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The story of how a clock tower, donated by a Lions Club from Japan in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, came to be in the midst of the Hawaii Capital Historic District begins with Robert “Bob” Nakamura, the founding president of the Pearl Harbor Lions Club.
Little was publicly known about the solar-powered clock, situated on the Diamond Head side of the state’s Kalanimoku Building, when we explained that the state had not been able to find parts to repair it.
Nakamura’s son, the Rev. Robert Nakamura of the Koyasan Shingon Mission, read our column (bit.ly/1GntN8v) and called to give us the story behind the gift to the people of Hawaii.
His father, who also had been an instructor for the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, “was the person who set up that clock,” with the District 330-A Club from Japan making the donation.
That accounts for “Pearl Harbor Lions Club” being inscribed on a plaque mounted on the clock tower.
Also little known is that a memorial bell was erected at Neal S. Blaisdell Park overlooking Pearl Harbor at the same time.
There was no news coverage of the dedication of either the clock tower or bell shrine, both events coordinated by the Pearl Harbor Lions Club, because everyone wanted to keep the events “low-key” and not to take attention away from the major anniversary events happening that year at Pearl Harbor, Nakamura said.
However, “a big memorial service” was held at Blaisdell Park in conjunction with the dedication of the bell on Dec. 10, 1991.
Located on the Diamond Head-makai corner of the park, it is described by the Mayor’s Office of Culture and Arts in its list of art in city facilities as a “Japanese bell within a temple housing erected for the Festival for World Peace in Hawaii.”
“It was basically a Buddhist ceremony with all the Buddhist ministers coming from Japan to pray for the peace of Pearl Harbor and basically to apologize for the bombing of Pearl Harbor,” Nakamura explained.
“The names of all the people involved, including my dad and all the Lions Club members and everybody, were engraved on that bell,” he said.
Nakamura said that after his father died in 2000, the Pearl Harbor Lions Club shut down and merged with the Pearl City Lions Club.
Clock’s Location
Donald E. Magee, superintendent of the USS Arizona Memorial from 1989 to 1995, also contacted us to say, “I remember being offered the clock.”
It was just one of a myriad of plaques, paintings, monuments, etc. offered almost weekly as gifts to be displayed at the Arizona Memorial in 1991.
“At that time we were overwhelmed with the 50th anniversary, with so much to do and very little people and money to do it,” Magee recalls.
He recalls it being “just an amazing time,” with three presidential visits, dozens of visits by dignitaries, celebrities and politicians … “It’s the highlight of my career.”
Meanwhile, with all the offers of commemorative donations coming in, “I talked it over with my bosses, and they said that unless it is significant, we’re going to have to turn them down. And we turned down everything,” redirecting the donors elsewhere.
“I believe we recommended the city or state for the clock,” he said.
Regarding the clock’s location, Nakamura said, “The reason it was erected there was my dad was a personal friend of Gov. (John) Waihee, and he went to the State of Hawaii.”
Somehow that connection led to the clock being placed between the Kalanimoku Building and the Frank F. Fasi Municipal Building, although Nakamura said that he doesn’t know why that spot was chosen.
Waihee also remembered Bob Nakamura was a good friend “back in the day,” ut couldn’t recall the specifics about the clock tower or how that location was chosen.
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