Mike’s writing:
The day started off early, about 5am (8 Cochrane time) so we still aren’t completely time adjusted. Made some excellent coffee from local grinds. Had a hearty breakfast of 2 Whole Food eggs, shrimp, broccoli, and rice leftovers.
Got picked up at 7am by the driver for our tour of Pearl Harbor and all the attendant museums and Battleship Missouri.
Quite a massacre by Japan on a sleeping giant. And largely because the US and allies had cut off Japan’s access to oil and coal markets and thus choked off their economy. Sound familiar? Certainly not to justify what they did, but without energy they had no economy and felt themselves desperate. Sounds even more familiar. They had to keep the US out of their war on other Asian nations while they recaptured their energy sources if not by markets, then by force. Boy did they blow that decision! Yes they did destroy more than half the US fleet and were able to attack and conquer many Asian locales before the US handed them their head at Midway. Sadly, very sadly, the war raged on with horrible results for several years before the big bomb brought even the fanatical Emperor Hirohito to his senses. The battleship Missouri that is now decommissioned here was the location of the unconditional surrender in Tokyo Bay. The setting on the ship is kind of ordinary, but the volunteer ship tour guide gave a very moving account of it all.
I have to admit to my more-than-passing interest in all this. My dad was on the aircraft carrier Yorktown, which was also parked in Tokyo Bay at the surrender after taking many hits and innumerable Kamikaze attacks at Okinawa and other numerous attacks and battles. He was working right on the flight deck the whole time, unarmed, operating the arresting gear which stops planes from skidding right across into the island or right off the other side of the ship. If they are lucky.
My biological father was a Marine who fought on several Pacific Islands as part of the Marine Raiders who operated behind the scenes with secret early landings prior to the invasion for reconnaissance and sabotage. His wounds got infected into his lymph glands so he was sent to hospital in Washington DC where he mostly recovered but later died when I was 3. Not looking for sympathy, only to explain why this was kind of a pilgrimage for me.
Many people crowding the various sites were of Asian extraction and many families from Japan who were approximately my age were likely visiting the site for similar reasons to my own. War sucks way beyond description in no small part because after millions of ordinary people have been sent to die, the reason for fighting gets blurred and forgotten and we become friends. I’ve owned 4 Subarus, a Toyota and Datsun, hundreds of “made in Japan” items and actually felt close to the Japanese family I helped out with directions today (3 generations) who were obviously confused. Only the youngest girl could speak English. So I talked to her and gestured to the eldest man which line to get into to match his tickets to the boat in order to visit the Arizona memorial out near Ford Island. Two humans from completely different cultures, possibly with parents/grandparents who tried and often succeeded in killing one another, interacting pleasantly and productively.
Reminded me a bit of the Vietnamese man, also close to my age but a bit younger, who climbed on our slippery steel roof to fix a leaking rain gutter 3 floors up from the ground. I had advised him about it and he said it was no problem for his 100 pound self. We chatted for nearly an hour after he completed the work.
Our tour guide driver was named Tom and wanted us to remember him as Tall Tom. 6 foot 7 to be exact. He not merely drove us to and from Pearl, he kept a running account, and an interesting one, of every fascinating historic personage and location and event in Hawaii’s rich history. He took us through all parts of Honolulu, perhaps most memorable was the mural district which was recently home to an international event of wall art people who painted the most artistic and fabulous paintings on the sides of buildings for blocks on end, mostly on small industrial and commercial buildings large and small. Simply amazing!
Took us to a huge military cemetery up on the Punch Bowl volcanic crater high above the city. He even knew the various species of exotic birds people randomly asked him about; likewise strange trees. One of the passengers, from Wisconsin as it turned out, asked Tall Tom about real estate prices. Average $600k for beat up bungalow. Apartments $1800-2400 per month depending. Because she was from Wisconsin, she asked where Tall Tom lived, given a shuttle bus job. He hesitated, and then said “in all honesty, I live out of my car.” Since I am not from Wisconsin I bit my tongue and did not ask him “what kind of car.” Though I really wanted to know. All in all he helped make our day by providing at least a high school education on Hawaii, a street level education of Honolulu and Hawaii in all its historic glory and sometimes tragic outcomes. Very cool.
