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Oil Slick, USS Arizona

These days, Pearl Harbor has become just another tourist attraction, in much the same way that Memorial Day has become just another excuse to go shopping. But because all four of my grandparents are Holocaust survivors, I couldn’t conclude my Hawaii vacation without a visit to the site. I knew that if Japan had not sunk the USS Arizona on December 7, 1941, the United States might never have entered World War II, and I might never have been born.

It took me just seconds to set up this shot, taken off the dock at the USS Arizona Memorial. It shows the oil slick that seeps from the submerged vessel, even after 66 years. One drop rises to the surface every couple of seconds, as if it were the heartbeat of the ship.

—Joshua Gleis, F05, F08