in what many saw as ‘a second war with Germany’. The Pearl Harbor attack by Germany’s ally cured their hesitance. President Roosevelt’s problems mobilizing U.S. ‘boots on the ground’ were solved in a matter of hours. By this time Canada had been fighting for two years, building a military force that would exceed a million, out of a population of 12 million.


National Memorial When the bugles stop blowing, nations move on…except for the dead and those closest to them.


Losses in war aren’t suffered by nations but by people––individuals. Nations build memorials in an effort to make private loss public and, symbolically, share the pain. Done well, they can even bridge the gulf of time, bringing generations together. Almost invariably memorials are on land; not so, Arizona. A plain white memorial arches over the ship, right where the drama played out. When responsibility for its care passed to the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) in 1980, it came a step closer to needing attention from my team of NPS underwater archaeologists,


Top: The Memorial spans the


remains of the


608 ft submerged battleship. Visitors look towards the rusted #3


barbette, on which rested one of the huge turrets for the 14” guns


now known as the Submerged Resources Center (SRC). Gary Cummins became the first


Superintendent of the Arizona Memorial. He arrived in Hawaii to find the 608 foot (185m) long, tortured steel hulk his new ward. The ship didn’t have far to sink. It settled on, and in, the silty bottom. The main deck, where its crew once walked open to sun and sky, is five to ten feet (1.5-3m) below the water level. Almost all of the ship’s above-surface seems random to the untrained eye. The memorial, resting on pylons sunk deep in the harbor


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