Kyle Kajihiro and co-organizers
“In Hawai’i, we conducted what we call a ‘DeTour’ (demilitarization focused geopolitical reality tour) of military-occupied sites in Hawai’i, including Ke Awalau o Pu’uloa (the original name for Pearl Harbor). The tour presented an alternative narrative of how Hawai’i was invaded and occupied by the U.S. military to expand the American empire across the Pacific and recounted the costs and consequences of those developments.
“From outside the headquarters of the Pacific Command, the oldest and largest of the U.S. unified military commands, we discussed how the military presence in Hawai’i is like a monstrous octopus with tentacles that impact other peoples and nations in the Asia-Pacific region. We also discussed how Ke Awalau o Pu’uloa, once a rich fishery and source of food and peace for O’ahu island has become a symbol of war, tragedy and contamination, and ventured to discuss how it might once again be restored as a source of life. We ended the tour at a farm and learning center on the shores of Ke Awalau o Pu’uloa where we planted trees towards the creation of new ‘bases’ for peace, justice and sustainability. ”