Category: O’ahu

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Remembering Pearl Harbor, forgetting Ke Awalau o Pu’uloa

I recently visited the new exhibition at the Arizona Memorial.  The exhibit is ripe for political, psychological and cultural analyses.  But here I only offer a few initial impressions:

On the one hand, the new exhibit tells a more complex and nuanced story about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the origins of World War II than the previous exhibit.  Japanese points of view are included throughout.  The internment of persons of Japanese ancestry in concentration camps (Sand Island, Honouliuli, Pu’unene, Kilauea Military Camp) is featured prominently.  The exhibit even included a small plaque about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an extremely sensitive topic.

A $100,000 grant from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs funded displays that added some Native Hawaiian and local perspectives on the militarization of Ke Awalau o Pu’uloa and the war. While these adjustments may seem minor, in the ideologically and symbolically charged field of the Pearl Harbor Story, these small shifts in the “official” narrative reflect some opening of public attitudes and understanding.   A park administrator describes the ultimate message as one of peace.

On the other hand, the exhibit flinches when it comes to examining the destructive forces of 20th century imperialism, Japanese, European and American, which generated so many of our bloodiest wars.   One sign describes the U.S. backed overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in a detached third person voice: the Hawaiian Kingdom “was overthrown”.   But it fails to describe who was responsible and why the overthrow took place – the U.S. desire for empire and a military foothold in the Pacific.   The exhibit conveys a sense of the tragedy and the human costs of war, but fails to discuss the social and environmental costs of militarism and empire.  By way of what it excludes, the exhibit privileges certain stories over others, reinforcing and normalizing the military’s presence in Hawai’i.  The effectiveness of the new state of the art displays in telling the war stories only highlights the voices that are missing.

These other voices about World War II and Pearl Harbor will have to come from outside the U.S. government.  It will come from the peace activists and revolutionaries, from the Hawaiian nationals and environmentalists, from women and refugees, from peoples and places across the sea where the military storm surges emanating from Hawai’i crash upon whole cities and countrysides.

This year was the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Japan Mutual Security Treaty which established the vast network of U.S. military bases in Japan and returned Okinawa to Japan.   That anniversary was overshadowed by the controversy over the U.S. military bases in Okinawa and widespread questioning of the mutual security treaty.   This disturbance in what has been described as the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy in East Asia is sure to make foreign policy elites nervous.

In  “Tora! Tora! Tora! and the Fate of (Trans)national Memory” published on the Japan Focus website, Marie Thorsten and University of Hawai’i professor Geoffrey White examine the history of how Pearl Harbor has been remembered (or forgotten) by Americans and Japanese through films and what these different narratives have to say about the state of U.S. Japanese relations.  They argue that at the height of the Cold War, when the U.S. needed to solidify Japan as an Asian ally against Communism, the rhetoric and memory about Pearl Harbor warmed up and allowed for the bi-national production of the film Tora! Tora! Tora!

In 2011, given the erupting contradictions of the U.S. Japan partnership, it will be interesting to see how the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor is remembered.

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http://japanfocus.org/-Geoffrey_M_-White/3462

Binational Pearl Harbor?

Tora! Tora! Tora! and the Fate of (Trans)national Memory

Marie Thorsten and Geoffrey M. White

The fifty-year anniversary of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States, signed on January 19, 1960, was not exactly a cause for unrestrained celebration. In 2010, contentious disagreements over the relocation and expansion of the American military presence in Okinawa, lawsuits against the Toyota Motor Corporation, ongoing restrictions on the import of American beef, and disclosures of secret pacts that have allowed American nuclear-armed warships to enter Japan for decades, subdued commemorative tributes to the U.S.-Japan security agreement commonly known as “Ampo” in Japan.1

In this atmosphere it is nevertheless worth recalling another sort of U.S.-Japan pact marking the tenth anniversary of Ampo, the 1970 historical feature film, Tora! Tora! Tora! (dir. Richard Fleisher, Fukasaku Kinji and Masuda Toshio).2 Whereas the formal security treaty of 1960 officially prepared the two nations to resist future military attacks, Tora! Tora! Tora! unofficially scripted the two nations’ interpretations of  the key event that put them into a bitter war, the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Although conceived by the American film studio Twentieth-Century Fox as a way to mark a new beginning for the two nations, certain popular opinions at the time, particularly in Japan, regarded Tora! Tora! Tora! as a cultural extension of the unequal security partnership.

