Military | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 24, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kiawe Corps

Following the annexation of the Republic of Hawai‘i by the United States in 1898, the US Army viewed the Islands in a strategic context. They were seen to be the advance outpost in the western defenses of the mainland United States. (Bennett)

Martial law was declared within hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and it lasted, with some modifications, for nearly three years, until October 24, 1944. (Densho)

After the Japanese attack on O‘ahu, the top army and navy commanders in Hawai‘i were seriously concerned about a possible invasion of the Hawaiian Islands. The two northernmost populated islands of O‘ahu and Kauai were the probable targets for such an enemy landing. (Bennett)

In general, all Hawai‘i residents were subjected to blackouts and gasoline and food rationing. Moreover, residents of Japanese ancestry, whose loyalty were questioned, were subjected to suspicion and scrutiny and were under the threat of internment.

Japanese culture was dismantled; language schools, religious institutions, and business and social associations were closed. (Kauai Historical Society)

The military shut down all 22 language schools and 14 other cultural associations on Kauai. Eight of 19 Buddhist temples were dissolved and five more were closed, leaving four licensed to operate and two in question. (Tom LaVenture; Discover Nikkei)

The Kauai Morale Committee of WWII served as the army’s liaison with the Japanese community on Kauai.

The goal of the committee was to alleviate fear and misunderstanding among the Japanese citizenry and to direct efforts toward the war effort and victory. (Kauai Historical Society)

During WWII, from June 1942 through 1944, the Kauai Kiawe Corps, a volunteer civilian labor battalion overwhelmingly composed of able-bodied persons of Japanese ancestry, assisted the Army in defense of Kauai.

They cleared kiawe thickets that could provide cover for possible invaders, strung barbed wire, built trails, opened areas for military camps, and helped build evacuation centers. (Soboleski)

“The Kiawe Commando corps was organized … by the Kauai morale committee to give Americans of Japanese ancestry and alien Japanese an opportunity to do actual work to assist in winning the war.” (SB, Jan 1, 1943)

“Work crews of more than 1,000 of us Japanese, including women and the elderly, turned out every Sunday to clear away the brush and undergrowth, primarily kiawe, between Kekaha and Mana on the west side of the island.”

“It was an area that the military suspected of being scouted as secret Japanese naval landing sites, due to the thick vegetation,” Ikito “Ike” Muraoka says. Clearing the brush made secret landings impossible.” (Kauai Stories)

“On Kauai, where the Kiawe Corps was a project of the Emergency Service Committee, the volunteers, most of whom were alien Japanese, continued the work for two years, giving an average of three Sundays a month for a total of 58,000 man-days.”

“In addition to hacking at brush with cane knives and burning the rubbish, they strung barbed wire, built trails, cleared areas for military camps, and helped build evacuation centers.” (Allen, Hawaii’s War Years)

“Volunteers also did much guard duty, they were primarily ‘last ditch soldiers,’ organized to repel an invasion.”

“Although volunteers who had trained for a war emergency never had to repel an invader, various groups were called to duty during air raid alarms and other alerts.”

“They also assisted following several wartime accidents.” (Allen, Hawaii’s War Years) (Other Islands also had their own Kiawe Corps.)

“The Army airfield which became Barking Sands Air Base (AB) in World War II was originally known as “Mana Airfield,” built on land acquired from the Knudsen family by Kekaha Sugar Company located nearby at Kekaha. The grassy airstrip first came into being around 1921.” (Bennett)

During the 1930s, Inter-Island Airways, later Hawaiian Airlines, served the airport. (Shettle) “The US Army acquired 549 acres, including the grass airstrip in 1941 which became “Mana Airport Military Reservation”.

“Additional land was acquired for a total of 2,058 acres. The airport experienced a great deal of military flight operations upon the onset of World War II.” (Bennett)

“The Army added 14 barracks and four mess halls. For the next two years, the Army continued to improve the airport by adding 23 revetments for heavy bombers and permanent accommodations for 1500 men.”

