This introduction describes the book’s project, telling a story about the people and activities that make up the life of a highly public national war memorial as it evolved throughout its postwar career. The story of the USS Arizona Memorial as it unfolded from the early 1990s to the present opens up a historical perspective on the memorial as a process in which representations are continually in motion—something that becomes most acute in moments of institutional change, as in making a new film or designing a new museum, as well as in moments of controversy where history and its representation become objects of discussion. This introduction anticipates problems and themes addressed in chapters that explore changing commemorative practices, the production of a new documentary film, the construction of a new visitor center and museum complex, and the organization of teacher programs—all multiyear projects in which Pearl Harbor history and its representation become subjects of self-conscious reflection and critique.