On the American side, Pearl Harbor has come to wield such iconic proprietorship that it may seem inconceivable that the authorship of such pivotal memory could ever be shared with the former enemy. Airing his vehement disapproval over whether to build a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center attacks, a controversy preoccupying Americans in 2010, political stalwart Newt Gingrich (former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives), analogized, “We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor.”3 In the realm of education, a series of teacher workshops that had brought American and Japanese educators together to discuss approaches to teaching about Pearl Harbor was recently brought to an abrupt end when an American participant complained to federal sponsors that the program amounted to “an agenda-based attack on the U.S. military, military history, and American veterans.”4 The fact that this criticism, directed to the federal funding source (the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as the U.S. Congress) quickly found receptive audiences through political blogs and veterans groups’ listservs suggests an insecure, zero-sum mentality in which listening to other controversies and points of view somehow erases dominant narratives, which must then be vigilantly protected.

Nevertheless, we consider Tora! Tora! Tora! a noteworthy exception to such assumed proprietorship for its splicing together of two, mostly parallel, national productions from America and Japan. It is perhaps inevitable that such a film encountered difficulties narrativizing the events of Pearl Harbor for two national audiences—events that have been the subject of contested and shifting memory for Americans throughout the postwar period. This shift has been made manifest in the last decade through highly misguided efforts to summon Pearl Harbor memory to serve America’s “war on terror” —in the hopes of recreating American revenge, triumph, occupation and democratization of the vanquished.5

Despite its claims to tell both national sides of the attack, Tora! Tora! Tora! evoked discussions of genre and accuracy in cinematic representations of war and nation, with much interest, especially in America, over the “American view” and the “Japanese view.” Japanese critics were less concerned about the film’s reference to Pearl Harbor in 1941 than the politics of the 1960s framing the film as an expression of unequal bilateral relations or glorification of state violence. While there is validity to such concerns, the film also offered a unique space for integrating narratives not entirely reducible to exigent security matters. Especially in response to the Gingrich statement above, we express some cautious appreciation of the film’s gesture not only of bridging the stories of both nations but also acknowledging mistakes made throughout the chains of command in both the United States and Japan leading to Pearl Harbor attack.

Tora! Tora! Tora!’s screenplay was adapted from the extensive writings of historian Gordon Prange, including an early work titled, Tora! Tora! Tora!6 and Ladislas Farago’s The Broken Seal (1967). Though Prange died in 1980, his former students, Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, published his meticulously documented oeuvre on Pearl Harbor as the posthumous At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor (1981), widely considered an epic, unparalleled book compiling Prange’s thirty-seven years of research. After researching both national perspectives and claiming “no preconceived thesis”7 (and originally intending to do primarily the Japanese side), Prange’s “reflective” rather than “judgmental” conclusion, expressed by Goldstein and Dillon, was that there were “no deliberate villains”:

[Prange] considered those involved on both sides to be honest, hardworking, dedicated, and for the most part, intelligent. But as human beings some were brilliant and some mediocre, some broad-minded and some of narrow vision, some strong and some weak—and every single one fallible, capable of mistakes of omission and commission.8

Writing mostly in the post-Occupation years yet before the 1980s, Prange’s Pearl Harbor books including At Dawn assumed a  “happy ending on both sides” marked by peaceful relations and the rise of the Japanese economy under the American military umbrella.9 As technical adviser to the film version of Tora! Tora! Tora! Prange’s signature themes of communication failures, mutual mistakes and diffused responsibility are prominent.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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17th Annual Makua Christmas Vigil for Peace

Malama Makua is holding the 17th Annual Christmas Vigil at the gate of Makua Valley for peace in Makua & the world

Sunday Dec 26, 2010

3:45 pm

Potluck to follow.

Questions?  Contact Fred Dodge

Email: makuakauka@hotmail.com

Or call 696-4677.

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Waikane munitions cleanup seeks public comments and involvement

This email includes:

1. Update on the Marine Corps Restoration Advisory Board for cleanup of unexploded munitions in Waikane Impact Area, including a call to submit comments on the proposed Feasibility Study for cleanup of unexploded munitions in Waikane Impact Area.

2. Invitation to submit application to join a Restoration Advisory Board for the Army Corps of Engineers’ cleanup project in the neighboring parcel of the Waikane Training Area.

