Hawaii | Page 82 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 11, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Thomas James King

Thomas James King was born in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, Nov. 8, 1842, the son of Richard and Elizabeth King. His father was a contractor and builder. The family moved from New Brunswick, when he was a boy; his father set up a planing mill in San Francisco.

His school days were finished in San Francisco, and when only fourteen years old he went to work, trying his hand at ranching before entering the mill.

On December 13, 1870 in Vallejo, Calif., he married Josephine Wundenberg and they had two sons and three daughters, Thomas V. and L. C. King, Mrs. C. M. V. Forster and Mrs. Clifford Kimball of Honolulu and Mrs. Charles A. Rice of Kauai.

Mr. King’s training for the organization of his own business began upon his arrival in Honolulu in 1883. He immediately went to work for the Union Feed Co. as manager of the hay and grain departments, remaining there until he and his brother-in-law, J. N. Wright, organized the California Feed Co., which was incorporated in 1895 under the same name, California Feed Co., Ltd.

“Messers TJ King and JN Wright have formed a partnership under the name of the ‘California Feed Co.’” (Evening Bulletin, Sep 23, 1890) in a newspaper notice …

“To Live Stock Owners The California Feed Co has formed for the purpose of selling hay, grain, etc, at a price so low that you will be astonished. …”

“We have had 7 years experience in the business with the Union Feed Co, and we think we know the people’s wants in our line, as well as the prices they ought to pay”

“All we want is the patronage of the consumers, and in a very short time they will find out that we are working in their interest as well as our own.”

“We do not want you to think we are going to do all this for love, such is not the case; but we intend to do a large business, and by strict attention to it, on very close margins make good fair wages.” Signed TJ King and JN Wright (Evening Bulletin, Sept 22, 1890)

Opening his office and warehouse in the old stables of the former monarch, King Kalākaua, in 1890, Mr. King’s business remained there until growth of the city brought about its removal to the old Custom House, at the foot of Nuuanu St., and in 1912 a site at Alakea and Queen streets was purchased and a warehouse erected in the center of a grove of coconut palms.

Architect HL Kerr managed bids for construction of “the big concrete warehouse and office building to be erected at Alakea and Queen streets by the California Feed Co, Ltd.” (Evening Bulletin, June 15, 1912) The California Feed Co warehouse and office on Queen and Alakea streets was built for $15,000. (Star Bulletin, Dec 31, 1912)

At first the store dealt only in hay and grain, but gradually poultry food, wholesale groceries, provisions and canned goods were added, and the company, under the direction of Thomas V. and L. C. King, sons of Thomas J. King, handled all these commodities.

Mr. King was always keenly interested in the organization of new lines of endeavor, and aided many struggling new industries and concerns. Throughout his career as a businessman he was constantly called upon to make investments to assist new companies. Many of these were successful, and at the time of his death Mr. King had extensive business interests.

He was vice-president and director of the Hawaiian Pineapple Co. from its organization until the time of his retirement from business; treasurer of the Oahu Lumber & Building Co., and manager of the People’s Ice Co. He was a Mason, Shriner, Odd Fellow, and an active member of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce.

Thomas James King died in Honolulu, April 6, 1919. After his death, his son, Lewis Churchill King, succeeded his father and was elected president of California Feed Co (SB, April 22, 1919), a position he held until the California Feed Co was sold to the Honolulu Dairymen’s Association in April, 1925. (Nellist)

King’s son, Thomas Victor King, built a home in 1918 designed by Emory & Webb in Nu‘uanu. Emory & Webb designed several other local landmarks, Hawaii Theatre, the old Honolulu Advertiser building and the Hongwanji Mission Temple on Pali Highway. (The house was in a scene in ‘The Descendants’ movie.) (Lots here from Nellist)

December 9, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Paper Star Lei

“We therefore recommend again and again, to the curious investigators of the stars to whom, when our lives are over, these observations are entrusted, that they, mindful of our advice, apply themselves to the undertaking of these observations vigorously.”

