This Museum Is on the Grounds of Fort DeRussy

Unknown to most tourists in O’ahu, there are two interesting museums on Waikiki itself. The first is on the Ewa (Western) side on the grounds of Fort DeRussy. The building used to be part of Hawaii’s coastal defenses and was once called Battery Randolph. Today, the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii (admission free) covers the military history of Hawaii from the days of Kamehameha I with his war clubs studded with sharks’ teeth to the Viet Nam war.

Particularly interesting is the exhibit dedicated to the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The museum was closed during most of the Covid 19 epidemic but has recently re-opened. And when you have finished with the exhibits, you can wander among the shore defense cannon on the roof.

The story is that they were going to demolish Battery Randolph but found it would be too expensive as the walls were so thick. The upshot: An interesting little museum worth an hour or two of your time.

Within a few hundred yards of the museum is one of my favorite Waikiki eateries: The Shake Shack, right on Fort DeRussy Beach.

The other Waikiki museum I last visited some twenty years ago: It was a little museum dedicated to Father Damien de Veuster, a Catholic saint who dedicated his life to helping the lepers on Molokai. They are in process of expanding the museum greatly. When I saw it, it occupied a couple of rooms adjacent to Saint Augustine Catholic Church on the Diamond Head Side of Waikiki. At the time, it was free of admission costs, though I do not know the current status. Here’s where you can find more info: The Damien and Marianne of Moloka’i Education Center, costing some $6 million to build.

These are two sights you can visit without having to take one of those expensive, super-crowded tourist trolleys.