Posted by Jack
You really should see the pictures in the following link. This 114 year old Japanese battleship will blow you away, uh, no pun intended. It’s beautiful and the detail the Japanese put in to its restoration will amaze you.
Only in a well mannered, respectful and civil society like Japan could such a spotless wonder be on full public display without fear of horrific damage. I can’t imagine such a gem lasting long in Chicago, New York or Los Angeles.
Japanese battleship tour in pictures.
A WWII ship is something you will never see permanently docked as museum piece in San Francisco. At least the Japanese have a sense of history and pride compared to the Bay Area.
Well, certainly not a ship of the line. However, there is the SS Jeremiah O’Brien—
http://ssjeremiahobrien.org/
If you ever get the chance to go on board, I highly recommend it.
As to your comment, yeah, you got that right. The greater San Francisco Bay Area was on big Navy Town for decades. Here is just one photo—(I actually saw this with binoculars from the deck of my dad’s house.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Alameda#/media/File:US_carriers_at_Alameda_1974_(colour).jpg
Not any more—
“Now the Navy has another ship it wants to bestow on a West Coast port: the big World War II battleship USS Iowa. But the ship has run into rough sailing and a harsh political headwind in the city the Navy thought would be an ideal home: San Francisco.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to spurn the ship. Supervisors who oppose the offer say they don’t want a ship from a military in which openly gay men and women cannot serve. They also say they don’t want it because they oppose the Iraq war, which city voters condemned in a 2004 ballot question.”
Link to original article dated 3/8/2006—
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-03-08-san-francisco-battleship_x.htm
Well, somehow the Alameda link above got garbled. So, either copy the entire link and paste in a new tab, or just click the link and then click the color photo on the right with four U.S. carriers in port.