Memorial Day was always a really meaningful day in my family. When I was growing up, my parents would always make sure that we understood that our Grandfathers were WW2 veterans (in addition to our Great Uncles and even a Great Aunt). My dad had an amazing scrapbook, passed down to him from his grandmother, of his dad, uncles and aunt during the war. His grandmother had saved cards, telegrams and photos and left us this amazing book of a major part of our family history. He gave it to me a few years ago which officially makes me the new family historian on his side of the family.

On my mom’s side we didn’t get so lucky. There are very few photos and very little information about my Grandfather throughout his life. I know very little about him and he died on Memorial Day in 1985, when I was just a small child. I remember tiny pieces of him, as he left us at a time when I just beginning to accumulate memories that I would actually be able to carry with me into adulthood. I mostly know him by the stories my parents tell.

One of the things my mom always told us is that he loved gadgets and technology. She says if he was around today he would be into all the phones, tablets…you name it. I love this! I love this because even though I’m not super techie, and he clearly wasn’t into having his photo taken, the very fact that I can use technology to manipulate photos and create digital art would probably be a real connecting point for us. The merging of technology and photography would likely be something we could bond over. So in a weird way, practicing photography connects me to him…and, ironically, it was a rare photograph of him that made me realize this.

A few years ago I needed a photo of him for a project. I had my brother scouring my parent’s house for any photo of him during the war and he scanned and emailed me a handful. I did my project and saved the photos. Then last year I was organizing faimily photos on my hard drive and came across them again. In two of the photos he appeared to be at the same building and I wondered what it might be. I thought if I could figure out what the building was, at least we would know one detail. My mom is always saying that she wants to go see Pearl Harbor because she wants to stand where her father stood. I thought if I could find this building, and if by any stroke of luck it was still standing, then she literally could go stand in the exact spot where he stood.

Rare photos of my Grandfather at a mystery building in Hawaii.

It took me FOREVER!!! There was nothing written on the photo and no one in the family had a clue what the building was or if it might even still be standing. My mother was certain it was during the time he was in Hawaii. So I went with that. It was post Pearl Harbor so I was fairly certain it wasn’t any of the base buildings, as the base was in shambles and what remained would likely be used by Naval personnel. I started doing simple searches for Hawaii buildings in WW2, buildings around Honolulu where Army personnel might either bunk or frequent, and realized I was going to get nowhere fast. Almost all the images that came up were of the destruction at Pearl Harbot. I regrouped, narrowed my search ideas and got strategic. During WW2 a lot of businesses/buildings were commandeered by the the military, so I thought that might be the case with this building. I started looking at hotels and government buildings  around Honolulu to see if anything looked familiar and was about to give up hope when I spotted it!

Armed Services YMCA to Hawaii State Art Museum