Ship shape

Pearl Harbor Kiwanians maintain a piece of history.

Story by Sam Stall
Photos by Kent Nishimura

Thanks to a strange twist of fate, Kiwanian Kay Tokunaga has become something of an expert on battleship maintenance. She’s secretary of the Kiwanis Club of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and for the last few years she, her fellow Kiwanians and kids from five area Key Clubs have spent one Saturday morning each month helping to keep the Battleship Missouri Memorial shipshape.

“It’s been a really worthwhile partnership,” Tokunaga says.

The memorial primarily consists of the decommissioned USS Missouri, a hulking battleship best known for hosting the Japanese surrender ceremony that ended World War II. Now a floating museum, it’s maintained by approximately 150 paid staffers, plus a swarm of volunteers—including the Pearl Harbor Kiwanians and their Key Clubbers.

Not that Tokunaga and company clean the entire ship. They’ve “adopted” its bridge and wardroom, spending their Saturdays buffing every brass surface (of which there are plenty) to a high shine.

“Polishing the brass takes a lot of elbow grease,” Tokunaga says. “But when it’s polished nicely, it’s just beautiful.”

Spiffing up every inch of Big Mo (the Missouri’s nickname) is beyond the powers of even the most industrious club, however. The vessel is 887 feet long, making it 332 feet longer than the Washington Monument is tall. “It’s very possible to get lost below decks if you don’t know your way around,” says Neil K. Yamamoto, a member of the Missouri’s full-time staff and vice president of the Kiwanis Club of Kaneohe.

Angelika Galanza, president of the Waipahu High School Key Club, has helped out for four years aboard Big Mo. She can attest to the intimidating scale of the ship—and to what a privilege it is to help maintain such a unique vessel.

“It’s something you can cherish,” Galanza says. “You get to visit over and over again, and you’re a part of something that’s important to history.”

Yamamoto makes a point of helping the Key Clubbers understand that role by taking them on tours below decks when time permits. As for Tokunaga, she prefers to stay in the spaces she knows.

“As many times as I’ve been on the battleship,” she says, “I still have a hard time figuring out exactly where everything is.”

HONOLULU, HI – SATURDAY, APRIL 30: During a clean up by the Hawaii chapters of Kiwanis International aboard the USS Missouri at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at Pearl Harbor on April 30, 2016 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

HONOLULU, HI – SATURDAY, APRIL 30: During a clean up by the Hawaii chapters of Kiwanis International aboard the USS Missouri at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at Pearl Harbor on April 30, 2016 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

HONOLULU, HI – SATURDAY, APRIL 30: During a clean up by the Hawaii chapters of Kiwanis International aboard the USS Missouri at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at Pearl Harbor on April 30, 2016 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

HONOLULU, HI – SATURDAY, APRIL 30: During a clean up by the Hawaii chapters of Kiwanis International aboard the USS Missouri at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at Pearl Harbor on April 30, 2016 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

This story originally appeared in the March 2017 issue of Kiwanis magazine.