On behalf of the directors, staff and volunteers of the USS Missouri Memorial Association (UMMA), I want to publicly express our gratitude to the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye for his personal interest and support in bringing the Battleship Missouri to Pearl Harbor.

Today it is one of Hawaii’s top attractions, welcoming more than 5 million visitors since it first opened to the public in 1999.

Inouye’s interest in bringing the Battleship Missouri to Pearl Harbor started in the late 1980s when it was destined to be homeported in San Francisco, with the strong backing of then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein. However, Feinstein left office to become a member of the California congressional delegation, and the city voted against homeporting the Missouri in San Francisco. The Navy then decided to homeport the battleship in Pearl Harbor under a new concept of Battleship Battle Groups, similar to the Air Carrier Battle Groups that were operational within the Navy.

Pier F5 on Ford Island, where the Battleship Missouri is currently moored, was specifically built for the Missouri, with strong support from the senator. As fate would have it, the Navy decided to decommission the four Iowa class battleships in active service just prior to the pier’s completion, a decision further supported by the demise of the Soviet Union. Following its participation in Operation Desert Storm (the Gulf War) and after paying tribute at the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1991, the Missouri was decommissioned and mothballed in Bremerton, Wash.

When the Navy announced the availability of the Battleship Missouri as a historic museum/memorial, there were numerous cities throughout the U.S. that vied for the honor.

While there is no question that because of the Missouri’s historic significance Pearl Harbor would make the most appropriate new homeport, Inouye’s personal support made what was initially the dream of the four founders of the USS Missouri Memorial Association into a reality when the Missouri arrived in Pearl Harbor on June 22, 1998.

But it came in terrible condition. The senator stated to me when I was UMMA president: "I helped to bring the ship here; now your job is to make this a self-sustaining memorial and attraction." His firm but sage advice, which translated to the fact that we would not be getting any federal funds, piqued our efforts to seek the help of thousands of volunteers, who, without their efforts, would have not allowed us to cross the threshold of self-sustainability so quickly.

Inouye provided substantial assistance again in 2010, when the requirement for dry-docking the ship became critical. Unfortunately, we had not yet built a sufficient reserve of funds for such work; luckily, the senator provided the funds needed to dry-dock the ship to have the hull repaired and painted.

Today the Battleship Missouri Memorial is a successful, self-sustaining visitor attraction that has contributed to the senator’s strong focus of creating jobs and improving the well-being of our communities.

His legacy will live on in the Battleship Missouri Memorial.