WINTER 2014
A PACIFIC HISTORIC PARKS PUBLICATION
THE CEO CORNER Gene Caliwag President & Chief Executive Officer Pacific Historic Parks
Aloha Friends & Supporters, Welcome to the first edition of the redesigned Remembrance! The improved format is printed on higher quality paper, has a compact design and includes more pages per issue, which allows for more photographs and in-depth stories on the parks we serve. We hope you enjoy the new look and quality of our biannual publication. Earlier in the year, Pacific Historic Parks decided to embark on a new endeavor and establish an educational institute that would go beyond the current education programs offered at WW11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument. In August, with the help of the Potrero Group, we hired Terri Watson, from a pool of more than 150 applicants, as the new Executive Director for the Pearl Harbor Institute. In the next edition of Remembrance, Terri will share the vision, direction and more details about the Institute. You can learn more about Terri on page 35.
With funding secured, PHP awarded the construction contract to Hawk Contracting Group, a veteran-owned company and the same contractor that completed phase one restoration work on the Memorial. Beatrice Soutar, HCG Vice President, and Scott Henrickson, NPS Regional Civil Engineer, managed the project. As a tribute to AMVETS, the shrine room wall rededication ceremony was held on Veterans Day, November 11. It is exciting that the new wall has been completed in time for the December 7th ceremony.
One of the most significant events in 2014 has been the completion of the second phase of the USS Arizona Memorial restoration—the replacement of the shrine room wall, the collective headstone of the sailors and Marines entombed in the sunken battleship. Previously replaced three decades ago, weather exposure and saltwater spray had taken a toll on the wall causing stains and erosion. As stewards of the Memorial, both the National Park Service and Pacific Historic Parks felt that it was our duty and mission to replace and preserve the wall for future generations.
In closing, on behalf of Pacific Historic Parks and the National Park Service, I would like to thank our partners and fellow stewards—AMVETS and Hawk Contracting Group—for their contribution to the second phase of the restoration of the USS Arizona Memorial. Remember. Honor. Understand.
To that end, we are grateful that AMVETS committed to funding the wall replacement project. The veterans service organization secured funding for 1
Remembrance | Winter 2014
the original wall in the 1950s and its subsequent replacement in 1984. With the organization’s deep commitment and duty to never forget those veterans that fought and died on the USS Arizona, it is safe to say they are regarded as the “Keepers of the Wall.” AMVETS’ National Commander John Mitchell, Jr. selected the project for his national fundraising campaign—the USS Arizona Forever Fund—and successfully achieved their fundraising goal of $343,000.
5
ACCESS TO HONOR
6
PRESERVING THE MEMORY
9
PHASE II : USS ARIZONA MEMORIAL RESTORATION PROJECT
19
VERNON CRENSHAW: PACIFIC WAR MILITARY INTERPRETER
24
LETTER FROM THE PHSA PRESIDENT EMERITUS
26
MATSUSHIRO DAIHONEI: PREPARING TO FIGHT THE FINAL BATTLE OF WW II
35
CREATING A BRIGHT FUTURE
45
THE PRIDE OF LIONS AT KALAUPAPA
ON THE WEB facebook.com/PacificParks
EDITOR
PHOTOGRAPHY
Sarah Safranski
Donny Chambers
twitter.com/PacificParks google.com/+PacificHistoricParksOrg PHPStore.org
FRONT COVER: The new shrine room wall on the USS Arizona Memorial was rededicated on Veterans Day. LEFT: The sun sets over the USS Arizona Memorial on Veterans Day 2014.
Remembrance | Winter 2014
TAB LE of CONTEN TS
Grand Opening!
www.PHPStore.org 15% off your order. Use code PHPRM15.
Proceeds from our stores support education, preservation, development and interpretation endeavors at our historic parks. Discount does not apply to memberships. Expires 1/15/15.
ACCESS TO HONOR By: Paul DePrey, Superintendent, WW11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument, National Park Service
The USS Arizona Memorial is one of our nation’s most significant places of honor. The tremendous interest of out-of-state visitors and kama’aina alike is evident each day when thousands walk through the entrance to the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center at World War 11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument. In fact, the park is now more frequently visited than ever with more than 1.7 million visitors in 2013, an increase of more than 200,000 from pre-recession levels in 2007.
tour is still an excellent way to learn about Pearl Harbor, but it is optional.
Although the increasing visitation has led to stresses on park operations, the National Park Service is nonetheless committed to providing visitors with the best possible experience. Improving physical access to the memorial and providing a deeper understanding of the events that occurred here during World War 11 are our first priorities. The recently completed replacement of the shrine room wall is evidence of the National Park Service’s continued stewardship as well as that of our partners, Pacific Historic Parks and AMVETS.
The huge demand for access to the memorial has led to difficulties in determining the most appropriate means for distributing tickets, but we have an unwavering commitment to find the right solution. While managing visitor access to the USS Arizona Memorial is likely best accomplished by a system that allocates tickets through a combination of reservations and walk-in access, we continue our search for the best mix of both. Input from visitors, residents, partners and businesses is needed to improve the system. We have worked with commercial tour operators as well as our partners in Pearl Harbor, and sought input from the publicto better understand their needs.
The National Park Service, along with our Pearl Harbor partners, have worked diligently since 1980 to ensure that visitors to the USS Arizona Memorial leave with a full appreciation of the thousands of lives that were lost during the attack of December 7, 1941. The museum exhibits, wayside displays and the documentary film shown in our theater are central to increasing each visitor’s understanding of Pearl Harbor’s significance. The narrated tour, which was developed by the National Park Service to help visitors appreciate the special meaning of the site, also enhances the visitor experience.
Those of us privileged to be the caretakers of World War 11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument will continue to work on enhancing the overall visitor experience, and we look forward to your feedback on ways we can improve the park’s ticketing and reservation system. The beautiful, and meaningful USS Arizona Memorial deserves our best efforts to improve access for the millions of visitors who come to witness this place of honor each year.
When an internal review in January identified that the pairing of the narrated tours with tickets to the USS Arizona Memorial as against policy, the practice was immediately stopped. The narrated 5
Remembrance | Winter 2014
The National Park Service review also identified additional actions that need to be taken in order to improve the visitor experience: enhancing the park’s website navigation; addressing demands for more reservable tickets; and ensuring that independent travelers, along with park-permitted transportation companies, can use the system in a reliable manner. We’ve taken steps to more clearly describe the availability of tickets and have begun offering “next day” ticket reservations that are open only to individuals, not to tour companies.
PRESERVING THE MEMORY By: Daniel A. Martinez, Chief Historian, WW11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument, National Park Service
This year’s theme for the 73rd anniversary of Pearl Harbor is “Preserving the Memory.” Why does the preservation of our national memory of December 7th garner such importance? How will the National Park Service at WW11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument carry out its mission of preserving memory?
the NPS had inherited relics of the Pearl Harbor attack. Many had been donated to the Navy from their years of operation (1962-1979). This included battle artifacts, documents, books and photographic images. The era of “Preserving the Memory” had arrived. Over the next few years, Superintendent Cummins made critical decisions to preserve the history of Pearl Harbor. The park’s first museum curator, Mark Tanaka-Sanders, cataloged artifacts and created a park library and history files. Chief Ranger Mark Hertig implemented interpretive training and education programs for the park rangers who gave talks at the memorial and visitor center. Seasonal ranger Edean Saito recalled, “I was a high school teacher and was tasked with providing school children who visited the memorial an educational experience that would bring meaning and value to their visit.”
To get the conversation started, consider this quote from American historian Steve Berry: “History is not something obscure or unimportant. History plays a vital role in our everyday lives. We learn from our past in order to achieve greater influence over our future. History serves as a model not only of who and what we are to be, we learn what to champion and what to avoid. Everyday decision-making around the world is constantly based on what came before us. Why? Because history matters!”
Superintendent Cummins realized that historical knowledge of the site was dismal. Legends, in some cases, had become accepted history. There was no consistent memory. A contract historian was hired to assist the NPS in developing a key document.
The history of December 7th matters to me and to those who work at WW11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument. As professionals we are dedicated to preserving that memory. How did that principle begin here? And what elements made the USS Arizona Memorial and that date in history so vital to the nation’s memory?
In October of 1984 contract historian Michael Slackman presented a two-volume manuscript to the National Park Service titled “Historic Resource Study: USS Arizona Memorial.” The 486 page document included a detailed history of the attack on Oahu and specific information on the devastation that occurred at Pearl Harbor.
In 1980 the United States Navy transferred responsibility for the operation of the USS Arizona Memorial and a new shoreside visitor center facility to the National Park Service (NPS). This new national park was established by Congress through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Navy.
Slackman also included chapters on the aftermath of the attack and the movement toward memorializing the men who served on the USS Arizona. This indispensable historic resource study was funded by the park’s cooperating association, the Arizona Memorial Museum Association (now, Pacific Historic Parks).
Thus began the role and responsibility of the National Park Service at one of the nation’s most treasured memorials. The park’s first superintendent, Gary Cummins, realized rather quickly that 6
It was the first public document that detailed the early history of the new National Park Service site and the USS Arizona Memorial. Due to the popularity of the manuscript, AMMA’s business manager Gary Beito and Superintendent Gary Cummins decided to publish a comprehensive history of the memorial, preserving the memory of this beautiful, haunting touchstone of our World War 11 past. First published in 1985, the book “Remembering Pearl Harbor: The Story of the USS Arizona Memorial,” is still in print today and serves as the official history of the monument.
In 1986 dive operations were underway at the sunken USS Arizona and Utah, the only two ships left from the attack on December 7, 1941. A wealth of information was derived from these scientific explorations. Drawings were made, photographs taken and models made. A report was produced and published for public interest and consumption. The “Submerged Cultural Resource Study” was authored by Daniel Lenihan and Larry Murphy of the NPS Submerged Cultural Resource Unit. It is interesting to note that we continue to probe, explore and examine these ships with today’s cutting edge technology; science continues to provide unsurpassed insights into the preservation of their memory.
the nation. Furthermore, many people believe that the patriotic inspiration to be extracted from these sacred places depends not only on a proper ceremony but on a memorialized, preserved, restored and purified environment. On the other hand, these battlefields are civil spaces where Americans of various ideological persuasions come, not always reverently, to compete for the ownership of powerful national stories and to argue about the nature of heroism, the meaning of war, the efficacy of martial sacrifice, and the significance of preserving the patriotic landscape of the nation.”
