Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor is a non-profit organization. The memorial was designed to accommodate 2,400 visitors a day, but it now gets twice that, drawing 1.5 million visitors a year as the state’s top tourist destination.
In September 2010, the Pacific Aviation Museum signed the lease on the Ford Island Control Tower and Observation Deck, marking the beginning of a long awaited and badly needed Tower restoration and stabilization project.
The 85,000 sq. ft. Hangar 79 joins Hangar in providing visitors with a unique aviation experience of America’s Pearl Harbor battlefield. In January 2011, the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor opened a second hangar to the general public. As you enter the main part of the hanger you first see a large artistic interpretation of a Japanese plane preparing to attack Ford Island or Battleship Row.
The Japanese followed their Pearl Harbor assault with attacks against US and British bases in the Philippines, Guam, Midway Island, Wake Island, Malaya, and Hong Kong. On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, decimating the US Pacific Fleet. The attack on Pearl Harbor plunged this nation into World War II. But amidst the tragic losses, the teamwork, courage, ingenuity and determination of the American Spirit shone through. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called it a day that will live in infamy.