The monument was created on December 5, 2008, through a proclamation issued by PresidentGeorge W. Bush under the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906. The proclamation date was selected in anticipation of the 67th anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 2008. This was the first proclamation of a national monument in Alaska since the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980.[2] ANILCA limited new land withdrawals in Alaska without Congressional approval to 5,000 acres; the Alaska portion of the monument totaled 4,950 acres.
The national monument included nine sites in three states, totaling 6,310 acres (2,550 ha):
Hawaii – sites administered by the National Park Service (21.3 acres). The actual shipwrecks of the Arizona, Utah, and Oklahoma were not a part of the monument and remained under the jurisdiction of the US Navy.