As Veteran's Day approaches, we pour one out for Smith's Union Bar, which officially closed its doors after its final last call.
The bar was the oldest in Hawaiʻi, and this year will mark the first Veterans Day without the historic bar.
Dec. 7th, 2026, will be the 85th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, a day that would bring surviving veterans back to their beloved watering hole to raise a glass.
The bar's owner, Dwight Lockwood, moved away after the bar closed, but the memories remain — and thanks to efforts from local historians and Pacific Historic Parks, the photos that once graced its walls will live on.
"This bar means more to me than I could ever say. This is my heart," Lockwood said of the bar's history.
"This is a piece of living history. This is a museum."
To learn more about the photo preservation efforts, HPR spoke with retired historian for the National Park Service Daniel Martinez.
"I was glad to be part of that and to make sure that it was preserved," he told HPR. "It's local history, and we share that history of the sailors that went down there … but that history is also shared with the people that were alive and around in 1941 that were our civilians."
For Martinez, the history of the humble bar and its closure is a reflection of Honolulu's own changing history — and why it's so important to remember.
"The city is now changing. … The vestiges of 1941 are eroding as well, so it's really important that local history … stays preserved in different entities."
The history, he explained, hit close to home for his family, as it did for many others who were on island during World War II.
"My family was here on December 7 and lived in Kaimukī. My grandfather was at Red Hill during the attack, and so I've always treasured the local history because they've been lost."
More information about the Pacific Historic Parks organization can be found here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Nov. 9, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
