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Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Battleship Missouri Memorial

Above, the USS Missouri docked at Pearl Harbor. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii is home to the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), the ship where Japan signed the documents of surrender in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.

Compared to the USS Arizona, the USS Missouri is a newer warship.

According to the Battleship Missouri Memorial website:
Born in the midst of World War II, the shipyard workers at Brooklyn’s New York Navy Yard constructed the battleship in time for her launch on January 29, 1944 and commissioning as the USS Missouri on June 11, 1944 with Capt. William M. Callaghan in command.
Two daily tours of the USS Missouri are offered daily:
The Battleship Missouri Memorial offers two daily tours with much more to explore on your own. The main tour is included in your General Admission ticket and takes you to the exact spot where WWII ended and is fully ADA accessible. The second is called "The Heart of the Missouri" tour and takes you deep inside the inner workings of the ship including the engine rooms and gun turrets. This tour is not ADA accessible and is not open to children under 10.
There were concerns about having the Missouri docked near the Arizona.

Above, the USS Missouri and the USS Arizona Memorial. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

According to Wikipedia:
Originally, the decision to move Missouri to Pearl Harbor was met with some resistance. The National Park Service expressed concern that the battleship, whose name has become synonymous with the end of World War II, would overshadow the battleship Arizona, whose dramatic explosion and subsequent sinking on 7 December 1941 has since become synonymous with the attack on Pearl Harbor. To help guard against this impression Missouri was placed well back from and facing the Arizona Memorial, so that those participating in military ceremonies on Missouri's aft decks would not have sight of the Arizona Memorial. The decision to have Missouri's bow face the Arizona Memorial was intended to convey that Missouri watches over the remains of Arizona so that those interred within Arizona's hull may rest in peace.

For more information on visiting the Battleship Missouri Memorial, go here

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