Pearl Harbor – Oahu, Hawaii

USS Arizona Approach

My first visit to the Pearl Harbor Memorial on Oahu was about 25 years ago.  What is so striking to me about each visit is the large number of Japanese tourists in attendance.  Many arrive by organized Japanese tour companies.  I would really like to have the ability or nerve to speak to them and learn their impressions and thoughts during their visit to the site of their country’s surprise attack which killed more than 2,500 Americans.  It is certainly an odd twist that anyone who visits Hawaii today quickly realizes the economic vitality of Hawaii clearly depends on the Japanese tourist.
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