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 Hale'iwa 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."
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.
