Models & Kits

Info on Pearl Harbor: Facts and Battleships

Pearl Harbor, west of Honolulu on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, is a U.S. Navy deep-water naval base and headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is also Hawaii’s most popular tourism location. Commercial tour operators offer a variety of Pearl Harbor ship tours around the numerous military memorials and museums commemorating the attack by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, which brought the U.S. into World War II.

Pearl Harbor began as a large, shallow bay teeming with oysters. It was named Wai Momi or Pu’uloa by the native Hawaiians, who considered it the home of the shark goddess Ka’ahupahau and her brother Kahi’uka. To allow easy access for canoes and larger vessels, the Ewa chief Keaunui widened and deepened the Pearl River estuary. The U.S. took ownership of Pearl Harbor in 1887, designating it “Naval Station, Hawaii” after the annexation of Hawaii in the 19th century.

The Attack’s Aftermath
The American flotilla lost 9 ships, and 21 ships were severely damaged. The death toll reached 2,350, including 68 civilians. 1,178 non-casualties were injured. Out of the military personnel lost at Pearl Harbor, 1,177 were crew of the USS Arizona.

The Attack: How it Happened
The Imperial Japanese Navy used Aircraft and midget submarines on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at 6:05am on December 7, 1941. Six Japanese carriers under the command of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto launched a first squadron of 183 airplanes, hitting outlying Hawaii-based ships and military installations at 7:51am, and military airfields of Ford Island.

The battleship Arizona was gouged with an armor-piercing bomb that detonated the forward ammunition magazine, sinking the ship in a matter of seconds. The U.S. navy anchored in Pearl Harbor was attacked at 8:30am by a second volley of 170 Japanese planes , mostly containing torpedo bombers.

Battleship Arizona Memorial Tour
1,500,000 guests per annum are welcomed to the Arizona Memorial, just off Ford Island on Pearl Harbor’s “Battleship Row”. Operated by the National Parks Service, the 184-foot-long white structure was built to honor and remember the 2,350 people who passed away during the attack, including 1,177 crew still entombed in the battleship.

Completed in 1961, the Memorial was dedicated a year later, and contained three main sections: the entry and assembly room; a central area designed for ceremonies and general observation; and the shrine room containing a marble wall where the names of those killed on the Arizona are engraved. A brief documentary film regarding the Pearl Harbor attack and a boat shuttle ride to the Arizona are both included in the tour.

Battleship Missouri Memorial
The USS Missouri was the very last of four battleships that were named after Missouri, and is the Iowa-class battleship known as “Mighty Mo”. 2,700-pound shells were shot up to 20 miles from its towering 16-inch guns. The Missouri was commissioned on June 11, 1944, and weighed 45,000 tons and was more than 885 feet in length.

The signing officially marking the end of World War II took place aboard the Missouri on September 2, 1945, when the Japanese threw in the towel. The Battleship was decommissioned for the last time on March 31, 1992, after serving in both the Korean and Gulf Wars. On Jan 29, 1999, The USS Battleship Missouri Memorial was publicly opened.

USS Bowfin Submarine Museam & Park
The USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park is a tribute to the 52 American submarines and more than 3,500 submariners lost in the second World War. In its nine successful war patrols, the Bowfin destroyed 44 Japanese ships after its launch on December 7, 1942. In 1980, the submarine was brought to Pearl Harbor and docked next to the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center. On April 1, 1981, visitors were allowed to visit the “museum ship”. The Bowfin was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

Pacific Aviation Museum
Interactive simulators and exhibits revealing the stories behind authentic WWII fighter planes and bombers are part of the immersive Pacific Aviation Museum, located within former WWII airplane hangers on Pearl Harbor’s Ford Island. Similar to the one used in the famous “Doolittle Raid” on Japan in 1942, a B-25B Bomber is displayed alongside authentic an Japenese Zero in Hangar 37, a 42,000 square foot airplane hangar that survived the Pearl Harbor attack.

USS Oklahoma Memorial

Dedicated on December 7th, 2007, the USS Oklahoma Memorial honors the 429 crewmen who died in the Pearl Harbor bombing. Approximately 9 torpedoes hit “The Okie,” capsizing this 35,000-ton battleship in only 12 minutes. After the ship capsized, crewmen trapped in compartments below deck tried to signal rescue crews on the surface with hammers and wrenches. Only 32 men were rescued from its overturned hull, after the assault two days later.

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