1. Marine Corps’ Waikane Impact Area RAB and call for public comments:

Last night, December 1, 2010, the Marines held a Waikane Valley Impact Area Restoration Advisory Board meeting.  They reported on findings and recommendations of the Draft Remedial Investigation (RI) and discussed plans for commencing a Feasibility Study (FS) for the clean up response at the site.  The Draft RI characterized the unexploded ordnance hazard for various sections of the parcel. It also found contaminants such as copper, antimony, and TNT in several locations, but determined that the levels did not pose a risk to human health or the environment.  The FS looks at different cleanup scenarios and determines the cost, feasibility and makes recommendations for action.

The Feasibility Study and the proposed cleanup methods and standards are driven by the anticipated future land use.  The community has maintained that the land should be restored to its original condition that is safe for agriculture, religious and cultural practices and dwellings.  The other factor is cost.  Funding is often a limiting factor in military cleanup operations.  It is important that U.S. Representative Hirono and Senators Inouye and Akaka hear from the community that we want the military to clean up these lands to the highest and safest level possible.  They can ensure that there is ample funding for the cleanup programs in Hawai’i.

At this phase of the cleanup process, the Marines are considering several remedial options including No Action (leave the munitions in place), Land Use Controls (LUC; signs and fences), surface clearance and subsurface clearance.

Subsurface clearance is necessary for the land to be deemed safe enough to build structures and conduct unrestricted farming and other activities.  However, the Marines have said that in order to do subsurface clearance, the entire land would have to be graded, including destroying cultural sites.   Or the sites could be preserved but access would be forever restricted.    We believe that these are false choices.  It is possible to work with knowledgeable cultural practitioners to detect and remove munitions found within cultural sites without destroying cultural sites.   This type of work is already happening in Makua.

The Marine Corps’ Draft Remedial Investigation Report can be downloaded here.  Comments on the Draft are due January 1, 2011.

Fact sheets on the Marine Corps’ Waikane RAB can be found here, including fact sheets about the Draft Remedial Investigation Report and the proposed Feasibility Study.

Additional handouts on the Remedial Investigation report and the Feasibility Study can be found here.

We are advocating for 100% subsurface clearance to the greatest extent possible, and working closely with qualified and knowledgeable cultural practitioners and family members with ancestral ties those lands to determine how to remove munitions from sensitive cultural areas.   The desired future use would be to have the restoration of Hawaiian cultural practices and agriculture and the establishment of learning and healing centers.

Submit Comments on the Draft Remedial Investigation (RI) and proposed Feasibility Study (FS) to:

Randall Hu:  randall.hu@usmc.mil

Captain Derek George: derek.george@usmc.mil

David Henkin, Community Co-Chair of the Waikane RAB:   davidlhenkin@yahoo.com

Deadline for comments on the Feasibility Study proposed options is January 1, 2011.

Background:

Waikane is a very culturally significant area for Native Hawaiians.  Its very name – Waikane – meaning the water of Kane, one of the four principal dieties in the Hawaiian pantheon – speaks to the importance of this area. The valley is also very important for its abundant fresh water and rich kalo (taro) fields.

In the 1940s, the U.S. military leased nearly 1000 acres of land in Wai’ahole and Waikane Valleys for training with an agreement to return the land in its original condition.   One of the families whose land was used  was the Kamaka family, who are ancestral to the area.  The military used 187 acres of Kamaka family land in Waikane valley.  This happened to be the area of the heaviest munitions impacts.  After the land was returned to the family in the 1970s, Raymond Kamaka began farming the land until unexploded ordnance began to turn up.  When he asked the Marine Corps to clean up the munitions as agreed, the Marines instead moved to condemn the property.   After a long legal and political battle the land was condemned. Raymond refused to accept the court’s ruling and the “blood money” from the military.

The surrounding 800+ acres of Waikane training area has been transferred to various public and private land owners.

In 2003, the Marines announced plans  to expand jungle warfare training in Waikane aimed at fighting insurgencies in the Philippines.  The community came out in strong opposition to the Marines’ plans and called instead for the clean up and return of the land.   The jungle warfare idea was scrapped, but the Marines refused to discuss clean up at that time.

Then quietly around 2006, the Marine Corps officially “closed” Waikane as an active range, which triggered the Department of Defense Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) and the commencement of clean up procedures.   Clean up programs under the Department of Defense often  have a joint community-military Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) to monitor and advise on the clean up process.  Waikane impact area (the 187 acre Kamaka parcel) has the highest hazard rating, and therefore highest clean up priority, of all sites in Hawai’i.

