Part 2: Punchbowl and Haleiwa
Also on the island of O`ahu you can find Punchbowl, the National Cemetery of the Pacific. The Hawaiian name for this place is Puowaina, "Hill of Sacrifice". It is believed that in ancient times a heiau existed at this site and that the bodies of kapu breakers were brought to this place. Punchbowl is bowl-shaped crater of an extinct volcano.
Punchbowl is now the site of the 115 acre National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. The remains of the ancient Hawaiians now share the land with the bodies of over 38,000 soldiers, more than half of whom died in the Pacific arena during World War II. The graves are marked by small plaques in the ground marked by the occasional lei of a visiting friend or relative.
National Cemetery of the Pacific
Photo by John Fischer
This is a truly beautiful and moving place. There is a huge memorial featuring eight marble courts which contain the names of 26,280 Americans missing in action from World War II and the Korean War. Two additional areas now list the names of 2503 soldiers missing from the Vietnam War.
At the top of the long flight of steps sits the monument itself, built in 1966. At the top of the marble staircase stands the statue of a woman, a woman of peace and of liberty towering above you.
Extending from each side of this statue are walls etched with maps of the many campaigns of the Pacific, Pearl Harbor, Wake, Coral Sea, Midway, New Guinea and the Solomons, Iwo Jima, the Gilbert Islands, Okinawa as well as Korea. At the center behind the statute is an interdenominational chapel for Christians, Jews and Buddhists alike. This ground is sacred to both the native Hawaiians and to the families of the non-Hawaiians buried here.
While the memorials at Pearl Harbor and at Punchbowl may be the most well known memorials on O`ahu, there are others less well known yet just as important in our remembrance of those who died for our liberty. The Korean War and Vietnam Memorials, located on the grounds of the Iolani Palace in Honolulu honor those men of Hawaii who died in the Korean Conflict and those men of Hawaii who died fighting in the Vietnam War.
Another impressive memorial is located at the Haleiwa Beach Park on the north shore. When my wife and I first visited this site in October of 1995, we stopped, quite honestly, because of beauty of the beach. It was then, however, that we discovered a beautiful war memorial. A white obelisk stands near the beach in tribute to those from the Waialua-Kahuku area who have died in the wars of this century. On each side of the obelisk are carved the names of the dead heroes of World War II, the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War "who gave their lives that the rest of the world may live in peace."
Waialua-Kahuku War Memorial
Photo by John Fischer
The memorial was dedicated by the Waialua Lions Club on July 4, 1947. Among those honored are the sixteen area men who died in World War II.
Funai, Stanley Kazuto
Fujioka, Teruo
Gonsalves, Joseph
Isobe, Koosaku
Kuraoka, Jerry Sadayoshi
Kameda, Fred Yoshito
Lua Jr, Samuel
Nakama, Shigenori
Nozaki, Albert Yoshio
Nozaki, Tadashi
Suzuki, Hiroshi
Shintani, Takeo
Takata, Joseph Shigeo
Togo, Shiro
Tsunematsu, Bertram A.
Watanabe, Hiroshi
This list of names reminds us all that the people who call themselves Hawaiians and Americans come from diverse ethnic backgrounds. No matter what their last names were, no matter where their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents came from, these men died fighting for our freedom.
We honor these men and those whose bones lay beneath the sea in Pearl Harbor or under the earth at Punchbowl, men of Hawaii and those of other lands.
