I rise today to introduce legislation to build a new national cemetery in Hawai‘i. I am joined by my Hawai’i colleagues, Congresswoman Jill Tokuda, and Senator Mazie Hirono, who is introducing the companion bill in the Senate.
Our nation has a special responsibility to our veterans. They served with selfless service, courage and sacrifice to defend our nation. As a fitting measure of respect for their service, our federal government provides a burial benefit for veterans who meet certain criteria. This benefit is a solemn national recognition of our veterans’ service and a dignified final tribute.
Veterans who qualify for burial benefits have a choice about their final resting place, including burial in a national cemetery. The national cemetery in Hawai‘i is the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, often referred to as “Punchbowl.”
Few national cemeteries can compete with the natural beauty and calm of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, which is nestled in a quiet 100,000-year-old volcanic crater at the foot of the Ko‘olau Mountains. It’s lush green lawns and sprawling banyan and monkeypod trees offering a serene and natural amphitheater that creates a peaceful place for solemn remembrance.
With a rich history linking the site to the Native Hawaiian people and the defense of Honolulu during the Second World War, the cemetery opened to the public on July 19, 1949, with services for five who lost their lives in service to our nation: an unknown serviceman, two Marines, an Army lieutenant and one civilian—noted war correspondent Ernie Pyle. Since then, it has become the final resting place for an estimated 53,000 veterans from World War I, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the War on Terror.
Sadly, we have begun to run out of room to bury our nation’s heroes at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. It became essentially closed to casketed burials in 1991 and will stop accepting cremated remains by 2036. This is a serious concern for the roughly 115,000 veterans living in Hawai‘i, some 11% of the state’s population.
To maintain equitable access to burial benefits in a national cemetery for veterans residing in Hawai‘i, where the next closest national cemetery is over 2,500 miles way, our nation must begin the construction of a new cemetery. The work should start immediately, as developing a new national cemetery involves many phases, including community consultation, which can take more than eight years to complete.
I urge my colleagues to support me in this effort to ensure we can assure a fitting last resting place in a national cemetery for our nation’s veterans in Hawai‘i.
