Monday, November 11, 2013

11 November - Remembrance Day


Or Veterans Day as it is in the US.  Precisely at eleven am on 11 November 1918 marked the end of WW1, of which next year is the centenary of the commencement.

This scene marks the beginning and end of WW2 in the Pacific - the hull of the USS Arizona is directly below, still resting where it was sunk by the Japanese on 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii in what known as Battleship Row.  Although this happened 72 years ago, oil from the wreck still seeps from it, and it is estimated that this will continue for another 20 years. Of  the 2,402 servicemen and civilians killed by the Japanese in their surprise attack on the US Navy Pacific fleet that morning, the USS Arizona represented 1,177.

The formal Japanese surrender took place aboard the USS Missouri - the ship in the distance - on 2 September 1945 in Tokyo Bay.  (Geoff Churchman pic)

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