Hawaiian Airlines — 3 day Layover in Honolulu (Pearl Harbor)
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My visit to the Pearl Harbor began with a layer of morning fog. On the previous day, 77 years ago, Japanese planes bombed the very place I stood and forever changed the course of history.
Maps of the Pacific War, which we are all too familiar with. To feed its war machine, the Japanese Empire had no choice but to invade the European colonies in Indochina and to attack the US, sounding its death knell. Not turning this travelog into an article in Wikipedia, I won’t go into too many details.
The Pearl Harbor site includes the memorial for USS Arizona (which was sunk during the attack) and the USS Missouri (which is open to visit). Before starting an extensive tour on the USS Missouri, I had lunch at the Pearl Canteen. Curry rice — typical food for the Navy. I guess this meal is better than the ones I had on the previous day?
The USS Missouri has became a museum displaying the real life of navy sailors on board.
The bunkbeds — honestly not too different from the ones in my hostel today.
The USS Missouri was famous for being the signing place of the Instrument of Surrender (降伏文書), which officially ended the WWII. Republic of China also had a representative (徐永昌) signing the document. Interestingly, on the Japanese copy, the Canadian representative signed on the wrong row, pushing everyone after him downwards.
Historical photo of Douglas MacArthur signing the document while seated on the USS Missouri.
On the other hand, the Japanese representative, Mamoru Shigemitsu (重光葵), signed the document standing.
The USS Missouri was the US’s last battleship, commissioned in 1944 and decommissioned in 1992, witnessing the entirety of the Cold War. Most displays on the ship were probably renovated after the WWII ended. The US is famous for serving luxuries like coca cola and ice creams during the war. Even the living condition of the Japanese in internment camps was much better than the elite class in Tokyo. I even remember seeing in one memoir that a German POW was funded to go to college in the US during the war.
Other historical artifacts in display, notably many from the Japanese soldiers, including farewell letters from pilots of the Kamikaze unit before carrying out the suicide attacks.
Writing this story now reminds me of The Man in the High Castle, my favorite American TV series of all times, featuring a world where the Axis won the WWII, and the US west coast was occupied by Japan. The soundtrack is top-notched, which I still listen to often till this day.
Taking a bus back to Waikiki after a full day of visit to the Pearl Harbor. Today’s dinner: random ramen and boba at the food court — more authentic than yesterday’s?
Tons of musubis piled in a Japanese supermarket. This is a popular Hawaiian food inspired by Japanese sushi. Instead of seafood, musubis mostly have spams or tamako on their tops. Today in the San Francisco Bay Area, a musubi could cost a mind-boggling $5 (and you need at least 4 to make a full meal). Really should have eaten more then.
The famous Japanese convenience store — Lawson, serving the Japanese tourists. To my surprise, the brand was actually founded in Ohio. Who would have thought.
Also witnessing homelessness in Waikiki, one of the most expensive destinations in the world. The homelessness problem has apparently worsened these years and appeared in the news often. Rich people coming from the mainland have gentrified the neighborhood, turning them too expensive for the local indigenous people to stay. To make the situation even worse, there were also homeless people coming all the way from the mainland, in order to enjoy the nicer weather here.
This should conclude my layover visit in Honolulu. Just as I returned to the hostel around 10pm, I witnessed a ridiculous theme — some random people were sleeping on my bed! Turned out that they made a mistake. The hostel staff came to wake the poor guy up, put him on another bunkbed, and saw the problem solved. Sounds legit!
I refused to sleep in the bedsheet where someone else had just slept, but the hostel was completely booked for the night. I had no choice but dragging my body out into the street of Waikiki again. As I sit in the lobby of Hyatt using its complimentary Wi-Fi, I gave in out of exhaustion. $300 a night, just another credit card bonus or account opening bonus…..I attempted to convince myself.
I reckoned in certain historical events, people made decisions that looked foolish in retrospect, perhaps just out of exhaustion. I read in one account that when the Umayyad Caliphate fell, two princes fled from Damascus. As they were swimming across a river, the enemy found them and shouted “The new Caliph has spared you!” One of the prince believed it, perhaps out of extreme tiredness instead of foolishness, turned himself in and was executed. The other one, Abd al-Rahman, never turned his head back and eventually reached Andalusia, becoming the first Emir of Cordoba. At this point of time, I, lacking willpower, also turned myself to the front desk of Hyatt, and walked into the comfort built with consumerism and capitalism.