The years leading up to the 50th anniversary were fraught with controversy and open political battles over the commemoration of the Pacific War. The first national commemoration to be observed was at Pearl Harbor in December of 1991. For many, that remembrance is what we consider the first Pearl Harbor Day. Noted author Edward T. Linethal made these observations in his book “Sacred Ground: America and Their Battlefields”:
That 50th anniversary was honored by a presidential visit from George H. Bush. His speech to the thousands of Pearl Harbor Survivors and their families was memorable and purposeful. It was the first time a President addressed the issue of reconciliation with our former enemies. His words rang out over the hushed crowd gathered at Kilo Pier.
“These battlefields (Pearl Harbor) function in diverse ways. On the one hand, they are ceremonial centers where various forms of veneration reflect the belief that the contemporary power and relevance of the “lessons” of the battle are crucial for the continued life of
“I wondered how I’d feel being with you, the veterans of Pearl Harbor—the survivors—on
Story continued on page 48. 7
Remembrance | Winter 2014
I arrived in Hawaii in the summer of 1985, fresh from Custer Battlefield National Monument, to work as a summer seasonal at the USS Arizona Memorial. During that first year, I met Michael Slackman and enjoyed the pleasure of his company and historical expertise as well as his passion for preserving the memory of Pearl Harbor. I was hooked and decided that my permanent career with NPS would begin here—both sides of my family were present during the attack.
PHASE TWO USS ARIZONA MEMORIAL RESTORATION PROJECT
When visitors arrive at the USS Arizona Memorial and step foot in the shrine room, they are faced with the realities of conflict, war and tragedy. The shrine room wall of the USS Arizona Memorial lists the 1,177 names of the husbands, fathers, sons and brothers whose lives were taken on the day which will live in infamy. It is the headstone of those who did not survive the attack by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. In October 2014, the National Park Service along with Pacific Historic Parks, AMVETS and Hawk Contracting Group, began phase 11 of the USS Arizona Memorial restoration—the replacement of the shrine room wall. This project is just a small part of the wall’s history and our mission to remember, honor and understand.
LEFT: Construction work on the shrine room wall on the USS Arizona Memorial began in October 2014 and ended in November 2014.
9
Remembrance | Winter 2014
Text: Amanda Carona, Events Coordinator, WW11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument
Design Details
than 2 million visitors per year of the solemnness of the memorial and pays tribute to a great generation of heroes.
Alfred Preis, the architect of the USS Arizona Memorial, wanted the shrine room to be a sacred place with “spiritual character” where people of all cultures and religions could reflect upon the sacrifices of so many. It was part of the structure’s original design when the memorial was built and dedicated in 1962. The narrow entrance to the shrine room forces visitors to slow down and focus on the area they are entering. At 34 feet long and 18 feet high, the wall looms over those who enter. It is made of Olympic White marble, the same type that is used in major memorials and monuments throughout Washington D.C. The room’s design draws viewers’ attention to the columns of names. The tree of life cutouts that flank the wall cast fragmented light across the wall in the morning and again in the evening. All of these elements lead to a somber, yet sacred and reflective feeling for those who enter.
2014 Shrine Room Wall Replacement In 2012, the National Park Service and Pacific Historic Parks realized that the USS Arizona Memorial needed to be refurbished and began raising funds for a three-phrase restoration project estimated to cost approximately $750,000. Phase 1 of the restoration was completed in November 2012. “The National Park Service is dedicated to preserving not only the tangible evidence of memorialization, but our dedication to a generation who fought for our freedom. As stewards of the memorial, it is our responsibility and our honor to care for these treasures so they will continue to teach generations far removed from the tragedy. This wall is about reconciliation, as well as sacred enshrinement,” said Paul DePrey, Superintendent, WW11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument, National Park Service.
“Viewing the shrine room wall is one of the most impactful experiences in Pearl Harbor, ” said Paul DePrey, Superintendent, WW11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument, National Park Service.
Like the original wall, the 1984 shrine room wall had become stained and eroded in areas due to weather exposure and saltwater spray. AMVETS National Commander John Mitchell made it the organization’s National Commander’s Project to raise the money needed to replace the wall. Through the organization’s USS Arizona Forever Fund, AMVETS raised more than $340,000 to replace the wall and complete phase 11 of the restoration.
The “Keepers of the Wall” Since the 1950s, AMVETS, a national veterans service organization, has worked with the U.S. Navy and National Park Service to build and upkeep the USS Arizona Memorial shrine room wall.
Pacific Historic Parks awarded Hawk Contracting Group, a disabled veteran-owned small business, the contract for the construction. The company previously completed work on the USS Arizona Memorial during phase 1 of the restoration.
According to the organization’s magazine American Veteran, “AMVETS National Commander Harold T. Berc worked with President Dwight D. Eisenhower to secure the final $250,000 required to fund the [initial building of the] memorial.”
Construction on the shrine room wall began in October 2014 and was completed in November 2014. The 1984 wall was replaced with 138 Olympian White marble panels mined from a quarry in Vermont. The old wall has been partially retained by the National Park Service and will be transferred to the National Cemetery of the Pacific for recycling, the same process that is used on the headstones at Punchbowl.
Once the state of the original shrine room wall declined (more than 22 years after its dedication), it was deconstructed and disposed of at sea. With funding from AMVETS, the wall was replaced by the National Park Service in 1984. The replacement wall included a quote as a tribute to the men who died with the ship: “To the memory of the gallant men here entombed and their shipmates who gave their lives in action on December 7, 1941 on the USS Arizona.” This simple, yet powerful sentence reminds the more
Pacific Historic Parks is currently raising money to complete phase 111 of the restoration project, the replacement of the terrazzo flooring on the monument.
12
“We are proud to continue our work with the National Park Service to ensure that the USS Arizona Memorial is fully restored and continues to be a place of remembrance for future generations,� said Gene Caliwag, President and CEO, Pacific Historic Parks. Remembrance | Winter 2014
Veterans Day Rededication The shrine room wall was rededicated at a small ceremony on the USS Arizona Memorial on Veterans Day, November, 11, 2014. The ceremony included representatives from the National Park Service, U.S. Navy, Pacific Historic Parks, AMVETS and Pearl Harbor Survivor Ed Vezey. The event echoed the original 1962 dedication and included a presentation of colors by the U.S. Navy as well as a floral tribute. Speeches were given by Paul DePrey, Superintendent, WW11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument, National Park Service; Rear Admiral Richard Williams, Commander, Navy Region Hawaii and Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, U.S. Navy; David Louter, Chief, Cultural Resources Program, Pacific West Region, National Park Service; John Mitchell Jr., National Commander, AMVETS; and Neil Sheehan, Chairman of the Board, Pacific Historic Parks.
TOP: Gene Caliwag, President and CEO, Pacific Historic Parks, addresses the crowd during the USS Arizona Memorial shrine room wall rededication. ABOVE: A Hawaiian kahu blesses the shrine room wall on the USS Arizona Memorial. P. 10-11: The tree of life cutout casts light on the new shrine room wall on the USS Arizona Memorial.
Prior to the dedication a Hawaiian kahu or priest blessed the wall in a ceremony attended by representatives from the National Park Service, Pacific Historic Parks and AMVETS.
Watch the time lapse video of the shrine room wall construction on the USS Arizona Memorial: http://bit.ly/shrineroom 13
STERLING CALE
A TRUE AMERICAN The Story of a Pearl Harbor Survivor, World War II, Korean and Vietnam War Veteran
JUST PUBLISHED!
Order your copy online at: PHPStore.org.
From a farm in Illinois to Hawaii, Guadalcanal, Korea and Vietnam, Pearl Harbor Survivor Sterling Cale’s military career has taken him around the world. With a front row view of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Cale bravely rescued men from the burning water and collected bodies from the wreckage of the USS Arizona. His story is one of service, sacrifice and what it means to be a true American.
An excerpt from A TRUE AMERICAN By: Sterling Cale, Pearl Harbor Survivor, WW11, Korean and Vietnam War Veteran
I was assigned to the Marine Corps Band as a drum major while I awaited my first assignment. During a parade, we added a swing beat to the song “Semper Fidelis.” The General said, “You can’t swing ‘Semper Fi!’” I was assigned as a lifeguard for the admiral’s children after that.
A recruiting sergeant came to my school from Chicago and asked, “Does anyone want to join the Navy?” I said, “I do.”
The assignment was not to my liking and I was reassigned as a bugler. I had to sleep above the chief ’s quarters where they drank beer and raised Cain to the early hours of the morning. It was really difficult to wake up and play the bugle with only a few hours of sleep. On many occasions, I would blow and no sound would come out. On those days, I would go down to the company barracks, stick my bayonet between the two front lines of the hammocks and give them a flip. The person would throw his hand out and hit the guy in the hammock next to him. I would go down the line dumping each hammock until everyone was up and moving.
He replied, “What would you like to do and where would you like to be assigned?” I said, “I certainly do not want to be a ground pounder in the Army! I want to join the Lighter Than Air training in the dirigibles in Lakehurst, New Jersey!” I graduated from Moline Senior High School in the January division, 1940. Unfortunately, in 1937, the Navy Department canceled the Lighter Than Air training program after the Hindenburg disaster. The Navy Department said, “Congratulations, you have been accepted to an assignment with the Navy. Report to Great Lakes Naval Training Center.”
Finally, the Navy Department sent me to San Diego, California, to the Hospital Corps School. It was a six month program and we spent a lot of our time going down to Tijuana, buying muscatel at $10/gallon, drinking in Balboa Park and getting sick. I graduated number two in my class at age 18 as a pharmacist mate, a hospital corpsman that works mainly with medicine, first aid and minor surgery.
I approached my naval service as if it was a chance to earn more merit badges. I reported to Great Lakes in Illinois and after two months of training, graduated in Company 4240. Quite a few of the men from my boot camp ended up on the uss Arizona.
15
Remembrance | Winter 2014
Give Me Pearl Harbor
I thought I would be heading back to Illinois. The number one man was assigned to Illinois instead and the lieutenant said, “Well, Cale, you have your choice of worldwide assignment!”
at the time, and had to perform circumcisions, appendectomies and remove three types of cysts, hernias and fistulas to graduate the class. One time, I assisted a doctor with a circumcision. We anesthetized the patient with ethyl chloride, which is a refrigerant. As I was handing the instruments to the surgeon, the patient, who was on the operating table, started screaming and I did not know what was happening. I knew he couldn’t feel anything! I passed out on the surgical table, scattering instruments all over the operating room. When I came to, they had completed the surgery without me and were cleaning up the room.
