As a way to connect the past with the present and future, National History Day® and its sponsors, the Pearl Harbor Historic Site Partners, which includes the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, Pacific Historic Parks, Battleship Missouri Memorial, and the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum at Pearl Harbor selected sixteen teacher-student high school teams to participate in Sacrifice for Freedom®: World War II in the Pacific Student & Teacher Institute, an all-expenses paid program that offers an exceptional opportunity to study World War II history on Oahu, Hawaiʻi.
This meaningful program provided an opportunity for each team to research the context of World War II in the Pacific and specifically, the life of a Silent Hero® who died during World War II and is buried in or memorialized at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. The duos selected a Silent Hero® from the same region they are from—a true hometown hero. The culmination of six months of research and preparation lead the teams to Hawaiʻi, where they shared their “eulogies” of their Silent Hero® graveside at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
In 2023, 68 teams applied for the competitive summer institute. Selected teams hailed from Arkansas, American Samoa, Arizona, Guam, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. Past teacher participants noted that the Institute was a significant professional development experience that changed how they viewed World War II in the Pacific. Student participants reported that the research and Hawaiʻi-based learning activities challenged their thinking and expanded their perspective of history.
The 2023 Class
