Arizona Revisited

Shafts of sunlight illuminate Arizona's structure directly under the Memorial. Photo by Brett Seymour, NPS.

Introduction Dan Lenihan was asked by the National Park Service to survey and map the remains of USS Arizona, bombed by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. Over a thousand men died when it exploded and sank in Pearl Harbor; and the bombing raid precipitated American involvement in World War II. Lenihan’s observations derive from the many trips he made to Pearl Harbor from 1983 to 2001 to carry out an initial study and many follow-up dives.

In August of 1982, I was asked by the superintendent of the USS Arizona Memorial to examine the remains of the giant warship and assess what it would take to map it in its historic context on the harbor bottom. "No problem" was my answer. I was prime for a quick lesson in humility. Here was the tomb of over a thousand sailors and marines, the ship whose name was on the lips of hundreds of thousands of American fighting men bent on revenge after the "day of infamy," men who shouted "Remember the Arizona" as they engaged the Japanese in battle after bloody battle in the Pacific theater.

A bowl and fork located in Arizona's galley area. Photo by Larry Murphy, NPS.

My overriding initial impression, however, was not of historical presence, it was one of difficulty. I was fixated on the challenge of mapping the ship. It was the biggest object ever mapped by anybody, anywhere in an underwater environment - three times the size of the Statue of Liberty. We could only see about 10 to 15 feet of the vessel from any one point. The water averaged visibility of about five to seven feet and, even turning your head side to side, you could only take in an area perhaps the size of a ping-pong table.

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