While Pearl Harbor will forever exert a primal pull on our nation’s consciousness, there’s another Pacific Historic Park, one where the heroism – while more muted – was just as noble.
First, Pearl Harbor. Located on Oahu, the recently dedicated World War II Valor In the Pacific National Monument evokes that day 71 years past when the United States suffered a devastating sneak attack, one that would launch us into the defining conflict of the 20th century. There, across from the visitor’s center, lies the remains of USS Arizona. After all these years, the wounds are still fresh, the crew still entombed in her shattered hull, oil still leaking from her stores.
One of the best times to visit is early on a Sunday morning, about 7 a.m. Look across the surprisingly small harbor, see the flag flying above the remains of Arizona and it takes scant suspension of disbelief to put yourself back there the morning the planes came in from over the mountains, and the world changed forever.
There’s another place you should see in the islands to gauge the mettle of which some of us are made. It’s the Kalaupapa National Historic Park, on the island of Molokai. It’s here that Father Joseph De Veuster, later to me canonized as Saint Damien, confronted another enemy, one that had plagued mankind for millennia. The malady is Hansen’s disease. The world once called it leprosy.
Molokai was a leper colony, a place of abject, remorseless exile. Into that place De Veuster came and cared for those whom society shunned like none others. Access to the park is limited. It’s still home to for many Hansen’s patients. State law prohibits entering the settlements without a permit. To go, you must be part of a guided tour (commercial tours are available), be an invited guest, or have special permission from the Department of. The reason for this is common courtesy. While there are no longer any medical reasons for the regulations, the Park Service says, “They continue to be enforced to protect the privacy and unique lifestyles of the residents.”
(Image: University of Hawaii – West Oahu)
