When you Visit the Pacific Aviation Museum in Oahu, Hawaii, You are Transported to December 1941 History it Depicts
by Judy M. Zimmerman (SATW Member)
It’s early Sunday morning. The red-and-white control tower stands over the Ford Island Airfield in the middle of Pearl Harbor. You feel the percussion of Japanese attackers’ bombs as they fall on Ford Island and the ships anchored nearby. Sailors, soldiers, and airmen dodge the bullets as they rip through the glass windows of burning aircraft hangars. You are there where bravery overcame fear and boys became men. World War II had begun for the United States.
“This new museum opened in December 2006 and is the perfect complement to the other Pearl Harbor historic Sites,” says Kenneth DeHoff, museum executive director.
Indeed, it is adjacent to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial; the battleship Missouri, on which the Japanese surrender was signed; and the U.S.S. Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park, honoring WWII submarines.
As we enter the lobby of Hangar 37, a former seaplane hangar that survived the1941 attack, we step onto a mosaic floor map depicting the Pearl Harbor area and Ford Island.
Next, in a 200-seat theater, a short film highlights the exhibits you are about to see and the attack on Pearl Harbor, narrated by men who survived it.
After leaving the theater, we walk through a 1940s time tunnel that set the stage with period music, sound effects and photos of what life was like on December 7th 1941, in Hawaii and the world.
Upon entering the exhibit area, there’s an authentic Japanese Zero in a diorama on the deck of the Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu at dawn Dec. 6. As in a natural history museum, all airplanes are displayed in environments similar to their original ones, taking visitors to the flight deck of the U.S.S. Hornet, the jungles of a tropical island, the beaches of Guadalcanal and the Hawaiian island of Ni’ihau.
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One unique artifact is the wreck of a Japanese Zero from the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Zero crashed on Ni’ihau, where it remained for 65 years.
“Another rare plane in the museum is a B-25 Mitchell Bomber similar to one used in the Doolittle Raid,” on Tokyo shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack,” DeHoff says. “That was the first time in over 600 years that foreign forces had attacked Japanese soil. This one wears the nose art of Ted Lawson’s plane, the Ruptured Duck.”
Nose art -cartoons drawn on airplanes that depicted the names given them by crewmen – was a popular distraction from the war..
The museum also entertains as well as educates. Realistic flight simulators put guests in the cockpit of a Zero over the Pacific or in a Wildcat defending Guadalcanal. The 20-minute simulator flights allow faux pilots to engage in air-to-air combat, experiencing some of the emotions of the moment.
Afterwards, visitors can grab a bite in the museum’s Laniakea (Blue Heaven) CafГ© where great local island specialties are served under thatched roofs on bamboo tables. Next to the cafГ©, in the Museum Store, visitors will find everything to do with aviation and the Dec. 7th attack on Pearl Harbor.
WHEN YOU GO
o The Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor is on Ford Island on Honolulu on the island of Oahu. Contact: 808-441-1000; www.pacificaviationmuseum.org
o Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
o Tickets are $14, adults; $7 children; free, military in uniform. The Aviator’s Guided Tour costs $7.
ABOUT THE PHOTO: On display, the Mitsubishi designed Nakajima built A6M2-21 Zero that attacked Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, depicts Naval Airman 1st class Shigenori Nishikaichi as he prepares to launch his Zero from a full scale replica Japanese Aircraft Carrier deck. The Zero is one of only sixteen on display in the United States.
December 15, 2009
Posted in: Hawaii