Aloha from Hawaii!

Yes I'm now in Hawaii and WORKING!  I am part of the NEH Landmarks Workshop for College Professors.  This workshop was just made for me and my project as it is entitled:  History and Commemoration:  Legacies of the Pacific War.  I had applied for this while I was still waiting to hear about the TDFellowship and the two dovetail perfectly.  The workshop is hosted by the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii (where I an staying), the National Park Service and the Pacific Historic Parks (formerly the Arizona Memorial Assocation).  This Landmarks Workshop is a little different as it also selects professors from outside of the United States to attend.  We have a great range of folks from the Netherlands, Japan, Guam, the Philippines, China, etc as well as US professors. 

The workshop is going to be fabulous and we will have access to the best WWII historical sites on Oahu!  On our first day we take a bus tour of Ford Island with stops at the USS Utah Memorial, Pacific Aviation Museum, USS Oklahoma Memorial, USS Missouri Memorial, USS Arizona memorial wiaht a special boat tour of Pearl Harbor with dinner at the Japanese Consulate!  Later in the week we will also visit Fort Debussy, Schofield Barracks and meet both military and civilian veterans/survivors of the war.  The voices we will hear will represent a wide-range of peoples who participated -- not just Americans and Japanese.  My suitemates are all foreign scholars and bring unique views to the workshop.

 After arriving in later afternoon today I met one of my suitemates who is from the Netherlands and we headed out for a walk to the beach. We ended up after along walk around Diamond Head having a Mai Tai and snack on Waikiki Beach -- it was beautiful!

I have a week here on Oahu with the workshop.  Then I head for just a few days to beautiful Kauai where I will do some work on memorials and then golf and relax a little.  I of course will be playing some golf.  So for now Aloha and I look forward to sharing this unique experience.