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  • Day 2

    Shopping & War - Excess & Extravagence

    October 9, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    What a wonderful mix of gaudiness America is. It's also very genuine, which is the part I'm most drawn to and is it's saving grace.

    Our first day out in Waikiki we got on a shuttle bus, coupons in hand, and went off to Waikele Outlets for some shopping. A couple of years ago I made a new year's resolution that I would not buy anything new that whole year. It was actually remarkably easy, despite the fact I was starting a new career from hospitality to corporate/admin so needed a whole new work wardrobe. I still only shop in op shops and even then have to be in the mood for it. I would be able to count the items I've bought new on one hand, and so pat myself on the back for not feeding into the fashion industry (the 3rd most pollutant industry after coal energy and food), I'm not buying into slave labour, and am not taken too heavily by trends.

    Shopping in Waikele was a treat, and so much fun. Like I said in my last two blogs, the American customer service is so good that it makes shopping so positive. Waikele also offers a coupon book if you sign up before shopping, which gives you a further discount on the already discounted prices. I bought two pairs of Levis and a lined denim jacket, dresses, Adidas runners, and sketchers shoes, all for a tiny cost. I definitely made up for the couple of years not buying new clothes, I'll have to do an op shop dump of my old clothes when I get home!

    To add to the excessiveness of the day we had dinner at Crackin Kitchen, where we ordered three flavours of sauteed seafood and the waiter proceeded to dump the food on a paper-clothed table, and we ate our prawns, crab, mussels and the rest with gloves and a bib. Forget the starving kids in Africa, there are plenty of starving children in the States who have little prospect of ever eating a meal like that, but we were living it up and gorged ourselves in the excess.

    The next day I'd booked us a tour of Pearl Harbor. I was interested it visit, as I've been to war memorials/peace museums in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine and war museum which arguably honours war criminals, and Changi where my great grandfather was held captive by the Japanese until he died on the Thai Burma Railway. I didn't know much about the history of why America entered the second world war, but I believe that them dropping the bombs on Japan was a means of testing their weapons on human bodies, and gave way to the cold war, as Russia was set to 'win' the war. Japan's defeat was days away despite the bombs, but America would have none of that. Of anyone, I think I needed to hear the American side of the story, at the one event besides 9/11 where they were attacked on their own soil despite having such power and causing such destruction across the globe.

    Unfortunately the USS Arizona memorial was closed due to repair work, which was the main section I wanted to see. The museum itself was OK, though it took a little while to get to the point as to why Japan attacked America - due to US sanctions on Japanese oil, and Japan wanting control over the American owned Philippines. I had been told that the museum was very pro-American but very touching, I'm guessing the Arizona would be the most emotional part, and next time I visit Hawaii I'll try to see it and the other sections the tour missed. Otherwise I felt Pearl Harbor was quite an average museum.

    There were a few aspects that struck me in my visit. The fact that the museum cost so much, and you have to pay for each individual section. If you want to go to the Arizona, you need a separate ticket. If you want on the submarine, that's another ticket. For all the attractions and general entry, it will set you back $72usd for an adult. That's an insane amount of money. All the other war memorial museums I've visited have been either free or heavily funded by the government, so you pay a small, couple of dollar fee to get in. It would cost a lot to maintain an area like Pearl Harbor, but given its importance to American history and the tourism it beings in, it feels very wrong to be profiting off that - surely the government could flip the bill for maintenance and staff costs.

    Another thing that I could not get used to was the nationalism there. On our tour was a middle aged American couple wearing red shirts with star spangled accents - the woman a scarf and the man had American flag socks. As we were lining up for our boat trip around the Arizona we had a talk from a war veteran. When he said he had been stationed in Afghanistan, about a third of the audience, in a religious unison, responded with 'thank you for your service'. There is so much to unpack in this. I dont know if I'm particularly thankful for Australian soldiers, which probably reflects more on me than on my country. I feel we are not at a threat from attack from any other country, and if we are it is purely because of our alliance with America. I don't think I'd answer with 'thank you for your service' but with more 'how was your time at war?' 'is the situation getting better?' 'do you agree with this war?'. I feel in America they don't question war at all, and it's like a kudos system depending on where you are stationed - the more dangerous the more respect, but America has bases all across the globe. Everything to do with war in America is glorified, and this is very disturbing. Even in a war museum, this should not be glorified as it was.

    The museum was also not about peace. Peace was mentioned - as it absolutely should be - but the museum was more a mourning of the soldiers who died on the ships and as a 'hoorah' to America. I dont know if I've ever heard the term 'valor' used before, but Pearl Harbor is dripping with that word, along with 'honor'. Hiroshima, where hundreds of thousands of people died in the most horrific way, ends not with a 'good on Japan for overcoming this' but with a picture of a flower growing through the fallout rubble. It ends with a message of peace and rebirth. Nagasaki does an even better job, where it honestly reflects allied soldiers who were in WW2 and who are given video time to justify why the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was necessary to end the war. Nagasaki's message is 'no more Hiroshima, no more Nagasaki - let Nagasaki be the last city to feel the effects of a nuclear war' . Pearl Harbor ends with a message of nationalism, which will only fuel future wars, as it has done. Changi was surprisingly nationalistic for the ANZACS, but was more a story of the harsh Japanese Imperialism. Singapore was stuck in the middle, and the Anzac were ultimately fighting for their freedom from Japan. Pearl Harbor was far closer to Yadukuni than it was to Changi or the nuclear weapon museums. And Yasukuni is connected to a Shinto shrine that honours war criminals. The thing with Yadukuni is that it remembers every battle the Japanese have fought in - from the domestic warring states period in ancient Japan, to the world wars. The shrine remembers all those who died for Japan, including the soldiers who were later found to be war criminals (I actually took part in a ceremony and was blessed by the shinto monk at this shrine, which was a very mind boggling experience). Yasukuni is a completely one sided museum, and is and should be known as being very nationalistic and an area of contention. There was no chapel that I saw to pray in for the dead at Pearl Harbor, but the place was run by the navy which also leaves a slightly sour taste in its own way. Pearl Harbor should be remembered but should not become a mantra.

    In the gift shop you could buy Pearl Harbor memorial tishirts that had been warn by a soldier in the navy. You could buy flags that had the specific time and year they were flown for Independence Day. At the very back of the shop I found a section of tshirts and tote bags that had paper cranes on them - the Japanese symbol for peace. I bought a tote bag that explained the thousand paper crane folklaw, that if you origami fold one thousand cranes you will have your wish granted. Sadako was a young girl at ground zero when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and later contracted leukaemia and died before she completed her thousand cranes. She is the symbol for peace and I suppose of Japanese nationalism in Hiroshima Peace Park. I was not expecting to see it in Pearl Harbor. The main reason I bought it was for the added 'Valor in the Pacific' written underneath.

    America - the land of excesses and extravagance.
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