Few veterans from Hawai'i make the trip
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
About 140,000 people attended the dedication yesterday of the National World War II Memorial in Washington.
That's largely why Kailua resident Herb Weatherwax, 87, a Pearl Harbor and Battle of the Bulge survivor, wasn't there.
Don't get him wrong. He plans to go to see the much-anticipated memorial in July of next year, during a planned trip to Toronto.
"We have all been sent invitations," said Weatherwax last week. "The reason I thought I wouldn't make it this time is it's going to be pretty crowded out there."
Hotels were full, and it's a long flight for aging vets. Not many from Hawai'i made the trip.
"My guess is a lot of guys will go over the ensuing months, when it's calmed down," said Bob Brown, a counselor at the Honolulu Veterans Center, a community-based outreach center.
There's another reason for the sparse veteran turnout from Hawai'i: There are fewer of them left. More than 1,000 World War II veterans die each day.
Weatherwax said several members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Aloha Chapter, died in one month; eight or nine have died in the past year. "So we're really going pretty fast now," he said.
The chapter has 54 members, 20 to 25 of them in Hawai'i.
Richard I. Fiske, a World War II veteran who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and the battle of Iwo Jima, died April 2 at his home.
The 82-year-old Mo'ili'ili man had been a volunteer at the Arizona Memorial since 1982. In January, he was among 10 volunteers honored by U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Hawai'i Gov. Linda Lingle for contributing more than 3,000 hours of time to the memorial.
Brad Baker, an Arizona spokesman, said: "We are losing (World War II veterans) left and right. It's going to really change the way we tell the Pearl Harbor story."
Pearl Harbor survivors in their familiar trifold caps are among the World War II veterans who volunteer to talk about their experiences at the memorial.
Shizuya Hayashi and Barney Hajiro, members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Medal of Honor recipients, did make the trip to Washington last week.
Hayashi, 86, of Pearl City, and Hajiro, 87, of Waipahu, were honored by members of the "Lost Battalion," which they helped save in eastern France in 1944.
Weatherwax, a Schofield Barracks private in Honolulu on a weekend pass on Dec. 7, 1941, said the memorial is overdue.
Had the United States not participated in World War II after the attack, "chances are, Hitler would have taken over," he believes.
"At one time we were the divided states of America," Weatherwax said. "After the attack on Pearl Harbor, we were united 100 percent."
"I'm looking forward to the chance to get out there (and see the memorial)," he added. "I think it's about time they had something like that for the World War II veterans, because that was a terrible war."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
