Posted on: Tuesday, July 24, 2001

Island Voices
It's time to share Pearl Harbor

By Creighton Goldsmith
Nu'uanu resident

Now that the hoopla over the movie has passed, it's time to get serious about Pearl Harbor.

We already knew her past was intertwined with the Navy. But should her future be, too? What is the best way to share this precious natural resource, once of supreme military value, with all the people of Hawai'i?

How times have changed since that day of infamy! "Tora, tora, tora!" has turned to tourist, tourist, tourist! In 1941, our parents were scared to death that thousands of Japanese would be arriving in Hawai'i every day. Today we live in fear that the Japanese might stop coming.

This upside-down world means we have to look at the changes to understand how we must look at the future of Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor is strategically important only as long as Dan Inouye is in the Senate. But even Sen. Dan couldn't get the Navy to station an aircraft carrier at Pearl Harbor, and there are signs our submarines may be deployed to Guam.

Commerce, too, is radically different. Shipping has been revolutionized by ocean containers. Today, container ships (they bring in 98 percent of what we consume in Hawai'i) seek ports with large container yards away from the bustle and traffic of the city. Cruise ships now compete for berthing with cargo ships in Honolulu Harbor.

Unfortunately, Honolulu faces a critical shortage of space —both for container yards and cruise ship terminals. To the objective observer, good and reasonable alternatives exist. Acres of underutilized land at Pearl Harbor are no longer critical to the Navy or our national defense. Why not open this land to commercial container ships?

Honolulu Harbor could then be a home to cruise ships and become a premier destination instead of a discouraging inconvenience for tourists. The Pearl City peninsula could serve as a centrally located replacement container yard for Sand Island and Fort Armstrong where Matson, CSX and the foreign vessels now call. Young Brothers could relocate to Sand Island, and the land not needed for maritime purposes cold be sold for its highest and best use to pay for these improvements.

As the son of a naval officer and Pearl Harbor survivor, I'm proud of the role the Navy has always played in the life of Hawai'i. Now is the time for the Navy to demonstrate its wisdom and continue its service to the Islands by agreeing to look at ways it could better share its pearl.