From our Files

December archives

1937

Isle resident C.H. Martin describes skiing the slopes of Mauna Kea as part of a Hawaii Tourist Bureau effort to determine whether the sport could become a major Hawai’i attraction. “All that may be considered typically Hawaiian was lost completely in the endless rolling open slopes that stretched out before us,” Martin writes in Paradise of the Pacific. “Tremendous vertical descents can be made with no fear of running into rocks or gulches. Of the four essential elements-heat, cold, rain and light—the latter gave us the most concern. … The intensity of ultra-violet light at that elevation was found to be extremely high. Unusually dark glasses are necessary, and … ordinary lipstick became a valuable accessory.”

1957

“The passage of 16 years has not lessened to any degree the tragedy of that day in which the United States suddenly found herself plunged into war,” writes Paradise of the Pacific of the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1950, Adm. A.W. Radford ordered a wooden platform placed over the sunken Arizona, where the flag is still raised every morning. Since then, the Pacific War Memorial Commission has pushed to create a permanent, simple memorial over the hull of the ship and recently began raising funds for the project. “This would allow … a suitable and permanent shrine to gallant shipmates,” the magazine writes. The USS Arizona Memorial was eventually dedicated in 1962.