Port 07 Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

Aloha!

Early morning on Jan 16 we glided into Honolulu’s harbor, heading for Pier 2. It was still dark and a little bit foggy. The sun began to rise as we passed Waikiki , and gave this these lovely views with Diamondhead.

As approached the dock we saw our neighbor, the cargo ship Tallahassee, kind of a shoutout for Florida! It also just arrived. Unloading cargo containers by the Hawaii Stevedores began as the Oceania Insignia tied up to the dock. At the time we didn’t know this, but this ship was to become part of our entertainment when we were on our veranda for the next two days.  There was one mobile crane and two container forklifts that worked continuously to unload the ship. This took 24 hours. Then they began reloading the ship – when we left that evening the job appeared to be less than halfway complete.

All of our Honolulu tours were cancelled before we arrived.  Surprise! Whirled! The “Pearl Harbor: Behind the Scenes” was cancelled by the operator. Ed’s “The Heart of the Missouri” was cancelled by the ship due to “lack of interest.” There was also supposed to be an evening event for the entire ship on the Missouri the first evening in port, but that was cancelled for COVID safety reasons.

So here’s what we did:

Joy found that the Iolani Palace (pronounced Ee-oh-lah-nee) was open, so we took a 15 minute walk to locate the Palace and take a tour. This is the palace of the last Hawaiian dynasty, the Kalakuau dynasty. When King Kalakuau died in 1891 his sister and heir became the queen. The queen was left to defend the crown against a growing republic, and when the United States entered the picture she was imprisoned in her own palace for 8 months before abdicating her rule. This was a sad story and nothing that we learned in history when Hawaii became the 50th state.

There is only one staircase in the Palace. The royal family and all servants used the same stairs.

The throne room is the single largest room. The king’s uniform and queen’s royal robes are on display. It’s hard to imagine wearing these clothes in a time when air conditioning didn’t exist.

The King and Queen each have their own bedrooms on opposite sides of the staircase.

After leaving the Palace we stumbled across this building. We walked past window after window filled with guitars and ukuleles! It turned out to be a music school! We did some shopping and headed back to the ship.

The cruise terminal had this special display – a stunning double canoe displaying a lot of unique pottery. Beautiful!

We had a sweet sunset on our first evening. And the unloading operations on the Tallahassee continued all night! Thankfully, we could not hear anything through our veranda slider door.

Day 2 was devoted to taking a tour of the battleship USS Missouri on my own since the ship’s tour was cancelled.  Again, Joy was not interested in this, but for a different reason – she has already had two tours on the USS Missouri!  My primary draw for seeing this ship is it was the site that Japan surrendered to the United States, ending the war in the Pacific Theater in World War II. You can see the “Mighty Mo” and the USS Arizona Memorial from the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center. It’s a short bus ride over to Ford Island to tour the USS Missouri. Can you guess what the next series of photos will be?

OK, I need to show a picture of a submarine before the USS Missouri.  This is the USS Bowfin. She is credited with sinking 44 ships and damaging 7 more during her World War II tenure. I had to walk past her on my way to catch the shuttle bus for Ford Island.

Greeting us on the walk from the shuttle bus to the USS Missouri is this statue of Admiral Nimitz. He was the Pacific Fleet commander responsible for all land and sea forces, and his strategies helped win the Pacific Theater. But this win did not come without a cost, and he knew it.

The walk to the USS Missouri is beautiful!

They have their own version of the statue seen in San Diego at the USS Midway. This one is titled “Embracing Peace.”

A few of the dock concessions were in quonset huts. Nice touch!

From the end of the USS Missouri’s pier you can see the mooring blocks used by the ships that were attacked at Pearl Harbor.  The USS Arizona Memorial sits over the sunken ship.

This is as close as you can get to the Arizona Memorial without being on the ferry. The design of the memorial reflects the sentiment of the United states in World War II, with the low part of the memorial representing the US right after the attack on Pearl Harbor. But this isn’t what I’m here to see today… turn around!

Turning back around, the bow of the USS Missouri greets me!

Crossing the gangway to the ship, the foredeck comes in to view.

The six forward guns of this battleship are massive and impressive! This is where Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” video was filmed. The first angle is what I remember in the music video. The second shot is a more impressive view to me.

The rounds fired by these guns are equally massive!  I wanted to get the kid in the shot to show the round is bigger than him, but he scooted away behind dad too quickly.

The Navy is proud of the fact that the decks are made of teak wood – there are posters everywhere. This section leads to the Surrender Deck that is just up the ladder and under the awning.

The Surrender Deck is the location the Japanese surrendered to the United States. This commemorative photo is displayed on the side of the 2nd tier gun turret and identifies all of the primary attendees.  Notice where the table is located.

