PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – Sixty-three years after the sneak attack that plunged the United States into World War II, hundreds of men who died aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma are finally getting their own special tribute.
“It’s about time,” said Oklahoma survivor George Smith, 80, of Tenino, Wash.
A new exhibit of photos, artifacts and oral histories was unveiled Monday to honor the 429 men from the Oklahoma who died in the Dec. 7, 1941 attack. That is the second-highest number of Pearl Harbor casualties behind the USS Arizona, where most of its 1,177 crewmen killed in the attack remain entombed.
The anniversary also will be marked with simultaneous ceremonies Tuesday aboard the Arizona Memorial above that sunken battleship, and on shore at the National Park Service’s visitors center. Each ceremony was to feature a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m. – the minute the attack started.
While the better-known Arizona has a gleaming white memorial straddling its hull, the Oklahoma has gone largely unrecognized over the years.
The exhibit depicts the battleship’s history, and a graphic shows how the ship rolled over after being struck by the Japanese torpedoes. Photos of many of the young crewmen border the exhibit panels.
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