USS Bowfin launched from the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine on 7 December 1942, exactly one year after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor led to the declaration of war in the Pacific. In 1989, the Pacific Submarine Museum closed and transferred its collection to the USS Bowfin Museum. The museum opened in 1981 after years of planning and restoration of the Bowfin. Thousands pay their respects at the Park's Waterfront Memorial, which is in tribute to the 52 American submarines lost during the war. The museum's collection includes recruiting posters, battle flags, a one-of-a-kind cutaway of a Poseidon ballistic missile, an authentic Japanese Kaiten (a suicide sub similar in concept to the Kamikaze aircraft), and the intact conning tower and periscope of the USS Parche, a contemporary of the Bowfin's and one of the most decorated World War II-era subs in the Pacific Fleet. Similar to other submarines during the war, the Bowfin's crew unknowingly sunk a freighter that was carrying 1,500 civilians evacuating from Okinawa, and more than half of these people were schoolchildren. Included in the exhibits are the decisions that led to unrestricted submarine warfare and the consequences which included the sinking of civilian vessels. Visitors can tour the USS Bowfin and learn the history of this and other submarines in WWII. Located next to Makalapa Park and within walking distance of the USS Arizona Memorial, this floating museum shares the history of a ship commissioned exactly one year after Pearl Harbor.
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