Families cherish history, serenity of Punchbowl
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
There are maps of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific's interment grounds for those casual or infrequent visitors who need them.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
But for people like Mark Crabbe, the topography of Hawai'i's most venerated cemetery is etched in the heart, a map of personal connection and family memory overlayed upon the green, rolling hills of Punchbowl (Puowaina) Crater.
Sharon Bianco of Waikoloa, Hawai'i, places flowers on the triple gravesite of her father, mother and brother at Punchbowl. Bianco was on O'ahu for an awards ceremony.
"That's my mother over there," Crabbe said, gesturing to a small, carefully tended plot a few yards away. "My aunt is right over there."
Crabbe, a technical sergeant with the Hawai'i Air National Guard's Honor Guard, was at the cemetery Monday afternoon to take part in two interment services.
He used the time in between services to lay a fresh bouquet of flowers at his mother's grave.
As part of his honor guard duties, Crabbe regularly takes part in interment ceremonies at the cemetery, conveying final respects to servicemen and their dependents on behalf of their country.
Yet, even without those duties, Crabbe says his sense of connection with the cemetery is profound. Crabbe's family has a long and distinguished history of military service and, with it, a strong presence on the Punchbowl grounds.
About 5 million people pass through the cemetery each year. Official tours are handled by the American Legion, which brings in up to 25,000 visitors a year.
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
Cemetery workers said Monday was a typical day there, with dozens of visitors, many of them local, passing through to pay their respects to loved ones now departed.
World War II veteran Henry Wong has been guiding tours of the memorial for the past five years. He says the majority of people who sign up are older, "because they're the ones who know what happened."
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Crabbe comes at least once a month to visit the grave of his mother, Rose Na'auao Pelaya Crabbe, who died last year. Also interred here are his aunt Julia Lehua Wilmoth; his mother's uncle Maximo Dela Rosa; and his paternal great-grandfather, Clarence Ilan.
Henry Wong, left, tells visitors about WWII sites portrayed on a mural at Punchbowl. Wong is a volunteer tour guide for the American Legion.
The general public is accustomed to seeing Punchbowl in full regalia during Veterans Day and Memorial Day commemorations, when the cemetery is packed with visitors and the lawns are overflowing with flags and flowers.
But the rest of the year belongs to people like Rita Akiona and her niece, Ronette Hunt.
On Monday, Akiona and Hunt brought fresh torch ginger for Akiona's parents, John and Cecilia Spencer. John Spencer served in the Army during World War I.
"He always wanted to be buried here," says Akiona, who lives nearby. "He always used to say, 'When I go, bury me over the hill,' meaning here at Punchbowl."
Akiona had hoped her husband, Abel, a former staff sergeant at Schofield and Fort Shafter, would be able to be interred at Punchbowl, but the burial plots were already filled when he passed away in 1998. His remains are at the Hawai'i State Veterans Cemetery in Kane'ohe.
• As of Monday, there were 44,461 servicemen and dependents interred at Punchbowl. • The 35,000 burial plots were filled years ago; new interment spaces accommodate only cremated remains. • Built in 1948, the cemetery is the final resting place for more than 13,900 soldiers killed during the war in the Pacific. • The memorial's Courts of the Missing includes the engraved names of 28,778 soldiers missing in action during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.
As Akiona and Hunt paid their respects, Millie Shindo and friend Yoshiaki Matsuoka were nearby tending to the grave of Shindo's brother, Carl Matsuda.
More about Punchbowl
Shindo said her brother, a member of the celebrated 442nd Regimental Combat Team, had just turned 21 when he was killed by a sniper in Italy while trying to save a wounded comrade.
Shindo's other brother, Paul Matsuda, was on his way to report for his own deployment when the taxi carrying him and Shindo's father was stopped in Kona.
"They stopped the taxi to tell my father that his son had been killed," Shindo said.
Carl Matsuda was one of a generation of Japanese-American nissei who demonstrated their loyalty by fighting for their country. Shindo said her parents, who grew coffee in Kona, were "very proud" that he was able to be buried at Punchbowl.
At least once a month, Shindo brings a fresh bouquet of flowers for her brother, as well as a pair of clippers to trim the grass and a bucket of water and some steel wool to clean the grave marker.
Farther up the road, in a shady area in front of the memorial, Susan Brush of Needles, Calif., took some time alone to reflect.
Brush came to the cemetery with her husband, Lt. Col. Martin Brush, a Vietnam veteran. They didn't have anyone to visit in particular, but Brush nonetheless found herself momentarily overwhelmed by the immensity of service and sacrifice that the place represents.
Two weeks ago, Brush's son, Army Spec. Paul Palacios, returned from a 13-month stint in Iraq.
"If he wasn't back safely, I don't think I would have been able to come," she said.
Reach Michael Tsai at 535-2461 or mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.
