The Pennsylvania-class battleship

Arizona was sunk during the

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

on December 7, 1941, the event

that brought about US involvement

in World War II.

The blast that destroyed Arizona

and sank her at her berth alongside

of Ford Island took a total of 1,177

lives of the 1,400 crewmen on

board at the time - over half of the

casualties suffered by the entire

fleet in the attack.

The wreck was not salvaged, but

was was cut down so that very little

of the superstructure lay above

water and continues to lie at the

floor of the harbor. Her aft battery

turrets and guns and cannons from

#2 turret were removed to be

emplaced as coastal defense guns,

later being installed aboard Nevada

in the fall of 1944. Nevada then

used those guns against the

Japanese islands of Okinawa and

Iwo Jima. Both forward turrets

remain in place on the wreck.

Pearl Harbor remains the site of a

memorial to those who perished on

that day.The wreck was designated

a national shrine in 1962. The ship

herself was designated a National

Historic Landmark on May 5th,

1989.