Barely had the dust of war at Pearl Harbor settled when a nation stunned into grief began thinking of enshrining forever the memory of its heroes killed in action.

The toll of the dead and the valiant climbed tragically as the country pushed into the vast Pacific to overtake the aggressors’ gains in the December 7, 1941, assault. …

Now, 20 years later, some 50 survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack from Massachusetts will be among the solemn tomorrow atop the sunken battleship Arizona to pay homage to the 1,176 warriors entombed in the decaying hull.

For several it is the first return to a once terror-torn scene, one engulfed in raging explosions, black billowing smoke, sinking warships, and a battleground strewn with the dead and the wounded.

And the thought that may race across the minds of the living: “Brethren, what has thou done to honor the memory of fallen comrades?”

Into this drama enters the Pacific War Memorial Commission, builders of shrines in Hawaii to mark the heroism of the dead and the missing of the Pacific and Korean wars.

Commission members will take their places in the ceremony cheered by the prospect that this will be the last Arizona tribute atop an incomplete shrine.

In the words of its chairman, H. Tucker Gratz: “All the work of planning, designs, and fund-raising is over.”

The construction of the final phase of the permanent monument consisting of a single-story memorial building to be built on an existing concrete deck has begun.

Construction cost of the final phase is $213.857. The contract has been awarded to the Walker-Moody Construction Company.

The firm has 204 days in which to finish the project and dedication of the memorial is set for Memorial Day, May 30, 1962.

Money for the Arizona memorial — totaling $500,000 — came from the public, the U.S. Congress ($150,000), and the Hawaii Legislature ($100,000). …

When Congress appropriated the $150,000 this year, it stipulated that the Arizona project shall be known as the “U.S.S. Arizona Memorial of the Pacific.”