Sometimes I have interesting stories that don’t take up an entire column. In this week’s edition I’ll look at why Holmes Hall at UH was given that name. Then we’ll skip over to Heeia to look at what those concrete remnants are in the ocean near King Intermediate.

After that we’ll look at a concrete circle in the water off Kewalo Basin that was once part of Hawaii Marineland.

Holmes Hall

One of the exciting things about writing this column is that sometimes I learn that two seemingly different things I know about are related in some way.

I know about Holmes Hall, the engineering building at UH, and I know about the Pearl Harbor team that broke the Japanese code during World War II. But I didn’t know they were connected.

Justin Scott, UH College of Engineering media specialist, told me that six months after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Americans found out that the Japanese were planning another attack somewhere in the Pacific.

Navy cryptanalysts at Pearl Harbor worked at what was called Station HYPO, and later the Fleet Radio Unit, Pacific. They had broken Japanese communication codes.

Joe Rochefort headed the team. Lt. Commander Wilfred “Jasper” Holmes (1900-1986) was a key player on it. They knew the Japanese planned another attack at a place they referred to as “AF.” The problem was, we didn’t know where that was.

How could they figure out where “AF” was? Holmes suspected it was Midway Island. His idea was for the American base at Midway to send out a false unencrypted message that it was short of fresh water because its desalination plant was malfunctioning.

“Soon after the message was sent, the Americans intercepted and cracked a Japanese transmission that said ‘AF’ was short of fresh water,” Scott says. This confirmed that the location for the attack was Midway. Further intercepts also revealed the date of the attack, June 4, 1942.

“As a result, the Americans sent their fleet to lay in wait northeast of Midway. After the first wave of Japanese bombers attacked Midway, the American fleet sprang into action, catching the Japanese off guard.

“When the Japanese spotted the American fleet, the decks of Japanese carriers were occupied by planes preparing for a second wave of attacks on Midway. They were armed with land- oriented bombs.

“Because of that, Adm. Chuichi Nagumo had to make a difficult decision: go ahead with the second wave of planes to attack Midway or change the munitions on the planes to attack the American fleet. He decided to change the munitions, but that took time.

“While that was underway, dive bombers and torpedo planes from the American carriers struck the Japanese fleet, eventually sinking all four of Japan’s carriers in the battle. As a result, the Japanese permanently lost naval superiority.” Six months into the war, the tide turned in our favor.

Lt. Commander Jasper Holmes took part in one more historic event. In April 1943 the Naval radio facility past Wahiawa intercepted a Japanese radio broadcast. Randall McCord, who was stationed there in the late 1950s, wrote about it in his book, “Tales of Trade Winds, Beaches and Blue Waters.”

The information was passed to the code breakers at Pearl Harbor, who were able to decipher it. What they found was astounding. It detailed Japanese Fleet Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto’s plans to inspect Japanese airfields in the Solomon Islands, including the dates and times.

Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz forwarded the information to Adm. William Halsey. Sixteen planes from the Army Air Force’s 339th Fighter Squadron, based on Guadalcanal, intercepted Yamamoto’s flight, killing the man who planned both the Pearl Harbor and Midway attacks. It was a terrible blow to Japa­nese morale.

Most of the details of the code-breaking team at Pearl Harbor were held as secret for over 25 years after the war.

Holmes joined the engineering faculty at UH in 1936 but was recalled to service during the war. He returned in 1946 as UH dean of engineering. He retired 19 years later in 1965. He died in 1986 and is buried at the Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Holmes Hall opened on Dole Street in 1970 and was named for him.

Heeia concrete pier remnants

Readers Kathleen and Stephen Rosson asked about something in Kaneohe Bay. “To the south of Heeia Pond, there are a number of concrete piers poking up above the water level. Do you know their history and/or purpose?”

At first I wondered whether it was the old Libby McNeill & Libby cannery pier. Libby grew and canned pineapples from 1911 to 1925. But that was north of Heeia, where St. John’s By-the-Sea Episcopal Church is now.

Mac McMorrow suggested it might be a radio telegraph site from 1912. “What I have read over the years was that a competitor of Guglielmo Marconi first built a wireless radio telegraph site on the shore near where King Intermediate School is today.

“I have seen old photos of the Federal Telegraph towers, and the concrete blocks you see now are the footings for those towers,” McMorrow concludes.

I agree. In the days before telegrams, islanders had to write and mail letters that were sent by ship. Federal Telegraph offered arrival of a message within 24 hours at a rate of 25 cents a word. That would be about $7 a word today.

Telegrams used Morse Code and were sent over radio waves. The receiving end decoded the message and delivered it on paper to the addressee.

The general public was excited that Hawaii and San Francisco had ‘sister towers’ for wireless telegraphic communication, Gov. John A. Burns recalled in 1969.

The two 440-foot towers at Heeia were clearly visible from the Nuuanu Pali lookout.

They were some of the highest wooden structures in the world at that time. “Only three New York skyscrapers were higher, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris was the only comparable structure in design and height,” Burns said.

Marconi erected a rival transmitting station at Kahuku in 1913. Pan Am Clippers began delivering air mail from the mainland in 1935, and the first undersea cable came ashore at Hanauma Bay in 1957. Teenagers today probably have no idea what a telegram is.

Now, if you recall in the earlier story, I mentioned that Holmes worked with Navy cryptanalysts at Pearl Harbor. Their unit was called Station HYPO. The “H” stood for the Heeia radio towers, which were used by the military during World War II.

Concrete circle

Susan Gorman-Chang said, “In the ocean water, a few feet from shore, at the corner where Kewalo Basin Park and Ala Moana Beach Park (near the volleyball courts) meet, sits a concrete basin among the waves.

“It appears broken and to have been there for some time. Folks take pictures of themselves in it (at low tide), but no one seems to know what it is or how it got there. Can you help?” I asked readers for their input.

“That’s where the old Marineland was located,” Wayne Shiohira said. “They had large tanks containing dolphins and sea turtles. I think the concrete structure housed pumps for the dolphin tanks.

“About 60 years ago I used to climb on top of the structure, where they had it covered with thick plywood. I used to cast my fishing pole toward the reef at night, dunking for fish or whatever hooked up.

“It was a great spot to kick back, relax and watch for shooting stars. Got a lot of thinking done atop that structure, and a deep appreciation for quiet, the ocean and the beauty that surrounds us.”

Hawaii Marineland opened in 1960. It had two 40-foot tanks where patrons could view porpoises, turtles, sharks, manta rays and other fish through portholes. It closed in early 1962.

Do you see something and wonder what it is? If so, send me a telegram!

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Bob Sigall is Hawaii’s business archaeologist. Every week he digs into another part of our past. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.