Every week, people ask me where I get the stories for my column and books. Sometimes it comes from questions people ask me, and I start digging, or, in the case of this week’s column, they share a great story with me.
Former state Attorney General Michael Lilly wrote to me recently. Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz was close to Lilly’s grandparents, Una and Henry A. Walker Sr., he told me.
Walker was president of Amfac, one of the Big Five, and Hawaii’s largest company, from 1933 to 1950. Walker was born in Nuuanu in 1885, five days before Nimitz. They met in the early 1920s when Nimitz was sent to Hawaii to build the first submarine base at Pearl Harbor.
"During World War II, Nimitz spent nearly every weekend at my grandparents’ Laie beach property called Muliwai," Lilly recalled.
I’ve heard many stories involving Nimitz, but none have been about his time away from command.
Lilly is writing a book about how Nimitz coped with the stress of commanding the largest armed force in history — 2.5 million service members covering 65 million square miles during World War II — in part by relaxing with the Walkers at their Windward beach home when off duty.
"His was a pressure-cooker job, and time with my grandparents became one of his safety valves," Lilly wrote. "In 1944, they were together at least half of the days Nimitz was on Oahu.
"I have dozens of letters between Nimitz and my grandparents. Nimitz wrote longingly of the time they spent together.
"Just the thought of the beach at Muliwai and enjoying charcoal steaks, walks and swims fills me with nostalgia. How I miss all of that. In the late 1930s, my grandparents bought a six-acre parcel with 1,000 feet of undeveloped beachfront near what is now the Polynesian Culture Center."
The main house had a vaulted ceiling with open beams. The three bedrooms each had a full bath and opened to the outside.
"A long Koa dining table, fashioned from two large slabs of wood, occupied a covered outdoor dining area flanked by Koa chairs and rockers," Lilly wrote.
"The living room sported a Hawaiian bed banked with pillows against which all visitors lounged and more often than not, fell asleep to the somnolent sounds of the ocean and leaves rustling in the trade winds.
"A separate two-bedroom, one-bath cottage was erected on a bluff overlooking the ocean. That was my grandparents’ cottage, except when Nimitz was in residence."
Nimitz, Lilly notes, had difficulty sleeping, but not when he was at Muliwai.
"To drive into Muliwai was to leave the everyday world behind and enter an enchanting and captivating Garden of Eden. Spend three days there and you become so relaxed as to have been Muliwai-fied. I grew up there," Lilly says "and we still have a beach house there."
"Muliwai" is Hawaiian for the water — in this case from Wailele Stream — that backs up in a pool behind a sand bar and then breaks its way to the ocean. Nimitz and the Walker family would spend time at Muliwai hiking, swimming, playing tennis, pitching horseshoes, barbecuing and relaxing. The grounds later sported a nine-hole, pitch-and-putt golf course and lawn bowling.
Nimitz’s first exposure to Muliwai happened not long after the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941. The military feared the Japanese would return to take over Hawaii. If they tried, it was felt they could succeed.
One possible landing zone was Laie.
"The Japanese could land troops at Muliwai because a stream that flowed through the property killed growing coral and plowed a navigable channel through the reef," Lilly said.
"To resist possible Japanese amphibious forces, the army erected nine rows of barbed wire and dug corrugated iron command posts along the entire beachfront. One weekend, my grandfather donned his bathing suit for his regular swim and started threading his way through the barbed wire for the first time. Suddenly an armed guard appeared.
"Halt!" the guard yelled out. "Gramps said he was going to swim, but the guard informed him the beach was off-limits. ‘But,’ an exasperated Gramps protested, ‘This is my beach.’" The guard was sorry, but he had his orders. "’Well,’ answered Gramps, ‘we’ll see about that next weekend.’
"Gramps called Nimitz. ‘Chester, would you like to spend the weekend at our Laie beach house?’
"I’d love it," replied Nimitz. "After Nimitz arrived the next Saturday morning, Gramps asked if he’d like to take a swim in the ocean? Nimitz, a lover of exercise, replied, ‘I’d love to!’
"So, Gramps and Nimitz donned swimming suits and started their way through the stands of barbed wire." The guard started to say the beach was off-limits when he recognized the well-known commander of all the naval forces in the Pacific.
"Nimitz informed the guard that ‘this is Mr. Walker’s beach and he may swim here any time he wanted to.’
"From then on, the beach was no longer off limits to Gramps and his guests, including Nimitz who spent nearly every weekend of the war there."
Tomorrow is the 72nd anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. "December 7, 1941 was also my grandparents’ 21st wedding anniversary," Lilly says, "and they had planned a sit-down dinner at their Nuuanu home for 75, complete with musicians and caterers.
"Guests were to include Adm. Kimmel and Gen. Short. But no one called to cancel, no one showed up, and no one expected otherwise after Pearl Harbor overtook events. Nimitz’s last letter, a few months before he passed in 1966, thanked my grandparents ‘a million for your telegram of congratulations and good wishes on my 80th birthday.’ He had been so ‘swamped by cards, telegrams and letters that he had sworn off birthdays, interviews and anything that attracts mail.’"
Henry Walker Sr.’s son was also close to Adm. Nimitz. In next week’s column, I’ll share some of his stories aboard the Surrender Deck of the U.S. Missouri with Nimitz.
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Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@yahoo.com.
