Toru Nagayama, President,
Haseko (Hawaii), Inc.
91-1001 Kaimalie Street, #205
Ewa Beach, Hawaii 96706
Aloha Mr. Nagayama,
We would like to invite you to attend our annual Save Ewa Field event on December 5, 2010, located at the former Marine Corps Air Station Ewa. The land that Haseko Hawaii development is on today was once part of this larger US Marine base training area during WW-II.
We would like for you to be aware of our historic mission because it appears that the Hawaii Community Development Authority (HCDA) is planning a major roadway for the benefit of Haseko development. You may not be aware of this action they are taking and we would like to help Haseko Hawaii understand the deep significance this planned roadway has in our American cultural history.
This roadway is intentionally designed to destroy our historic December 7 battlefield and also to destroy the historic WW-II aircraft shelters, used today and for the past 50 years as horse stables and riding area. We have already clearly shown two different alternative roadway routes that do not require destroying the environment of these two historic sites, which are recognized on the Kalaeloa Master Plan (2006) and in various Environmental and Cultural Assessment documents and studies. However, HCDA completely insists upon destroying these sites unnecessarily in order to connect Haseko Hawaii to Roosevelt Avenue.
There is a special significance for Haseko Hawaii that you may not be aware of- which is that the Haseko development is on land where Japanese Zeros on December 7, 1941 shot down four US Navy planes, killing six pilots and aircrews, and also shot down two unarmed civilian planes, killing three service people. There is available a US National Archives photo showing two Japanese planes flying over what is now the Haseko Hawaii development, circling over one of the crashed and burning shot down American planes that morning. At nearby Ewa Field, which is not far from Haseko Hawaii, four US Marines were killed at the airfield in the morning air attack by strafing Japanese Zeros and Vals.
We have had resolutions passed in 2009 by the three Oahu neighborhood boards, including the Ewa Board, supporting saving and preserving this very important historic site at MCAS Ewa Field, which US National Park Pearl Harbor historian Daniel Martinez has called “Sacred Ground”. The Hawaii State Legislature in 2009 also passed a resolution by the house and senate that called for the saving and preservation of MCAS Ewa Field as a recognized battlefield, park, monument and national landmark. The HCDA roadway plan to connect Haseko Hawaii clearly is disregarding this community and legislative intent and is bound to anger many local residents and American veterans around the United States.
The Ewa horse stables have also just completed obtaining two resolutions from the Kapolei-Makakilo and Ewa Beach neighborhood boards supporting preservation of the WW-II aircraft shelters now used as horse stables and riding area. The HCDA roadway for Haseko Hawaii will clearly go right through the center of what has already been recommended by experts to be a National MCAS Ewa Historic District. Destroying this horse stables environment will clearly anger many local residents and American veterans around the United States.
We have major support from national US Veterans groups, many of whom will be coming to the Ewa Field location during this coming December 5 to 7 as part of the Third Annual Pearl Harbor Day commemoration. This is a recognized event by the US National Park Service, USS Arizona Memorial Association and the National Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.
Our event is officially supported by US military honor guard and rifle salute teams from the United States Marine Corps, US Navy and US Air Force. This year the National Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, made up of 600 Members and families, have been invited to attend this year's event at Ewa Field.
On November 10 the United States Marine Corp held a ceremonial morning flag raising and USMC birthday commemoration on the Ewa Battlefield, marking the 235th birthday of the US Marine Corps.
Ewa Field is eligible to be a recognized National American Battlefield under the US National Park Service, and the Ewa Stables are eligible to become a recognized National Historic District. Further, as WW-II sites, they are eligible to become National Landmarks, as are the other major December 7, 1941 battlesites already are on Oahu. Destroying these Ewa sites unnecessarily will be extremely unpopular and create significant negative national media attention for Haseko Hawaii and the Hawaii Community Development Authority. Yet HCDA have stated that nothing will deter them and they do not recognize any of the December 7 or WW-II sites as historically important. This position may play well within the small base of restricted thinking at HCDA, but the impact nationally in the US Mainland will be extremely negative for a very long time and attach a negative stigma to the future Haseko development plans.
The Haseko saying is:
"At Haseko, we're not just building homes - we're building a community."
We would like Haseko to recognize that we do not want our important and sacred sites bulldozed for a Haseko Roadway, especially when there are alternative routes. We hope you will support our effort to create a fair and sensible development mindset within the Hawaii Community Development Authority, rather than the direction they are heading in now which will create enormously bad publicity and ill will for a very long time into the future.
John Bond, Coordinator
MCAS Ewa Field and Fort Barrette Commemorations
