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Like Arlington, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is one of the most prominent of the many national cemeteries in the United States The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific serves as a memorial to those men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces. It is administered by the National Cemetery Administration of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and was declared a National Historic Landmark. Thousands of visitors visit the cemetery each year and it is one of the more popular tourist attractions in Hawaii. The cemetery is located in Punchbowl Crater (Puowaina in Hawaiian), located just north of downtown Honolulu. In ancient times Punchbowl was used as a site for human sacrifices, and pu-o-waina means "hill of placing (human sacrifices)." Since the cemetery was dedicated on September 2, 1949, 34,000 veterans of World War I, World War II, the Korean, and Vietnam wars have been interred. |