I thought, “Worldwide? As a farm boy from Illinois, I was already worldwide in San Diego!” I then remembered hearing about an island 2,000 miles from the coast of the United States called the Territory of Hawaii. I heard they had beautiful girls there with long, black hair. Some said that they wore grass skirts and even lived in grass shacks. So I said, “Aw, hell give me Pearl Harbor!” I sailed out of San Diego on the uss Brazos, an ancient oil tanker that didn’t have bunks. It was my first time on a ship. We had to swing our hammocks below deck. After two days at sea, on a beautiful day with hot sun and a ship full of diesel oil, the boatswain’s mate said, “Cale, we are going to send you up in a bosun’s chair to paint the mast.”
In July 1941, I was reassigned to the shipyard dispensary in the Navy Yard. As a pharmacist mate second class, I worked alone bandaging the civilian night shift workers’ cuts and scratches. I took diving courses at the submarine base and Ford Island to become a salvage diver and underwater demolition tech or frogman, the predecessor of today’s elite Navy Seals. I was always looking for opportunity in the Navy.
The mast must have been 30 feet in the air and I was at the top. The ship was swaying from side to side. I swung my brush from side to side with each swing, throwing up on the starboard side, hitting the mast as I swung past and throwing up again on the other side. They hauled me down after 10 minutes. The boatswain’s mate said I was doing a good job painting the water, but not doing any job on the mast. We continued sailing and after four days, we arrived at Pearl Harbor.
Unlike most enlisted sailors, I thought the Hawaiian Islands were magical. I attended picnics, luaus, dances with civilian nurses, took trips around the island (while snapping tons of pictures to be oil photo colored) and became friends with Doris Duke Cromwell, the tobacco heiress. I attended parties on the Seth Parker, a four-masted schooner docked near Doris’ home. At times, I rode from Honolulu to Pearl Harbor in her convertible, mesmerized by the sight of her gold hair flowing in the tropical breeze.
When we approached Hawaii, I thought it was a beautiful place, but it was not at all what I thought it would be. I had never heard of Hawaii back in Illinois. I was used to lots of hay, lots of oats and lots of corn—things like that. I looked for the girls, but they didn’t seem to have any.
Right: Pearl Harbor Survivor Sterling Cale’s hat, patches and Pearl Harbor Survivor license plate. Photos provided by Sterling Cale.
I was assigned to the old naval hospital at Hospital Point, Sea Landing. The hospital was built in 1917. I was a senior corpsman in the officer’s ward. We did not have any nurses assigned to us; the senior corpsman was the petty officer in charge. He received orders from the doctors, who were reserved officers from Ewa Plantation. They would give orders for the patients and after one or two hours would return to the plantation. Working in the officer’s ward, I met many World War 11 officers. While at the hospital, I trained as a surgical technician in septic, what they called dirty surgery 16
Remembrance | Winter 2014
VERNON CRENSHAW: PACIFIC WAR MILITARY INTERPRETER By: Mike Shepherd, Dallas Baptist University
at Iroquois Point.3 He became proficient in oral Japanese and got to know Lieutenant Otis Cary’s approach to the POWs. When he boarded the Sea Runner troop transport out of Pearl Harbor in August, Crenshaw taught classes in Japanese for other interested American soldiers. Arriving in Hollandia (now Kotabaru), New Guinea, the Pearl Harbor of the Western Pacific, which was recently retaken from the Japanese, Vernon found out that his first child was born. He calculated, correctly, that he was headed for the Caroline Islands and sent a coded message home to his wife. She was happy to translate his letter and named the baby Carolyn.4 In September 1944, the new father was headed to Peleliu Island, a volcanic island with an elaborate network of caves in which the Japanese were well hidden. Peleliu was the site of the highest (40 percent) casualty rate for American soldiers of any battle in the Pacific. On September 19, four days after D-Day, Vernon Crenshaw got on a landing craft and was so nervous he dropped his rifle, muzzle down, into a bag of cement. He made it to shore and took over duties as keeper of the POW compound and interrogator of prisoners.5
Vernon was a bright salutatorian from Aransas Pass High School. He passed the test for Japanese Language School and went to the head of the class. The class of 30 quickly became seven. He showed Major Wolf one of the Naganuma texts that he had purchased on his own for the Japanese class. Naganuma had set the standard for the three-year Tokyo School: he wrote the books and tutored U.S. Navy and Marine officers. PFC Crenshaw convinced Major Wolf to provide the text for all the remaining members of the class.2 When Vernon finally shipped out from San Diego in June 1944, still a private, he got to spend more than two months at Pearl Harbor. There, he and his language school classmates practiced on some of the Japanese prisoners of war held
Hiroshi Funasaka, one of the captured defenders of nearby Angaur Island who was brought to the Peleliu compound, was Crenshaw’s biggest challenge as a POW supervisor.6 Sergeant Funa19
Remembrance | Winter 2014
Vernon Crenshaw was a native of Aransas Pass, Texas, and a lay preacher in the Church of Christ. He loved to sing bass in the acapela four part harmony at church, did not drink alcohol and did not get along well with his fellow Marines who did imbibe. Enlisting in the Corps in 1942, he initially accepted a stateside assignment at Camp Pendleton, California, in order to stay close to his new bride, but eventually heeded the call to serve overseas and volunteered for 81mm mortar training. After several weeks of marching up and down hills carrying a 50 pound mortar tube, Vernon volunteered to serve as a Japanese interpreter.1
saka refused to shake his hand, but grudgingly accepted some clean clothes. Crenshaw took it as a challenge to keep Funasaka alive—he had tried to commit suicide on Angaur Island, charging solo at a tent full of U.S. Army officers before he collapsed. Funasaka, a poor rice farmer’s son and a mortarman with experience in China, tried three times to escape the stockade. His only success in getting outside the stockade without permission was when Crenshaw was called away for other duties. Funasaka posed as a Korean worker and went to find matches so that he could sabotage the American airplanes parked near the stockade. Crenshaw discovered his ruse and sent him back inside the double-fenced enclosure. When Funasaka tried to crawl out under the fence at night and attack one of the sentries, Crenshaw was there and tackled him. The Marine had been a lineman on the Aransas Pass High School football team; the smaller Funasaka had little chance. Funasaka was marched back inside the stockade, but tried to escape again at a later date. Crenshaw again was there, stopping him again from getting past the second line of fence. After securing him on the floor of the MP tent, he let the sergeant (and himself ) cool off. He had a long talk to the younger man in Japanese the next morning. Crenshaw convinced Funasaka not to attempt any more suicidal escapes. He told the Japanese sergeant not to waste his life, to save it for the reconstruction of Japan. As Funasaka wrote in his memoir, Crenshaw was the real hero of his story, “the man who saved my life.”7
more than a year and had never met his daughter. As soon as he was able to get orders for return to the states, Crenshaw left Peleliu on a B-25 to Pearl Harbor, caught a boat to San Francisco and then a train home to Texas, where he reunited with Georgia and Carolyn. 1⁰ Funasaka made it back to Japan from his Texas POW camp before the end of 1947 and saw his name on a burial headstone. His parents had been informed of his “glorious death.” Sergeant Funasaka smashed the funeral marker with an ax and insisted that he was alive. He found a job at a bookstore, married the owner’s daughter and wrote a book about his wartime experiences. He helped rebuild Japan by expanding the bookstore and managing real estate in Tokyo. In 1948, Hiroshi Funasaka was still looking for “the man who saved my life.” He organized a POW association to find Crenshaw, who had since taken over a trucking company office in Houston, Texas. Funasaka began writing “a thousand letters” and mailing them off to several different military and government agencies in the United States. Finally, in 1965, the Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C. received the following letter, which the Corps translators in Quantico, Virginia, submitted for publication in Navy Times newspaper and Leatherneck magazine: Japanese Seeks Peleliu Helper My name is Hiroshi Funasaka and I am now the president of one of the three largest book firms of Tokyo. During the Second World War my name was Fukuda and I was a sergeant in the Japanese Army. My unit was serving on the Island of Angaur, near the larger Island of Peleliu.
Funasaka was sent on to Guam, Pearl Harbor and stateside to a POW camp in Texas. Before he left Peleliu, he shook Crenshaw’s hand and said goodbye. Crenshaw told him they would meet in Tokyo someday after the war. Little did either man know that Crenshaw’s words would prove to be true.
In 1944 I was seriously wounded, taken prisoner. I was astounded by the respect toward human life shown to an enemy by the American Forces and also how well we, as prisoners of war, were treated by the conquering forces.
Crenshaw stayed on Peleliu for the duration of the war. He was recommended for promotion to lieutenant in January after he talked several Japanese into surrendering during an unsuccessful raid on the island.8 He also supervised the surrender of 40,000 Japanese soldiers on nearby Babelthaup Island in September after Emperor Hirohito agreed to peace terms.9 Marine commanders on Peleliu offered Crenshaw the opportunity to serve as translator in the occupation of Japan but Vernon declined. He had not seen his wife in
One gentleman, in particular, was very kind to me, that I have spent many futile hours in the past 18 years trying to locate him, so that I may in some way, repay to him. He was an interpreter when I was taken prisoner. The only facts that I possess about this man are that he at that time was a corporal and that he was tall, slightly bent forward 20
Morning Japan). Funasaka sat beside him during the interview to help tell their war story. 12 A group of POWs met Vernon Crenshaw in a hotel at the National Park in Nikko, Japan. They showed the Marine an album with their families listed and thanked him profusely for keeping them alive through the war so that they could have children and grandchildren. Vernon was a bit embarrassed at the thanks for merely doing his job and following the Geneva Convention. It was this association of 12 POWs that had, under Funasaka’s leadership, invited Vernon and Georgia to Japan. 13
Hiroshi Funasaka Taiseido Japan Grand Book Center11 A Marine friend based in Dallas, Sergeant Granville Luther, recognized that “Grenshaw” was Crenshaw, a Marine he knew on Peleliu. He phoned Texas-Oklahoma Express Trucking, where Vernon worked in Dallas and told him to get a copy of the Navy Times. Someone was looking for a kind Peleliu Marine.
After some delays in getting the sword on the plane back to Texas, Vernon and Georgia left Japan. Crenshaw kept up correspondence. Funasaka worked on another version of his war memoir, praising Crenshaw, and in 1966, asked his kendo student, the Nobel-nominated author Yukio Mishima, to write the preface. Mishima was happy to do so.1⁴ As a token of thanks for adding his literary fame to the front of the book, Funasaka gave his friend Mishima a heirloom samurai sword from his personal collection.