“When the Navy needed additional aircraft facilities in late 1943, the Army turned a portion of the base over to the Navy on January I, 1944. “

“Hawaiian Airlines continued to use the airport until 1949, when the Lihue Airport opened on the other side of the island. In 1954, the airfield was officially renamed Bonham [Air Force Base].” (Shettle)

ln 1962, the Navy officially commissioned the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands and two year later, the Air Force transferred the ownership of the property to the Navy.” (Bennett)

There were many name changes for the facility: Mana Airport, Mana Airfield Military Reservation, Barking Sands Military Reservation, Kekaha Military Reservation, Barking Sands Airfield, Bonham Airfield, Bonham Air Force Base, Bonham Air Base, and Auxiliary Landing Field (ALF) Bonham.

By 2008, Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) was the world’s largest instrumented multi-environment range capable of supporting surface, subsurface, air, and space operations simultaneously. (Hawaii Aviation)

October 8, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Boondocks

“The 1890s were a troubled time for the Philippines and marked by several conflicts, and the 1896 Philippine Revolution marked the start of the country’s fight for independence from Spain.”

“The United States would go on to acquire the Philippines from Spain in 1898 following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War.” (Gandhi, NPR)

“In the 1898 treaty ending the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States despite the fact that the islands had declared their independence the previous year.”

“The American military’s attempts to take possession was quickly met with violent resistance from a populace ready to throw off three centuries of colonial rule.”

“Many American troops in the Philippines had begun their combat careers in the so-called Indian Wars, domestic suppression of tribal insurgencies on the wide-open prairie lands of the Great Plains.”

“While American forces acclimated to prairies might still feel in control along the edges of an island, they found they were less safe as they proceeded inland, up into the dense forests and rugged terrain of an island’s mountains. (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society)

“The Philippine-American War was a brutal conflict, resulting in the deaths of more than 4,200 American soldiers and over 20,000 Filipino fighters.”

“The Filipino combatants, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, adopted guerrilla warfare tactics in late 1899 after more traditional warfare tactics proved ineffective to them. The combatants would retreat into the jungles and mountains after the surprise attacks.” (Gandhi, NPR)

“Well over a hundred indigenous languages are spoken in the Philippine archipelago, but the 1930s Commonwealth government deemed Tagalog, language of the Manila area, a ‘national language.’”

“Filipino or Pilipino, a standardized form of Tagalog, is the lingua franca of the nation today, with English as the other of the Philippines’ two official national languages.” (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society)

Veterans of the Philippines conflict took a Tagalog term to describe the jungles and rugged regions – “The Tagalog word bundok translates literally as “mountain,” but its larger meaning as wilderness bears the inscription of global forces of war and empire.”

“Bundok is plentiful in the Philippines. A volcanically active archipelago, the nation consists of a cluster of hundreds of tiny islands, many little more than a rocky peak, interspersed with large islands where steep-sided, forested ranges loom over the coastlines.” (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society)

That term morphed into ‘the boondocks’ and the military brought that term back to the US with them. The term began to be used by military personnel both in the US and the Philippines. (Gandhi, NPR)

“‘Boondocks’ is a marine word that is as puzzling as it is pure. A marine is ‘out in the boondocks’ when he is practicing his profession in far places which are meanly endowed with comforts, overgrown with vegetation and overpopulated with savage enemies.”

“Recent marine boondocks are Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Gavutu, Tannabóga, Tasimbogo and other islands of the Solomon group, hitherto known chiefly to missionaries, lady explorers and soap manufacturers in need of coconut oil.”

“Although most of them are now in other boondocks, a few marines have returned from the Solomons, and these are mainly wounded. Some of them will never fight again.” (NY Times, Sep 12, 1943)

By 1944, the phrase ‘out in the boondocks’ was firmly entrenched in the lingo of the armed forces. “But while the phrase would occasionally appear in newspaper coverage of the military in the early 1950s, it wasn’t until the aftermath of the events of April 8, 1956, that the average American heard of ‘the boondocks.’”

“That night, Staff Sgt. Matthew McKeon roused his platoon and ordered the men to march to Ribbon Creek on Parris Island, in South Carolina. The sergeant then jumped into the creek and ordered the recruits to follow, forcing them to march across the creek with him.” (Gandhi, NPR)

Recruit Richard W. Asker, who was 17 at the time, gave this description of what happened: “We were all sitting around the barracks. The lights were on. Then the instructor said we were going out in the boondocks.”

