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Banzai Rock Beach Support Park ,  North Shore, Oahu

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Introduction

The word banzai, Japanese for “ten thousand years,” is commonly used in Hawai’i at parties to offer a toast calling for a “cheers.” However, during World War II, banzai was also a war cry, and banzai charges, suicidal attacks by Japanese soldiers, were well known to American soldiers in the Pacific. After the war ended in 1945, military personnel stationed in Hawai’i who still had vivid memories of the war named the beach between Rocky Point and Rock Pile, Banzai Beach, a comment on the dangerous, often deadly waves that pound this shore during the winter months. Rock Pile, a large lava rock formation at the west end of the beach, was called the Banzai Rock.

Banzai Rock Beach Support Park, an undeveloped 2.3-acre park between Ke Nui and Ke Waena Roads, provides public parking and access to the beach and the surf sites offshore, Off-the-Walls and Rock Piles.

Public amenities: parking.

Ocean activities: bodyboarding, fishing, surfing.

This description is taken from John R. K. Clarks book "Beaches of Oahu - Revised Edition" which is published by University of Hawai'i Press and available from amazon.com at this link. We thank John R. K. Clark for providing his description of Hawaii's beaches to improve beach safety.