The Marine, now in his mid-40s was happy to make phone contact with the now successful Japanese businessman. The following year, Hiroshi Funasaka gave Vernon the “royal tour” of Japan when he flew there with Georgia in April of 1966. The two old soldiers embraced on the tarmac at Tokyo’s Hamada Airport. They exchanged gifts. Hiroshi gave Vernon an expensive Samurai sword that was more than 350 years old. Vernon gave Hiroshi a Japanese translation of the Bible. Seven other former POWs from Peleliu Island, all from the town of Utsunomia, gave Vernon a ceramic lantern in the shape of a pagoda with the signatures of each POW from the town that he kept alive on the volcanic island. The friendly Texan (with Japanese notes on his sleeve) appeared on Japanese television, “Ohayo Nippon” (Good
In 1970, Hiroshi Funasaka sent his son, Yoshio Funasaka, to visit the United States. The teenager stayed with Vernon and Georgia Crenshaw along with their son Henry, who was close in age to Yoshio. Near the end of the two month visit, Yoshio received a call from Japan. Yukio Mishima, a troubled soul, committed suicide after a failed 21
Remembrance | Winter 2014
and had hollow eyes. I am not even certain of the correct spelling of his name, but from the pronunciation, I would assume that his name would be Grenshaw-Cpl. Grenshaw.
coup at a Japanese Self-Defense Force headquarters in Tokyo. When Mishima failed to rouse the small garrison to overthrow the Japanese government, he used the sword Funasaka had given him to commit seppuku. Funasaka’s gift, in the hands of one of Mishima’s co-conspirators, beheaded the man who created Japanese plays, novels and short stories known around the world.
which he described the details of the friendship between you and him, which you know about. One of the deacons of our church, Mr. Tanimoto, read the book and was quite inspired by it and visited Hiroshi to have a contact. Mr. Tanimoto is president of a printing company in Tokyo and is president of the Gideon Association of Japan…One day Mr. Tanimoto visited Hiroshi and said, “At the end of the book, Crenshaw wrote the message to you through Mr. Asano, the president of Ibaraki Christian College of the Church of Christ that said ‘Read the Bible every day and go to church every Sunday’ and yet you do not respond to Mr. Crenshaw fully until you go to church. Please come to our church if you wish.”
Yoshio was put on the next plane back to Japan to attend the funeral of the writer and friend of the Funasaka family. Mishima left behind a wife and two children. The Funasakas mourned his passing. All of Japan mourned in a large, public funeral for the three-time Nobel Prize nominee. In 1970, the same year that Mishima set in motion his abortive coup/suicide, the president of Ibaraki Christian College in Japan visited the Garland Road Church of Christ in Dallas, where the Crenshaw family attended. President Harumi Asano met Vernon Crenshaw after church and enjoyed hearing of the Marine’s friendship with Funasaka. Through a series of contacts with Asano and the Omori Megumi Church in Tokyo, Hiroshi Funasaka made a step of faith: Christian baptism. The preacher at the Omori Megumi church sent the following letter to Crenshaw:
Responding to this invitation, Hiroshi came to our church the last Sunday in August. Alas, God has captured Hiroshi’s soul. He offered to me his wish to receive baptism at the earliest chance. He confessed his faith in Christ earnestly and will be baptized next Sunday, October 1, along with three other believers. I thought it is good to tell you beforehand about this and to ask you to say a prayer for him. Hiroshi mentioned in his confession of faith that it is his desire to show this church someday to Mr. Crenshaw himself. I want to see you and talk to you personally. Meanwhile we would like to correspond with you through the mail.
Dear Mr. Crenshaw, I have good news for you that Mr. Hiroshi Funasaka is to be baptized at the Omori Megumi Church next Sunday, October 1, 1972. Please pray for him on that day, as we would like to share the joy of praising the name of our Lord across the Pacific Ocean.
Well, this is the whole story about Hiroshi. I think you are the man who will share the joy most in the world. And I shall give you top credit in heaven that you made the convert of a typical Japanese samurai into a Christian. Truly a grain of wheat remains a solitary grain until it falls into the ground and dies, but if it dies it bears a great harvest.
This church was built by my father, Seishiro Iwamura in 1927 in a suburban area of Tokyo. It is now a segment of the Church of Christ in Japan. We have about 600 members and Sunday attendance is about 100. Besides our pastoral work, we have a kindergarten with 420 children and an institute for the mentally retarded. I was born in the same year as Mr. Funasaka, 1920, and received my education at Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Center, Massachusetts, and at Hartford Theological Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut, during 1948 and 1952. Since then I have visited several times in the United States.
You have my heartful prayer. Sincerely yours, Shinji Iwamura1⁵ Vernon Crenshaw was very happy to hear the news about his friend’s baptism. He spoke to an evening service at the Garland Road Church with tears in his eyes and a hesitant, cracking voice filled with emotion. Perhaps he was the man who was, through kind treatment, able to pass on his faith to another.
Last October, 1971, Hiroshi published his eighth book, “The Bible and the Sword,” in 22
Lieutenant Crenshaw left the samurai sword from Funasaka to his oldest grandchild, Brit Davis, son of Carolyn, who was born while he was away in the Carolines during the war.1⁹
The old soldiers explored a new kind of relationship across the ocean. Hiroshi came to Dallas in 1973 and proposed a business partnership. He would send Japanese investors to Dallas and Vernon would show them properties to purchase near the new Dallas/Ft.Worth regional airport. Vernon returned the visit to Tokyo in 1973 and visited the Omori Megumi Church. Later in the 1970s, Vernon hosted many Japanese investors in Dallas, and some land purchases were made.
Hiroshi Funasaka died in 2006, three years after Vernon Crenshaw. Hiroshi left his business to his son Yoshio. He had two granddaughters. Hiroshi wrote many books about the war and other subjects. Both veterans successfully met the challenges of war and peace. Hiroshi never forgot “the man who saved my life” and lived an honorable life rebuilding Japan, adjusting to democracy and capitalism quite well, thanks to his American friend, a kind Marine translator and friendly Texan, Vernon Crenshaw.
Sadly, the relationship between the two men gradually cooled. They did not see each other very often, both were approaching retirement age and they did not travel as much as when they were younger. Vernon was disappointed that Hiroshi did not make a deeper commitment to his faith. The family altar in the Funasaka house remained Buddhist, not Christian, and he did not regularly attend church.
p. 18: Vernon Crenshaw and Hiroshi Funasaka sit and talk at Funasaka’s Tokyo home during their April 1966 reunion. Crenshaw was found after 20 years and hosted by Funasaka and other POWs who knew Vernon as a Japanese interrogator on Peleliu Island in 1944-1945. p. 21: Hiroshi Funasaka, Vernon Crenshaw, Georgia Crenshaw visiting in Tokyo, 1966.
The business partnership proved to be shortlived. The bottom fell out of the commercial real estate market and the two men lost a common financial bond that they had started in the 1970s. Taiseido International, a company Vernon set up to work with Funasaka’s land deals, was dissolved in 1982.1⁶
1. Forrest Vernon Crenshaw, “Forrest Vernon
Crenshaw, USMC 0443-46.” Unpublished memoir of Lieutenant Crenshaw. 2. Forrest Vernon Crenshaw, Letter to Georgia Crenshaw (March 19, 1944). 3. Ibid, ( June 22, 1944); ( June 19, 1944). 4. Crenshaw, USMC: 17. 5. Ibid, 18. 6. Hiroshi Funasaka, Falling Blossoms (Singapore: Times International, 1986), 200-250; The Bible and the Sword, 61-63, Crenshaw’s translation of Hiroshi’s book. 7. Funasaka, Falling Blossoms, 208. 8. Crenshaw, USMC: 20. 9. Crenshaw, letter (September 15, 1945) 10. Crenshaw, USMC: 39. 11. “Japanese Seeks Peleliu Helper,” Navy Times (April 7, 1965):1; Funasaka, Falling Blossoms, 180. 12. Funasaka, Falling Blossoms, 198-210. 13. Crenshaw, USMC: addendum. 14. Yukio Mishima, Preface to Hiroshi Funasaka, Falling Blossoms: xi-xiv.
Shortly after the Tomiko visit, Hiroshi fell ill with Alzheimer’s and further communication with him became impossible. In 2000, Georgia Crenshaw, the love of Vernon’s life, wife for 58 years, died at Christian Care Center in Garland. Vernon was shaken. In 2003 he had an infection in his leg and had to have it removed below the knee. He died later that year, leaving two children and four grandchildren.1⁸
Continued on page 48. 23
Remembrance | Winter 2014
Notes The author acknowledges the help of Henry Crenshaw and the Crenshaw family in the compilation of this story.
Despite this gradual pulling apart, the aging veterans continued to collaborate on other things. Crenshaw translated Funasaka’s book,“The Bible and the Sword,” into English. Funasaka’s longer memoir, “Falling Blossoms,” was translated into English and republished in 1986. Vernon and Hiroshi enjoyed sending news of their children and grandchildren. Finally, in 1996, Tomiko Funasaka, Hiroshi’s oldest granddaughter, visited Dallas. She was greeted by Katherine Crenshaw, Vernon’s oldest granddaughter. Both enjoyed a trip to Six Flags Over Texas in nearby Arlington. They also enjoyed a trip to New Orleans. Both girls were about the same age: 15. They were chaperoned by a mutual friend of Vernon and Hiroshi, Hiroo Nakahara, a Dallas businessman.1⁷
LETTER FROM THE PHSA PRESIDENT EMERITUS
Fellow Survivors, As is usually the case with operations of the federal government, there have been budget and personnel reductions which have had negative effects on the ability to address the needs of Hawaii’s number one tourist attraction, the USS Arizona Memorial, which hosts more than 1.7 million visitors a year. I have been assured by Superintendent Paul DePrey that steps are underway to address these problems. We, the Pearl Harbor Survivors are looking forward to hearing the progress being made on addressing the needs of the National Park Service site by the next issue of Remembrance. The NPS is very conscious of the interest our Survivors have in the proper care of the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center grounds and the memorial.
Bill Muehleib National President Emeritus PHSA
As to the number of us still on the right side of the sod. As of August 20, 2014, we count 2,562. These figures are based on the death reports received by Sarah Safranski, Editor of Remembrance. Be certain that steps are taken to provide Sarah with information on the passing of our fellow Survivors. Death notices are in each issue of Remembrance. Our local “chapters” have continued to host their social meetings, some of which publish local newsletters of which I receive copies. Thank you, folks. Other “chapters” have affiliated with the Sons and Daughters chapters in their area. They have welcomed the survivors to their meetings. Do not overlook this opportunity for a Sons and Daughters chapter in your area. Again, mahalo and aloha to all. 24
Robert M. Bentley USS Oklahoma Spring Valley, CA
William Greenhouse Ewa Air Base Fallbrook, CA
Bronsil L. Metz Schofield Barracks Iva, SC
Owen R. Smith USS Phoenix Castro Valley, CA
George K. Butts USS West Virginia Mountain View, CA
Clyde S. Griffin USS Nevada San Diego, CA
Edwin A. McDougal USS Oglala Santa Rosa, CA
Peyton Smith USS Rigel Riverside, CA
Frank J. Castronovo Schofield Barracks Elmont, NY
Allan H. Havemeier USS California Fremont, CA
Richard Mittelstadt USS Maryland Alliance, OH
Glenn Stark USS Maryland Kingman, KS
Anthony Cresci USS New Orleans San Francisco, CA
Edward H. Huber USS West Virginia Floral Park, NY
Robert J. Moreo U.S. Marines Mechanicsburg, PA
Norman D. Stuckey Hickam Field Dayton, OH
Robert B. Erly USS Cassin Coronado, CA
Charles E. Kessinger USS Pennsylvania Toledo, OH
Robert J. Norman USS Nevada Tulsa, OK
Earl J. Wickett Camp Malakole Buffalo, NY
Edward A George Hickam Field Akron, OH
Lyle M. Koenig USS Aylwin Bernville, PA
Gery Porter USS West Virginia Hemet, CA
Frank E. Graves Ewa Air Base Denison, TX
John G. Kowalik Kaneohe NAS Western Spring, IL
Marvin W. Recknor USS San Francisco Fremont, CA
25
See p. 47 for death notices form.
Remembrance | Winter 2014
TRIBUTE TO OUR PEARL HARBOR SURVIVORS
MATSUSHIRO DAIHONEI PREPARING TO FIGHT THE FINAL BATTLE OF WORLD WAR II Text & Images: David R. Krigbaum
In early August 1945, World War 11 was far from over. Japan and the United States had years of fighting ahead of them as the Americans and their allies made amphibious assaults on the Japanese Home Islands.
munications and the Emperor himself. Located in the landlocked Nagano prefecture far from Tokyo and built under solid rock, the headquarters would be difficult for the Allies to march on and just as difficult to bomb. After the surrender, the complex was mostly abandoned except for a weather station and closed off until a portion was reopened in 1985 as a tourist attraction.
While American forces in the Pacific Theater made their preparations and troops who’d been victorious in Europe were being redeployed and prepared to take part in the Pacific War’s final phase, the Japanese military was preparing as well. The entire populace was being readied to fight, 10,000 kamikazes and 3,000 of their seaborne counterparts were in position to strike, and defensive pillboxes, bunkers and batteries were being built throughout the country.
Preserved World War 11 sites and artifacts aren’t very common in Japan and reading about the Matsushiro bunker intrigued me. I’d visited plenty of Allied bunkers and defensive fortifications but never a Japanese one bigger than a large room. Once in Japan, getting to Matsushiro would take some effort (just as it would have in 1944) due to its distance from Tokyo. Thanks to the 1998 Winter Olympics, a Shinkansen “bullet train” made getting to Nagano City, which is close to Matsushiro, a breeze. From Nagano City, I switched to a local line and was at Matsushiro ten minutes later.
One of those preparations was a mostly complete bunker complex near the small village of Matsushiro that, if completed and used as intended, could have affected the course of the war, regardless of the atomic bombs. The Matsushiro Daihonei, or Imperial General Headquarters, was built as an alternative command center from which the Japanese war efforts could be directed after the Allies invaded Japan. It would house not only military leadership but the civil government, NHK for broadcast and com-
The Shinkansen ride went as planned but upon arriving at Nagano City, I learned that Matsushiro had not warranted a local train stop since 2012. As every city in Japan, no matter how small or unimportant, is connected by train, I found this strange. 28
“It seems that Matsushiro is the village time forgot.”
I estimated that it is about a 20-minute walk from the abandoned train station/active bus stop to the bunker, but the number of preserved houses, temples and museums along the way proved a welcome distraction and it took me more than one hour to get there. Travelling with an ex-Navy friend who speaks Japanese, we surprised a few of the museum attendants, one of which explained to him that they rarely get Western tourists in Matsushiro and most people just visit for the hot springs.
building the bunker. A sign explained that the bunker’s historical remains “call attention to the Japanese invasion of Asian countries, as seen in World War 11 and the colonization of Korea.” Work on the Matsushiro Warehouse Complex, began in November 1944 and continued until the end of the war. The undertaking involved 7,000 workers, most of which were forced Korean labor and the rest Japanese conscripts. Due to the dangerous working conditions, many of them died, though the exact number is unknown as the Japanese military destroyed most of their records concerning Matsushiro before surrendering. Various books cite the number as somewhere between 1,000-1,500 workers. Donning hard hats as we entered, the Matsushiro Daihonei felt less like a bunker and more like a mine shaft due to its rough-blasted, rocky surface. Supports and lights had been installed for safety. The lighting fixtures were tacked into the rock walls with cables running from light to light. Random beams sprouted from the ground to support the overhead or walls. All of the beams were painted red, and sometimes they’d form a frame, two lintels and an overhead crossbeam, making it feel like I’d passed under a temple torii gate. In its first four years of operation, the bunker
We eventually got to the bunker and museum, an unassuming pair of trailers parked near the covered tunnel entrance. Besides the tunnel entrance was an obelisk and a chain of multicolored paper cranes, a memorial to the many Koreans who died 29
Remembrance | Winter 2014
It seems that Matsushiro is the village time forgot. Before the 1868 Meiji Restoration did away with the shogunate, Matsushiro was the center of its own eponymous domain, home of the powerful Sanada Clan, their retainers and army of samurai. The former village is still composed of Edo-esque streets lined with samurai houses and houses trying to look like samurai houses. Everywhere the distinctive six-coined Sanada Clan mon (crest) still flies proudly on banners and is borne on buildings, signs and lantern-like street lights.
didn’t have any beams or lights to give visitors a feeling for the hardship endured by the builders, according to the English handout.
conscripted into military service to be used as guerrillas or as part of militias that would face the Americans with improvised weapons, bamboo spears and suicide attacks. It would be national suicide, or as a popular slogan of the day put it, “The shattering of the hundred million, like a beautiful jewel.”
The bunker tunnels crisscross north/south and east/west, almost all of which are closed off with chain-link fencing to keep visitors on the right path. Peeking past the fences I could see what the tunnels were like before the safety regulations, when workers struggled to hollow out the mountains.
According to the July 1945 Shockley-Wright War Department Report, Japanese casualties would be at least 5-10 million dead. American casualties were expected to run between 1.7 -4 million with 400,000-800,000 dead. Enough Purple Hearts were minted in preparation for this invasion that they are still being issued today.
Matsushiro Daihonei is not a single continuous bunker but three independent complexes built into the three mountains surrounding the city of Matsushiro. The one I visited was the largest, Mount Zozan, and was intended for use by government agencies and NHK. Mount Zozan has six kilometers of finished tunnels but only one half of a kilometer is open. That is enough as the tunnel was never put to use and, therefore, there really isn’t anything to see. There are no rooms to preserve or recreate, the only finished rooms were the Emperor’s, which are located in what’s now the observatory on Mount Maizuru. The only item I saw inside Mount Zozan is located at the very end of the tunnel where a chain-link fence blocked off all possible routes but back. Tied to the fence was a chain of colorful origami paper cranes, just like the ones at the memorial outside.
The museum’s official name is the Memorial Center for Another History in Matsushiro. The docent gave us a tour and explained to my friend in Japanese that the current building is temporary. The memorial association possesses the remains of the local ianfu or comfort women house, where females were forced into prostitution for the Japanese military, and their goal is to rebuild it and move the current museum inside of it in order to better talk about Japan’s war crimes and human rights violations. I definitely was not expecting this.
Moving through those empty tunnels left time to think and reflect. A lot of people died building this place and if it had been used as intended, housing the military and government after Tokyo fell, those numbers would have been nothing compared to the death toll that would have followed.
Comfort women were mostly teenage Koreans, many had signed up to be nurses or to work in defense factories. Others were abducted from their homes. It’s significant that this location would even broach the subject as the Japanese government’s acknowledgment of forcing 200,000 women into sexual slavery and what it’s legal responsibilities are for having done so is controversial.
Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan, was to begin in November 1945. It’s first part, Operation Olympic, was the invasion of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s home islands. Following it’s capture, Kyushu would be used as a staging area for the second part of Downfall, Operation Coronet, in which American and Allied troops would land on Honshu, invade the Kanto Plain and take Tokyo. If all went to plan, the war would have been over by 1947.
Having dropped that surprise on us, the docent then discussed the bunker’s construction, purpose, casualties and why the Emperor never moved in. Though about 20% of the complex was still awaiting completion in August 1945, the rooms meant to house Emperor Hirohito, his family and Imperial regalia had been ready for occupation for months, but the Emperor refused. He believed that allowing himself to be hidden away in a military bunker far from Tokyo would weaken his authority and allow the military to rule without
Japan had five million troops on the home islands and a population of 70 million, almost all of whom could be expected to fight. In June 1945 all men ages 15-60 and women ages 17-40 were 31
Remembrance | Winter 2014
After walking the tunnel, I visited the small museum set off to the side of the entrance. As modest inside as it is on the outside, it contained artifacts from construction and maps, diagrams and aerial photographs of the area.
“As with any artifact, what it is, is often less important than what it represents and the story it has to tell.”
him. This is important as it was the Emperor who made the decision to surrender on August 15, 1945. Though the Emperor had made his decision, it was not unanimously agreed upon by members of the military. Knowing that the Emperor intended to ask Japan to “endure the unendurable,” a group of military officers set a plan into motion to stop him. They would seize the Emperor, destroy the surrender recordings and take total control of the government and military in order to prosecute the war until it ended on their terms. Though the attempt to stop the Emperor himself was nearly unprecedented, it wouldn’t be the first time Japanese military officers plotted against the Imperial family if they could not have the war they desired. In 1941, officers planned to assassinate Prince Fumimaro Kanoye if he secured a meeting with President Roosevelt regarding the possibility of staving off the war before it began.
ued preparing for the coming invasion. It’s a big “what if ” but one I’m thankful is merely that and nothing more. Physically, a visit to Matsushiro Daihonei amounts to going down an unfinished hole in the ground tucked away in a rural corner of Japan. Fitting, as it’s a reminder of things most people there would rather forget. As with any artifact, what it is, is often less important than what it represents and the story it has to tell. Matsushiro’s story was worth taking the time to listen to.
