Abstract
The first visitor center and museum, opened in 1980 to accommodate growing numbers of visitors and managed by the National Park Service, was expanded in 2010 as the centerpiece of the new "World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument" comprising a number of memorials and museums around Pearl Harbor.The original narratives attached to the site focused upon the military attack and aftermath, coinciding well with the commemorative spirit of the memorial, but as the visitor center grew its historical and educational breadth widened, offending some critics who do not find broader historical education appropriate alongside a war grave, or that ritual practices should extend from US military remembrance into acknowledging foreigners and/or civilians, nor into themes of peace and reconciliation.While the Pearl Harbor memorial complex and visitor center is the most visited tourist site in Hawaii, it is one of the least visited places for local residents, a fact that highlights the gap between national historical narratives and local subjectivities, with (until recently) no Hawaiian perspectives on display and little illustration of the distinctly colonial Pacific island society (which included indigenous Hawaiians, and "Mainlanders" [or Europeans], Filipinos and Japanese Americans, among others) in place in the islands on the eve of WWII.