Battleship

A L O H A!

Happy Saturday, Come in and Relax-

click on photos - then saluteUSS Missouri Being Towed Past Diamond Head

“Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board”
Zora Neale Hurston

Her Great 16 inch Guns
(They fire shells the size of volkswagens 20+ miles)


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
Dwight David Eisenhower

Surrender Deck, Tokyo Bay

"Lord, bid war's trumpet cease;

Fold the whole earth in peace."
Oliver Wendell Holmes

"When eating bamboo sprouts,

remember the man who planted them."
Chinese Proverb

Where did Summer Go?

Suddenly the floats are gliding down Kalakaua Avenue for today's Aloha Week Floral Parade.

The season just past was EPIC for South Shore surfers, and forecasters are calling for perfect big waves (and soon!) for Oahu's legendary North Shore.

Looks to be 6 to 10 feet today!

Just now, Waikiki is a glistening jewel set in azure waters, perfect for revving your engines - or just relaxing in style. China's Shaolin Monks are here, showing off their amazing moves at the Blaisdell Arena, and Aerosmith will perform here this Fall too. So many choices! Why just the other day a friend asked me if I was going to the Cazimero Brothers' Christmas Show at the Hawaii Theater again this year. Of course! But there's so much to enjoy around here before December. Heck, we even have opera!

One thing you WON'T be able to do for a while is to visit the Battleship Missouri; The "Mighty Mo" will be freed from her moorings on October 14th for the first time since arriving in Hawaii 11 years ago. Beginning before sun-up on that day, all 887 feet, and 54,899 tons of the grey lady will be nudged by three or four tugboats the two miles from Pearl Harbor's Pier Foxtrot 5 to the famous shipyard's Dry-dock 4. Dignitaries are invited along for the 12 to 14 hour ride. But hundreds more of us average folks are expected to be watching from the sidelines. Some lucky people residing up on the hillsides will be able to see the drama unfolding from their homes. Engineers are custom building 310 wooden "keel blocks" (8,000 pounds EACH) on which the giant will rest. Once inside the dry-dock it should take 3 hours for the water to be drained out while divers ensure the correct placement of bulk on block. (The dignitaries will be stuck with each other's company until the ship is high and dry ;) One of Hawaii's top 10 visitor attractions, the Mighty Mo drew 48,111 guests and pilgrims in July. That's 12 percent of all visitors to this island, including numerous WWII veterans from EVERY side of the war.

And yes, those are the big 16 inch guns that Cher cavorted on for her

"If I could Turn Back Time video!"

Sadly, the Association that manages the ship is forbidden from firing them (or the ships engines) inside Pearl Harbor. Watching the grey ghost glide past Waikiki from the deck of my own boat on Fathers' Day of 1998 was a surreal experience! Once tours resume on January 29th you can also hold your function or soiree aboard the ship's fan tail. What a place for a birthday party! (I'm just saying. . . .) You will again be able to walk the "Surrender Deck" where the Japanese Empire and the United States signed the instrument that ended WWII. While you are there, just look over one ship's length to the Arizona Memorial, and you will be looking at the spot where war began, from the very spot where it ended. Only in Hawaii!

I'll take plenty of parade pictures to share with you.

Have a great day-

A L O H A Cloudia

From the Beach to the Cliff

A L O H A!

Come On In. . .

click on photos to tavel through history

Kamehameha the Great (the 'lonely one') invaded Oahu in 1795

On his deathbed, King Kamehameha the Great said:

"I have given you -- the greatest good: peace. And a kingdom which -- is all one -- a kingdom of all the islands."

Hard to believe that this peaceful coast has seen invasion

by a fleet of war canoes.


“Then on the shore

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think

Till love and fame to nothingness do sink”
John Keats

Snack Break!

"...the avocado is a food without rival among the fruits,

the veritable fruit of paradise."

David Fairchild

"I'm standing for my ancestors"

"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born

is to remain perpetually a child. For what is the worth of a human life unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?"

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Their bones LIVE!

