walk past the area where a kamikaze pilot and aircraft hit the ship. We see the massive guns and anchor chain, a reminder of the size, power, and role this ship played. We depart and are almost blown away as we leave the ship. The wind from Hurricane Nolo is persistent.
We head to the shuttle bus meeting point and bump into Robert. He directs us to the pick-up spot and seems a bit unsure about our next activity, shifting our pick-up time as he’s running two groups today.
We catch the bus and head to the visitor centre. We grab a snack and hunt for a seat. This is where I’m going to be a little critical of Pearl Harbor. Now don’t get me wrong, Pearl Harbor is one of the world’s most important sites. December 7, 1941 still lives in infamy, as US President Roosevelt said. I was moved when I visited Hiroshima a few years ago. Today was, for me, about closing that circle. I get the importance.
But for an American memorial, I’m disappointed. One thing America does well is memorials. Look at 9/11, the Mall in DC. Pearl Harbor is looking tired, run down even. There’s no seating to sit, listen, remember. The museum halls remind me of school museum visits in the 1980s. They need refreshing.
Adding to this overall feeling of disappointment is the wind, and an announcement I hear informing anyone in earshot that ferries to the Arizona are being progressively cancelled. Really. It’s a short ferry ride. We’re in a protected harbour and there’s no swell or waves. Anyway, at this stage our ferry hasn’t been cancelled.
After a snack and a seat on a dirty bench, we watch the pre-ferry documentary. That’s the highlight. An incredibly well-narrated account of the events that led up to the bombing at Pearl Harbor, and what damage it caused, setting the path for the war in the Pacific, which ended shortly after America dropped two nuclear weapons some three years later. Stockard Channing was the narrator, and she did a wonderful job conveying the emotion, the enormity, and the impact of Japan’s decision to launch the attack.
We emerge and it’s almost time for our ferry. But alas, it’s been cancelled. We speak to the staff about the cancellation. They’re steadfast, despite our predicament, that is, we’re in Hawaii for one more day, they’ll honour our tickets, but we won’t be able to use them, so it looks like a visit to the USS Arizona will have to wait for another time, if at all. I’m incredibly disappointed, but take it in my stride. We decide to leave at that point. It’s not fun, it’s windy, and we’re not enjoying the day. We find our bus, and luckily Robert is there with a bus full of passengers. We grab Mardi’s handbag, despite its small size, she wasn’t allowed to take it into the memorial. We bid Robert farewell, he’s surprised our ferry was cancelled, shouldn’t he have known? He still seems a bit confused. He doesn’t know where the rest of our group is, and many of us are just getting Ubers to go and do something different.
We decide to head downtown. Mardi bought some things that were delivered to an Amazon drop spot inside a Whole Foods store. We explore the store, pick up the packages, do a little exploring before heading back to the ship.
Overall, it’s been a little disappointing today. We return to the cool comfort of the ship, a quiet visit to the Retreat and some dinner before an early night. Tomorrow is another busy day. Today marked the last day of the cruise for 90% of passengers. We’re staying on through to Sydney with 300 guests, plus the 2,500 who board today, including about 1,300 Aussies.
