USS Arizona Memorial: A Visitor Guide

The Structure Over the Hull

The memorial is 184 feet long and spans the mid-portion of the sunken battleship below. It was approved in 1958, completed in 1961 and formally dedicated on May 30, 1962, Memorial Day. The architect was Alfred Preis, an Austrian-born designer who was born and raised in Vienna, fled Austria in 1939 and was living in Hawaii when he designed it.

The Navy set the brief: the memorial had to resemble a bridge, hold 200 people and never touch the Arizona itself. Preis answered with a white structure that sags in the middle and rises at both ends. He said the sag expresses initial defeat and ultimate victory. The memorial has three sections: an entry room, an assembly room and the shrine room.

The fundraising target was $500,000, and an Elvis Presley benefit concert on March 25, 1961 raised $65,000 toward it. The only deliberately planned design element was the Tree of Life window pattern on either side of the shrine room wall. A US flag flies from a pole attached to the Arizona's severed mainmast, since the ship is no longer in commission. The National Park Service took over tour operations from the Navy in 1980, and the memorial now sits within Pearl Harbor National Memorial.

The Shrine Room and the Names

The far end of the memorial holds the Shrine Room, the part most visitors remember longest. Its wall of Vermont marble bears the names of the Arizona's 1,177 dead, arranged in plain carved lettering. This is the wall people stand before in silence.

The names are not an abstraction. The remains of many of the 1,177 crewmen who died still lie inside the hull, according to the National Park Service, and many of the crew remain inside the hull below. Surviving crewmen of the Arizona may choose to be interred in the ship after death, and the urns of survivors are placed in the well of Barbette No. 4. The hull sits eight feet below the memorial's openings, visible through them on a clear day. Standing on the structure, you are directly over a war grave, which is why conduct on board is quiet and deliberate.

The Ship Below and the Oil

The USS Arizona sank on December 7, 1941, when Japanese aircraft struck Pearl Harbor in two waves launched from six carriers. A bomb detonated her explosive-filled forward magazine, and the explosion killed 1,177 officers and crewmen, nearly half of all American fatalities in the attack. Divers put the ship's length at 608 feet, most of it still below the memorial and the harbor surface.

Oil still leaks from the wreck a drop at a time. The National Park Service estimates about half a million gallons remain inside the stern, and the NPS says the rising droplets are considered the tears of the fallen. The NPS monitors the oil and the slow deterioration of the wreck constantly. For the full story of the morning itself, see the guide to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Visitors who want a guided route to the memorial can take the Pearl Harbor and Punchbowl Tour, a 6 hour day for $58 per person that adds downtown Honolulu.

The Program, Step by Step

The Arizona program is a safety orientation, a boat ride, time on the memorial and the return trip. The NPS puts the whole program at about 45 minutes, with 10 to 15 minutes of that spent on the memorial itself. Programs run daily every 15 minutes from 8 am to 12 noon and again from 1 pm to 3:30 pm, with a lunch break between 12 noon and 1 pm.

The steps below come from the National Park Service. The 23-minute park film is a separate screening at the Memorial Theater and can be watched on its own, at :15 and :45 past each hour from 7:15 am to the last showing at 4:15 pm. Each Navy boat carries 145 people under Navy and Coast Guard regulations. The ticket time is the time the boat leaves the dock, and late arrivals go to the standby line.

Rules on the Memorial and Closures

The memorial is a grave, and the rules follow from that. Visitors keep a quiet, respectful manner on board and on the structure. There are no restrooms on the boats or on the memorial, and the NPS states there is no restroom access once you leave the visitor center, so use the facilities beforehand. Strollers stay in the pre-boarding area at the Park Theater and are not allowed on the Navy boats or the memorial, so bring a baby carrier instead. Navy boats have wheelchair locks.

The boats are US Navy vessels, and the Navy decides whether they run. High winds or rain can suspend, modify or cancel boat rides, and service resumes when winds ease. The National Park Service notes that dock repairs can occasionally affect availability, as happened when the dock closed for a $2.1 million repair and the program ran as a documentary plus a narrated Battleship Row tour with no landing. Since the program is time-sensitive and tickets are limited, a tour is one way to handle the logistics. The Small-Group Arizona Memorial Tour carries pre-ordered memorial tickets in a group of up to 22 for $100 per person over 4 hours, and the Pearl Harbor tickets guide covers the free Recreation.gov booking, release times and the standby line if you go alone.

