Off Track: Pearl Harbor Prepares for Transition

Photo courtesy of the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor

As Hawaii (and the nation) prepares to mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, detective work is being done on Ford Island, where sailors and airmen weathered the first blows of the Japanese attack.

The Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor occupies buildings on Ford Island, still in the heart of an active U.S. Navy base, and has undertaken a variety of efforts to preserve and restore the historic structures. Elissa Lines, the museum’s executive director of development, has been hard at work raising donations and grants to support efforts to preserve and protect the hangars, runway, and a control tower that was still being prepared for action (converted from its original use as a weather tower) as the attack arrived. One of the three hangars that were hit was restored in 2006, and houses aircraft and other exhibits including flight simulators that allow the museum’s 225,000 annual visitors to get a feel for aerial battle of the time. Another has been partially restored, and is currently used for aircraft restoration; a third hangar still under Navy control is part of the museum’s future plan.

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Thanks to Gordon Lau for emailing in this article