MOANALUA — Nearly lost among the dignitaries, officials and hundreds of well-wishers who showed up Friday for the kickoff of a yearlong 60th anniversary celebration of Tripler Army Medical Center was a demure Barbara Kimura, 83, formerly of 'Ewa. She had been there the day the medical facility officially opened on Sept. 10, 1948.

Almost too shy to speak, Kimura was nonetheless wide-eyed at what Tripler had become.

"This is the first time I've come here since 1957," Kimura said as she stood in the corridors where she worked as an obstetrics and gynecology administrator for nine years before moving to Japan.

"It is beautiful. It has changed immensely," she said. "It was still under construction when we came to work here. And it never looked so wonderful. I'm very impressed."

The iconic Tripler Army Medical Center on Moanalua Ridge — that colossal pink building that can be seen from practically anywhere in Honolulu — came about as a result of the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Anticipating a huge increase in the number of wartime casualties, the Army in 1944 authorized the building of a facility large enough to handle the load. By the time it opened, World War II was over. Looming on the horizon, though, was the Korean War, during which more than 60,000 air evacuees passed through Tripler. The center later played an important role treating returning prisoners of war during the Vietnam War era.

Today, Tripler is the home of the Pacific Regional Medical Command and is the largest medical facility in the Pacific. Its staff of 4,200 serves nearly 800,000 eligible beneficiaries in the region.

On Friday, speakers from Gov. Linda Lingle to three former Tripler commanding generals praised the institution for its accomplishments, such as being the first healthcare facility in Hawai'i to offer AIDS testing to all admitted patients, and the first in the state to perform a laparoscopic gall bladder removal.

"You can be proud of your 60th anniversary," Maj. Gen. Carla Hawley-Bowland, who headed Tripler in 2006 and 2007, told the crowd on the front lawn by the flagpole. "Your innovations, your creativity, your 'ohana spirit keep this place together and keep this place at the forefront of excellence in Army medicine."

Tripler has endured dark chapters. From 1997 to 2007, the federal government paid more than $37 million in damages in three cases involving a toddler and two infants who suffered severe brain damage at Tripler, courts ruled.

For the anniversary, Tripler had a memorabilia display at the hospital's Kyser Auditorium and a 1948-style cafeteria lunch at its Anuenue Cafe, backed by '40s music and menu items made from recipes straight out of the postwar era.

"There's fascinating history here," said Mindy Anderson, chief of public affairs at Tripler. "I went though some of the archives we have and our guest books list everybody from Dear Abby to Dorothy Lamour, who came through on Dec. 25, 1952. And Robert and Ethel Kennedy were here in 1961. And Jack Dempsey was here. And so was Louis Armstrong. And that's just the tip of the iceberg."

Some names aren't listed in the guest book. Donald Devaney, Tripler provost marshal and its unofficial historian, said in the late 1980s, to avoid pesky reporters, he secretly sneaked Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos in and out of the hospital for three days when the former Philippines president and first lady were living in exile in Honolulu.

Looking over a table full of exhibition photos, letters, newspapers and curios from the past destined for a time capsule to be opened on the 100th anniversary of Tripler in 2048, Alfred Arakaki, 84, recalled when Tripler was not pink and was located in barracks buildings prior to 1948.

"We lived in Kalihi Valley, and back then Tripler was just over the ridge from Kalihi Valley," said Arakaki, who fought in Europe during World War II with the 100th Infantry Battalion. "We were in grammar school, and Tripler Army General Hospital was right across the street from Fort Shafter. They had a ball field, and we used to go there to watch the big-time players."