Before it was Pearl Harbor, it was Wai Momi, "Waters of Pearl," named for the oysters that once filled its harbour. The Hawaiians fished these waters for centuries; taro grew on the surrounding land.

By 1887, a Bayonet Constitution had forced King Kalākaua to sign over exclusive American access to the harbour, a step that set the islands on the road to annexation. December 7th, 1941 changed everything else. The USS Arizona Memorial spans the sunken hull of a battleship that still rests on the harbour floor, its oil still rising to the surface. The memorial was partly funded by an Elvis Presley concert in 1961. Its architect was the son of a Japanese-American family interned on Sand Island after the attack.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace this layered history from Hawaiian sovereignty through annexation to the attack itself, connecting the memorial to the wider arc of Oʻahu's story.