The USS Arizona was a United States battleship built in the 1910s for the U.S. Navy. One of the Pennsylvania class battleships, it came into service in 1916 but did not see any action before the end of World War I. With an overall length of over 600 feet, a crew of over one-thousand, and twelve 14-inch guns, she was one of the most powerful ships in the U.S. fleet during the interwar period.

However, Battleship Arizona is most famous for being sunk by a direct hit to its magazine from a Japanese bomber during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Photos of the sinking wreck of the Arizona at Pearl Harbor became synonymous with the attack and helped galvanize the U.S. upon its entry into World War II. The USS Arizona Memorial is built over the wreckage of the ship and commemorates the sinking of the ship, the 1,177 crewmen and officers who died aboard, and all the other lives lost in the attack.

History of USS Arizona

Construction of the Arizona began in March 1914 in New York City. Assistant Secretary of the Navy and future president Franklin Roosevelt were in attendance at the start of construction. The ship was designed to be among the largest and strongest in the world upon its completion. Naval doctrine at the time saw the battleship as the most important ship in the fleet, capable of going toe to toe in decisive engagements against other ships and effectively ruling the high seas. The Arizona and other battleships of its size were meant to allow the U.S. to compete with the large battleships built by European powers such as Britain and Germany known as Dreadnoughts.

Just over a year after the beginning of its construction, the Arizona was launched in June 1915, with an estimated 75,000 people attending the launch ceremony. The ship drew its name from what was the newest state at the time. After testing and trials, she was formally commissioned for service in the U.S. Navy on October 17, 1916.

What Happened at Pearl Harbor?

Tensions between the United States and Japan had increased significantly by the late 1930s. Anti-Asian immigration policy in the U.S. played a role, as did the U.S. presence in Hawaii, the Philippines, and other territories in the Pacific. As Japan sought to carve out an empire of its own in the South Pacific, it saw the U.S. as its main imperial competitor in the region.

Japanese forces carried out invasions of the Manchuria region of China in 1931 and the rest of China in 1937 in what was known as the Second Sino-Japanese War. After reports of Japanese atrocities during these invasions, especially the massacre of civilians at Nanjing in December of 1937, the U.S. had become increasingly critical of the Japanese. Trade restrictions, eventually including an oil embargo, were implemented after the Japanese invasion of Indochina (present-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia).

The Japanese viewed the securing of oil supplies and other resources in South East Asia as vital to their interests. In particular, they set their sights on British-held territories such as Singapore as areas of possible future expansion. Japanese military leaders believed that attacking these British territories would inevitably lead to war with the U.S. Therefore, they began to make plans to preemptively attack the U.S., hoping to sufficiently weaken it to give their forces time to conquer the area before the U.S. could mount an effective response.

The main goal of the plan was to cripple the U.S. Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The Japanese felt they were at a numerical disadvantage on the high seas and concluded that war was inevitable sooner or later. Therefore, they felt an attack would be a preventive measure and that a major initial victory was important to their success.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor deliberately targeted the battleships at Pearl Harbor like the USS Arizona. Japanese pilots studied the ships and their expected locations in port. At the time, the battleship was considered the most important ship in the fleet, and the Japanese hoped that by knocking out at least some of the U.S.’s major battleships, it could achieve supremacy on the high seas for at least enough time to conquer the South Pacific.

In late November 1941, a fleet of Japanese aircraft carriers set sail to launch the attack. Over 300 aircraft would be used to attack Pearl Harbor, and the attack was carried out in several waves. The first wave of planes specifically targeted the battleships and other capital ships. It effectively caught the U.S. forces by surprise. The entire attack was over within 90 minutes. Eighteen Pearl Harbor ships sunk or were run aground and effectively disabled, including five battleships, among them the Arizona.

The USS Arizona Memorial

Unlike many of the other ships that were sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor, the Arizona was not salvageable, although some of her guns and other armaments were removed and mounted on other ships or used as land-based artillery.

Much of the ship’s wreckage was underwater, and USS Arizona bodies proved difficult to recover. Efforts were made to recover as many of the fallen crew as possible, but at least nine hundred remain entombed within the ship.