This is the Konan High School Brass Ensemble from Ashiya, Japan. 

It’s a rocking ensemble.  Check out this clip of the band playing today in Bishop Square, downtown Honolulu, outside the Hawaii Magazine offices. 

Honolulu has become a crossroads for East and West, so it’s no surprise that Konan High does a yearly band exchange with an O‘ahu school, Le Jardin.

On Monday, the Konan Brass played the Battleship Missouri Memorial.  In other words, they performed in the shadow of the USS Missouri.  And it was onboard the Missouri, on Sept. 2, 1945, that Japan surrendered, bringing World War II to a close. 

We like the symbolism—the Missouri Memorial is currently home to a “Parade of Bands.”  Continuing through June—and during a second season from Nov. 11 until Dec. 7—more than 2,000 students from more than 40 bands perform at the Memorial.

For more information about the Parade of Bands program, contact Bobi Baclaan, special events coordinator, at (808) 455-1600 ext. 247 or email bobib@ussmissouri.org.

 

Planning a visit to Pearl Harbor this summer?

The Battleship Missouri Memorial has scheduled a series of special tours and ceremonies in June, commemorating the 67-year-old battleship’s 10th anniversary in Pearl Harbor.

Special guided tours of the historic vessel will be offered throughout June:

Tour guides will share stories of crewmember experiences on the “Mighty Mo”—from World War II through Operation Desert Storm—on the Generations Tour—offered at 2 p.m. daily, beginning June 1. Among other facts, you’ll hear how the once rusting battleship was saved from the scrap heap and turned into a memorial, and see the on-board site where Japan formally surrendered World War II.

The Weapons Tour—offered at 1:30 p.m. daily, beginning June 1—is pretty much just that: A detailed look at the array of weaponry the battleship utilized in its five decades of active service. Ask nice and they may even show you the exact spot beneath the anti-aircraft guns where Cher shimmied in her semi-infamous “If I Could Turn Back Time” video.

Both tours will be an hour long, and require a separate admission fee.

On June 21—a full decade since the Missouri docked permanently at Pearl Harbor—the “A Mighty Mahalo” celebration will offer a day-long slate of pierside events.

For admission prices and more information on Battleship Missouri Memorial 10th anniversary events, call the memorial at (877) 644-4896.

The Battleship Missouri Memorial’s Web site is here.
 

The flags of the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor are flying at half-mast today to honor the life of Margaret Truman Daniel.

The only child of President Harry S. Truman died in Chicago, IL, on Tuesday. A singer, radio and television host and best-selling author, she was 83.

She is remembered by the Battleship Missouri’s staff and volunteers for christening the “Mighty Mo” exactly 64 years ago yesterday. Then just 19, Margaret Truman launched the ship into service by smashing a bottle of champagne on its hull at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. Her father—then a Missouri senator—gave a speech at the Jan. 29, 1944 ceremony.

The photos, on the right, show Margaret Truman christening the Mo; and enjoying lunch with a few of the battleship’s sailors in 1947.

She recently recalled her memory of the latter.

“It was fun. I was the only woman around.”

Indeed.