The Marine Corps’ Waikane Valley RAB began in 2007.  It overseas only the Marine Corps clean up on the Kamaka parcel in Waikane.

Meanwhile the Army Corps of Engineers began a clean up of munitions in the surrounding portions of Waikane valley under a different program called the Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS).   The Army program is several years further along than the Marine Corps clean up. It does not have a RAB.

2. Army Corps of Engineers Waikane Training Area Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) Restoration Advisory Board

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) recently held an informational meeting on its project to cleanup the formerly used defense site (FUDS) Waikane Training Area, which encompasses approximately 800+ acres surrounding the 187-acre Marine Corps/Kamaka parcel.   The USACE is inviting the public to apply for membership on a Restoration Advisory Board for its cleanup project.  If there are at least ten people interested, it will create a RAB for that site.

The deadline for applying to join the USACE Waikane Training Area RAB is December 4, 2010.  Download, complete and submit the RAB Community Interest Form to

Clayton Sugimoto

c/o Wil Chee – Planning, Inc.

1400 Rycroft Street, Suite 928

Honolulu, Hawaii 96814

Phone: 808-955-6088

Fax: 808-942-1851

E-mail: wcp@lava.net

OR

Walter Nagai

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Honolulu District

Building 252, Attention: CEPOH-PP-E

Fort Shafter, Hawaii 96858-5440

Phone: 808-438-1232

Fax: 808-438-6930

E-mail: walter.t.nagai@usace.army.mil

Below are fact sheets handed out at t he USACE Waikane RAB:

UXO Safety Fact Sheet

RAB Fact Sheet, Nov 2010

RAB Community Interest Form, Nov 2010

MMRP Fact Sheet

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The Abercrombie administration, Mo’olelo Aloha ‘Aina and other news briefs

Governor Elect Neil Abercrombie announced the appointment of William Aila to the position of Chair of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), an important post that covers protection of the environment and cultural resources, including Native Hawaiian sacred places and burials.  Aila is the harbormaster of the Wai’anae Boat Harbor, a community activist on Native Hawaiian and environmental issues and a leader in efforts to protect and reclaim Makua Valley from the Army.  This could be a good development for groups seeking stronger state protection of iwi kupuna (ancestral remains) and working to end military destruction of Hawaiian land in Makua and other locations in Hawai’i.  In the past, Abercrombie has urged the Army to find alternatives to training at Makua. So let’s hope that the appointment of Alia to head DLNR signals a commitment to fulfill that promise.  At the same time, we must ensure that other locations such as Pohakuloa, Lihu’e or Kahuku are not sacrificed to further military expansion as the trade off for Makua.  Remember that the Stryker expansion involves the Army seizing an additional 25,000 acres of land, whereas, Makua is about 5000 acres.

However, Abercrombie has also built his reputation in Congress by securing military spending in Hawai’i, much of it related to construction projects to intensify the military presence in Hawai’i.  As Hawai’i Business reports, key elements of Abercrombie’s economic recovery plan include military spending:

• Again, using federal dollars, and particularly spending by the Defense Department, build a “21st-century” infrastructure in areas such as energy, information, irrigation and rail transit.

…

• Make technology and innovation a backbone of the economy, including a stronger emphasis on dual-use technology businesses, which create technology for the military that can also be used in civilian applications.

We need to ensure that this new administration does not make Hawai’i more dependent on and subservient to the military-industrial complex.

The military presence in Hawai’i also brings dangers to the communities and the troops themselves. The toxic legacy of Agent Orange still destroys the lives of US troops as well as Vietnamese.  The University of Hawai’i has the dubious distinction of helping to develop and test Agent Organge in the 1960s. Several UH workers who worked on the project were exposed to the toxin and allegedly died from health effects of the exposure.  A new project Make Agent Orange History partnered with the Matsunage Institute for Peace to conduct a mock dialogue on Agent Orange.   I am not clear what the outcome of the project will be.   We have current issues with Agent Orange contamination on Kaua’i and Depleted Uranium contamination on O’ahu and Hawai’i island. I hope the Matsunaga Institute will become more active in seeking the clean up and restoration of these sites and prevention of further military contamination of the ‘aina.

