Pearl Harbor is meant to make us uncomfortable. When the rule is ‘be somber,’ can we still smile in photographs, or pose beside implements of battle?

So I focus on the water, watching algae hug the stacks of the entombed USS Arizona.  Pink dancers – the delicate bob and bow of a thousand frangipani petals – cover the tragic scene in something beautiful. They fall from the hands of an elderly Japanese couple, wrinkled fingers carefully releasing each one.

For just a second, history is forgotten. Life drifts above death, and I think to myself, One Love is the only memorial we should make.

(Brought to you by Weekly Photo Challenge)