“We thought he was kidding, because we were all laughing. Then he told us to fall out. We fell out in front of the barracks and went out through the dark”. (Daytona Beach Morning Journal – Apr 10, 1956)

“Chaos soon followed when many of the recruits were swept away. Six of the young Marines drowned.” (Gandhi, NPR) “The Ribbon Creek drownings created a media firestorm and a national conversation about how Marines were trained.”

“Several newspapers and magazines covered every detail of McKeon’s subsequent court-martial and trial. McKeon was charged with manslaughter, cruelty and drinking in violation of regulations.”

“The word ‘boondocks’ was frequently used in the coverage of the incident, with newspapers noting that McKeon led his platoon ‘out into the boondocks and eventually into tragedy.’” (Gandhi, NPR)

“Brought into nonmilitary use by returning soldiers, boondock was soon stripped of its military connotations. Boondock transformed into a descriptor of mysterious and remote, but not necessarily hostile, hinterlands.”

“Today, the American term boondock [or ‘boonies’] retains little of the specific ecological and topographical descriptiveness that it had in its military context.”

“Boondock’s wilderness today is societal and cultural rather than environmental. The wilderness of bundok, however, remains both mountainous and culturally remote, wild in spirit as well as in ecology.” (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society)

September 8, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nobuo Fujita

On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, an American naval base in Honolulu. Thousands of American soldiers were killed, and as a result, the United States officially joined World War II in the Pacific.

The United States conducted the “Doolittle Raid,” a comparably small air raid off Tokyo in April 1942, just four months after Pearl Harbor. While the damage to Japan was relatively minor—fifty people were killed—it served as a morale booster for the Allies and a demonstration to Japan that its main islands weren’t safe from air attack.

Following the raid, Japan set out to show that the United States could also be bombed. (NCTAsia) A wartime mentality set in immediately, as coastal residents were commanded to black out their homes at night by covering windows with shades and blankets. (Oregon History Project)

“The Pacific Coast, totally dimmed out … twice previously has been subjected to shelling by submarines – apparently Japanese- but presumably never before has undergone aerial bombardment.”

“On February 23, during President Roosevelt’s fireside chat, a submarine lofted more than fifteen shells into an oil field near Goleta, Calif., 120 miles north of Los Angeles, and on June 21 a submarine pitched nine shells near a United States Army fort at Seaside, Ore.” (Courier Journal, Sept 15, 1942)

Then, “A foot-deep crater, apparently caused by an incendiary bomb gave evidence today of what may have been the first aerial assault on United States home soil, an apparent attempt to set fire to an isolated forest on the southern Oregon coast.”

“The Army’s Western Defense Command, in a carefully-worded communique, disclosed that an unidentified, small seaplane or a type that might have been carried on a submarine was seen coming inland just before dawn September 9, and was heard roaring out to sea about half an hour later.”

“Some time after the plane was seen circling the Mount Emily area nine miles northeast of Brookings, Oreg., a fire was observed, and forestry patrols who extinguished the blaze found a crater and metal fragments …”

“… which the Army said bore ‘markings of Japanese ideographs which may have been part of a code indicating the arsenal where the bomb was manufactured.” (Evening Star, Sept 15, 1942)

It was later concluded that a submarine was fitted with a modified Zero seaplane, that catapulted off the deck of the sub. It was fitted with two 170-pound incendiary bombs and flew toward Mt. Emily in the Siskiyou National Forest.

Piloted by Nobuo Fujita, the plane dropped both bombs on the heavily forested mount slope starting a small forest fire that was easy to control due to the wet conditions. (Fujita was the only foreign pilot to drop bombs on the continental United States.)

“When all was ready, the catapult was fired. [Petty officer Shoji Okuda was his crewman.] I flew straight ahead toward Cape Blanco lighthouse, crossed the coast, and swung northeast for the bombing area.”

“The sun filled the eastern sky with a red-gold brightness. After flying an estimated 50 miles, I ordered Okuda to release the first bomb, which burst, and splashed a brilliant white light over the earthscape.”

“I took no chances on the return flight, for someone had certainly sighted me before. It must not happen again, so I cut the Zero’s engine and glided down to 1,000 feet, passing north of Cape Blanco and well out to sea before starting it again.”