Tours That Include the Arizona Program

These tours all list the USS Arizona Memorial among their stops. Half-day options give you the memorial and sometimes a Honolulu drive, while full-day options add the Missouri, the Bowfin and the Aviation Museum. Prices are per person and come from the tour pages themselves. All of them list hotel pickup from Waikiki, some from selected hotels only.

One thing no listing can promise is the boat ride itself. The US Navy runs the boats, and high winds or rain can suspend, modify or cancel the ride, a Navy decision that no tour operator controls. The Navy also caps each boat at 145 people under Navy and Coast Guard regulations, so seats depend on the daily program running normally.

Some listings say the guide stays out of the park sites. The Small-Group Arizona Memorial Tour states that guides cannot go inside the Visitor Center or the memorial with you, and the Star of Honolulu coach tour says its driver-guide gives wayfinding only inside the park, with no interpretation. The Arizona program itself is run by National Park Service staff once you reach the dock. Read the Pearl Harbor bag policy before any tour, because the same rules apply if you arrive by coach or by car.

For more ways to book the visit, see the comparison of Pearl Harbor tours from Honolulu or the individual pages such as the Star of Honolulu Deluxe Coach Tour and the Arizona and Battleship Missouri Tour.

What a Tour Cannot Promise

No tour operator can guarantee a landing on the USS Arizona Memorial. The National Park Service says program tickets are reserved through Recreation.gov and that tour companies may not book regular public tickets, which is why honest listings describe the boat as subject to Navy operations or depending on availability. During the 2018-2019 dock closure the boats kept running as a 25-minute documentary plus a 15-minute narrated tour of Battleship Row, with no landing on the memorial.

Weather closures can create the same result on any given day. If standing on the memorial itself is the whole point of your trip, the surest route is your own free reservation on Recreation.gov, covered on the Pearl Harbor tickets page, with a tour as the backup.

The Pearl Harbor Visitor Center

The visitor center is where every Arizona visit starts. It is free to enter with no reservation, and the grounds hold the theater where the 23-minute park film plays at :15 and :45 past each hour, first showing 7:15 am and last 4:15 pm. The Navy boats to the memorial leave from the dock here, with the first program at 8 am and the last at 3:30 pm.

The current buildings date to 2010. Bathrooms, ticket validation and the standby tablets are all here, which matters because there is no restroom access once you leave the center for the memorial. Details are on the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center page.

The USS Bowfin and the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum

Next to the visitor center sits the USS Bowfin, a fleet submarine launched on 7 December 1942, exactly one year after the attack. She has been open to public tours at this spot since 1981. The site is now called the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum, and the museum says a visit takes about 1.5 to 2 hours.

Its address is 11 Arizona Memorial Drive, so it is an easy add-on before or after your boat time. Admission is sold as part of tours such as the Pearl Harbor Heroes Deluxe Tour, which lists the Bowfin among its stops. Read more on the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum page.

The Battleship Missouri

The Battleship Missouri Memorial rests on Ford Island, a short shuttle ride from the visitor center. The Missouri is where World War II ended, and the ship and the Arizona are often described as the bookends of the war: one marks where the United States was pulled in, the other where it was won. The Missouri says it never runs out of tickets, unlike the Arizona boats, and it suggests about 1 to 2 hours for most visits, or a half-day plan of the Arizona plus the Missouri when time is short.

Missouri admission is not priced here because it is sold inside tours such as the Small-Group Arizona and Missouri Tour. See the Battleship Missouri page for details.

The Oklahoma and Utah Memorials on Ford Island

The memorial itself includes the sunken Arizona plus the USS Oklahoma and USS Utah memorials, both on Ford Island. Both ships were lost in the attack. Access is limited: the NPS hours page says visitors need military base access, while the NPS Ford Island Bus Tour page lets visitors without a military ID reserve a seat on the Monday, Wednesday and Friday bus.

Note that this bus tour does not include the Arizona Memorial, and it clashes with the 2:30, 3:00 and 3:30 pm Arizona programs.