“And for them we desire and pray for all good luck, especially that they be not deprived of this coveted spectacle by the unfortunate obscuration of cloudy heavens, and that the immensities of the celestial spheres, compelled to more precise boundaries, may at last yield to their glory and eternal fame.” (Sir Edmond Halley (1656-1742))

Venus orbits the Sun within Earth’s orbit, so it occasionally happens that as seen from Earth, the disk of Venus passes across the Sun. It appears as a diminutive black spot, barely 1/30th the diameter of the Sun. With the right atmospheric conditions to soften the intense sunlight, an unobstructed horizon, and enough advance warning, a keen eye can spot the transit at sunrise or sunset. (LOC)

There have been fifty-two transits of Venus across the face of the Sun since 2000 B.C., but until 1643 A.D., no human was known to have observed this astronomical rarity. (LOC)

“History says that Jeremiah Horrocks was the first human to ever witness a transit by Venus in 1639, but could other more ancient people have also seen it too?” (Odenwald)

In 1769 Benjamin Franklin published an article in the journal of the Royal Society of London presenting the transit of Venus observations of Messrs. Biddle and Bayley.

Some historians credit this account from pre-revolutionary America as the first occasion on which American science went on display before the international community. (LOC)

Astronomers quickly discovered that by measuring the transit, the distance from the Sun to Earth could be calculated.

In 1761, the exact value of this number was still unknown; estimates ranged from 5 million to over 150 million miles. Without its precise value, astronomers could not deduce the physical size of our solar system, or the dimensions of the universe beyond the solar system’s outer reaches. The size, mass, and radiant power of our Sun were also left ill-defined. (LOC)

In May 1768 James Cook was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and given command of the bark Endeavour. He was instructed to sail to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus and also to ascertain whether a continent existed in the southern latitudes of the Pacific Ocean. (National Library of Australia)

On June 3, 1769, Cook, naturalist Joseph Banks, astronomer Charles Green and naturalist Daniel Solander recorded the transit of Venus from the island of Tahiti.

Then, “Early in 1869, one hundred years after British transit of Venus observations were made by James Cook and Charles Green from Tahiti George B. Airy, the seventh astronomer royal at Greenwich, wrote to the secretary of the Admiralty: ‘It appears from the calculations of Astronomers that there will occur, on 1874 December 8 and 1882 December 6, Transits of the planet Venus over the Sun’s Disk.’” (Chauvin)

“Eight American expeditions were fitted out in 1874, organized by the Transit of Venus Commission, with Simon Newcomb (1835-1909) as the official Secretary of the Commission. The US Congress appropriated funds totaling an astounding $177,000 for the expeditions.” (Harbster, LOC)

On September 9, 1874, fewer than seven months after the ascension to the throne of Hawai‘i King David Kalakaua, a ship from England, H.M.S. Scout, arrived in Honolulu carrying an expedition of seven astronomers.

“They came, as Captain Cook had come almost 100 years earlier, as the beneficiaries and instruments of a rich astronomical heritage that had found its visible embodiment in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich …”

“… and it was from Greenwich that Western astronomy had reached out to touch Hawai‘i in 1778, and was to do so again in 1874.”

“The mission of the 1874 expedition was to observe a rare transit of the planet Venus across the sun for the purpose of better determining the true value of the Astronomical Unit”. (Chauvin)

“King Kalakaua manifested a personal interest in the transit of Venus operations in his kingdom. And although he was absent from the islands when the much-awaited event occurred, he visited the transit of Venus observatory, as did other members of Honolulu’s society, both before and after ‘Transit Day.’” (Chauvin)

The King allowed the British Royal Society’s expedition a suitable piece of open land for their viewing area; it was not far from Honolulu’s waterfront in a district called Apua (mauka of today’s Waterfront Plaza.)

They built a wooden fence enclosure and soon a well-equipped nineteenth-century astronomical observatory took shape, including a transit instrument, a photoheliograph, a number of telescopes and several temporary structures including wooden observatories.

Subsequently, auxiliary stations – though not so elaborate as the main station in Honolulu – were established in two other island locations: one at Kailua-Kona and the other at Waimea, Kauai.

In addition, Hawai‘i was not the only site to observe the transit; under the British program, observations were also made in Egypt, Island of Rodriquez, Kerguelen Island and New Zealand. (Other countries also conducted Transit observations.)

On Dec. 8, 1874, the transit was observed by the British scientists; however, the observation at Kailua-Kona was marred by clouds. But the Honolulu and Waimea sites were considered perfect throughout the event, which lasted a little over half a day.

After the Transit of Venus observations, Kalākaua showed continued interest in astronomy, and in a letter to Captain RS Floyd on November 22, 1880, he expressed a desire to see an observatory established in Hawai‘i. He later visited Lick Observatory in San Jose.