“I flew westward for the amount of time Okuda specified and, on reaching the rendezvous point, looked around me. No I-25 [the submarine].” (Fujita, US Naval Institute)

This attack by the Japanese submarine was intended to start a large enough forest fire that large numbers of resources in men and money would be allocated to suppress a massive wildfire. It was also a reprisal for the American bombardment of Tokyo in April. (Hughel, Oregon NG)

A total of four bombs were dropped over two occasions with the intent of starting forest fires; however, due to damp conditions, little damage occurred.

“It was too wet and it just stopped raining. He dropped these thermite bombs and they just fizzled. They created enough smoke so the forest service saw them,” says Brenda Jacques, a retired reference librarian in Brookings. (OPB)

The war ended on September 2, 1945; in 1962, the Brookings Jaycees invited Fujita to Brookings for their annual Azalea festival as an occasion of historical significance. (Brookings, Oregon)

But not everyone in town was thrilled. A full-page op-ed was printed in the local paper, The Brookings-Harbor Pilot, in 1962. Part of it read, “[Fujita’s] sole claim to fame is that he’s the only Nip pilot who bombed the mainland of the United States by airplane … Why stop with Fujita?”

“Why not assemble the ashes of Judas Iscariot, the corpse of Atilla the Hun, a shovel full of dirt from the spot where Hitler died … .” (“Nip” is a derogatory abbreviation of “Nippon,” the Japanese name for Japan.) (OPB)

Fujita accepted the invitation and came back to Oregon. He donated his Samurai sword, which had flown with him in the cockpit, to the City of Brookings “in the interest of peace and friendship.” Fujita was later named an honorary citizen and an ambassador of goodwill by the City of Brookings for his continued peace efforts. (Brookings, Oregon)

Fujita returned to Brookings in 1990, 1992, and 1995. In 1992, he planted a tree at the bomb site as a gesture of peace. In 1995, he moved the samurai sword from the Brookings City Hall into the new library’s display case.

He died in Japan on September 30, 1997, at the age of 85. His family honored his wishes and buried his ashes by a tree he had planted as a peace gesture at the bombing site during his 1992 visit. (KTVL)

Fujita fulfilled a promise to bring a small group of high school students to Japan for a cultural exchange “I just can’t admire the man enough. Just to keep this friendship between the town and himself. He was so good about that.” (Greg Jacques, OPB)

August 28, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ammo Tunnels

In ancient times, the central plateau, particularly the area called Lihue on the southwestern part of the plateau, was a center of island political power.

Even after the royal center had shifted to Waikiki during the time of chief Maʻilikukahi, this central area continued to play a role in chiefly activities, especially related to Kukaniloko, the site where chiefs came for the birth of their royal children. (Army)

As late as 1797, Kamehameha is said to have “made every arrangement to have the accouchement (birth of his successor) take place at Kūkaniloko; but the illness of Queen Keōpūolani frustrated the design”. (Fornander)

The central plateau was also a sanctuary for refugee chiefs. In 1783, the Maui chief Kahekili invaded and conquered Oahu, chasing the Oahu chief Kahahana and his wife into hiding in “the thickets of Wahiawa”.

The larger gulches of the central plateau and the gulches on the higher slopes of the Waiʻanae and Koʻolau Ranges were probably cultivated with irrigated taro. Handy writes “there are terraced areas watered by Kioea and Waikoloa (the north boundary of the Schofield Barracks cantonment) Streams. Kalena Gulch (in the Schofield West Range) had some terraces”. (army-mil)

A network of trails connected the central plateau with other parts of the island. The northern leg of the Waialua trail extended to the north shore; the southern leg reached to the rich estuaries of Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor) on the south shore. The Kolekole trail pointed west to the crest of the Waianae Range and across to the leeward coast.

Fast forward to modern times, the first naval ammunition depot in the Islands consisted of seven above-ground magazines located on Kuahua Island, Pearl Harbor, in the vicinity of the Naval Shipyard.

