Memorialising war : rethinking heritage and affect in the context of Pearl Harbor

This chapter attunes to the range of affective and emotional responses registered by people as they visit heritage that relates to, or represents, war. In using the term ‘heritage’, I refer to those places, objects, and memories that have acquired shared meanings, beliefs, and values to the extent that people alter their behaviour in relation to them (Waterton & Watson 2014). In keeping with my interest in places of war, the example of ‘heritage’ I take as my focus is that associated with the attack on Pearl Harbor during the Second World War. Prior to 7 December 1941, Pearl Harbor might have been known for its pearl-producing oysters or its associations with the Hawaiian Shark God, and certainly as a naval base, at least from 1908. On 7 December 1941 all that changed. But it was not until 1962 that the first elements of the site – the USS Arizona – were opened to the public as a site of memory, thereby transforming the area, through post-conflict preservation and reconstruction, into a place of heritage.