More than 900 bodies remain trapped in shipwreck at bottom of US ocean

It's been nearly 85 years since Pearl Harbor occurred but some of the dead bodies from the tragic attack are yet to be recovered.

Despite the massive advancements in technology that allow robots to reach the bottom of the ocean, shipwrecks continue to elude us as a species, with the vast majority still stuck underwater.

Perhaps the most famous example is the Titanic ship which remains underwater, while there is another ship which is said to be carrying around $500 million worth of gold, which has surely got to be worth an underwater expedition.

Tragically, there were more than 1000 people aboard the USS Arizona battleship when it exploded and sank during the Japanese bombings of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

The USS Arizona memorial can still be seen in Honolulu to this day (Getty Stock)

The last living member from that ship, Lou Conter, died in April 2024 at the age of 102, and his autobiography recounts some of the horrifying final moments for many of the victims.

“Guys were running out of the fire and trying to jump over the sides,” Conter said. “Oil all over the sea was burning.”

Only 335 of the sailors on board the ship would survive, and many of them only abandoned ship once they felt sure they had rescued all those who were still alive.

As per The Guardian, there are only 19 living survivors from the Pearl Harbor attacks, which Donald Trump seemingly made light of with a joke during a recent visit from the Japanese prime minister at the White House, which didn't go down particularly well.

USS Arizona survivor Lou Conter (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

The 900 bodies at the bottom of the ocean isn't the only issue however, as the ship is still leaking oil to this day. It reportedly had 1.5 million gallons of oil, which means that it has the potential to leaking oil into the Pacific Ocean for the next 500 years.

You might be wondering why no real efforts have been made to rescue the bodies or prevent the oil from leaking, and that's because it's considered a sacred war grave for the many sailors who lost their lives in the attacks.

The attacks on Pearl Harbor of course the direct catalyst which drew the United States into WW2, with the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki also a significant historical point towards the end of the war, which will hopefully never be repeated, especially as geopolitical tensions across the world continue to rise and concerns about nuclear weapons grow.

The sacrifice of the men on board the ship and that of the others lost at Pearl Harbor, is now permanently memorialised by the USS Arizona Memorial, which is erected over her sunken hull in the berth it has occupied ever since 1941.