I had long wanted to get on the Missouri this time period on Apr. 11th. I'm writing about why later. Walking from the bus stop toward the Missouri, it was getting way bigger to my eye which was used to the sight of modern destroyers. Several volunteer guides were ready and I asked for a Japanese one. The area open to the public was only the main deck and the dining and dwelling spaces, but I was able to visit what I had wanted to.
Before getting on board, I found that it had modern installations like a few types of radar and sets of harpoon launching tubes. I had thought that the battleship joined the Korean War and it would receive some improvements at that time, but I was surprised to see modernized items that you wouldn't be able to even imagine in the times of the Great East Asian War. I looked into the battleship on the net and knew it had installed tomahawk cruise missiles. The wiki said that the battleship was used in the Gulf War. What a long-life the battleship had!
I wanted to take enough time on the battleship and drank a 500cc bottle of mineral water dry at a stall just before going on board. It was a really muggy day. The last picture shows the USS Arizona Memorial from the bow.
この日、４月１１日のこの時刻にこの船に乗船したかった。理由は後に書く。シャトルバスの停留所から歩いて近づくと、近代的な駆逐艦しか見たことの無い目にはかなり巨大な船だった。ボランティアガイドが待機していて無料で付いてくれるというので日本人ガイドをお願いして案内してもらった。観光客に開放されているのは甲板と後方の食堂だけだったが僕が見たかったところには行けた。
まず乗船する前に装備が近代的なことにすぐに気がついた。レーダーとか後方にはハープーンの発射管まで見える。大東亜戦争以後も朝鮮戦争には使われただろうから改修したのだろうと思ったが、大東亜戦争時代には考えられなかった装備になんじゃこりゃと驚き、乗船直前に調べるとなんとトマホークも装備しており湾岸戦争にも使われたとか。何と息の長い船であろうか。
ゆっくり見て歩きたかったのでまずは水分補給。乗船前に土産物店でミネラルウォーターを一本買って飲み干してから乗船した。暑い日だった。最後の写真は艦首から撮った戦艦アリゾナメモリアル。
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