"If you could see humanity spread out in time, as God sees it, it would look like one single growing thing--rather like a very complicated tree. Every individual would appear connected with every other."

- C. S. Lewis

"Those who do not look upon themselves as a link, connecting the past with the future, do not perform their duty to the world."

Daniel Webster

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In 1790 (20 years before his 1810 unification the Islands) Kamehameha invited Englishmen John Young and Isaac Davis to join his forces, even welcoming them to marry into his family. Both men were regarded as "Ali`i or chiefs, and are today interred at Mauna Ala, the Royal Mausoleum. (Non-natives continued to intermarry, assimilate and contribute to the multi-cultural Kingdom of Hawaii.)

Kamehameha's last great battle was fought on O'ahu in 1795 at Nu'uanu Pali. (TOP)

There his invading army defeated O'ahu's

King Kalanikupule;

ultimately driving hundreds

(perhaps even thousands) of Oahu defenders to the edge

of the famous precipice.

The Big Island and Maui invaders had the decided advantage of cannons and guns wielded by Englishmen and a specially trained cadre of Hawaiian warriors. Spears, shark tooth daggers, and other traditional stone-age weapons (some now tipped with metal) were also used in the battle, of course.

Kalanikupule's men (and few women) warriors who were not killed outright either jumped or were pushed over the edge, tumbling to their deaths on the rocky cliffs far below. The most famous remembrance of that event is the huge oil painting by artist Herb Kane shown above.

No one knows the final resting place of the

"Napolean of the Pacific."

Kamehameha's bones were entrusted to a family retainer who hid them on his Big Island of Hawaii in the old fashion.

The bones, or iwi, are held to possess great Mana, or spiritual power. They are hidden in caves so that enemies may not use the bones in rituals. A descendant of that trusted retainer guards the Royal Mausoleum to this day.

A L O H A! Cloudia

Go For Broke

Aloha!

Welcome to Waikiki

on July 4th!

Click on photos to enlarge! The wild blue yonder

"There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified and new prejudices to be opposed."
Samuel Johnson

Jean

"The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."

Charles DuBois

William H. Holloman III

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less."

General Eric Shinseki

Today, in honor of July 4th, I re-publish this post about real heroes. Thank you for visiting. Your visits & comments make my day!

*Happy Birthday USA*

Cloudia

You friends who often visit "Da Spiral" know that we like to salute unheralded heroes of everyday life. Heck, I've seen real courage in many of your blogs. But every so often there are Heroes, capitol "H" who strap it on and fly into the teeth of mortal combat, or who put their very lives on the line to say "No" to denigration, unfairness, and abuse. Sometimes extraordinary people are even called upon to face two Goliaths at once.

Today's post is dedicated to two very special groups of such human beings. Please come meet them!

Last September 30th, a few such surviving heroes were honored at Honolulu's Punchbowl National Cemetery of the Pacific by Kauai boy General Eric Shinseki. (The general has since been appointed to lead our nation's veterans affairs by the new president.)

The elderly men that he honored on that day, largely Hawaii born and bred, had served in the famed 442nd & 100th segregated combat units of WWII. They had been the “Go for Broke” Japanese-American soldiers who fought in the toughest European battles of that war, and usually against superior numbers. History remembered, and history written, both tell how they were openly considered expendable because of their race. This was certainly not a surprise to them in their uphill fight for dignity. They all had family in US internment camps, even as German-Americans and Italian-Americans remained in their own homes. Nevertheless these aging men, in their youth answered the call to arms on behalf of the nation that detained their parents.

They are military legend for having saved 230 Texans (the famous “lost” regiment”) at the cost of 400 of their own, among numerous other documented acts of extreme heroism. These men won more decorations, more purple hearts, more medals of honor, than any unit of comparable size in the history of the US Army.

Every day in Honolulu we pass by these neighbors on our streets and in the aisles at Longs Drugs, only too aware that there are ever fewer and fewer of them. In my opinion they are among the greatest of the greatest generation, and what these men did will never be forgotten. . . As President Truman said of them at war's end: "You fought two enemies, the nazis and prejudice. And you have won."

