Pearl Harbour - after the tours have gone.

tommyinbc said:
I wasn't going to post my thoughts, but what the heck...Our visit to Pearl Harbor and the Arizona was the highlight of our families trip to Oahu two years ago..A solemn and sobering visit but I just couldn't stand the loud Japanese tourists taking their usual 'smiling family shots' with the Arizona in the background...A wry smile and raised eyebrows from a Park Ranger said it all....I could'nt do that job...I'd end up punching someone...
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I was there as well, and picked up on that vibe too, I found it upsetting even being Canadian. That being said, the Japanese are very patriotic and proud people and it is the site of one of their greatest victories of the war. I take take pride in the fact that the war was won by the Allies, but am humbled by the sacrifices that "The Greatest Generation" had to make.
 
I remember our tour guide singled out Canadians in the group to point out the place where our ambassador screwed up the Japanese surrender document by putting his signature on the wrong line.
 
That is funny to see.

I remember going onboard the U.S.S. Missouri and seeing the bronze plank on the deck where the document was signed.

I did take some additional time to visit as much of the ship as was open to the public. I can tell you, if you were in a panic to get out in a hurry and the ship was not sitting properly, you could get lost and disoriented quite easily.

The view from the upper deck was amazing and somewhat frightful as it was a long way down to the water.

Goo98 said:
This thing!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Japan_Instrument_of_Surrender_2_September_1945.jpg
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Nabs said:
That is funny to see.

I remember going onboard the U.S.S. Missouri and seeing the bronze plank on the deck where the document was signed.

I did take some additional time to visit as much of the ship as was open to the public. I can tell you, if you were in a panic to get out in a hurry and the ship was not sitting properly, you could get lost and disoriented quite easily.

The view from the upper deck was amazing and somewhat frightful as it was a long way down to the water.
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The bronze plaque on the deck of the Missouri was another moment of reflection...The Second World War 'officially' ended on that very spot..Did you get to see the huge 'dent' on the side of the ship..? The result of a kamikaze attack...There's a picture of it somewhere...I ended up buying a small piece of the original deck made out of Indian Teak..They used this expensive wood for the deck as you can't slip on it even when its wet..
 
I don't recall seeing the dent. If I remember correctly, the ship is tied to the dock on her port side. It was a very busy day for tourists and my family was waiting on the dock for me to tour the ship so I was under some pressure to explore the ship as quickly and as thoroughly as possible.
 
Kamikaze_zero.jpg2482489998_a29084a483.jpg

We only found out as we overheard a tour guide describing it.....Hopefully the attached pictures show 'then and now' aspect..
 

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Goo98 said:
I remember our tour guide singled out Canadians in the group to point out the place where our ambassador screwed up the Japanese surrender document by putting his signature on the wrong line.
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That's embarrassing! I don't think I've ever heard that story before.

Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave DSO & Bar (August 28, 1890 – July 28, 1971) was the Canadian signatory to the Japanese Instrument of Surrender at the end of World War II.

In World War II he was the Canadian Military Attache to Australia, S.W.P.A. but his most notable moment came on September 2, 1945 when he was the Canadian representative who signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri. He caused a little-known mishap; Colonel Cosgrave inadvertently placed his signature one line too low on the Japanese copy of the documents. He signed on the line for the French Republic. This was attributed to he being blind in one eye (as lost its sight in the First World War). This set off an unfortunate chain whereby each succeeding signer also signed one line too low on that copy of the documents. Air Vice-Marshal Leonard Monk Isitt, the Dominion of New Zealand representative, left without a blank to sign, had to have his name and country written in at the bottom margin of the document. Cosgrave did not repeat this error on the American copy. The error was "corrected" by General Sutherland who crossed out "French Republic" and wrote in "Dominion of Canada" then made similar corrections for the rest of the document. Both US and Japanese copies of the surrender are on display on the USS Missouri, berthed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Moore_Cosgrave
 
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tommyinbc said:
I wasn't going to post my thoughts, but what the heck...Our visit to Pearl Harbor and the Arizona was the highlight of our families trip to Oahu two years ago..A solemn and sobering visit but I just couldn't stand the loud Japanese tourists taking their usual 'smiling family shots' with the Arizona in the background...A wry smile and raised eyebrows from a Park Ranger said it all....I could'nt do that job...I'd end up punching someone...
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I had the same experience when I was there last year. I was about to throw some Japanese people over the fence into the ocean for being so smug and disrespectful.
 
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