Military accidents are another danger.  In 2006 two U.S. soldiers died as a result of a mortar blast at Pohakuloa.  The families of the soldiers sued the manufacturer, General Dynamic, the same company that makes the Stryker combat vehicle. The jury in the civil suit recently found that General Dynamics was not liable for the deaths:

An 81 mm mortar round that misfired in 2006, killing a 27-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier at the Big Island’s Pohakuloa Training Area, was not defective, a jury in a federal civil trial determined yesterday.

A new online educational resource project of the Hawaiian independence group MANA has been launched. Mo’olelo Aloha ‘Aina is now online.  It includes oral histories of activists from key Hawaiian struggles of the past 30-40 years, including the Protect Kaho’olawe ‘Ohana. Here’s the announcement and link:

Aloha,

Check out this new website with stories and mana’o from kanaka aloha aina who have been involved in different land struggles in Hawai’i! The Moolelo Aloha Aina project website is at: http://moolelo.manainfo.com/

Here’s a little bit about the project:

The Moolelo Aloha Aina project gathers oral histories of Aloha Aina activists who have engaged in direct action land struggles in Hawaii.  It is intended to be an educational resource for anyone to use.  As a project of MANA (Movement for Aloha no ka ‘Aina), we hope it will inspire new generations to become active in protecting and caring for the ‘aina.

The project creators started by interviewing some key people from a few struggles from the 1970s–Kahoolawe, Kalama Valley and Waiahole-Waikane. You can catch mana’o from Soli Niheu, Pete Thompson, Emmett Aluli, and Walter, Loretta and Scarlett Ritte, on the site, among others.

Since the website is intended to be a living archive, the creators encourage filmmakers or anyone with a video camera to get involved by contributing to the archive. The project coordinators are also looking to collaborate with educators to help increase the young people’s awareness of the legacy of activism that is such an integral part of Hawaiian history and current reality.

You can check out a digital story (a short video) describing the project at: http://vimeo.com/16689150

Please feel free to spread the word by forwarding this message!


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Wai’anae voices its support for preserving agricultural land

On November 10, 2010, there was a public informational meeting on the Wai’anae Sustainable Communities Plan.  This is the plan that guides development decisions for the Wai’anae region of O’ahu. Wai’anae has always had a very strong plan, with clear limits on the growth boundary, provisions to ensure that the rural character of the community is perpetuated, and protections for the rich cultural resources and traditions.  The planning consultants have had numerous meetings with the community and worked on the updated plan for three years.   The new plan reaffirms many of the provisions in earlier plans.  It strengthened language calling for the return of military controlled land in Makua and Lualualei.   However, developers and some community members have inserted a change in the land use map that includes an aberrant spot of urban zoning in the middle of agricultural land, a notorious “purple spot” on the land use map.
This is the site of the proposed industrial park in Lualualei at a site that was once a productive farm and that sits at the base of a ridge that represents the sleeping demigod Maui.  This change in zoning in this one spot would break up the integrity of the land use designations and change the character of the area.  Lualualei is already facing negative impacts from the Navy telecommunication towers and munitions magazine and the PVT industrial landfill.  Community residents fear that this change in zoning would set a precedent for rezoning other lands nearby and open up the area for more industrial development.
Working with the Wai’anae Environmental Justice Working Group and the Concerned Elders of Wai’anae, the American Friends Service Committee Hawai’i Area Program is working on the campaign to protect the farm land in Lualualei.
At the public informational meeting, the consultants began by reviewing the plan and the key points and changes.  More than a  hundred people turned out for the meeting. The overwhelming majority of testimony was for maintaining the rural, agricultural character of Wai’anae.  A strong contingent of youth from MA’O farms turned out and expressed their desire to farm and the need to have adequate farm land available. The urban spot zone was the main source of contention and discussion.
Proponents of the industrial park talked about economic development and the fact that there were no sites where light industrial facilities could be situated in Wai’anae.  But many countered that there is ample industrial sites available nearby in Campbell Industrial park and that the benefit to the community would be negligible compared to the social, environmental and cultural costs.  It seemed that there was some agreement between the proponents and opponents of the  industrial park; all wanted to protect the rural character of their community and provide economic opportunities for their youth.   The difference seems to boil down to: some believe in their community being able to develop and thrive on their own terms, while others feel desperate and feel they must settle for whatever they can get.

The Final Draft of the Wai’anae Sustainable Communities Plan will go to the City and County Planning Commission where there will be a public hearing.  After that, it will go to the Plannning Committee of the City Council, then on to the full Council to have three readings.   These will all be critical opportunities to testify and demonstrate the commitment to protecting Wai’anae.

