Punchbowl Crater, which is said to have been formed some 75,000 to 100,000 years ago, is the location of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
I had examined the literature on the cemetery, and I knew that two Americans, whom I had already known, were buried there, though one of them might be just a token of his life. One is a heroic journalist in the times of the Great East Asian War, Ernest Taylor "Ernie" Pyle, who had lost his life in 1945 on Iejima island near Okinawa. When I visited Okinawa, I learned about him. Another one is Ellison Shoji Onizuka from Hawaii island, who was a Japanese American and was killed by the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger, and so I'm afraid that his body wouldn't be recovered. I heard that Kona Airport was renamed to Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Ke?hole on January, 2017. It's a great honor for him.
When he was chosen as one of the crew of Space Shuttle Challenger, I was so happy. I admired him, wondering how huge the struggle with a society of fierce racial discrimination he had gone through. However, he passed away before piling up his achievement. I wanted to visit his tomb and asked our driver, but I couldn't.
Due to the growth of the tourists, commercial vehicles like buses and taxis seemed to be prohibited to pull over in the grounds. We were just able to see the cemetery from inside the taxi.
パンチボウルは国立太平洋記念墓地となっている。調べてみると僕が知っている二人の墓があるという。一人は大東亜戦争の頃の英雄的なジャーナリストでErnest Taylor "Ernie" Pyle、１９４５年伊江島で落命している。数年前に沖縄の戦跡を訪ねたときにこの名前を知った。もう一人は８６年チャレンジャーで殉職した、あのハワイ島出身の宇宙飛行士Ellison Shoji Onizuka（日本名：鬼塚承次）。昨年１月ハワイ島のコナ国際空港がエリソン・オニヅカ・コナ国際空港とされたのは記憶に新しい。
彼がスペースシャトルの乗員に選ばれたとき、本当に嬉しかった。人種差別の激しい米国に於いてどれほどの努力をされたのだろうかと尊敬していた。それなのに殉職。これは墓参に参らねばなるまい。ということで、立ち寄ることをドライバーにお願いした。
しかし、、、、カルデラ地形に興味があるのか、墓地に興味があるのか、観光客が押し寄せたため今は、バスやタクシーなど商業車は停車してはいけないという厳格なルールが出来ていて、墓地内を歩けるのは遺族だけと厳格に決められ、タクシーはゆっくりと停止せずに墓地内を廻るだけだった。日本人でパンチボウルに興味を持つ人は滅多にいない、、、と言われてしまった。(^_^;)
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