General | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 22, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ninth Island

I’ve never been there – and not sure I ever will – but many from Hawaiʻi have.

In fact, it’s generally known as the Ninth Island (joining Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui and Hawaiʻi.)

The place is known for gambling.

In 1855, Native Americans Paiute Indians played a roulette-like game in the sand, using bones and colored sticks.

The town of Las Vegas was born with a land auction held on May 15 and 16, 1905. At the time, no one involved could have predicted the explosive growth of the next hundred years. (unlv-edu)

Fast forward and today it’s a popular ‘second home’ to many from Hawaiʻi.

For many, the trip begins with arrangements through Vacations Hawaiʻi; that leads to charter flight scheduling; local style casino; moderate hotel accommodations (including familiar food;) and ends with favored omiyage.

This successful formula has more ties to Hawaiʻi – one of the popular packages is through Boyd Gaming at the California Hotel and Casino (The Cal,) whose founder, Sam Boyd, helped run early gaming in Hilo and Honolulu.

When he was in his 20s (1935-1940,) Boyd was in Hawaiʻi working at Hisakichi Hisanaga’s Palace Amusement, organizing Bingo games there.

The Boyd Gaming story dates back to 1941, when Sam Boyd arrived in Las Vegas with his family and just $80 in his pocket. He worked up through the ranks of the Las Vegas gaming industry, moving from dealer to pit boss to shift boss.

It wasn’t long before Boyd had saved up enough money to buy a small interest in the world-renowned Sahara Hotel.

He then moved on to become general manager and partner at The Mint in downtown Las Vegas, where he introduced a number of successful marketing, gaming and entertainment innovations.

After the Mint was sold in 1968, Sam Boyd started managing the Eldorado Casino in downtown Henderson. He had acquired it with his son, Bill Boyd, in 1962. Bill, a practicing attorney, earned his first interest in the Eldorado by doing all of its legal work.

The birth of Boyd Gaming came on January 1, 1975, when Sam and Bill Boyd founded the company to develop and operate the California Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas. At this time, Bill left the legal profession, after practicing for 15 years, and began working full-time at the California.

The California was intended to attract people from the largest state where gambling was illegal, where they could drive by car or bus to the desert – that’s why it was called the California.

The problem was that the California was not on the main strip. It was downtown but a block-and-a-half away from the Fremont Strip. California travel agents figured out it was a second-rate hotel in a bad location, so the hotel struggled.

Seeking a niche for their new property, the Boyds decided to market the property to the underserved tourists from Hawaiʻi – and one of downtown’s greatest success stories was born.

Boyd learned this during the 1930s when he lived in Hawaiʻi, working in the gambling business (when it was legal) for Hisanaga. “Not only did he learn from a great teacher in terms of gambling,” says Dr. Dennis M. Ogawa, co-author of California Hotel and Casino, “He also learned about Hawaiʻi. That changed Sam Boyd forever – the aloha.” (Honolulu Magazine)

Years before Las Vegas exploded into a desert fantasy, the hotel welcomed Hawaiʻi folks by the charter planeload, with waiters in aloha shirts serving up local food. The Cal’s beef jerky was a favored omiyage; the homemade saimin was the real deal. In Waikiki, thousands attended Boyd’s “Mahalo Parties” at the Queen Kapiʻolani Hotel and Sheraton Waikiki. (Honolulu Advertiser)

According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, in 2010, there were approximately 7,000 airline seats flying from Hawaiʻi to McCarran International Airport every week, bringing 260,000 visitors from Honolulu to the desert. (Las Vegas Sun)

Not accounting for repeat visits – of which there were likely many – and travelers continuing elsewhere, about 20 percent of all Hawaiians visited Las Vegas in one year. And some of them stayed. (Las Vegas Sun)

According to Las Vegas standards, people from Hawaiʻi are the best gamblers in the world. According to the book California Hotel and Casino: Hawaiʻi’s Home Away from Home, when the Cal first started in the late 1970s, typical Las Vegas tourists spent $300 or less on gambling during a 2 ½-day stay. Not those from Hawaiʻi. On average, folks from Hawaiʻi spent $350 gambling each day for four days. (Honolulu Magazine)

Boyd built or helped build eight big hotels and casinos in Southern Nevada. He was also a benefactor to many local organizations, including the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, which named its football stadium the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl.

Sam Boyd passed away in 1993, but the company he founded continued to grow and thrive under Bill’s leadership. Through a series of new developments and strategic acquisitions Boyd Gaming grew into a nationwide company, operating 22 casino entertainment properties in Nevada, New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida (… and Vacations Hawaiʻi.)