References
• “Defense of Japan 1945” (Fortress) by Steven J. Zaloga • “Hell to Pay” by D.M. Giangreco • Memorial Center of Another History in Matsushiro,
To gain access to the Imperial Palace, the conspirators murdered the commander of the Emperor’s guards when he refused to cooperate and, using his seal, forged orders that would isolate the Emperor and the palace. Even with those measures, they were unable to find the surrender recording or garner support for their attempted coup. At the same time another group, loosely associated with the conspirators, was unable to assassinate the prime minister.
• • • •
pamphlet “Nomonhan 1939” by Stuart D. Goldman “War in the Pacific Vol. I” by Jerome T. Hagen “War in the Pacific Vol. V” by Jerome T. Hagen “Reports of General MacArthur: The Campaigns of MacArthur in the Pacific” by His General Staff
p. 26-27: A tunnel in the Matsushiro Daihonei bunker located in Matsushiro, Japan. p. 28: The entrance to the Matsushiro Daihonei bunker. p.30: A tunnel in the Matsushiro Daihonei bunker.
Had the Emperor been sequestered at Matsushiro all of those dramatics may have been unnecessary. If he’d been there, he could have either been kept uninformed or the consideration of surrender never brought before him as the military contin32
PACI FI C H I STORIC PARKS
BECOME A MEMBER ABOUT
JOIN:
Members of Pacific Historic Parks help support an important mission—to preserve history and pass it on to future generations. Your support ensures that education programs reach students, important artifacts are preserved, new museum exhibits are designed, and WW11 vets and Pearl Harbor Survivors are remembered and honored. Our efforts touch the lives of millions of park visitors, school children and veterans each year.
Visit us online to complete your application at: pacifichistoricparks.org/donate_become_a_member.php
QUESTIONS:
BRASS - $25
COPPER - $50
BRONZE - $100
1 Memorial Registry honoree and lapel pin.
2 Memorial Registry honorees and keychain.
4 Memorial Registry honorees, lapel pin and keychain.
SILVER - $250
GOLD - $500
PLATINUM - $1,000
Silver benefits, guided USS
Guided USS Arizona Memorial tour for six, U.S. flag flown over the USS Arizona Memorial and recognition in Remembrance.
4 Memorial Registry honorees, lapel pin, keychain and recognition in Remembrance.
Arizona Memorial tour for four
and donor coin.
ALL MEMBERS RECEIVE:
15% discount at Pacific Historic Parks’ bookstores and one year subscription to Remembrance. 33
Remembrance | Winter 2014
If you have questions about our membership program, please contact Amy via email or phone at: aogasawara@pacifichistoricparks.org or (808) 954-8726.
OUR BEST SELLING BOOK NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUR IPAD AND KINDLE!
"A nice addition to any library." — Amazon Customer Review
ONLY $9.95!
amzn.to/WJS0VS
bit.ly/APPLERPH
CREATING A BRIGHT FUTURE By: Terri Watson, Executive Director, Pearl Harbor Institute
As the founding Executive Director of the Pearl Harbor Institute, a new educational initiative of Pacific Historic Parks that will allow us to reach new audiences with the lessons of Pearl Harbor and World War II in the Pacific, I wanted to take a moment to say hello and give a quick overview of who I am and where I come from. One of the harder things to do, it seems, is write one’s own introduction. But, here goes! I appreciate the opportunity to “meet” you in this way, and I look forward to future engagement as we develop and form this exciting new Institute.
regional branch schools. NOLS operates in nine countries, and teaches applied leadership and technical wilderness travel skills within a wilderness expeditionary context.
In college, I majored in geology/geophysics and P.E./sports medicine. Somehow the U.S. Army decided that this was enough to grant me a commission as an aviation officer and teach me to fly helicopters and airplanes. While my longest assignment was in Germany, I was fortunate to serve both aviation and intelligence deployments to a number of other locales to include Greenland, Italy, Panama, Korea, Egypt and Kuwait/ Iraq. I also earned a MS in Computer Information Systems while on active duty.
The next executive director opportunity came in 2008 with the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association, the cooperating association of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in San Francisco. In this role, I also worked closely with the NPS at Golden Gate National Recreation Area and their cooperative association, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservation Association. It is with this portrait of the power of agency partnerships that I embarked on the journey to come to Honolulu and work on the founding of the Pearl Harbor Institute.
Leaving the service after the Desert Storm era, I started and ran an aviation business in the Rocky Mountain States providing fire suppression and game management services to federal and state agencies. In addition, I flew as a Lifeflight/ SAR helicopter pilot in the Rockies, as well as a contract pilot supporting the U.S. State Department in Iraq and Afghanistan providing military training and support to local national military forces during OEF and OIF from 2003-2006.
The Pearl Harbor Institute is still in its formative stages, but the vision is to create an educational entity that honors and remembers the past while creating a brighter future from what was experienced both at Pearl Harbor and throughout the Pacific Theater in World War 11. We will seek to serve the vision of Admiral Chester Nimitz who said, “To them, we have a solemn obligation to ensure that their sacrifice will help make this a better and safer world in which to live.”
I also became affiliated with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) as a senior field instructor and later on, a Director of one of their 35
Remembrance | Winter 2014
My first opportunity to serve as the executive director of a nonprofit came in 1999 with LightHawk, an international nonprofit organization that matches a select group of volunteer pilots with conservation organizations who devise projects where aviation can provide significant leverage to their conservation outcomes. In that role, I worked and flew throughout Central America, Canada, and the U.S.
SURVIVORS TRAVEL TO THE MARIANA ISLANDS TO COMMEMORATE THOSE WHO FELL
The Mariana Islands Campaign during the summer of 1944 was an epic milestone in the Pacific Theater of World War 11. The Allies decided to move against Japan’s inner defensive circle by assaulting Saipan, Guam and Tinian. A massive combination of air and surface bombardment preceded incredibly challenging amphibious attacks against a Japanese military presence that was substantial yet unprepared for the scope of the attacks being brought against it. The events of that long summer 70 years ago drastically altered world history and changed the way we view the world even today.
The initial forays into the Marianas were through submarine war patrols that inflicted heavy damage to Japanese shipping and included the sinking of multiple troop transports heading to reinforce the islands. Many Japanese soldiers who fought in Saipan had lost all of their equipment and had been rescued at sea by other transports. Tanks being sent to Guam went to the bottom of the ocean. Command structures were further weakened by raids from aircraft taking off from captured islands to the south of the Marianas. Photographic missions from planes and submarines provided some of the advance intelligence required for Marine and Army troops to move from ships to the beach; yet once ashore, they would find a dug-in and tenacious enemy estimated at 30,000 Japanese on Saipan, 18,500 on Guam, and another 8,500 defending Tinian.
The United States had been at war for more than 2.5 years by the time the first ships fired upon the islands in the Marianas. The Allies had been pushing back against the advances of Japanese troops, ships and aircraft. Unbelievable changes had occurred in the mainland United States where women walked onto factory floors to work at machines retooled for the war effort. Planes, ships and bombs were heading toward packed coastal ports where they were joined by men filtering out of boot camps, artillery schools, barracks and training classrooms. By 1944, those who had been in high school when the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor were now hardened combat veterans of battles in places with names like Guadalcanal, Rendova, Bougainville, Kwajalein Atoll and Biak.
The landings at Saipan were made on June 15, 1944. Guam was assaulted after the longest pre-invasion bombardment to that point in history (13 days) on July 21, 1944. Tinian was attacked three days later in what General Holland M. Smith would refer to as “the perfect amphibious operation.” The battles for supremacy of the land would rage until August and cost nearly 6,000 American lives and the loss of nearly all of the 55,000 members of the Japanese garrison within the islands.
37
Remembrance | Winter 2014
By: James Oelke Farley, Cultural Resources Program Manager, War in the Pacific National Historical Park, National Park Service
The aircraft carrier led Battle of the Philippine Sea would occur in June as an aside to the assault on Saipan. The largest carrier-to-carrier fight in history also became known as “The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” since the lopsided American victory decimated what remained of the Japanese Navy’s fleet air arm. This removed the final impediment to our moving directly against the Japanese homeland in 1945.
Honor. The Saipan commemoration featured survivors Raymond Kelly, Howard Johnson, Robert Burke, and Carl Mathews from the United States alongside their former enemies, Yoshio Ideguchi of the Japanese Navy and Teruki Okazaki of the Japanese Army. The men, now all in their late eighties or early nineties, shook hands and conversed softly while remembering the battle that Okazaki referred to as “hell.”
The islands became home to the largest aerodrome in the world as Tinian was converted into a giant launching pad for B-29 Superfortresses to strike Japan; Guam and Saipan also had large airbases with fighter planes and huge bombers sharing airspace. Apra Harbor at Guam would become one of the busiest ports in the world as material flowed in and out to support operations for the entire U.S. Navy in the region. Hospitals on each of the islands filled with men injured in the attacks on Iwo Jima, Okinawa or from the ships offshore. The world’s entrance into the atomic age and the end of World War 11 began at Tinian when the Enola Gay took off for her six hour flight to Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Had the Mariana Islands not fallen in the summer of 1944, it is highly doubtful that World War 11 would have ended the next year.
A month later, veterans of the Battle of Guam gathered at the Asan Beach Unit of War in the Pacific National Historical Park on Guam to commemorate their own involvement in an equa-lly brutal conflict there. Seven veterans returned to the island, including Tom Spry, Sr., Bill Hutchens, Bill Mays, Gene Bell, Joe Benak, and two Navajo Indian Codetalkers, Alfred Newman and Bill Toledo. A “Fireside Chat” was held in their honor at Asan, a Guam invasion beach, where they were given the opportunity to tell the crowd about their experiences. The evening was a powerful reminder of the human suffering incurred in war. Local survivors spoke about the battle and the Japanese occupation of Guam. A heartfelt speech was given by the National Park Service’s Pacific West Regional Director Ms. Chris Lehnertz to start the ceremony:
This summer, American and Japanese veterans returned to commemorate the 70th anniversary of these monumental battles. A ceremony on Tinian took place on June 11, 2014 just prior to the June 15th gathering on Saipan to allow officials, veterans, and visitors an opportunity to make one trip to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and participate in both anniversaries.