Kuahua was used from 1916 until April of 1934, when it was decommissioned because of its unsafe location and limited area available for expansion. In 1929, the Navy purchased 8,184 acres of the McCandless estate at Lualualei; on May 1, 1934 the US Naval Ammunition Depot was commissioned. (Oahu Detonator)

As WW II approached, portable storage units were replaced with extensive underground rooms and tunnels for ammunition storage at many locations on Oahu. One worker commented that the Engineers had built so many tunnels, if placed end to end– the entrance would be at Koko Head, the exit at Moanalua. (ACE)

A major defense project of the mid-1930s was the construction of ammunition tunnels into the sides of Aliamanu Crater, called Aliamanu Ammunition Storage Depot (now Aliamanu Military Reservation.)

Intended for centralized storage of Army ammunition, eight tunnels were dug in 1934 and additional 35 magazines were completed in 1937. (Army)

At the onset of World War II, the Army was importing ammunition in huge quantities, requiring construction of ammunition storage facilities. Small facilities were built above ground, but the bulk of the ammunition was stored in massive underground storage facilities.

The first to be developed was in Waikakalaua Gulch just south of Wheeler Field, as well as at Kipapa Gulch.

“Tunnels driven into the almost vertical walls of the two gorges would have entrances invisible from the air. To keep out bomb fragments, passageways to the storage chambers would be dog-legged or provided with baffles.”

“The only drawbacks to these sites were lava formations and cinder pockets which would necessitate timbering or concreting considerable portions of the chambers.” (DOD; army-mil)

Waikakalaua consisted of 52 tunnels built into the hillside and used for ammunition storage. The mission of Waikakalaua was to provide ammunition storage for the Army during and after World War II. Ordnance storage tunnels and underground fuel storage tanks are reported to have been constructed between 1942 and 1945, and the installation was active until the 1950s.

This system of tunnels was the location of the primary storage for ordinance for B-17s and other bombers stationed just above at the Kipapa Army Airfield. The site was also used to store anti-tank and rifle fragmentation grenades. (army-mil)

According to Army-Navy Explosives Safety Board Abstract Number 28, tunnel #24A exploded in 1946 blowing large pieces of the concrete baffle out of the tunnel and across the gulch with such force that it destroyed a railroad track 300 feet away and caused a 20-foot depression to form above the tunnel.

Kipapa Ammunition Storage Site, located in Kipapa Gulch, was comprised of three sections. The lower unit is accessed from the south side of the Kamehameha Highway Bridge and extends south to the Kipapa Navy Ammunition Storage Area. The other two units are in the gulch to the east of Mililani Town.

Army construction during this period also included “The Hole” (now the Kunia Field Station,) a facility originally intended for airplane assembly (with a runway connection to Wheeler Field to the east.)

“The entrance appeared to lead only to a small dugout in a rolling hill, but at the end of a quarter-mile tunnel two elevators – one big enough for 20 passengers and the other able to carry four ½-ton trucks – gave access to a three-floor structure, self-sufficient even to a cafeteria that could serve 6,000 meals a day.”

“’The Hole’ was intended for plane assembly, but since it was not needed for such use, it proved ideal for the reproduction of maps and charts. Its huge air conditioning and ventilating systems provided easy control of temperature and humidity, and its fluorescent lighting furnished a flood of shadowless illumination.” (Allen; army-mil)

In October 1941, work was started to convert the storage facility in the rim of Aliamanu Crater into a joint Army-Navy command post; although not completed at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the post was shortly after put into service by the island command.

To alleviate continued housing shortages in the early-1970s, the Army, Navy, and Marines developed a joint project at Āliamanu Military Reservation, once a World War II era Navy-Army command post and important ammunition storage facility.

The ammunition was moved to the Lualualei storage depot and the crater was transformed into a 2,600-unit housing development.

Other tunnel complexes were built, including Schofield Barracks, Wheeler Field, Fort Shafter and Fort Ruger. The tunnels at Wheeler Field and Fort Ruger were for ammunition storage. The tunnels at Fort Shafter included a bombproof radio station, an underground cold storage facility, an anti-aircraft command radio transmitter tunnel, and the Air Defense Command Post. (army-mil)

Munitions_train-heading_out_of_Lualualei-1966

August 24, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Memorial Park

Memorials are an important way of remembering. They are not just part of the past; they help shape attitudes in the present and thus act as a guide for the future. (Ireland)

According to statistician Robert Schmitt, of the 9,800 Hawai‘i residents who served in World War I: 102 died – 14 overseas during the war, 61 in Hawai‘i or North America or after the armistice, and 27 in unknown circumstances.