An outcome of the Transit event in Hawai‘i was the ‘Transit of Venus lei’ … “Old residents may recall the white paper star lei that was in vogue here in the ’70s, commemorating the Transit of Venus of 1874.”

“They were appropriately called Hoku (star), and were made of stiff, white paper, forming many points, to convey the idea of scintillation. They were fashionable for some time, for hair or hat decoration, and were known to foreigners as Venus leis.” (Thrum HAA, 1922)

They came under other names, as well … “We have seen men, women, and children greatly engrossed in decorating their hats with this kind of lei. These are the names we have heard, “the hooulu lahui lei of Kalakaua,” “the Astronomer lei,” and “paper star lei.” (Ka Lahui Hawaii, Buke I, Helu 1, Aoao 1. Ianuari 1, 1875)

(International expeditions and observers soon refined this astronomical unit (an “astronomical unit” is the scientific term for a unit of measure equal to the average distance from Earth to the Sun) to 95 million miles by 1769, and then to 92.79 million miles by 1891.)

(During the twentieth century, the same radar technology that astronomers use to map the face of Mercury, or study the rings of Saturn, has yielded a precise value for the distance between the Sun and Earth of 92.9558203 million miles, with a margin of error of less than a few miles.) (LOC)

December 8, 2024 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

1st POW

11 pm, December 6, 1941, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki and Petty Officer Second Class Kiyoshi Inagaki entered their 2-man midget submarine and were released from their mother sub about 10-miles off Pearl Harbor.

They were part of Special Attack Forces, an elite 10-man group of five 2-man midget submarines that would attack Pearl Harbor.

They planned to carry out suicide attacks against the enemy with no expectation of coming back alive: “That the personnel of the midget submarine group was selected with utmost care was obvious.”

“The twenty-four, picked from the entire Japanese navy, had in common: bodily strength and physical energy; determination and fighting spirit; freedom from family care. They were unmarried and from large families.”

“None of us was a volunteer. We had all been ordered to our assignment. That none of us objected goes without saying: we knew that punishment was very severe if we objected; we were supposed to feel highly honored.” (Sakamaki)

His 78.5-foot-long submarine, HA-19, and four other midget subs, each armed with a pair of 1,000-pound torpedoes, were to attack American destroyers or battleships. (NYTimes)

From the beginning, things went wrong for Sakamaki and Inagaki. Their gyrocompass was faulty, causing the submarine to run in circles while at periscope depth – they struggled for 24-hours to go in the right direction.

The submarine was spotted by an American destroyer, the Helm, which fired on them, and the midget sub later got stuck temporarily on a coral reef. The submarine became partially flooded, it filled with smoke and fumes from its batteries, causing the two crewmen to lose consciousness.

With the air becoming foul due to the battery smoking and leaking gas, the midget sub hit a coral reef again. They abandoned the sub.

Sakamaki reached a stretch of beach, but, again, fell unconscious. In the early dawn of December 8, he was picked up on Waimanalo Beach by Lt. Paul S. Plybon and Cpt. David Akui of the 298th Infantry. (hawaii-gov)

Sakamaki became Prisoner No. 1 (the first US Prisoner Of War in WWII.)

He was the only crewman to survive from the midget submarines; his companion’s remains later washed up on the shore. All five subs were lost, and none were known to have caused damage to American ships.

Humbled to have been captured alive, Sakamaki inflicted cigarette burns while in prison at Sand Island and asked the Americans permission to commit suicide. His request was denied and the first prisoner of war spend the rest of the war being transferred from camp to camp. (Radio Canada)

He spent the entire war in various POW camps in Wisconsin, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas. He and others were offered educational opportunities through the “Internment University” that had lectures on English, geography, commerce, agriculture, music, Japanese poetry, Buddhist scriptures and other subjects.

He became the leader of other Japanese POWs who came to his camp; he encouraged them to learn English. He also tried to address the problem of other Japanese POWs’ wanting to commit suicide after their capture, since he previously had gone through the same feelings.

At the end of the war, he returned to Japan and wrote his memoirs, ”Four Years as a Prisoner-of-War, No. 1,” in which he told of receiving mail from some Japanese denouncing him for not having committed suicide when it appeared he could be taken captive.

His memoirs were published in the United States on the eighth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack with the title, ”I Attacked Pearl Harbor.” (NYTimes)

Mr. Sakamaki became a businessman, serving as president of a Brazilian subsidiary of Toyota and then working for a Toyota-affiliated company in Japan before retiring in 1987.

