Site of attack has changed little in 60 years

HONOLULU -- The basic layout of the Navy's base at Pearl Harbor -- the drydocks, the ship repair shop and Ford Island -- hasn't changed much in the 60 years since the Japanese surprise attack that thrust America into the Pacific battles of World War II.

Pock marks from Japanese strafing still dot Ford Island, ground zero in the 1941 attack.

But the surrounding civilian area has vastly changed, with Pearl Harbor itself part of a massive buildup of tourism.

Raymond Emory looks at an aerial photo of the harbor, taken the month before the attack, that hangs in the USS Arizona Memorial Visitors Center.

"If you compare that with the way it looks today, it's pretty much the same," said Emory, 80, who was aboard the cruiser USS Honolulu at the time of the attack and is now the chief historian for the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.

Population tripled

But 60 years ago, he said, sugarcane fields came almost right up to the harbor. Now, a major shopping mall overlooks the harbor and strip malls line Kamehameha Highway just outside the naval base.

"There were just small cottages in Waikiki then," Emory said. "There's no comparison with all the big hotels now."

The island of Oahu had a population of about 260,000 in 1941, and has grown to about 880,000 today. But the Navy presence has shrunk. The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard had a work force of nearly 11,000, mostly civilian, at the time of the attack. It's now about 4,300, including 600 military.

Twenty-two ships were ported in Pearl Harbor on that fateful day. Today, 13 vessels call Pearl Harbor home.

Some of the biggest changes at Pearl Harbor are still in the works.

The Navy plans commercial development of 75 acres of Ford Island, the 450-acre island in the middle of the harbor, to subsidize planned military construction on the rest of the island. The project will include housing, restaurants and theaters for personnel.

Construction could begin soon after the Navy awards the contract in the fall of 2002.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has named Ford Island one of the "Most Endangered Historic Places," cautioning that the remnants of the Japanese attack could be altered unless plans are put in place to protect them.

Decades of neglect

But Navy Capt. Jennifer Mustain, commander of the Public Works Center at Pearl Harbor, said the island's historic structures are suffering from decades of neglect and are in severe disrepair.

The Navy has to balance historical preservation with the needs of an operational naval base, said Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a Navy spokeswoman. There is no guarantee all the historic buildings will be saved, she said.

When the Japanese attacked, U.S. battleships moored along the east side of Ford Island were torpedoed and bombed while the island's airfield, airplanes and hangars were bombed and strafed.