Queen Kapiʻolani Regional Park is the largest and second-oldest public park in Hawaii, located in Honolulu on the east end of Waikiki just beyond Kuhio Beach Park and the Waikiki residential neighborhood. The 300-acre (1.2 km2) park, named after Queen Kapiʻolani, the queen consort of King David Kalakaua, is home to the Waikiki Shell and the Honolulu Zoo.
Kapiolani Park in Days of Infamy[]
Kapiolani Park became a prison camp after the Japanese conquered Hawaii in 1942. Fletch Armitage was placed there along with a number of American POWs, and subjected to the Japanese policy of starvation and overwork.
Out of necessity, the POWs had to scavenged the park's natural resources, eating whatever birds they could catch, and chopping down trees for firewood.
Most of the surviving POWs were liberated when the U.S. reclaimed Hawaii in the summer of 1943. During the reclamation, the POWs at Kapiolani Park made a desperate escape when American forces successfully rescued the prisoners. During the escape, the POWs overcame and brutally killed their Japanese captors literally with their bare hands before quickly boarding LCVP boats.
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