His submarine was salvaged by American troops, shipped to the United States in January 1942, and taken on a nationwide tour to sell War Bonds. Admission to view the submarine was secured through the purchase of war bonds and stamps.

On April 3, 1943, HA-19 arrived in Washington DC for the war bond drive and for a brief time sat in front of the United States Capitol Building for people to see.

On arriving in Alexandria, Virginia, “George W. Herring, Virginia lumberman, bought $16,000 worth of war bonds yesterday for the privilege of inspecting a Jap submarine. One of the two-man submarines captured at Pearl Harbor was here for a one-day stand in the war bond sales campaign.”

“Those who buy bonds are allowed to inspect it. Herring held the record for the highest purchase and was the first Alexandrian to take a peek at the submarine. War bond sales for the day totaled $1,061,650.” (Belvedere Daily Republican, April 3, 1943)

It was placed on display at a submarine base in Key West, Florida, in 1947 and later transferred in 1990 to its current site, the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, home of Admiral Chester W Nimitz (who served as Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet during WWII.)

Back to Sakamaki … when he returned from America, he saw a woman working in a neighbor’s field with whom he fell in love at first sight, although he reviewed her papers (“a health certificate, academic records, a brief biography, a certificate of her family background, all certified as to their accuracy”) prior to making the commitment to marriage.

Her father and brother had died in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, so her mother and she had moved back to their ancestral home next to Sakamaki’s home. They married on August 15, 1946, the first anniversary of the end of WWII. (Lots of information here from Gordon and hawaii-gov.)

December 7, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Welch & Taylor

Lt George Schwartz Welch and 2nd Lt Kenneth M Taylor are credited with being the first ‘Aces’ of World War II. Welch and Taylor were both awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Let’s look back …

Starting at 7:55 am, December 7, 1941, in a matter of minutes, Japanese bombers sank or damaged eight battleships, three light cruisers and three destroyers in Pearl Harbor. (Aviation History)

But boats were not their only targets.

Before the boats, the Japanese attacked Oʻahu’s airfields: Wheeler, Kaneohe, Ewa, Hickam, Ford Island, Bellows and the civilian airport serving Honolulu.

The Japanese heavily strafed the aircraft at Wheeler Field and few aircraft were able to get airborne to fend them off. Haleiwa was an auxiliary field to Wheeler and contained a collection of aircraft temporarily assigned to the field including aircraft from the 47th Pursuit Squadron.

Welch and Taylor were at Wheeler when the attack began; they had previously flown their P-40B fighters over to the small airfield at Haleiwa as part of a plan to disperse the squadron’s planes away from Wheeler.

Not waiting for instructions the pilots called ahead to Haleiwa and had both their fighters fueled, armed and warmed up. Both men raced in their cars to Haleiwa Field completing the 16-mile trip in about 15 minutes (their dramatic ride and takeoff was shown in ‘Tora, Tora, Tora.’

Once in the air they spotted a large number of aircraft in the direction of ʻEwa and Pearl Harbor. “There were between 200 and 300 Japanese aircraft,” said Taylor; “there were just two of us!”

Lt Welch was able to down the plane following him and they both returned back to Wheeler. Lt Welch was credited with a total of four Japanese planes shot down and Lt Taylor downed two. Just as suddenly as it began, the sky was empty of enemy aircraft.

A fellow fighter pilot of the 18th Group, Francis S (Gabby) Gabreski (who would later go on to become the top American Ace in the European Theater in World War II) described Welch:

“He was a rich kid, heir to the grape juice family, and we couldn’t figure out why he was there since he probably could have avoided military service altogether if he wanted to.”

Welch remained in the Pacific Theater of Operations and went on to score 12 more kills against Japanese aircraft (16 in total).

In the spring of 1944, Welch was approached by North American Aviation to become a test pilot for the P-51 Mustang. He went on to fly the prototypes of the FJ Fury, and when the F-86 Sabre was proposed, Welch was chosen as the chief test pilot.

On October 14, 1947, the same day that Chuck Yeager was to attempt supersonic flight, Welch reputedly performed a supersonic dive. Starting from 37,000 feet, he executed a full-power 4g pullout, greatly increasing the power of his apparent sonic boom. Yeager broke the sound barrier approximately 30 minutes later.

The Pentagon allegedly ordered the results of Welch’s flights classified and did not allow North American to publicly announce that Welch had gone supersonic until almost a year later. The Air Force still officially denies that Welch broke the sound barrier first.

