Reading Infrastructure: Pipes, Water, Fuel, and Army Family Housing on O'ahu, Hawai'i

In 1873, Major General John Schofield disguised himself as a civilian to scout out the viability of the Hawaiian Islands as a military outpost. During this secret mission, his eyes wandered around the ‘Ewa area on Oah’u, registering not only the defensive capacity of the Wai Momi ("pearl water") wetlands, now known as Pearl Harbor, but also evaluating the mountainside, imagining elevated Forts flying the United States flag high so that they could be seen from incoming ships. Pearl Harbor was acquired in 1874, and by 1893, during the overthrow of the Native Hawaiian Kingdom, the War Department claimed additional land, including lands on and in the valley of the mountainside. Shortly after the acquisition, plans were drawn to build “the most beautiful bases.” On army posts like Fort Shafter and Schofield Barracks, officers' homes sprouted on curvilinear streets, framed by Royal Palm trees imported from Cuba and native Hawaiian Koa trees, symbolizing the victory of the Spanish-American War and the continued growth of the United States empire. Across the twentieth century, these posts would double in size, consuming more land, displacing Kanaka Maola, and flattening the island’s biodiverse and fragile environment. The formal and spatial strategies used in building these posts established a pattern of infrastructure design, which enabled over 1,000 contaminated sites in Hawaii alone that were caused by military use.

This paper analyzes histories of slow violence and the military’s practices of concealment by tracking underground pipes and mapping debris of war work that connect military and civilian homes. Through original floor plans, maps, and photographs, I argue that military designers and engineers connected the homes of the local population and military families to a toxic infrastructure of war work.