MAKUA, Hawai‘i — U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda joined community members Thursday in tours and meetings with officials at military sites on Oahu’s Leeward side.
They toured the Army’s Makua Military Reservation and the Navy’s Lualualei Annex, where they discussed cultural access, emergency response and environmental remediation efforts. It was Tokuda’s first time visiting Makua, one of the military’s most controversial training sites in Hawaii.
Her predecessor, former U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele, introduced the Leandra Wai Act, which would have ordered the Army to leave Makua Valley and return it to the state. Makua includes one of several parcels of land whose leases to the Army, begun in 1965, will expire in 2029.
“‘I’ve asked that it be really looked at as a whole of defense negotiation, not parcel by parcel, not branch by branch,” Tokuda said. “We look at that there are places that they want to keep, and there’s places that we can return. And I think what I felt here was huge opportunities for us to find more of that balance point that the community is asking.”
The military hasn’t fired a shot in the valley since 2004 as a result of a lawsuit brought against it by Earthjustice on behalf of local activist group Malama Makua. Since then the Army has worked to remove unexploded bombs around 22 ancient Hawaiian cultural sites, as well as hosted “cultural access” days led by Malama Makua members twice a month.
But the Army still uses Makua for helicopter and drone training, and at a Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting earlier this month, U.S. Army Pacific Commander Gen. Charles Flynn said the service hopes to retain the land to continue that training.
Former BLNR Chair William Aila, who was among the community members who joined the tours, said he was “very disappointed” by Flynn’s remarks, arguing that much of that training can be done at other training grounds across the islands. Aila has made no secret of his desire to see the military leave Makua.
Origin of training sites
After the Japanese navy’s surprise attack on Dec. 7, 1941, the U.S. military imposed martial law in Hawai‘i and took control of all of Makua for training, which meant kicking out the farmers and ranchers in the valley. Military officials assured them it would be temporary and that they would be able to return when the war was over.
But in 1945, World War II ended and the Cold War began. The military asked Hawai‘i’s territorial government for the transfer of 6,608 acres at Makua for training. In 1964, five years after statehood, the Army paid just $1 for a 65-year lease from the state to continue training on Makua and the other leased lands.
The Army’s largest and most important is the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island, which is used extensively both by U.S. and allied troops in the Pacific for large-scale maneuvers and live artillery training. Aila said some Army officials have said they themselves consider Makua their least valuable training ground.
“Guys that are in the know, that plan the training, know they don’t need it. (But) for whatever reason, policy-wise, people above them have this reluctance to give up any any land,” Aila said. “The risk for the Army right now is the longer they let these leases fester without making a decision, the greater the chance for Pohakuloa … to become the next Mauna Kea.”
Renegotiations
The leases expire in 2029, but negotiations for potential renewals will begin much sooner. In 2025 the Army will have to identify which lands it would like to renew leases on for training. Tokuda said “2025 is coming up fast and quick. So visits like this, conversations like this, are important to start them through that process of really prioritizing but also maybe taking a look at opportunities to remediate the return of certain areas.”
Lualualei is home to both a series of munitions storage facilities for both the Army and Navy, as well as a pair of large radio towers that are critical for transmitting orders to submerged submarines using the very low frequency range.
But the military is moving munitions to the Navy’s West Loch Annex, as part of a long-term plan based on findings from a 1995 land-use study commissioned by then-U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye that found it would simplify logistics, put ordnance in newer facilities and require less transportation of explosive munitions on public roads.
As those efforts wind down, several advocates on the West side would like to see similar cultural access programs to those in Makua as well as the potential return of land — some of which was formerly set aside as Hawaiian homestead land before World War II.
Public access
Community members and state officials also have pushed for roadways in the Navy-controlled land to be opened up to the public as potential evacuation routes in the event of a tsunami, hurricane or wildfire. Many leeward communities lack pathways to higher ground. Particularly since the deadly 2023 wildfire that destroyed Lahaina, concerns over evacuation routes now loom large.
Navy officials said they are working with the Army and state officials to look at ways to improve and potentially widen the narrow road on the base into the mountains to make it a more effective evacuation route.
Capt. Mark Sohaney, commander of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, said, “The road is definitely expandable. … It can definitely expand to be better, to save more lives, you know, if that comes to pass; so we’re at a good point right now.”
But Sparky Rodrigues, a member of Malama Makua and the Waianae Moku Kupuna Council, said access is the principle concern. The base is guarded by armed security with assault rifles. Rodrigues said that during the visit the heavily armed men that stood by as the group entered reminded him of the early days of Malama Makua’s cultural access in the Makua Valley when armed soldiers escorted them.
Makua Valley’s future
Today, unarmed Army officials accompany them, and members of the group say despite disagreements over the future of the valley, interactions are much more civil and respectful.
“The separation between the Army and the Navy is huge, and how they relate to the community that they’re living in,” Rodrigues said. “The difference is the Army, we have a court order; the Navy, we only have a handshake. And as command changes you’re going to see ‘I never said that,’ and no matter how many stars they wear, they’re not going to make that decision.”
He said the armed presence could be a problem in the event of a disaster if people need to use the road. He said the Lahaina fire offers a stark lesson that any delay could be deadly.
“The instruction is the state’s going to call the military to ask permission to enter because it’s an emergency,” Rodrigues said. “Is the governor or any of the authority going to call them in 15 minutes? I don’t think so.”
Aila said he was cautiously optimistic about the response of Navy officials to the visit, saying they were much more receptive than previously and acknowledged that the Navy is trying to shift many of the resources at Lualualei to West Loch. Aila told Tokuda, “When you talk to those four stars, they need to understand that a community’s not stupid, so we know what’s coming. We’re asking to be part of that planning process as we transition.”