October 12, 1954, Welch’s F-100A-1-NA Super Sabre, disintegrated during a 7g pullout at Mach 1.55. He was evacuated by helicopter, but was pronounced dead on arrival at the Army hospital. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. (Castagnaro and Padilla)

2nd Lt. Kenneth Marlar Taylor was a new second lieutenant on his first assignment, posted in April 1941 to Wheeler Army Airfield in Honolulu.

Born in Enid, Oklahoma, Taylor was raised in Hominy, Oklahoma and entered the University of Oklahoma in 1938. After two years, he quit school to enlist in the Army Air Corps.

“He was skillful as a pilot and a well-oriented officer. You couldn’t ask for a better flying officer in your squadron. He was willing to do anything, I’m sure. The enemy was all around and he was going after them.” (Gen. Gordon Austin, his first commanding officer)

After Pearl Harbor, Taylor was sent to the South Pacific, flying out of Guadalcanal, and was credited with downing another Japanese aircraft. During an air raid at the base one day, someone jumped into a trench on top of him and broke his leg, which ended his combat career.

He rose to the rank of colonel during his 27 years of active duty. He became commander of the Alaska Air National Guard and retired as a brigadier general in 1971. He then worked as an insurance underwriter in Alaska, representing Lloyds of London, until 1985.

Taylor split his retirement between Anchorage and Arizona. He died November 25, 2006 at an assisted living residence in Tucson. (Washington Post) The image shows Lt George Welch (L) and Ken Taylor.

Ken Taylor (left) and George Welch posing for the camera shortly after their epic air battle over Pearl Harbor

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December 6, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Flagship of the Fleet

Some suggest the name was probably coined by melding the words arid and zone, to designate the dry area in the southwestern United States which was admitted to the Union as a state on February 14, 1912.

However, some authorities maintain that the name was derived from the Aztec Indian word Arizuma, which can be translated as “silver bearing.” (Navy)

The first ‘Arizona’ was an iron-hulled, side-wheel steamer completed in 1859; she operated out of New Orleans carrying passengers and cargo to and from ports along the gulf and Atlantic coasts of the US.

Her commercial service ended on January 15, 1862 when Confederate Major General Mansfield Lovell seized her at New Orleans along with 13 other steamers for use as a blockade runner. (Navy)

On the evening of February 27, 1865, a fire broke out and rapidly spread. When no possibility of saving the ship remained, the crew manned the boats; some leaped overboard and swam to shore. The vessel burned until she exploded. Out of a crew of 98 on board four were missing. (Navy)

“The second Arizona was launched at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1865 and named the Neshaminy. Her name was changed to Arizona on May 15, 1869. Her name was again changed on August 10, 1869, this time to Nevada.” (New York Times, June 12, 1915)

“The naval constructors at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn are busy completing the arrangements for the laying of the keel of the battleship. No. 39, which is to be a sister ship of the new Pennsylvania, and which with that ship will share the honor of being the world’s biggest and most powerful.” (New York Times, July 1, 1913)

The keel of the third ‘Arizona’ (Battleship No. 39) was laid on the morning of March 16, 1914 with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt in attendance.

She was launched on June 19, 1915; “The Arizona, biggest of the super dreadnoughts of our navy, was launched at the Brooklyn Navy yard yesterday afternoon, while 75,0000 people – the greatest crowd that ever gathered to see an American ship go down and the ways – cheered to the echo Uncle Sam’s newest battleship named for the newest of the States.” (New York Times, June 20, 1915)

Arizona had an overall length of 608 feet, a beam of 97 feet (at the waterline), and a draft of 29 feet 3 inches at deep load. She was propelled by four direct-drive Parsons steam turbine sets, each of which drove a propeller 12 feet 1.5 inches in diameter. At full capacity, the ship could steam at a speed of 12 knots for an estimated 7,500 nautical miles (8,790 miles.)

She was commissioned on October 17, 1916, and went on a shakedown cruise. The battleship returned the day before Christmas of 1916 for post-shakedown overhaul, completing the repairs and alterations in April 1917.

Arizona left the yard on April 3, 1917; on April 6, 1917, two days after the US Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the US House of Representatives endorsed the decision by a vote of 373 to 50, and the US formally entered the First World War.

Assigned to Battleship Division 8 operating out of the York River, Arizona was only employed as a gunnery training ship for the Navy crewmen who sailed on armed merchant vessels crossing the Atlantic in convoys.

