You cannot understand Hilo without knowing its history as a two-time tsunami survivor (1946 and 1960). This museum encompasses only a few rooms, but they're brimming with riveting information that reveals island life in the 1900s. Allow enough time to experience the multimedia exhibits, including chilling computer simulations and heart-wrenching first-person accounts. The newest section covers the Japanese tsunami of 2011, which damaged Kona.