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January 20, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Libbyville

Pineapple (“halakahiki,” or foreign hala,) long seen as Hawaiʻi’s signature fruit, was introduced to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1813 by Don Francisco de Paula Marin, a Spanish adviser to King Kamehameha I.

Although sugar dominated the Hawaiian economy, there was also great demand at the time for fresh Hawaiian pineapples in San Francisco – commercial production of pineapples started in Mānoa.

It was during the 1890s and the first decade of the 1900s that this crop really grew economically in Hawaiʻì.

From the first canning in Hawai‘i in 1882 to the rise and fall of many small canneries, testing of different growing techniques and areas, and plantations established on different islands, the groundwork was laid for the successful establishment and growth of Hawai‘i’s largest producers: Dole’s Hawaiian Pineapple Co; Libby McNeill Libby; and California Packing Corp (Del Monte.)

In 1868, brothers Arthur and Charles Libby joined Archibald McNeill and created Libby’s, one of the world’s leading producers of canned foods began selling beef packed in brine.

In 1907, McNeill & Libby started its first fruit cannery in Sunnyvale, California. It quickly became the largest employer with a predominantly female workforce.

In the early 1900s, it established a pineapple canning subsidiary in Hawaiʻi and began to advertise its canned produce using the ‘Libby’s’ brand name.

Unlike the other bigger pineapple producers, Libby did not start in Central Oʻahu, it started in Windward O‘ahu – later, it expanded to the Leeward side, in Wahiawa and Kalihi, and then on the Maui and Molokaʻi. (Hawkins)

By 1911, Libby, McNeill & Libby gained control of land in Kāneʻohe and built the first large-scale cannery with an annual capacity of 250,000 cans at Kahaluʻu, Koʻolaupoko on the Windward side of O‘ahu; growing and canning pineapples became a major industry in the area for a period of 15 years (to 1925.)

This sizable cannery, together with the surrounding old style plantation-type housing units, became known as “Libbyville” (St John’s by the Sea now occupies the site.)

During most of the period when this cannery was in operation, the canned pineapple was transported to Honolulu by sampan from a pier just off the end of the peninsula at Wailau.

At its peak, 2,500 acres were under pineapple cultivation on Windward O‘ahu, and of this a large percentage was in the Kāne‘ohe Bay region.

The change in landscape to the Windward side by 1914 is reflected in the following sentences: “At last we reached the foot of the Pali…Joe and I looked over the surrounding hills, but looked in vain for the great areas of guava through which but a few months ago we had fought and cut our way. As far as the eye could reach pineapple plantations had taken the place of the forest of wild guava.” (Cultural Surveys)

Libby’s pineapple covered the southern portion of Kāne’ohe, what is now the Pali Golf Course, Hawaiian Memorial Park and the surrounding area.

While Libby managed the operation of large tracts of land, it was noted that, “… much of the pineapple production was carried out by individual growers on small areas of five to 10 acres. A man, a mule, a huli plow and a hoe provided most of the power and the equipment for these smaller operations. This was the typical pineapple production pattern in the area of Waikāne, Waiāhole, Kahaluʻu and ‘Ahuimanu.”

By 1923, it was evident that pineapple cultivation on the Windward area could not keep up with that in other O‘ahu areas. Crops on the Windward side were not yielding tonnages as compared with the Leeward side, fields were smaller, with wilt more prevalent, and growing costs considerably higher. Plantings were therefore reduced.

By this time, the condition of the Pali Road had been improved, and trucks with solid tires were available, so that the struggling pineapple operation found it more economical to haul the fresh pineapple to a central Libby Cannery in Honolulu.

The relatively inefficient, high production costs of operating many small scattered fields resulted in a decision to discontinue pineapple growing on the Windward side.

Many of the pineapple growing areas reverted to a native growth or pastures and some were converted to dairy operations. The Kahaluʻu cannery was closed down in the mid-1920s.

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January 15, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Look for the Mamo Hidden Under a Rock

Hawaiʻi’s capitol – the “Square Building” on Beretania, although it’s actually 360-feet x 270-feet – is full of symbolism.

In the words of Governor John A Burns, “The open sea, the open sky, the open doorway, open arms and open hearts – these are the symbols of our Hawaiian heritage … there are no doors at the grand entrances … there is no roof or dome to separate its vast inner court from the heavens … We welcome you! E Komo Mai! Come In! The house is yours!”

The perimeter pool represents the ocean surrounding the islands; the 40-concrete columns are shaped like coconut trees; the conical House and Senate chambers infer the volcanic origins of the Islands; and the open, airy central ground floor suggests the Islands’ open society and acceptance of our natural and cultural environment.

In 1959, an advisory committee was formed. They selected the Honolulu firm of Belt, Lemmon & Lo and the San Francisco firm of John Carl Warnecke & Associates to design the new state capitol.

