Hawaii’s Back yard
Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi
Sunday, September 8, 2002
COURTESY U.S. ARMY MUSEUM
The price of freedom runs high. Americans know this well because we've paid for it with oceans of blood, sweat and tears. Isles' roles in
wars chronicledAs small and isolated as it is, Hawaii has not been left unscathed. In fact, as the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii shows, the islands have played pivotal roles in many world conflicts.
Housed in 91-year-old Battery Randolph, the museum chronicles military events, installations and technology in the Pacific from ancient times through the Vietnam War. Ten major exhibit areas showcase video presentations, photographs, scale models and artifacts, some enhanced by dramatic sound and lighting.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Battery Randolph is in itself a relic. One of six coast artillery batteries erected between 1908 and 1915 to defend Oahu from invasions by sea, the massive, steel-reinforced concrete structure housed two 14-inch-diameter guns that provided invincible firepower against any battleship that was then afloat.
The walls facing the ocean are 22 feet thick. It's no wonder that when efforts were made to demolish Battery Randolph in 1969, it broke the wrecking ball. Plans werethen made to restore it, and on Dec. 7, 1976, it became the home of the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii.
Muskets, sabers, pistols, bayonets, rifles, daggers, machine guns and other weapons are arranged like works of art in glass cases. There also are exhibits of uniforms and equipment, including helmets, boots, canteens and mess kits. Outside, you can see and touch World War II tanks and howitzers, and a Cobra helicopter that flew missions in Vietnam.
But this is only the beginning. The U.S. Army Museum has so many incredible stories that you should reserve at least a half-day for your visit.
The Hawaiian Warfare gallery whisks you back to old Hawaii. You'll learn that before confronting the enemy, islanders offered prayers, orations and human sacrifices to their war gods in luakini, or temples, constructed specifically for that purpose.
Highlights of this gallery include a model of Puukohola Heiau on the Big Island (built by Kamehameha the Great in 1790, it is the largest luakini extant); a fearsome feather image of Kukailimoku, the Hawaiian god of war; and an assortment of ancient weapons, including clubs made of sharks' teeth.
The Pacific War gallery opens with charts and photographs of the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other Oahu military bases. One case contains a clock from a Japanese fighter shot down during the raid, its hands frozen at exactly 8:30. You'll also examine memorabilia -- including gas masks, blackout covers for car headlights, pictures of bomb shelters and a deck of playing cards sporting illustrations of allied and enemy aircraft -- depicting how life changed in idyllic Hawaii after that tragic day.
By the time the United States entered the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s, the helicopter had become key in its military strategies. UH-1 Iroquois choppers, nicknamed "Hueys," established support bases in rough terrain, dropped troops in air assaults and evacuated the wounded from the front lines. Despite its advanced technology, however, American troops found the Viet Cong guerrillas to be a formidable and resourceful foe. Simple but no doubt effective, the lone artifact in one display is a grenade made from a Coke can.
Stocked with kitschy ceramic tiki mugs and every libation a thirsty GI would crave, including Primo beer, the Barefoot Bar represents Hawaii's role as an important R&R center during the Vietnam War. Most visitors just glance at the bar, overlooking what may be the most stirring presentation in the Vietnam gallery.
CHERYL CHEE TSUTSUMI / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN
Two boys at the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii recently examined a U.S. light tank M24, which was used for scouting and reconnaissance in the late days of World War II. It weighed 19 tons, traveled at speeds up to 35 mph and carried a crew of four.
Don't make that mistake. Sit on the bar stool and look at the television above the cash register. As "Light My Fire" and other hits of the era play, footage rolls in rapid-fire fashion: demonstrators burning draft cards; angry anti-war marches; a sober Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and Walter Cronkite delivering news to the nation; actual combat scenes; soldiers tending rubble; frightened mothers fleeing smoldering villages with their kids and little else; dazed, bleeding patients in infirmaries. The heart-rending images hit your gut.
John McLaughlin, director of museum activities, designed most of the exhibits, which spotlight a rotating selection from the museum's collection of some 3,600 artifacts. Most were donated by U.S. Army veterans, their relatives and friends.
"Usually, people pass away and their children find their war memoirs, uniforms, those types of things, and offer them to us," McLaughlin says. "We've had items come in from out of the blue; visitors walk in and say they have something. They send it to us, and it winds up being pretty impressive stuff."
Curator Judith Bowman believes the most notable donation was made in 1994 by World War II veteran Joseph Kaspareck, who was involved in the assault of Leyte in the Philippines on Oct. 20, 1944. When Kaspareck entered what appeared to be the cookhouse for a Japanese garrison, he saw postcards and negatives left on a table by a soldier who obviously was in a hurry to escape.
Kaspareck safeguarded them for 50 years, then donated them to the museum. "We made two sets of prints from the negatives, one for our archives and the other for the son of the Japanese soldier who owned the postcards and negatives," recalls Bowman.
"The pictures portray everyday scenes of garrison life: men cooking, eating, washing clothes, studying, performing drills, exercising, worshipping."
Such personal vignettes are as much a part of the U.S. Army Museum as the weapons and tanks.
"We try to tell the complete story of the Army in the Pacific with a focus on Hawaii," McLaughlin explains.
"We discuss the technology the Army developed, its interaction with the community, the effects it's had on Hawaii, including demographics. When people visit, they're going to learn a lot about Hawaii that they didn't know."
Where: Corner of Kalia and Saratoga roads, Fort DeRussy, Waikiki U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. daily except Monday
Admission: Free
Call: 438-2821
Web site: www.mwrarmyhawaii.com (You'll have to go through two links: Leisure Activities and Hawaii Army Museum.)
Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based free-lance writer
and Society of American Travel Writers award winner.
