Lack of funding hurts Arizona Memorial

THE ISSUE The museum and visitor center is fast sinking into deterioration.

AS America observed the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor yesterday, the USS Arizona Memorial's museum and visitor center slumped further into deterioration. Although a new facility is in the works, about $50 million will be needed to replace and enlarge the facility to properly preserve and display artifacts and to continue educational programs about one of the most important events in this country's history.

More than $28 million has been raised so far, but supporters say having another $7 million in hand would ensure work can begin on the new center sooner rather than later.

There is some urgency. Engineers estimate that the current facility has as little as two years left before structural deterioration forces it to be abandoned.

When built in 1980, the museum and center, which serve as the gateway to the memorial offshore, did not anticipate that as many as 4,500 people would crowd through its doors daily. That's more than twice the number it was designed to accommodate. At peak periods, visitors must wait two hours or more to get through; on even busier days, people are turned away.

The center, constructed on landfill, has been slowly sinking into the harbor, as much as 30 inches in some areas. Damaged support columns and cracks in the building will render it unsafe. In addition, its open-air design leaves artifacts unprotected, and cramped exhibit space deprive visitors of a full experience.

The plan is to expand the Arizona's center to a five-acre campus to be renamed the Pearl Harbor Memorial Museum and Visitor Center, which will include access to the USS Missouri, the USS Bowfin and the new Pacific Aviation Museum.

Expansion will allow larger collections of artifacts, photos and mementos that aging survivors of the attack leave behind when they die. It also will allow their stories, some in their own recorded voices, to be heard for generations to come.