Historical Hawaii

We have been brushing up on our WWII history today with a trip to Pearl Harbor  (American spelling now) .   We went over the Missouri which was a battleship built before the war and used again in Desert Storm  but its main claim to fame is that it was on this ship that the Japanese signed the surrender in August 1945.  It would dwarf most of the ships we have in Portsmouth navy base.

There is also a memorial to the Arizona , a sister ship to the Missouri, which was blown apart when the Japanese attacked and nearly everyone on board died, nearly 2,000 men.  They have built a memorial over this and you can still see the ship below the surface which is quite eerie.   They do show a film that puts the war in context and it is all uite moving.  Surprising how many Japanese tourists visit the site which commemorates the start of the war for the States 1941 and the end of the war in 1945

A lot of the signs etc feature pics of this lady  "Rita the Riveter" She just died recently having lived to a good old age. 

We did a bit of sightseeing as well and this is a statue of their king who met Captain Cook.  Can't begin to spell his name but he must have been quite a sight for Captain Cook.  The state flag has a Union Jack and 5 stripes to commemorate Captain Cook"s conquest

We are off to downtown Waikiki now for a meal.  Apparently it is a manmade beach with sand from Australia so we can still walk on a bit of Australia.  Food is much cheaper here than Australia and I want to try the breakfast in the "Eat as many pancakes as you can for $5" restaurant.

Haloa