After lunch, we visited, for the most part, more militaristic places. We visited barracks, ammo storage spaces, batteries (not AA but artillery), and things of that nature. Rebecca said she was tired of it after the first couple of destinations, but I had a sort of boyish fascination. I explored all of the ammunition buildings with the puny flashlight on my Nokia.
Essentially, there were two notable places. The first was the very large artillery piece with a 17 mile firing range, with a 360 degree rotational capacity. After the Japanese took over the island, several troops climbed on top of it and yelled, "Bonsai! Bonsai! Bonsai!". There were also several shrapnel scars, some as big as my thumb. The second was the "Mile Long Barrack" which housed 6,000 troops in its heyday. Now it roughly resembles its previous structure as everything but the concrete has faded away and crumbled. Even the concrete has fallen apart in places.
Finally, our last stop, was the Pacific War Museum. There was an outdoor section of marble slabs, the brief historical facts of the Pacific Theater carved into them. There was also a chapel of sorts, essentially a dome with a hole in the top and an altar directly underneath said hole. The sun is supposed to line up with the hole sometime in April when the war ended. There was also an indoor section, which was traditional as museums go, i.e., displays and photographs and maps and uniforms donated by veterans. One thing I found particularly interesting was the display of a soldier's letters home. There were "automated" letters which were streamlined and had "Medical Condition:" and "Send My Regards To:" etc. I found it interesting because the letters were from a Houston boy, and I showed Dad and he remarked that he knew exactly where the printed address was.
Then we got back on the ferry, finished the bad movie, and went home.
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