“Those that fought here in the Pacific did so under different flags and ideologies yet they had more in common with each other than they possibly realized at the time. They all had frightened family at home, people they loved that awaited word from them, and a fear of the unknown, of death, of dishonor...These very real human emotions had to be overcome for them to survive. They placed their trust in the men beside them, faced their fears head-on, grabbed their rifle and moved forward into battle.
The single veteran on Tinian, Retired U.S. Army Air Corps Lt. Colonel Raymond Russell Kelly of the 482nd Squadron, 505th Bomb Group, 313th Bomb Wing spoke on the famed airfield about surviving 35 bombing missions over Japan. His emotional speech was bracketed by music from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force Band and the synchronized movements of the 3rd Marine Division Color Guard from Okinawa, Japan, who attended the ceremony on Tinian and then immediately flew to Saipan.
Islanders were caught in the middle of the struggle. Families had to make choices that had direct implications upon their chances of survival. Simple decisions became complex. Loyalties were questioned. The stress of this period was significant both mentally as well as physically. Starvation was avoided by surviving off the jungle and hiding food from the occupiers who were also hungry. Forced labor on defensive projects under these conditions taxed their bodies.
After an educational conference on Saipan that dealt with World War 11, many veterans and visitors toured American Memorial Park. They returned to the park the next day for the termination of the island parade honoring the veterans and additional ceremonies at the park’s Court of
When American planners selected this series of beaches and those to the south of us for their 38
continue to commemorate the battles that took place in these islands 70 years ago so that future generations will not forget what occurred in the Mariana Islands. p. 36: Top: U.S. Coast Guard Photo #2496. In sweep the swarms of Coast Guard and Navy-manned landing barges and amtracs head toward the beaches of Saipan to launch the invasion which gave American forces domination of the strategic Marianas of the Central Pacific. From the beaches, Yankee fighters pressed the hardfighting Japs northward and gained control of the airfields and capital town of Garapan, National Archives. Bottom: Saipan. June/ July 1944. Army reinforcements disembarking from LSTs form a graceful curve as they proceed across coral reef towards the beach, National Archives. p. 39: World War 11 veterans attend a ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the battles on Guam, Saipan and Tinian.
The decisions made by those planners would lead to Congress noting the significance of these sites and their relationship to the history of our country three decades later. Our boundaries include the contested landing beaches used by American troops, the waters off-shore and the significant sites that played a role in the battle. We conserve these places for future generations to understand what was lost, what was gained and what was altered by the war that was fought on this land.� War in the Pacific National Historical Park on Guam and American Memorial Park on Saipan 39
Remembrance | Winter 2014
amphibious assault; they did so for strategic reasons only. They looked at the flat expanses of land where large amount of men and materials could be brought ashore. They measured the distance to their objective at Apra Harbor and decided to surround it with armed troops. They noted a road system that would allow them to join the harbor with planned airfields in the north of the island. They estimated how many Japanese were holding the island, decided on a larger number of men to face them, and then put their plan into action. Villages in those locations meant little to the planners, they just happened to be situated right where the conditions allowed a large military operation to take place.
ORAL HISTORY #213: JOHN ANDERSON, USS ARIZONA
about three months later and he washed out in Naval air training because of depth perception, so he wound up being a swabby like I, on board a battleship. I became seaman first quite quickly. And mainly because I used to work for everything I ever got. Discipline was not something I was used to and I pitched in and made seaman right away and learned the trade, if you will, that a salt has to learn. I loved gunnery ‘cause I’m a hunter from my home state of Minnesota. And so I was a good shot, and naturally I gravitated toward the gunnery department.
Now, thanks Mr. Anderson. Thanks for coming and sitting down. When did you get in the Navy? John Anderson ( JA): I joined the Navy in 1937, it was in the month of March. I went to training in Great Lakes, Illinois. And after training there three months in naval customs and etiquette, and the military activity. Incidentally, in those days, you were also taught landing force procedures. The Marines get the same type of training. I don’t think they do that today, but we did then. And after training I was assigned to the west coast and I went to Bremerton, Washington, and I went aboard the Saratoga, a carrier. JM: Did you want a battleship or a carrier? Did you have a choice?
JM: I was going to ask about that. You don’t get much bigger than a fourteen-inch gun. JA: Well, I didn’t realize that was what I was going to get into, but that’s what happened. Short time later, my brother appeared. They sent him to the Arizona. And he was assigned to one of the anti-aircraft divisions, the 5th Division on the Arizona.
JA: Well, no, I was rather ignorant of the Navy, except I had an uncle who retired from the Navy and he used to bandy us around with his sea stories and his sea chanteys, and sing the sailor songs, and things like that. So he more or less intrigued us, my twin and I. Now, I joined the Navy before my twin did. My twin came in
JM: Did you guys request same ship? JA: Well, I don’t know if he did or not. I know that that’s where we wound up. And so we had a lot of communication back and forth because our divisions were very close 41
Remembrance | Winter 2014
John Martini ( JM): This is an oral history interview with Mr. John Anderson. Mr. Anderson was a Bosun’s Mate Second Class, on the USS Arizona, on December 7, 1941. His battle station was fourteen-inch gun turret number four. At that time he was 24 years of age.
together, but our gunnery duties were somewhat different. His was anti-aircraft and ours was for the main battery, the fourteen-inch rifles. And I was a gun pointer on those.
we got the pews set up. And we got everything set up. But we were a little bit late doing this. And so we went in for chow, or breakfast, into the quarterdeck hatch. When I got in there, I heard a bomb explode, but I didn’t know it was a bomb at the time.
My brother and I had gone ashore on liberty the night before [December 7, 1941]. And we had come in off maneuvers on Friday, as I remember. And on the way in, I remember the bosun mate of the watch told me, he said, “We have to dog down all the “Z” doors,” the ZED, that’s what it means. That means for watertight integrity.
JM: Know where it was? JA: No. I just heard a noise, a real loud noise. So then, the mess cook said, “Take a look out the port hole.” So we took a look out and he said, “Andy, there’s a, a plane dipped down with red balls on its wings.”
And that was unusual to me, it seemed, and our division to dog down “Z” doors. We weren’t at war. We weren’t in any condition watch of all the certain amount of guns manned, or anything, so I didn’t understand that. But I did it anyway.
So I rushed over to the porthole and took a look, and sure enough. You know, tip down, I saw the red balls, and then I saw an explosion underneath it, and I said—on Ford Island. And I said, “Uhoh, that’s a Japanese plane!”
So we closed the “Z” doors. That means the ones with least access that’s necessary. So then, we came here and then dogged these down, and they dropped the ammunition down into magazines. They usually did that, they didn’t want to shoot any accidentally into Honolulu or someplace.
And I run, I raced for the general alarm system, which was general quarters. It was the yellow gadget, thing you pull the switch, up on the side of the bulkhead, on the outside of the quarterdeck. And I raced for that, but I got to the quarterdeck door, and the hatch was open, and then the bomb exploded along side the ship, and it blew me back in. So then I went down below, through the armor deck, the hatch was open, and went on down about two or three decks, and got under the barbette, came up through the barbette into my gun station, which is the way you’re supposed to go. We had a trail that you followed to do that, to get into battle position.
And so that day, we had liberty, so we went ashore together and we shopped around in the small shops. There weren’t many shops here in Honolulu then that catered to what we wanted. What we wanted was Christmas cards, things like that, to send home to our folks. And that was what we went ashore for, ‘cause we only had a couple hours liberty anyway. We had to be back by 10 o’clock. And so we got the liberty boat back and went to bed. That’s the last time I saw my brother alive.
And when I got in there, a bomb hit the side of the turrets, bounced off and gave us terminal illness, a headache, I’ll tell you. And…
JM: Did you guys berth together? JA: No, we didn’t. We berthed in the divisions that we were supposed to be in and that’s where you were supposed to be, because you had to be awakened for the watches you stood, and all that. If you went to a different division and berthed there, you’d be in trouble with the leading supervising petty officer.
JM: Can you back up? So the bomb, it hit the fourteen-inch or on… JA: It hit the fourteen-inch side plate. JM: What did that sound like inside? JA: It sounded like a tremendous drum. Now, I mean, if it had exploded, it would have killed us all.
In any case, we got back and the next morning, I awoke early. I had a chore to do, that was to make sure to clean sweep down in our quarter deck, on the port side, and also to make sure that the services were set up for church. Chaplain Kirkpatrick had to lead the church services. So I took a crew out to do that. Bill Guerin was in the crew, by the way. I got him out there and we got him on a broom, and we got him on a bench or two, and
JM: This was a dud? JA: No, no. It went down below through the armor, and blew up down there. JM: So… 42
JA: It hit on kind of a ricochet.
ladder, see if I could get up there. And I tried and it was impossible to get up there, the fire was so intense. It was just a raging fire. Everything was on fire. There was no water in the fire mains. One of the guys tried to turn on the water and there was just nothing there. And I believe that was Williams. And then John Evans was trying to get a life raft off the side of number three turret, and he had found an ax somewhere to do that with. All the time being shot at by these strafing planes.
JM: Whoa! JA: And it peeled off an enormous piece of steel. I saw it later when I came out of the turret. Red hot. But anyway, it didn’t go through, and thank goodness for that. But it sure gave us something. Anyway, so then I was in the gun seat as a pointer, but the lights went out. We began to smell fumes of gas, of some type of poison from the batteries that were down below that the salt water was getting into. And cordite exploding ammunition, and that sort of thing. And all kinds of noises you could hear through the turret, believe it or not. And I decided that being in this turret wasn’t the place for me. I needed to be on an anti-aircraft gun, and the one my brother was on. I knew he had to be there, because he followed the same thing I did.
JM: Did—it’s almost a silly question, but were you scared while this was going on?
