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Punchbowl Crater is an extinct volcanic tuff cone located in
Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
. It is the location of the
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (informally known as Punchbowl Cemetery) is a United States national cemetery, national cemetery located at Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii. It serves as a memorial to honor those men and wo ...
. The crater was formed some 75,000 to 100,000 years ago during the secondary activity of the
Honolulu Volcanic Series The Honolulu Volcanics are a group of volcanoes which form a volcanic field on the island of Oahu, Oʻahu, Hawaii, Hawaiʻi, more specifically in that island's southeastern sector and in the city of Honolulu from Pearl Harbor to the Mokapu Penin ...
. A crater resulted from the ejection of hot
lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock ( magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or ...
through cracks in the old
coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. C ...
which, at the time, extended to the foot of the Koolau Mountain Range. The volcano is most likely a monogenetic volcano, meaning that it only erupted once. Although there are various translations of the Punchbowl's Hawaiian name, "Pūowaina," the most common is "Hill of Sacrifice." This translation closely relates to the history of the crater. The first known use was as an altar where Hawaiians offered
human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...
s to their gods and killed violators of the many taboos. Later, during the reign of Kamehameha the Great, a battery of two cannons was mounted at the rim of the crater to salute distinguished arrivals and signify important occasions. Early in the 1880s, leasehold land on the slopes of the Punchbowl opened for settlement and in the 1930s, the crater was used as a rifle range for the Hawaii National Guard. Anti-aircraft guns located there were fired during the Japanese attack December 7, 1941. The US Navy built the Nimitz Bowl in 1944 in Punchbowl Crater for USO Hawaii shows and sports.Nimitz Bowl
The Honolulu Advertiser, Honolulu, Hawaii, 12 April 1944, Page 8 Toward the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, tunnels were dug through the rim of the crater for the placement of shore batteries to guard
Honolulu Harbor Honolulu Harbor, also called ''Kulolia'' and ''Ke Awa O Kou'' and the Port of Honolulu , is the principal seaport of Honolulu and the State of Hawaii in the United States. From the harbor, the City & County of Honolulu was developed and urbanized ...
and the south edge of
Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...
. During the late 1890s, a committee recommended that the Punchbowl become the site for a new cemetery to accommodate the growing population of Honolulu. The idea was rejected for fear of polluting the water supply and the emotional aversion to creating a city of the dead above a city of the living. Fifty years later,
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
authorized a small appropriation to establish a national cemetery in Honolulu with two provisions: that the location be acceptable to the
War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War (1789–1947) See also * War Office, a former department of the British Government * Ministry of defence * Ministry of War * Ministry of Defence {{ ...
, and that the site would be donated rather than purchased. In 1943, the
governor of Hawaii The governor of Hawaii ( haw, Ke Kiaʻaina o Hawaiʻi) is the head of government of the U.S. state of Hawaii and its various agencies and departments, as provided in the Hawaii State Constitution Article V, Sections 1 through 6. It is a directl ...
offered the Punchbowl for a national cemetery. The $50,000 appropriation proved insufficient, however, and the project was deferred until after World War II. By 1947, Congress and veteran organizations placed a great deal of pressure on the military to find a permanent burial site in Hawaii for the remains of thousands of World War II servicemen on the island of
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awaiting permanent burial. Subsequently, the Army again began planning the Punchbowl cemetery; in February 1948 Congress approved funding and construction began. 600px, left, Diamond Head, Punchbowl Crater and Honolulu from Na Pueo park


References


U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific



Interactive visuals that show the caldera known as Punchbowl, the cemetery within and its location in Honolulu.
* {{Quaternary Footer Volcanoes of Oahu Tuff cones Geography of Honolulu Extinct volcanoes Monogenetic volcanoes Pleistocene volcanoes Pleistocene Oceania Cenozoic Hawaii Honolulu