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Steve Holcroft
Steve, Lea, Brett + Beaulea's World Tour

Hawaii

Friday - 31 Jan 2003
Honolulu , Hawaii - U. S. A.


Honolulu

Please help me. I can't stop whistling the theme tune to Hawaii 5-0! Even sat at bus stops, I find myself humming along. I bet the younger people here don't know it anyway, but I feel a bit daft.

Honolulu is a concrete jungle. Typical American city in many ways. No real skyscrapers to spoil the skyline too much, but every large building seems to have been built in 1973 or thereabouts - that '70s concrete design. It is a nice place though, lots of green parks and gardens for a city and a relaxed air about the place.

Waikiki is where it's at for posing and shopping. The world famous beach is much smaller than expected, but very popular and lots of people surfing - I guess it's essential to be able to say you've caught a wave at Waikiki if you want to impress.




Pearl Harbor

We did the obligatory trip to Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial, where 1100 men died on Dec 7 1941. It's interesting what you learn in these places. The Radar staion on one of the outer islands had spotted the incoming wave of 180 Japanese fighters and bombers, but when they reported it, they were told it was probably a flight of B17 bombers due in from elsewhere. This would have given the fleet a 50 minute warning - no doubt enough time to get all their aircraft up and ready and start steaming a few of the ships out of their berths. Instead, the Japanese found a load of sitting ducks, but it wasn't quite as successful as you might have thought. Although 2500 people were killed, all but 3 of the ships were eventually refloated and the munitions dumps and fuel depots were not hit. This meant that the Americans hit back very quickly and the battle of the Pacific got underway. At the end of the war, Japan had lost all but 2 of the 67 ships involved.

Having been to Hiroshima not long ago, it was interesting to see a place similar in WWII significance, if not in casualties. I thought they should maybe twin the two cities as a gesture. But they could take a note here of how the museum in Japan was done - far more interesting and better looked after.

The strangest thing about the Arizona, which lies just 40 feet down in the bay, is that fuel still bubbles up from the wreck and gives off an eerie smell. Survivors say that when it stops bubbling, the last of the victims will have passed on.




Arizona

This is what happened when an 800kg bomb hit the magazine for one of the gun turrets (which could fire one of its shells 20 miles). Relatively few people were killed on other ships, but the Arizona simply exploded.


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