The USS Arizona Bell
Hawaii
The bell near you came off the battleship USS Arizona, the ship that sank in this harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty-one. When Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning, a bomb touched off the Arizona's forward magazine. The explosion tore the ship apart and killed one thousand one hundred seventy-seven of her crew, about half of all the Americans who died that day.
Their remains still lie within the sunken hull beneath the white memorial offshore. Two of the ship's bells survived. One traveled to the University of Arizona, where it once rang after football victories.
The other was recovered from the wreck and stayed here, where it tolls for the men who never left. To stand beside it is to hear the voice of a ship that became a tomb.
