Remembering Pearl Harbor http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor
Created by unknown; Produced by Paula Willard; maintained by David Tam and Mia Eaton.
Latest site update is unknown. Reviewed Sept. 19, 2004.
Remembering Pearl Harbor is a commercial, not a scholarly, site. As such the homepage has advertising and links to National Geographic subscription offers (and links to Pearl Harbor movie sites). But it does have archival features as well as historical information on the Pearl Harbor attack.
There is almost no scholarship above the basic level evident on the site. What does exist is mostly ship and aircraft facts and timelime information. There is no interpretive theme because the scholarship is so limited. The intended audience seems to be people interested in sharing survivor accounts and people looking for basic facts on the attack. However, scholars who probe the site can find oral accounts from sailors, biographies, and useful info on the the composition and targets of the Japanese attack groups.
Content. The site has three main sections: Multimedia Map and Timeline, Memory Book, and History. There is also a section linking to a presentation on the June National Geographic article on the attack.
Multimedia Map and Timeline is the site's most extensive and effective use of multimedia. This section offers "photos, footage, firsthand accounts and narration" to "bring the attack on Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii to life." Although it does not quite bring it to life, the presentation is very user-friendly and well presented. It includes zoom-in maps, audio description of the key events on the timeline, biographical information on key persons, sailors, and nurses. It also has audio accounts from sailors who were present during the attack that are interesting and informative. There are stories on each battleship attacked and nice pictures with each event. Additionally, the section has a nice, easy-to-use design with each event given a newspaper-type heading that gives a period flavor.
Memory Book is a searchable archive of survivors' stories posted to the site. It is not a collection but instead consists of an apparently unmanaged gathering of stories sent in to the site. It seems to be the main interest/use of the site as there are quite a number of postings. It appears to be a useful place for a researcher to find first hand accounts and recollections. It has a drop-down menu allowing the interested or the researcher to find stories by location. Locations listed are: battleship row (260 stories), airfields/hangers (92 stories), docks/vessels (149 stories), Ford Island (28 stories), hospitals (56 stories), Honolulu (65 stories), Oahu (75 stories), Hawaii (51 stories), United States (326 stories), and Japan (18 stories). This section also has a useful keyword search feature for searching the accounts. The design of this section is nice with a color scheme conveying a black and white World War II era feel.
The History section is described as a "get the facts" area and that is basically what it delivers but the facts are for the most part at a basic level of scholarship. The drop-down menu is confusing since the label "resources" is listed in the menu but is actually the title for the drop-down menu. It should be moved out of the menu. The actual menu topics are: Pearl Harbor ships and planes, pearl harbor timeline, WWII timeline, and resources and links. The "Pearl Harbor ships and planes" list is not complete for the Japanese fleet. It lists only the six aircraft carriers involved in the air strike; it does not include their cruiser and destroyer escort ships. But the information on the composition of the Japanese air attack groups is useful and includes the number of planes in each group and their targets. The "Pearl Harbor Timeline" is both useful and well organized but it should let the user know that there are audio links on the page. One does not find these until moving down the timeline. Disappointingly, the audio on Roosevelt's speeches was not functional. The "WWII timeline" is extremely basic and could only be of interest to someone who knew nothing about WWII before visting the site but for these users it does place the attack in its historical context. The "resources and links" page lists lesson plans for K-12 teachers organized by grade level, books, National Geographic videos, links to various websites on Midway (including a link to an interactive site on Ballard's Midway explorations featured in the magazine), a link to a Communications Intelligence site and a link to an MSNBS site.
Navigation. Placement of the sites' navigation bar in the banner creates some initial confusion until one realizes its function. It is not obviously a navigation bar. The navigation bar would have been better placed below the banner. Prominent in the navigation bar and given equal weight with the other sections is a link to the "Museum Store" that reflects the sites's commercial nature. Once one figures out the navigation bar the site is easy to navigate. I experienced no hang-ups
With its oral histories, searchable archive of survivor accounts, and inter-active timeline section the site makes effective use of new media technologies. But the history facts section does not provide anything that could not be presented in a book (although if its audio recordings worked this would be different).
Overall this is a nice site for a general interest viewership but is at too basic a level for scholars, though as noted it does contain some useful resources for scholars interested in first hand accounts.
Posted by ben at September 19, 2004 05:45 PM