Editorial: USS Arizona Memorial delays shameful

It is utterly shameful that the great and powerful U.S. military — with all its resources, ingenuity and engineering know-how — has not been a visible part of a swift, needed solution to replace a damaged access dock to the USS Arizona Memorial. Loss of the dock has left the globally iconic memorial off-limits to the public since May; worse, the closure will now stretch into next year — which means leaving the hallowed site unreachable on Veterans Day, but more significantly, on Dec. 7, the anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. 

“Not being able to welcome survivors and their families on the USS Arizona Memorial this coming December 7th is heartbreaking,” lamented Jacqueline Ashwell, superintendent of WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument, who oversees the memorial, in a written statement. Indeed.

Further, the National Park Service said the Arizona Memorial’s dock repair won’t be completed until March — 10 months total that the memorial will be closed to visitors. The anchoring system of the dock next to the memorial failed, putting pressure on the loading bridge that visitors use to cross from the boat dock onto the memorial.

The Arizona Memorial is one of Hawaii’s most visited — and revered — sites, visited by about 1.9 million annually. The stark-white monument sits above the submerged battleship where 1,177 sailors and Marines died in the attack that plunged America into World War II; more than 900 remain entombed underwater.

Officially, the Park Service owns this problem, not the military. But for this site, the heart of Pearl Harbor, to be inaccessible for one month, let alone 10, is unacceptable.

Where is Hawaii’s congressional delegation? Far too silent. Those who recall the clout of the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye might well be wondering how the World War II veteran would have gotten the problem fixed by now, even if on an interim basis.