ESTABLISHING A MEMORIAL TO
Remember and Honor By Scott Pawlowski, Curator, Pearl Harbor National Memorial
USS Arizona Memorial under construction
While World War II raged on, many individuals recognized the need for a memorial to the dead of December 7th, 1941. Navy personnel sought a tribute to the sailors who died at Pearl Harbor, others sought to commemorate the attack itself. Everyone agreed that there should be some tribute. The details were varied but over the next 15 years or so would be refined into the Memorial structure you see today.
“A
long, long time went by between the initial thinking about a memorial [and final design]. It went back, really, to 1942, We started then to talk about a memorial, early 1942.” Alfred Preis National Park Service oral history #76, 1985 The Governor of the Territory of Hawaii chartered the Pearl Harbor Memorial Trust on December 9, 1943 as an offshoot of the Women's National Patriotic Organization who adorned veteran gravestones on Memorial Day for the Navy. The purpose of the organization was "to acquire land for, build and maintain a suitable memorial dedicated to the men who fought in the battles of the Pacific, to be known as the Pearl Harbor Memorial and to solicit the donation of funds and property to the corporation for the said objects and purposes."
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REMEMBRANCE SUMMER 2021
While their efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, this organization helped define the multitude of interested parties who wanted to Remember Pearl Harbor. The Pearl Harbor Memorial Trust also spent quite a bit of time soliciting ideas about what exactly a memorial would look like. Interestingly, the proposals split into two main approaches with a variety of potential locations. One approach would be to have a memorial that was a place to render honors. The other approach was some sort of place to gather like a community center. Adm. Chester W. Nimitz wrote when asked about his idea for a memorial: ''Would it not be possible, using the natural beauty of one of the small valleys or hillsides near Honolulu to plan, landscape and plant a memorial garden with paths winding among flowering trees and shrubs?