The fighting ended on November 11, 1918 with an armistice. A week later, the Arizona left the US for the United Kingdom, then on to France. Arizona joined nine battleships and twenty-eight destroyers escorting President Woodrow Wilson on the ocean liner George Washington into Brest for one day on Wilson’s journey to the Paris Peace Conference.

A recurring theme in subsequent years was the annual ‘Fleet Problems,’ large-scale fleet versus fleet naval exercises. Four months after ‘Fleet Problem IX’ in January 1929, Arizona was modernized at the Norfolk Navy Yard.

Arizona carried twelve 14-inch guns in triple gun turrets. The turrets were numbered from I to IV from front to rear. The ship carried 100 shells for each gun.

Defense against torpedo boats was provided by twenty-two 51-caliber five-inch guns mounted in individual casemates in the sides of the ship’s hull. They proved to be very wet and could not be worked in heavy seas. Each gun was provided with 230 rounds of ammunition.

The ship mounted four 50-caliber three-inch guns for anti-aircraft defense, although only two were fitted when completed. The other pair were added shortly afterward on top of Turret III. Arizona also mounted two 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes and carried 24 torpedoes for them.

She had an ongoing history of serving as flag ship for different Admirals across different oceans (the flag ship carries the commander of a group of ships; officers of the rank of Rear Admiral, Vice-Admiral, or Admiral are designated as flag officers.)

When an Admiral takes command of a ship, a task force or a fleet, the chief signalman is given the job of raising the Admiral’s flag. (The Admiral’s flag is blue with white stars. A Rear-Admiral will have two stars on his flag, a vice-admiral will have three stars and a full Admiral carries four stars.)

“During the ceremony, the flag is bunched up into a ball and hoisted up in that fashion until it gently bumps the masthead and the balled up flag breaks open to a full flag furl. When this takes place the flag officer’s flag has broken open and he has taken command.” To say that a Commander “Broke his flag,” means that particular officer has been assigned task force or Fleet Commander. (Everett)

Some reference the Arizona as the ‘Flagship of the Fleet.’ Starting in 1920 the Arizona became flagship for Commander Battleship Division 7, Rear Admiral Edward W. Eberle and later became flagship when Vice Admiral McDonald transferred his flag to Wyoming (BB-33) and Rear Admiral Josiah S. McKean broke his flag on board as commander of the division.

For the next decade and a half, Arizona alternately served as flagship for Battleship Divisions 2, 3 or 4. Based at San Pedro during this period, Arizona operated with the fleet in the operating areas off the coast of southern California or in the Caribbean during fleet concentrations there.

On September 17, 1938, Arizona became the flagship for Battleship Division 1, when Rear Admiral Chester W Nimitz broke his flag.

Arizona’s last ‘fleet problem’ was XXI. At its conclusion, the US Fleet was retained in Hawaiian waters, based at Pearl Harbor. She operated in the Hawaiian Operating Area until late that summer, when she returned to Long Beach in September 1940.

She was then overhauled at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, into the following year. Her last flag change-of-command occurred on January 23, 1941, when Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd relieved Rear Admiral Willson as Commander, Battleship Division 1.

She continued various kinds of training and tactical exercises in the Hawaiian operating area. She underwent a brief overhaul at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard commencing in October 1941, and conducted her last training (with Nevada (BB-36) and Oklahoma (BB-37)) (a night firing exercise) on the night of December 4, 1941.

Shortly before 8 am, December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft from six aircraft carriers struck the Pacific Fleet as it lay in port at Pearl Harbor, and wrought devastation on the battle line and on the facilities defending Hawaii. Arizona’s air raid alarm went off about 7:55, and the ship went to general quarters soon thereafter. Shortly after 08:00, the ship was attacked.

The last bomb hit at 08:06 in the vicinity of Turret II, likely penetrating the armored deck near the ammunition magazines located in the forward section of the ship. While not enough of the ship is intact to judge the exact location, its effects are indisputable. About seven seconds after the hit, the forward magazines detonated in a cataclysmic explosion.

The USS Arizona is the final resting place for many of the ship’s 1,177 crewmen who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. The 184-foot-long Memorial structure spans the mid-portion of the sunken battleship and consists of three main sections: the entry room; the assembly room, a central area designed for ceremonies and general observation; and the shrine room, where the names of those killed on the Arizona are engraved on the marble wall. (Lots of information here is from the Navy, NPS and Arizona.)