Remembering Camp Tarawa: The Big Island's newest exhibit reminds the world of Hawaii'

[thedrifter]

by Sgt. Alexis R. Mulero
Marine Corps News
November 15, 2002

MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii -- WAIMEA, Hawaii - Forgotten to most Americans is a place where more than 50,000 Marines and Sailors prepared for some of the most significant battles in the Pacific between 1942 and 1945.

During World War II, Camp Tarawa was home to leathernecks and Sailors from the 2nd and 5th Marine Divisions, and the V Amphibious Corps.

Nearly 60 years after these service members set foot on this island, more than 120 guests and family members gathered to pay tribute to these men and women during a ceremony Nov. 6, which marked the opening of an exhibit that recalls Waimea's role during this never-to-be-forgotten war.

Army representatives first came to the Waimea area of the island in the summer of 1941 to explore areas suitable for training.

In the aftermath of the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, staging areas for American troops were rapidly raised throughout the Hawaiian Islands.

Three months into American involvement in World War II, a vast Army camp for 19,000 men had been established on more than 50,000 acres of lofty saddle between the great volcanoes of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

That area was Parker Ranch, and it became host to the largest Marine Corps training facility in the Pacific when the 2nd Marine Division arrived there in December 1943, after its amphibious assault on the island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll.

Shortly after its arrival, the survivors of this battle quickly renamed what locals knew as "Camp Waimea," and gave it the name of the battle they had just endured.

"Camp Tarawa was really established after the Marines arrived from the bloody battle of Tarawa," said Carl Carlson Jr., Parker Ranch trustee. The Marines came back here to rest, replace the wounded and prepare for battle.

Another remarkable fact about the camp is that while training there, 5th Marine Division Marines scaled nearby Pu'u Ula'ula and Buster Brown Mountains, daily, so that they would be ready to climb the now legendary Mt. Suribachi when the time came to assault Iwo Jima.

"This community played a large part in the preparation of the Marines prior to the assault on Iwo Jima," said Carlson.

Carlson also spoke about the impact Marines and Sailors had on the local community.

"Waimea leapt into the twentieth century because of the technology that seemed to have followed the Marines into town. An electric generator allowed settlement houses to be lit by bulb rather than kerosene."

Waimea Elementary School and the Waimea Hotel became a 400-bed hospital with modern medical facilities, and engineers dammed the Waikoloa stream, constructed reservoirs to supply water to the division and the town, and erected temporary Canek structures behind the St. James Church.

Ranch owner Richard Smart volunteered his home Pu'u'opelu as divisional headquarters, and 40 years later he donated land to establish a Camp Tarawa monument near Mamalahoa Highway, west of Waimea, near the entrance to the Parker Ranch historic homes tourist attraction.

The special exhibit at Pu'u'opelu includes artifacts that were collected by the Pacific War Memorial Association, which had been stored at Hilo's Lyman Museum since 1996, with others collected by South Kohala residents. The exhibition will continue through the end of the year.

"This exhibit is a beautiful work of art and constant reminder of all those Marines, Sailors and their families who trained and fought for this country in World War II," said Bill Thompson, an 80-year-old retired Navy corpsman who fought alongside the Marines at Tarawa.

The ceremony also included a special musical tribute by the Marine Forces Pacific Band and an honorary color guard.

"Thousands of American boys trained here," said Rex Weigle, a retired Marine sergeant and veteran of the Vietnam War. "For some of them, this was their last home on American soil. It is imperative that we remember them."

Sempers,

Roger