So who could walk alongside such people?

Perhaps it would be the man I had the privilege to meet the other evening. He is William H. Holloman III, one of the justly famed Tuskegee Airmen. But he told me simply to call him "Bill." I was beyond thrilled to sit a spell with Bill and his lovely wife Jean to talk story. It's not every day that one gets to meet such a larger than life figure usually read about in books or admired in documentaries

At a time when "scientists" had told the US Congress that African-Americans had less intelligence and flying aptitude "than monkeys" these young men rose to the challenge of excellence while carrying social and cultural burdens we can scarcely credit today a mere 60 - 70 years later. Through dignity, courage, and sheer ability, they proved denigration a damned lie.

They flew like eagles! And like the Japanese-American combat veterans of Hawaii they came home to build lives of full citizenship earned in blood. Mr. Holloman, whose father might have served the railroad as a Pullman porter - but never an engineer, retired after many years of service as an airline pilot and aviation consultant.

"The Germans shot my black ass down! But they knew all about us, and they treated us with proper military respect. Then I came home and had to ride in the back of the bus." one of these vets has said.

Unfortunately the photo above caught Mr. Holloman with his eyes closed, depriving you of his most strikingly handsome light eyes! But one doesn't ask a legend to stand a second time. And I who religiously avoid publishing photos of myself am proudly shown with him!

A L O H A! Cloudia

Guardians

click on photos to enlarge

"If you love peace, be prepared for war."
Leonardo da Vinci

"When you appeal to force, there's one thing you must never do - lose."
Dwight D. Eisenhower

“O God, thy sea is so great, and my boat is so small"
Traditional

" The right things to do are those that keep our violence in abeyance; the wrong things are those that bring it to the fore."
Robert J. Sawyer


Last week a contingent of US Marines approached a tropical Oahu beach in their armored Amphibious Assault Vehicle. Around 6:30 pm the troop carrier was hit by a rogue swell about a half mile from the shore and forced against a reef. Suddenly, they were taking on water. As it headed for land, the vehicle lost power and sank about 500 feet off of Bellow's Beach a popular recreation & camping area. An assault exercise morphed into a rescue operation as all hands were ferried to safety. Then the rescue operation became an environmental protection mission as Navy divers monitored the submerged vehicle for leaking fuel. So far there has been no damage to the sea or land. Once the AAV is removed, the State will ascertain if reef damage was caused. Though I am a devout advocate for Peace, I refuse to demonize those who choose to serve in the military. During my childhood our family made the acquaintance of some Holocaust survivors. They never spoke of it, but I saw the numbers tattooed on their wrists. As an adult now, I realize that they kept those tattoos for a reason. While I deplore any war "of choice" and mourn the power that has no doubt been exercised in my name, I know that sometimes the right thing, the only human thing to do, is to fight back against the powers of tyranny. May this world outgrow war, and soon.
A L O H A! Cloudia

Veterans

a Ted Trimmer photo of Maui from the air.

Hawaiian Flag

Punchbowl Cemetery at Puowaina, "The place of sacrifice"

"To be a patriot is to [sometimes] have a lovers' quarrel with your country."

-Wm. Sloane Coffin

I never had much awareness of the military growing up. Sure dad, and all the men around, had won WWII along with our allies, but the military was not a family tradition, or a career path that would have appealed to me. Besides, my two childhood heroes were Martin Luther King, and Leonardo DaVinci. Leonardo said that if you were a lover of peace, you should have brilliant machines to defend that peace. I loved his siege engine drawings, and I still adore high-tech war birds when they roar by at tree top level for some event, like today's "missing man" flyover . . . But I digress. . .

