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A few weeks ago I wrote about iconic Hawaii museums, auditoriums, schools, centers, athletic facilities and entertainment complexes and the possible locations that were seriously considered for them but not chosen.
Today I thought I’d look at some of the many proposals for Pacific war memorials and how they evolved over 19 years into the USS Arizona Memorial and a few other sites.
From my viewpoint the story begins with a civilian worker at Pearl Harbor who proposed a “Shrine of Pearl Harbor” in 1943, just halfway into the war.
His name was Tony Todaro. Some of you might recognize him. Todaro wrote a wonderful book called “The Golden Years of Hawaiian Entertainment (1874-1974).” I’ve used it as a reference several times.
Todaro’s “Shrine of Pearl Harbor” would be a “series of structures built step-like on the slopes of Diamond Head or Punchbowl Crater,” Michael Slackman wrote in his “Administrative and Legislative History of the USS Arizona Memorial and Visitor Center.”
“It would house archives relating to the Pearl Harbor attack and other Pacific war battles, and have the names of all the Pacific War dead (presumably limited to American) inscribed on its walls.”
Peace and Science War Memorial
In 1948 Todaro suggested building a Peace and Science War Memorial, also called the Hawaii Scientific Center of the Pacific.
The “campus” would occupy several acres in Kakaako with a long reflecting pool extending from Queen Street, below Ala Moana Boulevard to a point overlooking the ocean.
Its Ewa side would begin at South Street and cover four blocks Diamond Head to Cooke Street.
It was proposed to have the Bishop Museum put there, as well as an auditorium, arboretum, branches of many universities, and research laboratories.
It would serve as a “perpetual memorial to those who served and died on Pacific battlefields,” Todaro hoped.
Pacific War Memorial Commission
A Pacific War Memorial Commission formed after the war in 1949. It considered a monument in Washington, D.C., or on a South Pacific island but initially didn’t like Pearl Harbor because civilians could not easily access it.
It had some influential members, such as Frank Midkiff, Duke Kahanamoku, Chester Nimitz, Louise Dillingham, Tucker Gratz, Buck Buchwach and Spark Matsunaga.
One of their early ideas was a memorial in Ala Moana Park or on an artificial island off Ala Moana. It would include a chapel, a shrine with an eternal flame and records of war dead.
Such a memorial, they felt, would be visible from the air and sea so that every person arriving in or departing from Honolulu could see it.
Memorial Boulevard
In 1951 the Pacific War Memorial commission was focusing on a “Boulevard of Peace” between Pearl Harbor and the gateway of Honolulu to be called “Memorial Boulevard.”
There were several proposals for this Memorial Boulevard. It might stretch from Pearl Harbor to Diamond Head, or some parts of it; or to Punchbowl.
The Memorial Boulevard would be eight lanes, the commission said. “At either end there will be overpass structures to serve as portals to a formal parkway of majestic banyans, each of which may represent a state or a pacific nation.”
Along it would be fountains and statues commemorating major battles of the Pacific. A large number of memorials sponsored by various groups could be located along a grassed parkway, such as a Pacific House — as a repository of relics, documents and photos — and a Fleet Marine Headquarters, with a parade grounds.
Only two were actually built — the USS Arizona Memorial and the Disabled American Veterans Hall next to Keehi Lagoon — in 1952.
The commission called it “a living archway on the road to peace.” It would be “an outstanding attraction for tourists as well as a popular picnic and recreation center.”
Neal Blaisdell Center
Around the same time, in 1952, the “Committee for an Auditorium” was looking for locations for something bigger to replace the Civic Auditorium.
Its members looked at the Ward Estate, Diamond Head Crater, the University of Hawaii’s lower campus, Ala Moana Park, the Ala Wai Golf Course, Kamehameha Shopping Center and Kapiolani Park.
They also considered joining with the Pacific War Memorial Boulevard project.
Can you imagine? The Neal Blaisdell Center could have been where the Salvation Army/Longs/Ross’ site is in Iwilei!
The Ward Estate was eventually chosen, but you might not know that it was dedicated as a war memorial when it opened in 1964.
Architects
A group of architects began meeting in 1942 and contemplated designs at various memorials, Slackman wrote.
They selected six sites, including the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl; the USS Arizona site; Red Hill; Halawa valley; the land along Kamehameha Highway at the Navy-Marine Golf course; and an area between downtown and the Pearl Harbor area along Dillingham Boulevard.
Earlier Arizona memorials
Chief historian Daniel Martinez at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial said that it was Adm. Arthur Radford who installed the first memorial — a flagpole on the Arizona’s rear mast in 1950. A few months later a wooden platform was erected over the ship.
Jim Muir remembers it. He wrote: “In 1958, a friend and I would walk from Makalapa Naval Housing to the Ford Island Ferry.
“We would travel to the island and walk toward the Arizona. Just before the water, there was a wooden platform about the size of a small basketball court. To the right of the platform was an American flag.
“As I recall, there were no markers. We would go to the flag, pay our respects and go back to Makalapa.
“Subsequently, as an Army officer, I have visited the current Arizona Memorial at least twenty times. It is truly inspiring. The Memorial we visited in 1958 was also inspiring, as it was just the two of us teenagers and not tourists.”
About that time the Navy and the Pacific War Memorial Commission began considering a more fitting memorial at the USS Arizona for the 1,177 sailors and Marines who died on the ship on Dec. 7, 1941.
Architect Alfred Preis led the team. His original design was a rather dramatic sarcophaguslike structure.
From Ford Island, visitors would descend a grand staircase to below the ocean surface, where they could view the Arizona through portholes.
Rear Adm. Edward Solomans didn’t like the idea as it didn’t meet a design criteria that the memorial be bridgelike. Preis’ final design, though, left an opening in the memorial floor so that visitors could see the ship just below the waterline.
The USS Arizona Memorial formally opened in 1962. In 1980 a shoreside visitor center, museum and boat dock were added, and the National Park Service took over its management. Over 2 million visit it in most years.
Design symbolism
Preis said that the catenary curve that dips down 2 feet in the center of the memorial and rises at the ends was “almost instantly coined as a symbol of the initial painful defeat at Pearl Harbor, followed by the proud ultimate surrender in Tokyo aboard the USS Missouri.”
That wasn’t the case. Instead, Preiss said that “the catenary curve of its roof softens its profile so that in its straddling of the sunken ship, it is not intrusive.”
Tree of Life
You may have noticed cutouts in the side walls at the Ewa end of the memorial.
Preis said this is the Tree of Life, an ancient symbol. “The tree of life bore twelve kinds of fruit, one for each month, and the leaves were for the healing of the nation.”
Stained glass was to be part of the design but was left out due to cost considerations.
Some were not happy with the design, saying it looked like a crushed milk carton, Martinez said.
Most of the ideas of the Pacific War Memorial Commission never bore fruit. We have the Arizona Memorial and Visitor Center, the Disabled Americans Veterans Hall and the Garden of the Missing with eight Courts of Honor at Punchbowl.
The USS Missouri was brought back to Hawaii in 2009 and rests 1,000 feet away from the Arizona Memorial, one marking the beginning of the war, the other marking the end.
Bob Sigall is the author of the “The Companies We Keep” books. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com
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