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Take a Stand to Defend Lualualei Farm Land!

Take a Stand to Defend Lualualei Farm Land!

There will be an important community meeting for protection of agricultural land in Lualualei. The Wai’anae Sustainable Community Plan final draft will be discussed. The developers who want to industrialize Wai’anae have inserted a “purple spot” of urban zoning into the plan in the middle of historically productive agricultural land in Lualualei. This is also an important site to Maui the Demigod, who according to legend was born in Lualualei.

PLEASE HELP WITH THESE TWO ACTIONS:

1. The Concerned Elders of Wai’anae are organizing sign holding   Wednesday, November 10, 4:00 pm at the MacDonalds in Lualualei

2. Come to the Public Meeting.

CALL TO ACTION!

Public Meeting

Wednesday Nov. 10, 2010 – 7PM

Wai‘anae Sustainable Community Plan

St. Philip’s Church in Ma‘ili

87-227 St. John’s Road, Waianae, HI 96792

KEEP WAI’ANAE COUNTRY!

For more information: http://bit.ly/purplespot, call 524-8220 or marti@kahea.org.

• Until the 1980s, this land was a working farm.

• A corporation from Japan evicted the farmer, to try to build a golf course. Waiʻanae residents protested, and the golf course proposal failed.

• Today, developers are working to change the zoning from agricultural to industrial. These developers want to build a new industrial park on this land.

• This is one of three major proposals to expand industrial land use in Lualualei Valley–including new landfills—right next to existing farms, schools, and homes.

Samson Reiny writes in the Hawaii Independent:

Another feature that differentiates Waianae from other rural areas is that its valleys aren’t always reminiscent of the pastoral idyllic. Waianae is also home to vast military operations and is the place where much of the island’s waste is sent.

The Army has leased Makua Valley since World War II for live-fire training, and the Navy commandeers over 9,000 acres in Lualualei valley for ordnance storage and radio communications.

The PVT Landfill in Waianae is the island’s only industrial waste disposal and is situated on Lualualei Naval Access Road.

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Ex-Navy man fatally stabs girlfriend on Kaneohe street, then kills self

On September 18, 2010, Michael Thomas, Jr. 26, allegedly fatally stabbed his girlfriend Sydney Kline and assaulted her mother, then drove to the H-3 freeway where he jumped to his death.  The Honolulu Star Advertiser reported:

A 33-year-old woman was stabbed to death on a Kaneohe street early this afternoon, allegedly by her boyfriend who then drove up the H-3 freeway and jumped to his death, according to police.

Police said the couple argued last night and the woman left their residence on Kapunahala Road. The woman returned today with her mother to collect her belongings and an argument ensued.

KHON reported:

A 33 -year-old woman was stabbed multiple times outside her home following an argument with her boyfriend.

Police say the victim’s mom was also assaulted before the suspect drove off and killed himself a short distance away.  It happened around 12:30 on Kapunahala road.

Police say the victim and suspect got into a fight last night at their home and she left.  She then returned this afternoon with her mother to grab personal belongings and discovered items in the home had been damaged.

Apparently, Thomas had a criminal history, but what was not reported in the news was his military background.  The Honolulu Star Advertiser ran an obituary for Thomas on October 6, 2010:

Sept. 18, 2010
Michael Thomas Jr., 26, of Honolulu, a Commander Navy Region Hawaii engineer, died in Kaneohe. He was born in Honolulu. He is survived by sons Keaneu and Julian, parents Michael and Charisse, brother Jerome, hanai brother James Sanders and sisters Sabrina and Uilani Jones and Michelle Thomas. Services held.

This was the second murder-suicide in Hawaiʻi within a month. In both cases the alleged perpetrator were veterans.    The Honolulu Star Advertiser reported:

This is the second murder-suicide in a month on Oahu. On Aug. 20, Kristine Cass, 46, and her daughter Saundra, 13, were shot to death in their Makiki home by the mother’s former boyfriend, Clayborne Conley.

Conley, a former Hawaii National Guardsman with a history of violent behavior and mental instability, shot himself after killing the mother and daughter.

