February is the month I like to escape to warmer climes and I’m sure you can’t blame me.
Cold weather just doesn’t suit me.
My guy and I usually go to the US as we love America despite its shortcomings and shenanigans; Kuaui, Palm Springs or Scottsdale.
However, in seeking sunshine and warmth, I have never been emotionally moved by my annual visits to the good old USA.
Except this time.
Wanting to experience somewhere different, I am writing to you from the Hawaiian island of Oahu with a population of 1.4 million people plus the thousands of tourists who flock to this island.
Most go to the famous Waikiki Beach and I can understand why as everything you could possibly want is located there. Including hordes of tourists.
We chose to stay on the west side of the island in a suburban town called Kapolei away from the crowds.
On our first day exploring the leeward side of the island, once we got beyond the overpriced and unwelcoming Ko Olina resort, we discovered on the Wai’anae Coast beach after beach covered from end to end with homeless encampments. Hundreds of them.
I was shocked and disheartened but understand that homelessness exists everywhere. According to my travel guide, the Lonely Planet, there are about 4400 homeless people living on Oahu with approximately 2400 of them considered unsheltered. According to a local I spoke with, these people include not only the mentally ill and drug-addicted but also the working poor and veterans.
The homeless population of this side of the island is so high, locals say, as there are fewer affluent residents and tourists to make a fuss and there is less of a NIMBY mentality compared to other parts of the island.
Welcome to paradise lost.
My discovery weighed heavily on me for days.
So I cheered myself up by listening to President Biden’s speech on the day we visited Pearl Harbor.
Biden said, “Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict gets us nowhere.” Of course he was referring to the Republicans who oppose his every move.
It was a different story that fateful day of December 7, 1941 when 350 Japanese planes attacked the unsuspecting US Pacific fleet (I find it hard to believe that the US Navy were taken by surprise) and bombed Pearl Harbor, finally plunging the US into WWII.
Fighting, power and conflict took on a whole new meaning as history was being made.
As there is so much to see, we decided to take the “bookend” tour which included the USS Arizona Memorial facing directly opposite the USS Missouri.
At the Arizona memorial, you can see the names of the approximate 1,170 men who died that day. Peering overboard, you can see the actual midsection of the sunken ship, left untouched as a shrine to the deceased. Today, there remains two survivors, both aged 101.
A time to reflect stirring up more emotion.
And then on to the decommissioned battleship USS Missouri, famous for being the location of the signing of the instrument of formal surrender of Japan to the Allied powers on September 2, 1945, thus finally ending the Second World War.
The historic surrender took exactly 23 minutes.
I spoke with a tour volunteer, Emi, who was born in Japan and had an accent and asked her if she has faced verbal abuse since she was obviously Japanese.
She smiled at me and replied, “I’m a symbol of peace.”
An emotionally gratifying response.
Welcome to paradise remembered.
Worth much more than sunshine.
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