Memories of the Natatorium
A Swimmer Reflects on Training at the War Memorial Pool
While vacations often mean a break from the hard work of daily life, for Judith Rees, a childhood family trip to Hawaii was merely a new setting for her competitive swimming routine.
“I look back and I think, everyone else in my family went on vacation, but I was still swimming!” says Rees.
During a six-week vacation in 1957, Rees had the opportunity to train at Honolulu’s Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium under the guidance of Olympic assistant coach Soichi Sakamoto. Read on to learn about her first memories of the unique pool and memorial.
Rees stands beside coach Soichi Sakamoto.
What is your first memory of the Natatorium?
My first memory was when we went to Hawaii when I was 11 years old. I was a competitive swimmer at home in Portland, Oregon.
It was something that was an important part of my life at that time. I don’t know how my parents found [Olympic assistant coach] Soichi Sakamoto and swimming at the Natatorium, but I would guess it was my father because he was the one who was most motivated about my swimming.
I ended up there going and swimming every day [of our trip]. Sakamoto was the coach and he did things differently.
What did it feel like to swim there?
Swimming in salt water is very different from swimming in a chlorinated pool. On one hand, the saltwater is wonderful because you’re much more buoyant, but if you’re not used to swimming in saltwater—and at that time nobody wore goggles—[it would burn your eyes].
There were vents right on the edge of the beach and the seawater would come in and fill the pool. So there was a certain amount of sea life that also came into the pool, and the sides of the pool had a nice growth of seaweed on them.
As kids we weren’t always all that serious and so when you would practice kicking you’d have a kickboard and you could kind of harvest the seaweed as you went down the pool and lob it at people in other directions. That was not a feature of chlorinated pools and a lot of fun.
Rees participated in the 3rd annual Keo Nakama meet.
Sakamoto moves Rees's arms through a stroke.
What was it like training with Sakamoto?
He was unlike all the other coaches I had had. Before you even got in the water he would take your hands and go through the stroke motion with you [to demonstrate] how to really construct your stroke, how to hold your hands and your arms.
I was primarily a freestyler and then an individual medley swimmer which meant that I swam all the strokes, but my weakest stroke was breast stroke. At the end of my time with him there, the one event that I did best in was the breast stroke. When I came home, for months afterwards, my individual medley was dynamite because the breast stroke, which had been weak, was now strong. My memory of him and the Natatorium were all wrapped up together.
Do you remember your impressions of the space?
The structure itself is beautiful. I don’t know that as a child I really understood that it was a war memorial of the veterans of the First World War. It was really thoughtfully designed and it was certainly different than any other pool I ever swam in.
It faces so that the sun sets behind it, so it’s just a very dramatic site as well as being a beautiful structure.
The Natatorium closed to public use in 1979.
The Natatorium opened August 24, 1927—the birthday of Olympic Gold Medalist Duke Kahanamoku.
Sakamoto's swimmers Keo Nakama and Halo Hirose were primed to attend the 1940 Olympics games before they were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II.
Have you heard about the possible demolition of the Natatorium?
When I heard this controversy about getting rid of it, it reminded me of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum here in Portland. Here are structures that were built in memory of people who had given their all and years after we’re saying, “They’re older, they're having difficulties, we should just rip them down,” and I find that very difficult to accept. My father was a veteran of World War II and a prisoner of war in the Philippines, so I guess I take those memorials more seriously.
I would love to see [the Natatorium] restored—I know that there have been all sorts of reasons why that’s not possible over the years and there are advocates for having the whole thing taken down.
I’m certainly an advocate for its rehabilitation and restoration as a swimming pool. You were within a safe confine so that if there was an undertow you didn’t need to worry about that and there were lifeguards there as well. It was a place that the public could come and swim and really enjoy it.
