Picture the smoke and chaos that engulfed this low-lying island on the morning of December 7, 1941. This island was home to both the Army's Luke Field and the Navy's NAS Pearl Harbor, and it was surrounded on its eastern shore by what the Japanese called 'Battleship Row' — the line of moored battleships that became the primary target of the attack. The USS Arizona, Oklahoma, West Virginia, California, Maryland, Tennessee, Nevada, and Pennsylvania were all here.
The Oklahoma capsized, trapping hundreds of men inside her hull. The Nevada, the only battleship to get underway during the attack, was deliberately beached to prevent her from sinking in the channel and blocking the harbor entrance. From the moment the first Japanese aircraft appeared at 7:48 a.m.
until the last planes departed at 9:45 a.m., this island was engulfed in smoke, fire, exploding ammunition, and desperate men doing everything they could to fight back. Today Ford Island is still an active naval installation, a place where the weight of that Sunday morning is never far from the surface.