Hawaiian DUers or tourists, is there or is there not a Shinto shrine near Pearl Harbor?

[mwb970]

A familiar conservative meme popped up in a short LTTE to the Columbus Dispatch today:

We must consider kin of 9/11 victims
(Columbus Dispatch, August 29, 2010)

There is no Shinto shrine at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and there should be no Muslim religious center at ground zero in New York.

STEVE VARGO
Columbus

Skipping over the "at ground zero" business, I have heard (as stated here) that there is no Shinto shrine at the Pearl Harbor site, I have heard that there is such a shrine there, established to symbolize peace, and I have heard that there is such a shrine but it is blocks away. (I have also heard that it is "miles away".)

I spent a frustrating half-hour with the Google this morning and cannot seem to find any actual facts (or maps, etc.) that could settle this "issue" once and for all.

Please. Are there any DUers living in Hawaii, or who perhaps have visited there, who can tell us once and for all whether there is or is not a Shinto shrine (or any Japanese presence) at or near the Pearl Harbor site?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. This older article suggests that there is

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1437

[NNN0LHI]

2. Any Christian churches near there?

http://www.martinrothonline.com/Christians&War/Christian_suicide_bomber.htm

The Christian Suicide Bomber

What does a devout Christian do when his country’s authorities force him to become a suicide bomber?

If you’re World War II kamikaze pilot Ichizo Hayashi you write a final letter to your mother stating that “for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” and you vow to “be sure to sink an enemy vessel.” Then you fly off on your deadly mission with your Bible and hymn book.

Hayashi’s tale is recounted in a remarkable book, Kamikaze Diaries by Professor Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

It tells the stories of seven young men who were compelled to become kamikaze pilots – essentially airborne suicide bombers, flying into Allied warships (the Wikipedia entry on kamikaze is here) – by the Japanese military. Most of the seven had been students at elite universities, and they kept diaries, which form the basis of the book.

It’s an invaluable study. It makes clear that high levels of coercion were used to compel the students to “volunteer” for their assignments. And it shows that these were no grinning fanatics – the image that many in the West have of the kamikaze pilots. (An image I vaguely held myself, despite having lived in Japan. It’s not a topic that the Japanese discuss much with Westerners.)

[RC]

3. Most definitely, there is

http://www.midweek.com/content/columns/justthoughts_article/the_shinto_shrine_near_pearl_harbor/
A friend e-mailed me: “Bob, I am curious. Do you recall any similar controversy about the building of a Japanese shrine in Honolulu 10 years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor?”

Yep. It involves the Kotohira Jinsha Shinto Shrine at 1239 Olomea St., just makai of the H-1 freeway in Kalihi-Palama. That’s five road miles or about 10 minutes from Pearl Harbor.

But that fuss never went national like the mosque matter. And you’d be hard-pressed today to find anybody who remembers it.


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I'm thinking Bob should know since he lives and works there.

[sandnsea]

4. Info on the Shinto Shrine

Good article, I didn't know any of this. Yes, there's a shrine on the highway between Honolulu and Pearl Harbor.

http://www.midweek.com/content/columns/justthoughts_article/the_shinto_shrine_near_pearl_harbor/