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Pictures of the T8 USS North Carolina berthed at Wilmington, NC 1280 From the gangway boarding the ship 1282 Twin 40mm AA 1284 Rear 16" turret - Open to the public 1288 bow looking aft 1290 turrets 1 & 2 1291 5" turret - open to public 1293 5" turret gunners position 1295 optical range finger for 16" guns 1296-99 inside 16" guns 1300 "wishing" looking 4 decks below 1301 Pharmancy 1302 Part of fire control computer circa 1943 1301 16" shells 1308 Schematic of steam piping. If this takes a hit there's no fixing it during combat. 1309 Sign in front of 20mm AA. African-Americans volunteered to serve on 20mm and were credited with one kill Vought Vought OSU Seaplane Steam Turbine as complex as anything found on land

Some photos from my visit to Pearl today: The ride to and from the Arizona memorial (though not on the memorial itself, given its current need for structural repairs) Arizona's original anchor, surrounded by plaques listing the name of the survivors of her destruction One of the bells recovered from Arizona's wreck, along with a mini-model with braille captions (the other one currently sits in the University of Arizona) The Tree of Life, a sculpture meant evoke rebirth and memory (and apparently inspired by Arizona's superstructure) A model of a Kate torpedo bomber mostly hidden from outside the entrance, supplementing a mural depicting the start of the attack (the mural in question depicts a torpedo bomber making an attack on Battleship Row Lest anyone forget, it wasn't only navy personnel that died on Arizona: quite a few marines also perished (and survived) in the battleship's destruction. A side shot of Mighty Mo in her navy blue camouflage The place where USS Nevada was originally moored— the only battleship to get underway at Pearl (and ran aground to prevent the Japanese planes from blocking the channel by sinking her), and even 2 atomic bombs and the combined shelling of 3 warships (including USS Iowa) weren't enough to down this tough lady. As the caption for this trophy stated, the final showdown between the bands of the two Pennsylvania-class battleships never took place, but was instead posthumously given to the band of Arizona by Pennsylvania's. Apparently, much like today's sports teams, the various warships also had their own ship-specific banners and whatnot Now this was unexpected. Sadako Sasaki died at the age of 12 from leukemia caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Before her death, however, she folded 1k paper cranes (and about 300 extra) as a legend stated that whoever folded 1k of them would be granted a wish, and these cranes have become a symbol of hope for peace. Most of them are displayed in the A-bomb museums in Japan, but it seems some were on display here. Although Hawaii had about 150k Japanese-Americans—about 1/3 of the total population—when the attack occurred, only 1.8k at most were interned (which perhaps, more than anything else, indicates the falseness of the "fears of sabotage" arguments for the internment camps). Still, despite widespread racism and worse, they played crucial roles in the American war effort, achieving monumental feats in various capacities from translating the Japanese Z-plan (which led to the Battle of the Philippines Sea) to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team becoming one of the most decorated units in US military history. The plaque declaring USS Growler (SS-215) to be Hawaii's state boat, part of a memorial that lists every single US submarine lost in the Pacific theater and the names of those lost with them, including the famous ones like Albacore and Harder. More than a few were sunk by faulty torpedoes that circled back once fired. Bonus—what I found in the Chinese restaurant I went to for dinner: The bottom picture, as the flags would indicate, is the president and first lady of Taiwan. Quite a few other celebrities too, including Jackie Chan here