Tours were back on as scheduled on Thursday at the USS Arizona Memorial. That was not the case Wednesday morning when the federal government shutdown caused confusion at the National Park Service location. Crowds waited outside, hoping they would be accommodated.
People were admitted during the last shutdown in 2018 because private donations through Pacific Historic Parks helped to pay for staff to stay on the job.
Visitors on Wednesday were encouraged to visit the other open sites: the USS Bowfin, the Missouri, and the Aviation Museum, which were open, since the approvals for Arizona did not come until around 11 a.m.
The Conversation spoke to Jim McCoy, Pacific Historic Parks director of communications, as he was arriving on scene Thursday. He said a family visiting from Oregon waited for hours Wednesday, but were so pleased they could get out to the memorial.
“There are statistics that show that a large percentage of people flying into Hawaiʻi, visitors, want to see the Pearl Harbor National Memorial and the accompanying parks,” McCoy said.
“The last big shutdown was in 2018, I think late December, it lasted 35 days, and we opened, too. We were open because Pacific Historic Parks led the charge to make sure that we raised the money, the funds, through our respective nonprofits and through donors to make sure that the parks stay open. So we did it then, we hope to continue to do it now, and we certainly hope that the shutdown doesn't last 35 days," he said.
With fundraising help, the Pacific Historic Parks will keep the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, home to the USS Arizona Memorial, open during the shutdown as long as it can, the group told The Associated Press.
“The way the process works is the Park Service will provide us with an estimated daily cost and then for the number of days that we can afford, we will fund it,” said Pacific Historic Parks President and CEO Aileen Utterdyke.
It will cost an estimated $9,000 a day, which she hopes to cover by reaching out to Hawaiʻi’s governor, the tourism authority, tour operators and other businesses who benefit from the more than 1.7 million yearly visitors to the site.
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 2, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. This story has been adapted for the web.