Here in Hawaii, the military is a significant presence. From Pearl Harbor, there WWII began for the USA, to the Barking Sands of Kauai where missiles are launched, tracked, brought down, to Schofield Barracks where "From Here to Eternity" was lived and filmed, and on to the giant veterans' cemetery at Punchbowl where Barack Obama's grandfather lies, Hawaii is a place where you experience the military up close. I even wrote a poem about the young service men & women who pass through Waikiki on their way to and from more dangerous places:

These Are The Boys


These are the boys who surf the waves
Or try to
Who cruise Waikiki
With radios thumping loud
Drunken, polite
Away from home for the first time
Supremely confident in youth
And in America.
These are the boys
Who go to the wars
Who go to the wars
And Die.

As you can tell, I have very mixed feelings about all of this. I honor those who put their lives on the line to defend homes, strangers, and high ideals. But I know that most often aggression could be avoided, and that those who "choose" diplomacy by other means are often wilfully blind to the consequences, and to other solutions. Nonetheless, I do honor the individual who gives up their personal freedom to obey and to serve. I could never do it. I am grateful to blog world friend, Brother Tobias for his description of proud British veterans at an event recently.

Here in Hawaii we walk among a shrinking number of aging, local Japanese boys who served in the most decorated unit of WWII; they were the 442 "Go For Broke" boys who left family and friends in internment camps to fight fascism overseas, and to ultimately be the ones who shot the lock off the gates of Auschwitz. "You fought two enemies, the Nazis, and prejudice. And you have won." President Harry Truman said of them. Our Senator Dan Innouye left his arm in France, but continues to serve Hawaii and the nation without it.

Of course, it was US Marines off of the USS Boston in Honolulu Harbor who helped insure the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy and of the internationally recognized nation of Hawaii. We in Hawaii have a complicated relationship with the islands and people we love, and with the USA that our parents fought and sometimes died for. It's like being children of a complicated marriage; we love both of our parents, even if they disagree from time to time. The formal apology by Bill Clinton's administration was a good step, but only a step in resolving this relationship. . .

Yes, the military holds a lot of Hawaii land, including a big chunk of Waikiki. When you turn Right onto Kalia from Ala Moana Blvd, and drive past the Hilton's 3 heroic hula dancer statues, you are entering the heart of federal property. Fort DeRussy, the Hale Koa hotel, and, Kuroda Field are the sunny face of the military in Hawaii. Depleted uranium rounds, "ordinance reef" (off of leeward O`ahu), and the militarization of sacred Makua valley are the less than beautiful face of our military presence. See, that is a complicated relationship . . .

But today we say a big "Mahalo" to the men and women of every nation and tribe who put themselves at discomfort and risk to serve others. May our "leaders" respect them enough to deploy them with wisdom, discretion, and humanity. And thanks to you too, Dad!

A L O H A! Cloudia

Local Stylee

my little novel:

Hawaii Friends:

"The darkest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis." - Dante

"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called." - John Stuart Mill

"All generalizations are dangerous, even this one." - Dumas

Walking down Kalia Road I spotted a pickup truck with the bumper sticker: "Born & Raised." My niece and nephew who live on the Big Island are born AND raised in Hawaii; but as niece's teacher taught her years ago in elementary school: "You are native to this place, but you'll never be local. Because her parents were haoles/caucasians from the mainland, perhaps even more damming: Pahoa town hippies. That sounds racist, and may have been an insensitive thing to tell a little girl in front of her entire multi-cultural class, but by passing through my outrage I have permitted some deep sociological truths to arise to my attention.

These islands have long been loved and cared for by the people who first found them: the Hawaiians. A second wave of contact with Tahiti brought the harsh KAPU (taboo) & human sacrifice to these shores. The islands battled within themselves for centuries, but according to strict and somewhat humane rules of war. Island xenophobia is nothing new. . ."O`ahu was NICE before Kamehameha dem/them came ovah heah!" ;-)

