36. USS Arizona Memorial

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USS Arizona Memorial
Pearl Harbor

I am not a patriotic fan and moreover, as a pacifist, I am not a military fan. But then, there is a time for everything and I understand the need and reason for making a memorial of such a dreadful place -- same goes for opening Auschwitz concentration camp to visitors. For me, this postcard is only another touristic spot, probably one that I wouldn't plan to visit if I had other places to go as a national park or a museum. To the sender, it means a lot. As a military person who had experienced September 11th, she can perfectly imagine how people felt in 1941. I love that she sent something so meaningful for her, even if for me it is just a piece of a foreign country's history (Spain was neutral during WWI and WWII and we don't even have a memorial day).

This is what you can read on the back of the card:
The Memorial straddles the sunken hull of the battleship USS Arizona and commemorates the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Memorial was dedicated in 1962, and became a National Park Service area in 1980. The USS Arizona is the final resting place for many of the ship's 1,177 crewmen who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. The 184-foot-long Memorial structure spanning the mid-portion of the sunken battleship consists of trhee main sections: the entry and assembly rooms, a entral area designed for ceremonies and general observation, and the shrine room, where the names of those killed on the Arizona are engraved on the marble wall.

A few days after I received this, I watched From Here to Eternity on TV. Wasn't that a funny coincidence?

It came with the standard stamp for international shipping, the Amish carriage one. For once I wasn't so pleased to see it (but only a little, I really love it). Wouldn't a flag stamp had been a perfect match for this card?

Postcard from: Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Received: April 2012.
Language: English (obvious).
Envelope: no.
Stamps: one $1.05 Lancaster county with Amish carriage.

Thanks, Debbie!
{US-1618806}

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