The shrine room. Engraved in marble are the names of the 1,177 men who died on board the USS Arizona on December 7, 1941, most of them late-teen boys. The Japanese attack commenced at 7:55 am. The Arizona avoided torpedoes but was targeted by Japanese “Kates” (high-level bombers). She took three armor-piercing bombs. It was the fourth that sealed the ship’s fate — dropping beside Gun Turret #2 at 8:06 am, ripping into the ship’s forward magazines and igniting more than one million pounds of explosives.

The massive explosion sent a fireball 500 feet skyward, lurched the Arizona into the air, buckling and collapsing and blowing men off the decks of nearby ships. There were 335 survivors. Many of those who have died since the attack have been cremated and had their remains buried with their 1,177 shipmates for whom the ship is a tomb.