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Kalaeloa: Former military housing may be converted and sold as condos

When the military disposes of excess property, the normal procedure is to offer the land to another government agency or nonprofit.  This is based on the idea that the government is not supposed to be making money off of its real estate transactions.  Except in Hawai’i.    The Navy got a special exemption that allowed them to sell excess land to private land owners as long as the proceeds were used to redevelop Ford Island (Moku’ume’ume).   Here’s the article from the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

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Source: http://www.staradvertiser.com/business/businessnews/20101031_Condos_possible_for_Kalaeloa.html

Condos possible for Kalaeloa

The buyer of the former military housing lays plans for that option

By Andrew Gomes

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Oct 31, 2010

More than 500 homes in Kalaeloa built for military rental housing may one day be sold as condominiums under a conversion process that would be a first in Hawaii.

The company that bought the homes five years ago, Carmel Partners, said it may never sell the rental residences as condos, but it has laid the groundwork for a condo conversion as an option.

Others familiar with the project believe Carmel has long maintained an interest to sell the homes as condos but that the housing market slump that emerged in 2008 made such a move unattractive at least for now.

San Francisco-based Carmel bought 520 mostly townhomes in three neighborhoods called Orion Housing, Orion Park and Makai Housing in 2005 from a private partnership that acquired the homes and other real estate at the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station from the Navy in 2003.

The average price Carmel paid was $152,885 per home on the base area now known as Kalaeloa.

Carmel has renovated most units, which are rented to military and nonmilitary tenants. Renovations are slated to be completed on the last 60 homes early next year.

In August, Carmel registered the 284 Makai homes as condo units by filing a report with the state Real Estate Commission. The report defines the units and discloses other important information to potential buyers. The filing followed similar reports Carmel registered with the commission in 2006 for the 116 Orion homes and 120 Orion Park homes.

Frank Striegl, Carmel’s vice president of asset management, said there is no present effort or plan to sell the Kalaeloa homes as condos, adding that the project is doing well as rentals with an occupancy rate in the low 90 percent range.

Striegl said Carmel registered the project with the commission as a condo conversion to diversify its investment exit options beyond selling the homes in bulk to another rental operator.

“We may never retail it off,” he said. “It’s a successful rental project.”

Affordable housing advocates often have concerns about affordable rentals being removed from inventory for condo conversion, though such conversions typically add to the inventory of affordable homes for sale.

Dividing the Kalaeloa rental property into condo units adds value to the project because of the potential for Carmel or a future owner to sell the homes as condos for considerably more than can be obtained by selling the property as a rental project.

Local developer Peter Savio, who has converted numerous rental apartment projects in Hawaii for sale as condos and bid on buying the Kalaeloa homes with the intent of converting them to condos, said a condo conversion would maximize Carmel’s return on its investment.

“Their exit strategy is not going to be selling it to another rental operator,” Savio said. “In Hawaii our real estate is expensive and our rents are low. They bought the property for the purpose of selling it as condominiums, then the market collapsed.”

Even if Carmel ends up not selling the Kalaeloa homes as condos, filing condo conversion reports with the Real Estate Commission increases the value of the property should Carmel decide to sell the rental complex to another buyer.

If Carmel or another developer proceeds with condo sales, it would be a unique conversion in Hawaii — perhaps the first instance of military housing being converted for sale as condos and becoming subject to local government design and permitting rules.

Converting former military housing for sale presents unique challenges and uncertainties because the federal government built the homes to its own standards that in some areas don’t comply with county building codes. There also is an absence of construction and engineering documents that means some things about the project — including its susceptibility to flooding and existence of potentially hazardous building materials — are unknown, according to Carmel’s condo report.

The Makai homes were built in 1973, followed by the Orion and Orion Park homes in 1994.

When the military sold the property, the zoning of the land automatically changed from a federal designation to general preservation, not residential. The city Department of Planning and Permitting granted a zoning variance for the project as a nonconforming use on preservation land. However, the city agency can’t determine whether the homes qualify as a legal nonconforming use because of a lack of documentation about the property, according to Carmel’s report.

According to studies of the property commissioned by Carmel from engineering and architectural firms, the homes are generally in good condition and feature more spacious layouts and yards than most townhouse subdivisions in Hawaii.

But certain elements don’t comply with city building codes, including guardrails that are spaced too far apart and lanai sliding doors not made with safety glass. Other elements that may need upgrading to comply with county codes include fire alarms and some electrical outlets, according to an assessment by Ernest M. Umemoto AIA Architect Inc.

Specialty testing for lead paint and asbestos wasn’t conducted, though no obvious signs of such harmful material were observed by the Umemoto survey.

