Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum

The museum stands on Ford Island, in the middle of the harbour, inside hangars that were there on the morning of 7 December 1941. Hangar 79 still has its original blue glass panes, shattered by strafing fire and left unrepaired — you can put your hand near the holes.

Inside Hangar 37, the story of the attack is told through the aircraft themselves: a Japanese A6M2 Zero, a P-40 Warhawk, and a Stearman trainer in which a civilian flying lesson was interrupted by the first wave. Hangar 79 holds the later decades — MiGs, an F-15, helicopters from Vietnam and the Gulf — plus a restoration shop where volunteers work in full view.

The restored Ford Island control tower, which directed traffic that morning, is open to climb. From the top you look out over the harbour, the Battleship Missouri and the Arizona Memorial, with the whole shape of the day laid out below you.