… was proclaimed on this date, December 5th, four years ago (2008).
This monument comprises nine historic sites representing various aspects of World War II history in the Pacific. Five sites are in the Pearl Harbor area: the USS Arizona Memorial and visitor center; the USS Utah Memorial; the USS Oklahoma Memorial; the six chief petty officer bungalows on Ford Island; and mooring quays F6, F7, and F8, which constituted part of Battleship Row. Three sites are located in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands: the crash site of a consolidated B-24D liberator bomber on Atka Island, the Kiska Island site of Imperial Japan’s occupation that began in June 1942; and Attu Island, the site of the only land battle fought in North America during World War II. The last of the nine designations is the Tule Lake Segregation Center National Historic Landmark and nearby Camp Tule Lake in California—both of which housed Japanese Americans relocated from the west coast of the United States.
Contrary to popular belief, the USS Arizona is no longer in commission. As a special tribute to the ship and her lost crew, the United States flag flies from the flagpole, which is attached to the severed mainmast of the sunken battleship. The USS Arizona Memorial has come to commemorate all military personnel killed in the Pearl Harbor attack.
