AN AMERICAN PLACE

 …on Oahu, Hawaii, holds the remains of more than 49,500 American military veterans.—“hill of sacrifice.” Kamehameha of Maui consolidated most of the Hawaiian Islands under his rule in 1795, whereupon he mounted guns on Puowaina’s rim to discourage seaborne attacks. That two-cannon battery saluted visiting dignitaries until Hawaii became an American territory in 1898. Honolulu developed around the base of the crater, whose shape inspired the nickname “Punchbowl.” After bulldozing the cone’s interior for use as a rifle range, the military installed artillery to defend Honolulu Harbor. In 1943, the territorial government offered the Punchbowl’s lush grounds as a permanent resting place for Pacific theater casualties. Eventually 13,000 World War II dead, 4,167 from Korea, and many from Vietnam were interred there. Overlooking the fallen, a massive Italian marble memorial honors 26,000 Americans missing in action from those conflicts.