If the Kalaeloa housing were sold as condos and became subject to city permitting standards, the Umemoto report said it would be a test case for how the city processed permits for upgrades or repairs.

However, the state’s Hawaii Community Development Authority is assuming zoning and planning authority over the former Barbers Point Naval base and intends to apply urban zoning to the former military housing as early as January. The designation would eliminate the issue about the homes being nonconforming.

Another unusual feature of the Kalaeloa homes is that electricity, water and waste-water utilities are still controlled by the Navy. However the HCDA is exploring possibilities for having traditional utility operators take over the services.

Future changes to zoning and utility operations can be updated in Carmel’s condo reports, which generally are good for about a year but can be extended annually with or without changes.

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Court criticizes Army on Makua training

A federal judge criticized the Army’s environmental impact reports on the impact of its training activities in Makua valley. The Environmental News Service reported:

… a federal judge today ruled that the community has a right to know how live-fire military training in a nearby valley could damage cultural sites and marine resources.

U.S. District Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway ruled that the Army failed to give the community crucial information on how military training at Makua Military Reservation on the island of Oahu could damage Native Hawaiian cultural sites and contaminate marine resources on which area residents rely for subsistence.

The community organization, Malama Makua, represented by Earthjustice, the only nonprofit environmental law firm in Hawaii, filed suit in August 2009 to set aside the Army’s environmental impact statement for proposed military training in Makua Valley until it completes key marine contamination studies and archaeological surveys.

The Army was required to complete the studies by an October 2001 settlement of Malama Makua’s earlier lawsuit challenging the Army’s failure to prepare an EIS for Makua, as well as a related settlement in January 2007.

. . .

Malama Makua points to archaeological evidence indicating that Makua Valley had a thriving Hawaiian community before European contact. Makua Valley is a sacred place to native Hawaiians, the mythic birthplace of the Hawaiian people.

Under legal settlements agreed in October 2001 and January 2007, the Army is required to complete comprehensive subsurface archaeological surveys to identify cultural sites that could be damaged or destroyed by the planned resumption of live-fire military training in the valley.

In today’s ruling, the Judge Mollway concluded that the Army “failed to conduct any subsurface survey” in several areas within Makua’s Company Combined Arms Assault Course and, thus, “violated its agreement to survey ‘all areas’ of the CCAAC.”

The settlements also require the Army to conduct comprehensive studies to determine the potential for training activities to contaminate fish, shellfish, edible seaweed called limu, and other marine resources at Makua that Waianae Coast residents gather for subsistence purposes.

Judge Mollway concluded the Army “did not comply with its contractual obligation to conduct a meaningful survey … that evaluates the potential that the Army’s activities at [Makua] were contributing to contamination or posting a human health risk to area residents who rely on marine resources for subsistence.”

“The Army says that, if the arsenic it found in limu at Makua is toxic, even occasionally eating it would put you at risk of cancer like smoking a pack of cigarettes each day,” said Malama Makua board member Vince Dodge. “But then the Army didn’t bother to figure out if the arsenic is or isn’t toxic.”

“I’m glad the court is telling the Army it needs to finish the study and let me know if military training is poisoning the food I put on my family’s table,” Dodge said.

Today’s ruling did not resolve Malama Makua’s claim that the Army violated its duty to identify and study the fish, shellfish, limu, and other marine resources on which area residents rely for subsistence. That issue will be resolved at trial, which is scheduled for February 23, 2011.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

The Honolulu Star Advertiser reported on this as well.    Meanwhile, the AP reported:

A federal judge has said the Army failed to give the community crucial information on how military training in Makua Valley could damage Native Hawaiian cultural sites.

The environmental law firm Earthjustice says U.S. District Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway also held Wednesday that the Army failed to show how the training at Makua Military Reservation could contaminate marine resources used by area residents.

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Wife of Kane’ohe marine dies in motorcycle crash on Pali Highway

The Honolulu Star Advertiser reported that a wife of a Kane’ohe Marine died today in a motorcycle accident:

A woman who lost control of her motorcycle was run over and killed by another cyclist on the Pali Highway this afternoon, police said.

The two were riding as part of a group.

…

The woman, 22, was taken to the trauma center, where she was pronounced dead, said Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city Department of Emergency Services. Police said she was the wife of a Kaneohe Marine.

A male motorcyclist, 23, was treated at the scene and also transported to the trauma center. Police said he is a Kaneohe Marine but not the woman’s husband.

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