JM: Had the forward magazines blown up? JA: They hadn’t blown up. No. The Vestal was still alongside. And when I got to the ladder, there was a fellow on fire under the ladder. So I reached down to get him and pull him out of there, and then we had a terrible explosion, and it blew me back aft. Kind of knocked me a little bit silly. But I hung on to this fellow and I decided the thing for him to do was to get him off in the clear, where he wouldn’t get hit by the strafers, ‘cause they were strafing us too. So I dragged him around the side of, or the stern of number four turret and back over on the starboard side, where Admiral [Lieutenant Commander] Fuqua was standing. And here was a bunch of wounded people laying there, and I started gathering them up and bringing him back over there. And it was very difficult to lift them because they were so terribly burned, and I mean really shattered, blown legs and arms, and head, and everything. And all I did was grab them and run, the ones I could get. And I had to do the fireman’s carry because I couldn’t hold onto ‘em, their skin would slide off. And they were just raw meat underneath and their eyes were just blank stares, because they were, you know, just blasted. And no hair left.
Anyway, there was a slight slant and there was a boat came along side, and the Coxswain aboard was a fellow by the name of Alexander. I’ll never forget that. And it was a barge, admiral’s barge. It was stove in and there was a bunch of wounded people on there that had already gotten in there. So I dumped these people in and then Fuqua, who knew me, ‘cause he was my division officer, said, “Get in, Andy.” And I says, “I can’t go, my brother’s up there.” And he looked up there and he said, “He’s gone. He couldn’t have made it. It’s just, it’s too bad. You’ve got to go, otherwise, you know, you’re going to go with him. You’re going to be blown up too.” So he give me a shove, that’s how I got in. I wasn’t going in there, but he shoved me. And so I was on the bow of the boat, ‘cause there was no place else.
JM: These were guys who would have been on deck… JA: That’s right.
p. 40: USS Arizona on fire, December 7, 1941, National Archives.
JA: And they were some of the guys off those guns up forward. So I finally headed back to the 43
Remembrance | Winter 2014
JA: Well, I don’t think I thought about being scared. I thought about my twin. My main effort was getting up on that boat deck to join that anti-aircraft battery, because they didn’t have enough people in the batteries to begin with. And they were shorthanded. Whenever we used to fire in practice, we used to fire on one side, then take all the guys and go over to the other side, and fire the guns on the other side, ‘cause there was not enough people to do it, the whole thing at the same time. And I guess, maybe fortunately, there wasn’t, because there just would have been more people killed if there had been a full complement aboard. That’s the way I see it now.
THE PRIDE OF LIONS AT KALAUPAPA
Beginning in the 1970s, the Kalaupapa Lions Club embarked on an ambitious signage project, highlighting places of natural and cultural history significant to the patient-resident population of the Kalaupapa Settlement and Kalawao County. This signage was designed, produced, and hand painted by Kalaupapa patient-resident and Lion Ed Kato. This fall, the Kalaupapa Lions Club continued in the same tradition of its earlier members, this time restoring the colorful signs that had once been up around the settlement.
Though not a founding member of the Kalaupapa Lion’s Club, Ed Kato was once described as “one of the driving factors that kept the Lions Club going.” Born on Maui in 1917, Ed was diagnosed with Hansen’s disease at age 19 and sent to Kalaupapa in 1938. As a resident of Kalaupapa he did a wide variety of activities, but he is best known for his artwork. He often painted pictures of the Kalaupapa landscape and of St. Philomena Church, many of which were given to friends and acquaintances. A friend and fishing companion once commented that Ed “always helped the community, and did all of the sign-painting for the community.” Ed Kato’s signs were posted all around Kalaupapa settlement and contributed to the community’s distinct character. He made signs for local establishments, places of significance, and others just for fun.
The Kalaupapa Lions Club was formed in April of 1948, making it the 19th Lions Club in Hawaii and the first service organization in Kalaupapa. On the day of the charter signing, a huge fleet of small aircraft flew into the peninsula, creating one of the biggest events ever seen at the settlement. For the first time, a large delegation of Lions from around Hawaii were able to come to the remote and restricted area of Kalaupapa. There were 31 charter members, both residents and kōkua, whose signatures can still be read in faded ink on the original framed certificate. The Lions Club became a vital link in changing how the world viewed Kalaupapa and how the residents of Kalaupapa viewed themselves. During a time of segregation, it was the first organization in the settlement where patients and non-patients were accorded equal respect.
In recent years his signs have deteriorated in the harsh outdoor conditions. Some of the original signs were in good enough condition to be preserved in Kalaupapa’s museum curatorial facility. Others were extensively photographed. Using these resources Lions Club members have been able to recreate these historic signs. Using images and measurements of the original sign imported into a computer, Lions Club members print out a pattern on a large printer. The letters are carefully cut out of the paper, creating a large stencil. The
45
Remembrance | Winter 2014
By: Timothy Jordan, Interpretive Specialist, Kalaupapa National Historical Park
letters are then painted onto a thick redwood baseboard using weather resistant pigments. The work being done by the Kalaupapa Lions keeps an important part of the Settlement and Lions Club history alive for future generations. Similar to grave markers and historic buildings, the signs tangibly connect visitors with the people and pain of the past by presenting opportunities to pause and reflect on the numerous families separated, the pain of disease and lives lost. Kalaupapa Lions Club Vice President and the project manager, Kirk Dietz, commented, “It’s great the Kalaupapa Lions have taken this work on, as it preserves not just a piece of Lions history, but also the memory of a beloved resident of the settlement.” p. 44: Top: One of Ed Kato’s historic settlement signs slated for restoration. Bottom Left: Kalaupapa Lion Ed Kato at a Lions Club convention, c. 1986. Bottom Right: Ed Kato painting St. Philomena Church in his art studio. p. 46: Top: Kalaupapa Lions Claire Cappelle and Ziana Kaulia-Pelland cut out a stencil of the old sign’s design. Middle: Kalaupapa Lions Club Vice President Kirk Dietz touches up the newly painted sign. Bottom: The Kalaupapa Lions pose with the newly restored sign. From left to right: Gloria Marks, Claire Cappelle, Mua Watson, Lionel Kaawaloa, Meli Watanuki, Ziana Kaulia-Pelland, Clarence “Boogie” Kahilihiwa, Vice President Kirk Dietz (kneeling).
46
PACIFIC HISTORIC PARKS USS Arizona Memorial Restoration Donation Name (Dr. Mr. Mrs. Ms.): Address: Phone:
Email:
My check is enclosed payable to “Pacific Historic Parks” in the amount of $ Please charge $
to my
Visa
Mastercard
Card number:
American Express
Discover
Expiration date:
Name on card: Signature: Contact me about Planned Giving. MAIL DONATIONS TO:
Pacific Historic Parks P.O. Box 29940 Honolulu, HI 96820-2340 or call (808) 924-8726
I will contact my employer about a matching gift.
Pacific Historic Parks is a 501(c)3, non-profit organization. Your donation is tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Federal Tax ID #99- 0194501.
PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR ASSOCIATION Remembrance | Winter 2014
REPORT OF DEATH Unit or station on December 7th: Name: Address: Date of death:
Services:
Funeral home:
Internment:
Continue sending Remembrance ?
Next of kin:
Yes
Relationship:
Address: Remarks: Form prepared by:
Relationship:
Date:
Address: MAIL THIS FORM TO: Sarah Safranski, Pacific Historic Parks, 94-1187 Ka Uka Blvd., Waipahu, HI 96797 *PLEASE INCLUDE AN OBITUARY NOTICE, IF POSSIBLE.
47
No
Vernon Crenshaw, continued from page 23.
Dear Arizona Memorial,
15. Funasaka, Falling Blossoms, 275-276. 16. Taiseido International, Legal documents. 1982. 17. David Flick, “Bridging the waters, Friendship forged
I really liked going to the Arizona Memorial. I really enjoyed the movie and taking the boat to see the Arizona Memorial. It was really interesting to learn how the U.S. became involved in World War 11. I liked watching the real life documentary of how it was like for people to see those Japanese planes and the damage they caused. My favorite part was getting to see the Arizona in the water.
in World War 11 extends into third generation across a sea of time, distance and enmity,” Dallas Morning News (August 3, 1996): 1A. 18. Henry Crenshaw (son of Vernon and Georgia Crenshaw) in discussion with the author, March 13, 2014. 19. Brit Davis (grandson of Vernon and Georgia Crenshaw) in discussion with the author, April 8, 2014.
Thank you for making my trip to the Arizona Memorial the best ever. I really appreciate all the work that you did to make this a really entertaining and fun field trip for us.
Preserving the Memory, continued from page 7. this very special day. And I wondered if I would feel that intense hatred that all of us felt for the enemy 50 years ago. As I thought back to that day of infamy and the loss of friends, I wondered: What will my reaction be when I go back to Pearl Harbor?
From Alison Punaho, Grade 6 The presidential proclamation on December 5, 2008, expanded the mission of preserving the memory of Pearl Harbor to the all-encompassing story of the Pacific War. Key to the proclamation was these words:
Well, let me tell you how I feel. I have no rancor in my heart toward Germany or Japan —none at all. And I hope, in spite of the loss, that you have none in yours. This is no time for recrimination.
“WHEREAS the World War 11 Valor in the Pacific National Monument will promote understanding of related resources, encourage continuing research, present interpretive opportunities and programs for visitors to better understand and honor the sacrifices borne by the Greatest Generation, and tell the story from Pearl Harbor to Peace.”
World War 11 is over. It is history. We won. We crushed totalitarianism—and when that was done, we helped our enemies give birth to democracies. We made our enemies our friends...”
George W. Bush, President, The White House
The President’s words paved the way for the Park Service to broaden the interpretation of the site. New opportunities to preserve the memory were opened. President Bush’s words were clearly meant to foster reconciliation.
The challenges of preserving that memory are daunting, but plans and programs are underway to continue the mission of preserving America’s memory of the Pacific War and its related sites. In the words of the late Michael Slackman:
Since Bush’s speech, major ceremonies of reconciliation have taken place between American and Japanese veterans at the USS Arizona Memorial. A Tea Ceremony hosted by the Tea Master of Japan was held on the monument and the National Park Service was gifted a Sadako crane from the Sadako Sasaki family. Educational workshops now include American and Japanese teachers. The visitor center and museum include both American and Japanese perspectives and memory.
“Today the USS Arizona stands as a reminder of the events of that Sunday morning. It has different meanings for those that visit here. But to all them it speaks silently and eloquently of the distance yet to be traveled before the world lives in peace.” p. 7: George H. Bush speaking at the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Today, thousands of Hawaii’s school children participate in our educational programs. For many young students it is their first visit to the USS Arizona Memorial. Many of the teachers require them to write about their experience: 48
PACIFIC HISTORIC PARKS 94-1187 KA UKA BLVD., WAIPAHU, HI 96797
401355REM1214