Twenty-two of the 102 recorded deaths occurred among Island residents serving with the British. Actual battle deaths of persons in the US armed forces whose preservice residence was Hawai’i numbered six: seven others were wounded.
(Ireland)

As early as March, 1918, the Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors proposed the erection of a shaft of Hawaiian lava with polished sides, on which would be carved the names of all the island boys who gave up their lives in their country’s cause during the Great War.

In November, just after the signing of the armistice, a similar suggestion was made by Colonel Howard Hathaway, his idea being that a monument should be raised by public subscription and be made a feature of the civic center in Honolulu.

The suggestion was taken up by the Honolulu Ad Club, which on November 20, 1918, appointed a committee consisting of Colonel Hathaway, Ned Loomis, and WD Westervelt to make an investigation and confer with other organizations in the city on the subject. (Kuykendall, 1928)

A bill passed with practical unanimity by the legislature for the acquisition, for park and other public purposes, of the William G Irwin Waikiki beach property using Territorial bonds. It received the approval of the governor on April 29, 1919. The act provided that the name of any park created out of the property should be ‘Memorial Park.’

Governor McCarthy, at the suggestion of the American Legion, appointed A. Lester Marks, John R. Gait, and A. L. C. Atkinson as members of the Territorial War Memorial Commission (when Atkinson left the Islands 2-3 years later, JK Butler was named to the Commission.)

“This Commission shall serve without pay and shall make arrangements for and conduct an architectural competition for the design of the memorial provided for in this Act, and shall decide upon and designate the scheme of memorial to be adopted.”

“These plans shall include a swimming course at least 100 meters in length, and such other features as the Commission may designate.” (Senate Committee Report, March 3, 1921)

The competition was held under the general rules of the American Institute of Architects. Three architects, Bernard Maybeck of San Francisco, Ellis F Lawrence of Portland and WRB Willcox of Seattle, were selected to judge the competition.

“In the competitive designs for Hawai‘i’s War Memorial to be erected at Kapiʻolani Park, of the seven submitted by local and mainland architects, the award of first choice and prize went to Mr Louis P Hobart, of San Francisco.” (Thrum, 1922)

“The design was approved and highly commended by architects of national and international standing. They considered it to be most appropriate, and especially in keeping with the tropical and architectural atmosphere of Hawaii.”

“We should not at this time hesitate to establish in enduring form our tribute to the self-sacrifice, courage and patriotism of those who answered the call to service in the day of national emergency.”

“It has been a source of regret that interest in this enterprise has seemingly lagged. I trust that the construction of the first unit will be a signal for renewed enthusiasm to guarantee the completing of the whole project.” (Governor Farrington, 1927)

The construction contract was awarded to JL Cliff; an incentive to speedy completion of the project for the Hawaiian Association of the Amateur Athletic Union featuring the National Senior Men’s Outdoor Championships for 1927 and at which thirteen mainland and nine Hawaiian clubs, as well as a team from Japan, competed.

While the entire contract was not completed by the day set for the opening of the meet (August 24, 1927) it was far enough along so that the swimming pool could be used. In the evening of that day, the natatorium, constituting the first unit of Hawaii’s war memorial, was formally dedicated with a program arranged by the American Legion.

Duke Kahanamoku, Hawai‘i’s greatest swimming champion, gave a 100-meter freestyle exhibition swim (it was Duke’s 37th birthday.) The national swimming championships then started and during this and the three following evenings the best swimmers of the United States and Japan tested the quality of the swimming pool. (Kuykendall, 1928)

Tickets for the swim meet were expensive ($1.10 for reserved seating and 25-50¢ for general admission), but 6,000 spectators created a massive traffic jam in Waikiki the first night of competition.

The big draw was a race pitting the world sprint champion Johnny Weissmuller, who beat Duke Kahanamoku in the 1924 Paris Olympics, against Japan’s Katsuo “Flying Fish” Takaishi (Weissmuller won with a new world record of 58 seconds.)

The star of the evening, however, turned out to be Hawai‘i’s Clarence ‘Buster’ Crabbe who won the one-mile swim in 21 minutes 52.25 seconds. (HawaiiHistory)

Hopefully, the Natatorium can be repaired and used; the status quo will result in demolition by neglect.