Honolulu and Pearl Harbor: Home of the Brave

HONOLULU--Saturday, February 20, 2010

Today we docked in Honolulu. A loud cheer went up from the passengers when we approached land after five days with rough seas. (Not really, because we got into port before most people were up but the thought was in their hearts!) We had the first tour scheduled--the Pearl Harbor VIP Military Base Tour--and boarded our van at 7:15 a.m. Our tour guide was Duke, the 23-year-old son of the owners of the Home of the Brave tours, which they started in 1991 at the request of the government to develop a tour for veterans returning to Pearl Harbor for the 50th anniversary. Duke's father is a surfer and named his son after Duke Kahanamoko, the famous Hawaiian surfer and Olympic gold medal winner, and The Duke, John Wayne, whom he met when he was filming a movie in Honolulu.

Duke reminded Sara of her college students, not the ones who complain about their grades but the majority of the students who take their assignments seriously and do very well. Duke majored in technical journalism at a college in Colorado and must have been an honor student in his history courses about World War II and the Hawaiian Islands. He now works full time for the family business and has convinced his parents that the company should expand into the Home of the Brave Brewing Company, which brews micro beers for the military.

A special hello to Kim Getz, Sara's beautician who worked as a beautician for the government in Honolulu for three years and told us to take the best tour we could of Pearl Harbor but to remember that no matter what time we got there, the Japanese tourists would already be there (it seems as if history repeats itself). We arrived at the Arizona Memorial Visitor's Center before 8 a.m., but after going to the ticket desk, Duke decided that we should end our tour there and got tickets for the 2 p.m. trip to the Arizona. The visitor's center is undergoing a $58 million renovation, which is scheduled to be completed on December 7, 2010. Some interesting facts that we learned from Duke were that the U.S. fired the first shot on December 7, 1941, at a Japanese midget submarine (the top brass discredited the first report because they assumed that what was really fired at was a whale) and that one man was responsible for 80 percent of the information that the Japanese knew about Pearl Harbor before the attack. This spy posed as a Japanese diplomat who came to Honolulu in March 1941 and sent coded cable messages through the Purple Code. After the war ended and the spy came out of hiding (his wife let him know that no one was looking for him, the Japanese gave the spy no credit because the country had lost the war, and this was part of their honor code. So in the 1970s, the spy arranged to be interviewed by Walter Cronkite so that he could tell his story.

We drove through the cemetery, named Punch Bowl National Memorial, because it looks like an overturned punch bowl. The Hawaiian name is Puowania, which means Hill of Sacrifice. Buried there are more that 35,000 Americans who gave their lives in service to their country in WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, the most famous being Ernie Pyle, the war correspondent who was killed in action just before the war ended, and the first astronaut from Hawaii. At the edge of the cemetery are the WWII bunkers made from man-made rocks. All the plots are taken, and all the headstones are flat to the ground, with no crosses. A statue of Lady Columbia represents the mothers, wives and daughters the soldiers left behind. Since 1991, no tourists can walk through the cemetery because people had carved their names in the huge Banyon trees.

The next stop was the "United by Sacrifice" memorial by sculptor Lynn Liverton. The four figures are soldiers from WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War comforting a modern day soldier fighting the War on International Terrorism. The government plans to build an exact duplicate of the statue in Washington, D.C., for the soldiers from the East Coast who cannot travel to Hawaii. Then we walked through the Tropic Lightning Museums at Schofield Barracks, which honors the Army soldiers from the 25th Tropical Lightning Division in these four wars. Schofield Barracks and the 25th Tropical Lightning division were immortalized in the book and movie, From Here to Eternity.

After a tasty lunch at the Fort Shaftner Military Club, we toured Palm Circle in Centennial Plaza. Richardson Hall T100 (the T stands for temporary but it is still standing today) served as the Headquarters of the U.S. Army Pacific Command and was nicknamed the "Pineapple Pentagon." It was here that the trial to find someone to blame for the military not being prepared for the attack on Pearl Harbor started on December 17, 1941, and Richardson ended Marshall Law on Hawaii in 1944. The red, white and blue Army patch on the sidewalks and buildings has an arrow and 12 stars in three groups for the Big Dipper (seven), the Southern Cross (4) and the North Star (1). Yes the numbers 12-7-41 have a special meaning.

Duke drove us past Diamond Head, the state capitol, the mayor's house, Iolani Palace, once home to Hawaii's last monarchs, and a statue of King Kamehameha who united the country. Supposedly, he stood 7'2" tall, so he was a leader who was head and shoulders above the rest. We also toured the Home of the Brave Museum, and met Duke's mom and dad whom we praised for raising such a wonderful son. Ken also told Duke's mom that she looked too young to have a 23-year-old son, and Sara wishes that she had asked Duke's father if he were Duke's brother. Unlike many museums and stores run by the guide's brother or uncle, this museum was well worth the visit with its WWII uniforms, equipment, Jeep and 1942 Army issue Harley Davidson motorcycle used in the film Pearl Harbor. Ken's souvenir was a DVD titled Home of the Brave, Hawaii's Victory Tour. He also liked all the pictures in the restroom of WWII's pinup girls.

Then off we headed to the USS Arizona Memorial for our 2 p.m. meeting in Contemplation Circle to board a Navy launch to the all white, pristine, serene, almost ethereal memorial, which appears to float above the hull of the USS Arizona. Our guide asked us to think of one word that best describes the memorial. On the trip out, people were engaged in noisy chatter. On the trip back, there was total silence--the experience is that powerful. The words offered, almost in prayer, about the memorial were hallowed, remembrance, sacrifice, honorable (Ken) and surreal (Sara). We were standing above the bodies of 1,177 casualties of the attack who are entombed forever in the sunken ship, plus the ashes of many survivors who requested to be buried with their comrades, and we were so alive and in awe of their sacrifice. It is hard to believe that the youngest of these Army and Marine soldiers would be 87+ years of age had they lived. Listed among the names on the wall of honor were 12 Jones and 12 Smiths (the two most common American names), six Wilsons (Sara's mother's maiden name) and a L. Means (Sara's maiden name). Because all Meanses are related to the three Means brothers who came from Scotland in the 1720s, do any of her relatives know anything about this Army soldier? Uncle Roy, we thought about you, Sara's Uncles Fred, Walter, Lam and Allen, and Ken's father, Vernon and step-father, Bob, all who served in the Army, and Sara's father, Blake, who enlisted in the Navy during WWII. (Uncle Mike, we will remember you when we are in South Korea on March 30.) The entire trip to and from the USS Arizona lasted 45 minutes, and we both thought it was the perfect way to end our day of remembrance.

Oh, yes, we did shop at Hilo Hattie's, Honolulu's department store, on our way back from the tour but refrained from buying muu-muus or Hawaiian shirts. Passengers on the Pacific Princess who had already visited Honolulu took a bus to America's largest Walmart or went shopping at one of the malls or Chinatown. We didn't even stock up on wine and beer because our tour ran late but was worth every minute.

The quotation for the day is from a monument to the servicemen who died on submarines and are listed "On Eternal Patrol,"--"They did not live to see the war's end, but the final victory belongs to them."