I was stationed briefly (3 months) on Ford Island (in Pearl Harbor). I had a chance to visit not only the Arizona Memorial, where there are still bodies, but all the other hulks of battleships that were docked around the island. It was very humbling. You can still see huge battleship wrecks, with huge bomb holes in them all around that island and each one has a plaque that tells what the ship was and how many people were on board and how many died that day.
They were regarded as buried at sea since removing their bodies would have required cutting up the Arizona and they would probably have been mutilated in the process. This was regarded as disrespectful. Especially since they were Non-Combatants. Peace time sailors. No state of war existed between the US and anybody at the time.
@redDeerGuy1 I’m curious what prompted you to ask. I’ve seen this question pop up from people every few years in various places. Is there some documentary out there that makes it sound like they aren’t intentionally being left there forever?