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Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

Since the USS Arizona Memorial opened half a century ago, more than 50 million people have stepped onto the starkwhite structure that bridges the sunken battleship and grave, less aware of the artistry above water than the twisted metal below, but with awe at the effect of the overall sight.

"I thought it was very emotional and ghostly," said Denver resident Dave Lewis, 70, after visiting for the first time Friday. "You look down into the water and you could just imagine the entrapment of the men down there."

Fifty years ago the 184-foot concrete memorial arranged crossways above the broken battleship was assailed as "beatnik" art and criticized as a "crushed milk carton." But it has stood the test of time and is now the top destination for visitors to Oahu. In fiscal 2011 attendance was 1.7 million, according to the National Park Service.

The memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1962, to "Remember Pearl Harbor."

The surprise Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941, remains at the forefront of the memorial’s meaning, but so is the peace that ensued with Japan.

The change came with World War II veteran and President George H.W. Bush saying at the 50th anniversary of the attack in 1991, "I have no rancor in my heart toward Germany or Japan — none at all."

In 2011 that sentiment was demonstrated in a Japa­nese tea ceremony on the memorial to honor the deceased entombed on the Arizona in a show of respect and reconciliation.

Honolulu architect Alfred Preis designed the memorial with an open-air "Tree of Life" latticework at one end, a symbol of renewal and rebirth.

Daniel Martinez, chief historian for the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the Arizona Memorial, said its initial acceptance was as a war memorial and war grave, but Preis designed it as a peace monument.

"The memorial continues to reflect the healing and the reconciliation and the change. I think it still holds true to the initial design that Alfred Preis had in mind, but it had to withstand time and evolution in order for that to take place," Martinez said.

As the memorial turns 50 next week, the nonprofit Pacific Historic Parks — which supports the Arizona Memorial and other parks in the region — is trying to raise $700,000 to make repairs, including replacing the marble wall inscribed with the names of the 1,177 men killed on the Arizona, many of whom are interred in the crumpled ship.

GI SAW FLAMES FROM BUS

Herb Weatherwax, who was assigned to the 298th Infantry Regiment, had heard a loud explosion coming from the direction of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and turned on his radio to hear Hawaii was under attack.

On a bus ride to Schofield Barracks, he saw the effects.

"When I passed by Pearl Harbor, I looked across, and I was shocked to see the Arizona was the cause of that explosion," said Weatherwax, now 94. "The Arizona was just engulfed in flames, and all the other battleships were already burning."

The battleship Okla­homa had been torpedoed and toppled over.

"I could see little dark objects on the hull of the ship that were men that managed to jump overboard and swim onto the hull," said Weatherwax, who volunteers at the Arizona Memorial Visitor Center.

In recognition of the lives lost and in conjunction with Memorial Day, a Marine Corps honor guard will hold a 24-hour, three-day vigil Saturday through Monday in the Arizona Memorial shrine room.

SHIP WAS BROKEN IN 2

On Dec. 7, 1941, an armor-piercing bomb penetrated the Arizona’s forward deck and ignited aviation fuel and the powder magazines for its 14-inch guns.

Louis Conter, a 20-year-old quartermaster on watch that morning, described the result.

"When it blew up, why, the bow came about 30 feet out of the water," Conter said last year. "It settled straight down into the bay, and everything from the main mast forward was on fire, instantly."

The Navy subsequently found that the Arizona had broken in two and that the only way to recover the ship was to cut off the stern, and refloat and rebuild it, Martinez said.

That was judged to be impractical because of the cost, the work involved "and the fact that new battleships, Iowa-class battleships, were already underway," he said.

Most of the big guns and the superstructure were removed. In 1950, Adm. Arthur Radford, commander of the Pacific Fleet, ordered the construction of a wooden memorial platform and flagpole on the boat deck of the Arizona.

The Pacific War Memorial Commission was tasked with raising $500,000 to build a permanent memorial, and Elvis Presley held a benefit concert on March 25, 1961, at Pearl Harbor’s Bloch Arena, raising more than $64,000.

MAKING THE DESIGN WORK

Navy planners required a bridge design that would span the sunken ship but not touch it.

Preis’ original design was a symbolic sarcophagus extending underwater so visitors could see the ship, Martinez said. He then came up with a modern-art spin with a dip in the center.

Preis, who died in 1993, was quoted as saying, "Wherein the structure sags in the center but stands strong and vigorous at the ends, expresses initial defeat and ultimate victory."

Honolulu structural engineer Thomas Lum had the job of making that design work.

"I thought it was a great design," he recalled. "The problem was, how do I hold it up?"

Thirty-six concrete piles were driven an average of 175 feet beneath 40 feet of water and varying thicknesses of mud.

To span the 110-foot distance across the ship, with a 37-foot unsupported extension or cantilever at each end, the memorial’s superstructure needed special materials. Lum used a relatively new approach: prestressed, post-tensioned concrete girders.

"Fortunately, I had just come back from graduate school and had done research in this particular area, so when you come back from school, there isn’t anything you can’t do, right?" Lum, now 84, said.

SKYLIGHT AND RAILS WILL BE REPLACED

All these years later the memorial needs about $700,000 in renovations. Brad Wallis, president of Pacific Historic Parks, said the first phase will cost about $400,000 and is expected to begin June 18 with railing and skylight replacement and some painting and floor work.

Wallis said the work is not expected to significantly affect visitors. Later work will include the replacement of the marble panels in the shrine room with the inscribed names of sailors and Marines who died on the Arizona.

The marble was replaced in 1984, Martinez said. Salt water and wind have caused erosion since then, and there might be some discrepancies in the accuracy of the names, so extensive research will be conducted before the wall is replaced again, he said.

So far, about $200,000 has been raised for the renovation, Wallis said.

Both Weatherwax and fellow Pearl Harbor survivor Al Rodrigues, a Navy storekeeper who fired at passing Japa­nese planes with a 30-caliber, bolt-action rifle, say they have reconciled with their attackers, much the same as the Arizona Memorial itself has changed with the passage of time.

"Someone else was the cause of that war," Weatherwax said. "We (and Japa­nese service members) just happened to be part of the machinery."

"We were born and raised in Hawaii. We went to school here. Half of my classmates were Japa­nese," added Rodrigues, 92, who, like Weatherwax, volunteers at the Arizona Memorial Visitor Center, signing autographs and talking to people.

"We met the pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor. We got to know them pretty good. We had dinner with them. We were doing what we were told to do, and they were doing what they were told to do. I have no animosity at all."