What Is the USS Oklahoma Memorial at Pearl Harbor?
Key takeaway
The USS Oklahoma Memorial is a freestanding monument on Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, that honors the 429 sailors and Marines killed when the battleship USS Oklahoma capsized during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. It consists of 429 white marble columns, called "standards," each inscribed with the name, rank, and home state of one man lost aboard the ship. The memorial sits on the water's edge near the ship's original moorings, within view of the USS Arizona Memorial and Battleship Missouri.
Key takeaways
- The memorial honors all 429 crewmen killed aboard USS Oklahoma, each represented by an individually inscribed marble column.
- It stands on Ford Island near the ship's original berth (Battleship Row), separate from the USS Arizona Memorial but part of the same visitor experience.
- Access is included with the standard Pearl Harbor National Memorial visit and most guided tours that cross to Ford Island.
The Ship and the Attack
USS Oklahoma was a Nevada-class battleship moored along Battleship Row on the morning of the attack. It took multiple torpedo hits in quick succession and rolled over within about twelve minutes, trapping hundreds of men below deck. Rescue crews cut through the exposed hull over the following days, pulling 32 sailors out alive, but 429 men died — the second-highest death toll of any ship at Pearl Harbor after the USS Arizona. The National Park Service, which administers the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, documents the attack timeline and ship losses for visitors wanting the full historical record.
Many of the Oklahoma's crew were not immediately identifiable, and their remains were interred as unknowns for decades. Advances in forensic identification eventually allowed the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to identify and return many of these sailors to their families, a process that continued long after the memorial's dedication.
What the Memorial Looks Like
The design is deliberately simple and restrained. Instead of a single large sculpture or wall, the memorial uses 429 separate marble standards arranged in rows that echo a ship's formation, each one representing a single man rather than a collective statistic. The columns are grouped to reflect the divisions the crew served in, so visitors walking the rows see names clustered the way these sailors actually worked and lived together aboard ship.
- 429 individual marble standards, one per crewman killed
- Each column lists name, rank, and home state
- Columns are arranged by ship division, not alphabetically
- The site overlooks the actual mooring quays where Oklahoma sat
This arrangement contrasts with the USS Arizona Memorial, which spans the submerged hull of the ship itself. If you're deciding how to divide your time between the two sites, this comparison of the Arizona and Missouri memorials is a useful starting point, since Ford Island's smaller memorials are often seen on the same loop.
When It Was Built and Why It Took So Long
The USS Oklahoma Memorial was dedicated on December 7, 2007 — 66 years after the attack. The long gap reflects how Ford Island itself was closed to public access for most of that time; the island only reopened to visitors in the 2000s after decades as an active military installation. Earlier memorial efforts for the Oklahoma's crew existed in a smaller form, but the current marble-column memorial is the first permanent, publicly accessible tribute built specifically for this ship's dead.
Where It Sits in Relation to Other Pearl Harbor Sites
The memorial stands on Ford Island, across the channel from the visitor center where most tours begin. Getting there typically means taking the shuttle or boat route that also serves the Battleship Missouri and the Pacific Aviation Museum, rather than the boat that carries visitors directly to the Arizona Memorial. Because timed-entry tickets for the Arizona Memorial are limited and the Ford Island sites run on a different loop, travelers who want to see all of them in one visit usually need to plan their schedule in advance. For background on how those memorial tickets work, see this overview of the Arizona Memorial's history and visitor logistics.
Practical Visiting Notes
The memorial is outdoors, uncovered, and positioned along open water, so Hawaii's sun and occasional rain reach visitors directly — comfortable, modest clothing and sun protection make the walk more pleasant, similar to guidance covered in this dress code guide for Pearl Harbor visits. There's no separate ticket required beyond standard access to the Ford Island sites, and the stop is brief: most visitors spend ten to fifteen minutes walking the rows of columns before continuing to the Missouri or aviation museum.
Group and school visits sometimes pause here specifically because the memorial's design — one column per person — makes an abstract casualty count tangible for younger visitors. Guides on Pearl Harbor Official's bus tours often use this stop to explain how the Oklahoma's losses compare to the Arizona's, since the two ships together account for the majority of Navy deaths that morning, a detail also broken down in this explanation of Pearl Harbor's death toll.
How It Differs From the USS Arizona Memorial
The Arizona Memorial spans the sunken hull of a ship that still holds the remains of most of its crew, making it both a gravesite and a structure built over an actual wreck. The Oklahoma Memorial, by contrast, is a land-based monument near the ship's former mooring; the Oklahoma itself was raised, stripped, and later lost at sea while under tow for scrapping in 1947. That distinction matters for visitors expecting a wreck-site experience at both locations — only the Arizona offers that, while the Oklahoma Memorial is purely commemorative in form. The Naval History and Heritage Command maintains detailed ship histories covering what happened to Oklahoma after the attack, including its eventual loss during the tow to the mainland.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the USS Oklahoma Memorial at Pearl Harbor?
It's a memorial on Ford Island honoring the 429 crewmen killed when USS Oklahoma capsized during the December 7, 1941 attack. It uses 429 individually inscribed marble columns rather than a ship structure, since the Oklahoma itself was later lost at sea.
Q: Where is the USS Oklahoma Memorial located?
It stands on Ford Island at Pearl Harbor, near the ship's original mooring along Battleship Row and within sight of the Battleship Missouri. It's reached via the Ford Island shuttle or boat route, separate from the dock used for the Arizona Memorial.
Q: Is the USS Oklahoma Memorial included with regular Pearl Harbor tickets?
Yes, access is part of the standard visit to the Ford Island sites, alongside the Battleship Missouri and Pacific Aviation Museum, with no separate admission fee for the memorial itself.
Q: How many people died aboard the USS Oklahoma?
429 sailors and Marines were killed when the ship capsized after multiple torpedo hits, while 32 crew members were rescued alive from the overturned hull in the days that followed.
Q: Is the USS Oklahoma Memorial the same as the USS Arizona Memorial?
No. The Arizona Memorial is built over the submerged hull of that ship, which still contains most of its crew's remains, while the Oklahoma Memorial is a land-based monument of marble columns near where that ship once moored.