PacificWarMemorial.org
Title
The Pacific War Memorial Association, Iwo Jima Memorial
Description
History of Pacific War Memorial Project
The Pacific War Memorial was dedicated on Saturday, March 16, 2002, at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay. The monument, a replica of the National Iwo Jima Memorial at Newington, Connecticut, was gifted to the United States Marine Corps by the Pacific War Memorial Association (PWMA), a 501(c)(3) organization registered in Hawaii. The dedication ceremony was the culmination of seven years of effort and dedication on the part of a determined couple from Kamuela, and the non-profit organization they formed to complete the task. Mr. and Mrs. Sefton R. Clark (a.k.a. “Alice” and “Bee”) spearheaded the effort to recapture the history between the U.S. military and the people of Hawaii during and immediately following the end of World War II. They succeeded not only through community involvement and education, but also in bronze and stone.
In the days and weeks following the Japanese Imperial Navy’s attack on Pearl Harbor and other U.S. military sites on O’ahu on December 7, 1941, everyone here in Hawaii – military servicemembers and residents alike – suspected that there might be additional enemy attacks. As the months went by, more and more units moved into the Pacific from the Mainland to fight what was to become an “island hopping” campaign. Hawaii’s strategic importance to the war effort soon became clear. Sites in Hawaii were selected where troops could return after surviving the Pacific battles, to recuperate, be reinforced and train to go back to the fight.
Waimea (as Kamuela was known in those days) was a Big Island town of about 400 residents, many of whom were Japanese immigrants from Hiroshima. Richard Palmer Kaleioku Smart, then owner of the huge Parker Ranch on the Big Island, offered to lease 40,000 acres of the ranch to the U.S. Marine Corps, for training. The Second and Fifth Marine Divisions would both train there, while the 4
