The World War II Conflict Landscape of South Maui

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

During World War II, the Hawaiian island of Maui served as the core of US naval aviation in the Pacific, while its beaches and offshore environment provided the ideal practice setting for amphibious combat. South Maui was transformed into a major military training sphere, succeeding periods of sustained, pre-Contact habitation, post-Contact prosperity, partial abandonment, and conversion to agricultural lands. The military buildup’s effect on the area is perhaps best viewed through the Conflict Landscape approach, which seeks to examine the lasting physical and psychological legacies of conflict. This presentation aims to elucidate the military and civilian perspectives in hopes of understanding how South Maui’s World War II landscape was experienced, and the ways in which this obscured the past, while laying the foundation for today’s controversial, socio-economic situation. Evidence for these interpretations consists of archaeological insights, from both terrestrial and submerged contexts, as well as archival sources and recorded testimonies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow