1944 Lewis Pictorial Map of the 13th Replacement Depot, Oahu, Hawaii

This is a 1944 Clyde Lewis pictorial map, or 'cartograph' of the mostly forgotten Thirteenth Replacement Depot near Wahiawa on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The map depicts the entire depot, from the Military Police checkpoint at the entrance to the base to the jungle surrounding the base. Numerous locations around the base are labeled, including the motor pool, the officer's quarters, officer's mess hall, officer's club, the library, the post exchange, and the processing center. Other locations, such as the chaplain’s office and the obstacle course are also labeled, as well as the streets! Soldiers stationed at the depot are illustrated doing several activities, such as playing baseball and tennis, watching a show at the open-air theater, and training either on the obstacle course, participating in maneuvers, or suffering through the gas chamber. An army band is also illustrated. Soldiers would receive weekend passes, usually every other weekend, and were welcome to go into Honolulu from Saturday into Sunday. One of the ways that they could get to Honolulu was by a special train, which is depicted in the upper right corner.

Soldiers stationed at a replacement depot were sent there to fill in for front line troops who were either killed or wounded in action. This means that they could spend anywhere from one to four weeks at the depot. Replacement depots are remembered as being used mainly in Europe, thus the Thirteenth Replacement Depot has been largely forgotten. References to the depot are scarce, and through our research it appears that the depot may have been taken over by Schofield Barracks. We also located a reference to the Depot housing Japanese prisoners of war during World War II.

This map was drawn by Private First Class Clyde Lewis and published by Special Projects Branch Information-Education Section, CPBC.