Kamehameha was a young Big Island/Hawaii chief when Cook landed-returned- offended and was killed in skirmish. (A forlorn plaque commemorating the great navigator is still to be found at Ke-ala-kekua - "the way/ala of the gods") Ka-meha-meha, the 'Lonely One,' heard Cook speak of his Queen, an Ali`i like young Kamehameha himself, who ruled a vast empire that covered the whole world from her own dear island. In those days, rival chiefs still held pieces of the Big Island, and Kamehameha realized that it was perhaps his destiny to unite his native Moku/island. When a lava eruption wiped out Koa/warriors on their way to battle him (their footprints can be seen to this day, set in lava rock) it appeared that Tutu/grandmother PELE, the fire goddess who had built the very islands, was favoring him. After all, he had lifted the great boulder - akin to Arthur pulling Excalibur from a similar looking stone - that is still seen today in Kohala! Next he built Pu`u Kohala, the very impressive Heiau/temple that stands on a big hill above the Alenuihaha Channel. From there, Maui's Haleakala peak is seen in the mists beyond that choppy, challenging, passage. The lonely, restless chief turned his attentions to the other islands of the archipelago.

Perhaps the lonely one merely wished to avoid becoming vassal to the English Queen with her floating cannons and great reach. He preferred that his islands remain 'lonely' in this newly broadened world. Kamehameha "The Great," as he was destined to be called, wisely acquired his own Englishman, John Young, who brought rifles and taught gunnery with the great cannon that the Hawaiians had named 'Lopaka.' (Young married Ali`i, became one, and is buried in sacred ground among them at the Royal Mausoleum in Honolulu. the Hawaiians of his day didn't refer to the English chief as a haole, but simply as a Kane Kea: a white man.)

In 1795 Kamehameha's army landed at Waikiki's Kaimana Beach, near Diamond Head, and forced O`ahu's defenders inland and upward in pitched battle. They gradually retreated to sacred Nu`uanu Valley. I was on the street in Waikiki that night 100 years after that battle, when dozens and dozens of Native Hawaiians wearing red shirts, blowing Pu/shell trumpets, and carrying ancient weapons, marched from Kaimana, the 'wrong' way up Kalakaua Avenue, through Honolulu, and up to the site of the battle. Waikiki was hushed that night in wonder at the sight. Night Marchers/ghosts, it seemed, were passing for once under bright streetlights. Usually these apparitions are heard, or more rarely seen, in quiet rural Island districts.

Lopaka roared in 1795, echoing through the pristine valley above today's Honolulu, driving the O`ahu chiefs and their warriors ever higher up the foot hills of the Ko`olau Mountains. Today's 'Puiwa' Street recalls the fear and trembling of the defenders. Ultimately, fighting raged right up to the cliff's edge, and the O`ahu warriors spilled over the famous Pali in helmet, weapons, feathered cloaks and defiance. Such was the courage of those Hawaiians of old. (Herb Kane's painting of the Pali Battle always reminds me of the mythic painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware, or childhood visits to Valley Forge - these are our Arthurian founding myths.)

The Hawaiian Monarchy, it's questionable overthrow, the inflow of immigrant labor from China, Japan, Korea et al, have all left their mark on these islands and our culture. The Hawaiians hanai'd/adopted the new plantation workers. White folks and King Sugar were in the ascendancy. All those Kanaka/Hawaiians and workers created a common language: Pidgin. They ate, labored, suffered, shared and survived together: They were the first "Locals."

So being "Born & Raised" does have resonance in our dear, tiny, fragile islands. These shores have seen successive waves of "new people" seeking advantage on the blank slate of their fond imaginings. But we locals continue to welcome the whole world with true Aloha. Really. Come see for yourself. Though there is a blessed state of mind, of life, still called "local," those who come here, who listen, learn, and care to understand us; those who struggle, care and share, and who have ceased speaking of 'home' elsewhere, CAN become local, I believe.

I was born and raised elsewhere - but I really grew up in dear Hawaii among unique (and perhaps uniquely challenging!) conditions. Now I could never live anywhere else.

And my bumper sticker? Perhaps it would these two: the ubiquitous "Live Aloha," and my own personal: "Voyaged here. Lived and loved here. Became a human- being here." A L O H A! Cloudia