70 years after Pearl Harbor, USS Arizona still weeps

USS Arizona

A picture dated December 7, 1941 obtained from the US Navy shows The USS Arizona afire and sinking after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Seventy years after Pearl Harbor, the wreck of the Arizona, the giant battleship sunk by Japanese warplanes still leaks oil, evoking for some the tears of the thousand sailors who went down with their ship on that day of "infamy."

Arizona was the most heavily damaged of all the vessels in Battleship Row, suffering three near-misses and two direct-hits from 800-kg bombs dropped by high-altitude Kates. The last bomb to strike her penetrated her deck starboard of turret two and detonated within a 14-inch powder magazine. The resulting massive explosion broke the ship in two forward of turret one, collapsed her forecastle decks, and created such a cavity that her forward turrets and conning tower fell thirty feet into her hull. She was a total loss. Never seriously considered a candidate for salvage, her top-hamper was removed in 1942 and she remains where she sank to this day, a tomb for 1,102 men who died with her.

Visitors tour the USS Arizona memorial at the Pearl Harbour historical site and memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii

70 years after Pearl Harbor, USS Arizona still weeps