The table location is now marked by a large embedded plaque. I couldn’t resolve the location of the people in the photo with the space on the deck. I asked the docent if the gun turret was rotated, and was met with smiling eyes and an excited “Yes! The turret was rotated 30 degrees to starboard.” That opened up the deck area to fit all of the people in the photo!

On Apr 11, 1945, there was a kamikaze attack on the fleet. Many of the aircraft were shot down, but this one managed to regain control and level out at low altitude, heading for the USS Missouri. It struck on the starboard side, aft of the big guns and superstructure, but inches below the main deck.  One wing and the pilot came onto the deck, while the fuselage and other wing slammed into the side and dropped into the sea. Fortunately, the bomb the airplane was carrying did not explode. The wing that came on board sprayed fuel and created a large fire that was quickly extinguished. This photo was captured moments before impact:

Here you can see the dent still present in the edge of the deck where the aircraft struck.

The ship’s captain, Capt William Callaghan, issued orders to have the pilot’s body taken below to see if he could be identified. Then a burial at sea was performed. There was not a Japanese Rising Sun flag on board, so the crew disassembled signal flags to get the red fabric and created a Japanese Rising Sun flag with a bedsheet to be used for the burial ceremony. The images below show footprints at the approximate spot of the burial team, and the images below that show the approximate spots of the rifle team that performed the 3-volley gun salute (I believe this was not a 21 gun salute since there are only 5 sets of footprints on the deck).  Capt Callaghan and the crew showed honor and integrity in performing this ceremony for an enemy pilot. They believe the pilot was Petty Officer 2nd Class Setsuo Ishino. The family was notified and they gratefully sent photos of Ishino and the family.

From the area hit by the kamikaze I walked back to the last set of big guns. These three 16-inch guns are on the aft end of the USS Missouri. Now it’s time to go down into the ship.

Going down! Ladders are steep in a battleship!

Rosie greets us at every corner with a stern reminder:

Remember I said the Navy is proud of their teak wood decks? The crew mess hall is call the Teakwood Inn.

My old work buddy Ricky Weber, a former Navy enlisted man, always called the vending machine a “geedunk”. Seeing this sign brought a smile to my face! Thinking of you, Ricky!

The chow line leading to the Teakwood Inn was called the Truman Line. The menu looked decent!

The Chief Petty Officers had their own mess, complete with personalized coffee mugs! I didn’t know a ship would have so many CPOs!

I encountered another ladder, but didn’t go down this one since I didn’t have the proper PPE (personal protective equipment). Did I mention ladders are steep on a battleship?

Finally, (as far as mess halls go) this is the Senior Officers’ Mess. The beautiful part of this mess, aside from the lovely map on the wall, was the 6+ft model of the USS Missouri on display, as well as one of my favorites (reference San Diego, Take 2), the USS Constitution. The Constitution model appeared to be all hand-carved woods – beautiful! – unlike my simple Revell plastic model kits.

A lot of movies have been filmed on the Mighty Mo, so they wanted us to know this. The signs in Russian cyrillic letters were used for signage to make the USS Missouri look like a Russian submarine, and the rocks on the left are foam “rubble” and “shrapnel” from the movie “Pearl Harbor.”

The USS Missouri hosted the first ship’s internet, dubbed the MoNet.

This is the room and equipment used to run the MoNet.

Like the Midway, the USS Missouri had dental services. This was the waiting area – spartan, eh?  Unlike the Midway, there was no indication of an operating room. But there likely was one since the kamikaze pilot was taken somewhere to be examined.

Oh, and did I mention the ladders are steep?

Heading to the bridge we walk by the Tomahawk missile battery. These were Persian Gulf weapons, not World War II.

Similar to the USS Midway, the Mighty Mo had an open air bridge! But unlike the Midway it was never enclosed.

But there is an enclosed bridge for inclement weather ops!

On my way down from the bridge I had this view of the entry to the memorial.

When I returned to the ship Joy and I headed to Waikiki Beach for a drink and to reminisce. On a business trip here in 2003 we had a great view down the beach to Diamond Head from our Sheraton Hotel balcony! Today, with the crowds at the beach and even more in the bars and restaurants you’d never know there is a COVID-19 pandemic.

Joy wanted to see if the surf boards were still lined up – yes, they are!

And Luli’s Law was represented in Waikiki!

Our last visit was the International Market. Last time we were here it was a large open park under a series of banyan trees. We were told it has become a three-story mall. Yes, indeed, it has.

Inside they kept a fragment of the original banyan tree.  This is sad. All of the vendors are gone, and only high-end stores are here.

As we finally leave Honolulu, the city lights shine bright! (And the Tallahassee was still being loaded)

Now we begin our island hop. Next stop, Maui!

Aloha!