Now maybe I was hungry, but thanks to Tall Tom’s subtle suggestion, we had hot dogs on the way into touring the Battleship Missouri. I noticed that I had not recorded eating a hot dog in the entire time I’ve had a Fitbit, going back to 2011. But I have to say this was the best damn hot dog I can remember. OK maybe Yankee Stadium.
Susan: it was here that I discovered that the elusive scent I have been smelling is hibiscus flowers. A bit like durian fruit: perfume with an undercurrent of decaying garbage.
Mike: we have toured large Navy ships before, but one of the interesting things about this one was the foot+ thick steel doors protecting the central command center of the ship. The command center was about the size of a large ensuite closet these days, but presumably could control the ship right up until it was being blown to bits. Obviously this did not happen to this ship, but they had planned for it. Another thing I did not know was that the nine 16-inch guns could each launch a shell the weight of a Volkswagen at 2800 feet per second. I know a fair bit about hunting rifles having reloaded my own ammo for many years, and 2800 fps is a good load for a 30-06 or 308 rifle, firing a tiny speck of a bullet compared the Volkswagen. Weight of the radio knob kind of tiny. Incredible!
Finally back to our AirBnB. 10 hours out and about non-stop. Susan’s ankle is severely swollen and my right foot is sore as hell. But not as bad as yesterday for me. Shoes and sox off, Susan put her feet well up and a relaxing dinner of Whole Foods, grass fed, pure as the driven snow, huge STEAK! We’ll figure out tomorrow when it comes.
Susan: today was a bit of an eye-opener for me re Honolulu as we drove through some not great areas of town, like right by the freeway, where the buildings speak loudly of poverty. After the luxury of Waikiki, it’s sad to see. This town runs on tourism and military, and maybe that’s not the best for supporting upward mobility for ordinary people. Today we also saw homeless tent encampments in the parks. Not on the scale of what there is in San Francisco or Victoria, but some.
On the way back, we were driven through the downtown core where the state capital building and the historical palace of the Hawaiian royal family are. Also other great buildings like 120-year old churches made out of coral blocks and the like, are. Tall Tom gave us chapter and verse on the destruction of the Hawaiian way of life when the Europeans arrived. Very similar to what happened to the natives in Canada. And according to Tall Tom, the social and political problems are similar for their descendants today.
The Pearl Harbor memorial site is necessary but it’s getting far in the past now. Very few people around any more who have first-hand memories of the fateful day. The sunken battleship Arizona, on which 1100 sailors died, 900 of whom still rest in the wreckage, is encased in coral and sea weed. And it still leaks oil. All that pain and sorrow and rage and bravado fades, the bravery and loss is forgotten, it all becomes strange and distant. I can only imagine how not-immediate it is for kids who are 9 or 10 today. Do we care about the signing of the Magna Carta? That was an event of enormous historical import, not least to the principals involved, and it’s only a few lines in a book now that we never think about.
At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the population of Oahu was about one third Japanese or of Japanese ethnicity. Many of them were taken off to internment camps and lost everything. I’m not American, nor do I have a family history of major military service like Mike has, and yet I can feel rageful about what happened here 70+ years ago. So many kids dead, noble ships crippled or killed. I couldn’t help but wonder whether the numerous Japanese tourists are secretly elated at the success of their grandfathers here.
Two interesting things: the first line of the speech Roosevelt made with the famous phrase “a day that shall live in infamy” originally read “a day that shall live in world history.” Well done, whoever made that edit! (They have the draft, marked up speech on display.)
The other thing was a big signpost with distances to various places marked on it. Hawaii is remote! The remotest place on earth, according to one thing I read. Here are the distances from Oahu to: North America, 2150 miles, South America, 5250 miles, Asia, 4150 miles, Australia, 4500 miles. It is the headquarters of the Pacific fleet, whose area of responsibility covers more than half of the globe.
Much as we might wish this is just a beachy paradise, it is not.
Tomorrow we’ll do something a little less intense.
far.code.blog 