Early shuttle this morning and we were at the Navy base around 8.00am, with a 9.00am ticket to the memorial. The tickets are each inscribed on the back with the name and record of a seaman lost in the battle. We had time to look in the souvenir shop (I bought a book about Father Damien and Molokai and the author signed it for me), walk around the grounds and read the many markers telling the story of the attack. Then we lined up to go into the theatre to see a 20 minute collection of actual footage; this was very moving.
We took a short boat ride across the harbour to the USS Arizona memorial; it is a large "room" built over the spot where the ship still lies, the last resting place of over 1100 men. This was a very moving experience; as we had lined up earlier, we were each given one tuber rose blossom that we could take and drop into the water at the memorial, which we did. Then we moved into the room where the names of the dead are listed on the wall facing the entrance. About 20 of us were standing around the back wall reading the names, when an elderly man with a stick, a survivor of the attack, walked in through the group and up to the front; he stood up tall and saluted the names - that really got to us! Then he walked to some names on one side and read those for a minute or two, then to the other side, then he walked out again.
We walked across the bridge to the stadium and "flea market"; lots of cheap stuff but we're already chockers, so didn't buy much. We had to wait ages for the shuttle to come back and pick us up and it was very hot; I couldn't do this in summer! On the way back to the hotel, the shuttle developed engine trouble so we had to wait while another one came to pick us up. Back at the hotel, the streets were much busier than yesterday, possibly because of the parade.
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