Peer Into a Fallen Battleship at Pearl Harbor
Dec. 7, 2016 - See the U.S.S.
Arizona 75 years later. In 1941,
the battleship was destroyed when Japanese planes mounted a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The ship's remains have become a memorial, holding artifacts of everyday life such as shoes, soda bottles, and cooking pots belonging to the servicemen aboard on that fateful day. It is now the responsibility of the National Park Service's Submerged Resource Center, a team of archaeologists and photographers, to survey and document the remnants of the
Arizona to preserve the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in World War II. In this video, the center's deputy chief, Brett Seymour, describes the scene while diving and photographing the ship's wreckage, which still holds the remains of nearly a thousand victims who went down with the ship.
Read "75 Years On, Pearl Harbor Survivors Forgive—But Can't Forget."
VOICE OF BRETT SEYMOUR, DEPUTY CHIEF, SUBMERGED RESOURCES CENTER, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: Here we are at the No. 1 guns of the U.S.S. Arizona.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: This is the final resting place of the USS Arizona.
VOICE OF BRETT SEYMOUR, DEPUTY CHIEF, SUBMERGED RESOURCES CENTER, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: Often times diving on the U.S.S. Arizona, we come across artifacts like this shoe or boots sole. It’s artifacts like this that remind us of the human connections to the ship, and those who lost their live on December 7, 1941.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese planes mounted a surprise assault on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
VOICE OF BRETT SEYMOUR, DEPUTY CHIEF, SUBMERGED RESOURCES CENTER, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: Here we at the galley area or kitchen of the Arizona. The octagonal tiles would have been the floor. This is the area where sailors would’ve been getting their breakfast when those bombs started reigning down.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: The attacked killed 2,403 U.S. personnel and injured 1,178.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: The battleship was destroyed and now rests on the seafloor, with it the remains of nearly a thousand of the battleship’s servicemen.
VOICE OF BRETT SEYMOUR, DEPUTY CHIEF, SUBMERGED RESOURCES CENTER, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: This is the area of the ship where you can really see the devastation and the destruction. It was here that the ship buckled after that detonation of the fort’s magazine. You can see here that the deck has simply just broken and tore, falling away, sloping down to where that ammunition bunker exploded.
VOICE OF BRETT SEYMOUR, DEPUTY CHIEF, SUBMERGED RESOURCES CENTER, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: We’re swimming now to the stern of the Arizona. We’ve come across a hatch with stairs that leads down to something called “Officers Country.” It was below this deck where the admiral, the captain and other officers have their state rooms and cabins. Today, seventy-five years of marine encrustation and sediment has meant that this hatch really leads nowhere.
VOICE OF BRETT SEYMOUR, DEPUTY CHIEF, SUBMERGED RESOURCES CENTER, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: Here we have some Coke bottles that have been mapped and tagged by Park Service archaeologists. Most of the artifacts on the deck were tagged and inventoried on a regular basis.
VOICE OF BRETT SEYMOUR, DEPUTY CHIEF, SUBMERGED RESOURCES CENTER, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: This large, circular base is actually the foundation of the No. 4 guns. This is the area where survivors who decided to be laid to rest inside the ship. This is wear we place the urns during the military ceremonies and special events.
ON-SCREEN TEXT: The site is now a memorial to commemorate the valor and sacrifices of World War II.
