Battleship Missouri Memorial

Together with the Arizona Memorial, the Missouri's presence in Pearl Harbor perfectly bookends America's WWII experience that began December 7, 1941, and ended on the "Mighty Mo's" starboard deck with the signing of the Terms of Surrender. To begin your visit, go to the parking area behind the USS Bowfin Museum and board a jitney for the breezy, eight-minute ride to Ford Island and the teak decks and towering superstructure of the Missouri. You'll find her docked for good in the very harbor from which she first went to war on January 2, 1945. The last battleship ever built, the Missouri famously hosted the final act of WWII, the signing of the Terms of Surrender. The commission that governs this floating museum has surrounded her with buildings tricked out in WWII style -- a Canteen that serves as an orientation space for tours, a WACs and WAVEs Lounge with a flight simulator the kids will love ($5 for one person, $18 for four), Truman's Line restaurant serving Navy-style meals, and a Victory Store housing a souvenir shop and covered with period mottos ("Don't be a blabateur.").

The Missouri is all about numbers: 209 feet tall, six 239,000-pound guns, capable of firing up to 23 mi away. Absorb these during the tour, then stop to take advantage of the view from the decks. The Mo is a work in progress, with only a handful of her hundreds of spaces open to view.