Theming America at War

This chapter expands the lens of analysis to trace the effects of the rise of tourism and the addition of military museums that together reconfigure the Pearl Harbor area into something like a military theme park focused on the bombing attack and the Pacific War. The arrival of the USS Missouri in 1998, a new battleship museum, joined in 2006 by the Pacific Aviation Museum, launched a new era in Pacific War tourism that was followed closely in 2010 by the expansion of the Arizona memorial’s museum and visitor center complex, renamed the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. Creating the look and feel of an entertainment-oriented theme park, these developments tell a story of the increasing commercialization and trivialization of war history. The chapter recounts a controversy over an exhibit at the Pacific Aviation Museum concerning the representation of Japanese American wartime loyalty. Discussion of that case reflects on conflicts and contradictions that arise when military history and social history collide.