Fort DeRussy Beach Park

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Fort DeRussy is a beach-front military reservation in the Waikiki area. The beach stretches between Kahanamoku Beach and the Outrigger Hotel. While it is under the jurisdiction of the US Army, most of the park, including the beach, is open to the public.

The Army purchased this land from a Chinese billionaire in 1904. The army built defensive batteries there, but after a test of the guns shattered the windows of nearby resorts, that use was discontinued. Battery Randolph then became an R&R installation during the Vietnam War. Today it houses the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaiʻi.

I walked the beach from Kahanamoku to the end of DeRussy each morning to watch the sun rise over Diamond…