Their design was approved by the Legislature in 1961; construction commenced in November 1965. The building opened on March 16, 1969, replacing the former statehouse, ʻIolani Palace.

A notable capitol feature central on the ground floor is the tiled mosaic “Aquarius.” The tile work is based on a painting of the same name by Tadashi Sato; the mosaic is circular (36-feet in diameter.)

Sato, the eldest of six children of Japanese immigrants who came to work on Maui’s pineapple plantations, was born (1923) and raised on Maui and attended King Kamehameha III School and graduated from Lahainaluna.

He perfected his artistic skills over the next several decades, studying in Japan and New York and eventually became recognized as a member of the abstract expressionist movement and known for his abstract and semi-abstract paintings, mosaics and murals.

He is described as “an artist with a tranquil spirit, at peace with his place in the world, who eloquently used his brush to speak about what is most true and enduring in that world”. (Maui Council)

Tadashi Sato was an artist of international stature whose work has hung in places such as New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim and Whitney, and the Willard Gallery. Aquarius is still arguably his most famous work of art.

A lot of Sato’s work goes back to recollections of the reflection of sky, submerged rocks and sparkling colors in the tide pools and coastline where he fished near Nakalele Point in West Maui. (Keiko Sato, his sister)

Standing on the upper floors of the capitol, looking down on the Aquarius mosaic, gives a view much like what Sato saw from the coastal cliffs of West Maui looking down on the shoreline and tidepools below.

In 1965, Sato was honored by President Lyndon Johnson at the White House Festival of Arts, alongside Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock and other American artists. In 1984, he was named a Living Treasure of Hawai’i by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaiʻi.

Exposure to the elements in the open air of the capitol took its toll on the mosaic. It has been replaced twice since its initial installation.

In 1988, the mosaic was replaced because it was subject to ponding water and it lacked accommodation for expansion and contraction. These factors lead to cracking, heaving and failure of the tiles and mortar bed. (SFCA)

Again, in 2005, a new set of the approximate 600,000-tiles replaced the former and a new system of drains, expansion joints, mortar bed and thicker tiles increased the mosaic’s durability and improved it significantly. (SFCA)

Coincidental, but symbolic of the diversity of cultures in Hawaiʻi, in this most recent replacement/repair, a crew of six (Hawaiian, Filipino and Portuguese (from Hawaiʻi,) and German, Polish and Italian (from abroad)) set the new tiles in place.

Fifty-seven different colors of various shades of blue, green and white tiles make up the Aquarius mosaic.

However, it was at this time a new color was added; the Italian added a single red tile to the mosaic.

Several sources incorrectly suggest the tile is representative of the artist’s signature. These folks also note you should search the mosaic for the single red tile.

However, as noted in the title of this piece, and continuing the symbolism at the capitol, folks at the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts feel Sato would prefer you look for the Mamo hidden under a rock. (The Mamo is the Hawaiian Sergeant reef fish.)

Today is opening day of the legislature. Take the time to look at Tadashi Sato’s design … and see what you can find. (Tadashi Sato died in 2005.)

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State Capitol. Mosaic by Tadashi Sato. From The Top-The view from the top of the Capitol. Star-Bulletin photo by Warren R. Roll on March 19, 1970. Ran on Thursday, March 19, 1970.

January 14, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Rapid Transit (HRT)

Nuʻuanu Valley was the first of the valleys to undergo residential development because it was convenient to the town (when most people walked from town up into the valley.)

In 1888, the animal-powered tramcar service of Hawaiian Tramways ran track from downtown to Waikīkī. In 1900, the Tramways was taken over by the Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co (HRT.)

HRT initially operated electrically powered streetcars on tracks through Honolulu streets. Power came from overhead wires. Its “land” component included investments into the construction and operation of the Honolulu Aquarium (now the Waikīkī Aquarium), a popular attraction at the end of the Waikiki streetcar line.

In addition to service to the core Honolulu communities, HRT expanded to serve other opportunities. In the fall of 1901, a line was also sent up into central Mānoa.

The new Mānoa trolley opened the valley to development and rushed it into the expansive new century. In particular, it would help to sell a very new hilltop subdivision, “College Hills,” and also expand an unplanned little “village” along the only other road, East Mānoa. (Bouslog)

The rolling stock consisted of ten 10-bench cars; fifteen 8-bench cars; two closed cars; eight convertible cars and ten trailers. (Electrical Review 1902)

For the line work, wooden poles thirty feet long were used and placed about 100-feet apart. The necessary span wires are so placed to allow the trolley wire, which was 4/0 copper wire, about twenty-feet above the track. (Electrical Review)

“The company operates on twenty miles of trackage, which is continually being extended to anticipate the demands of traffic. The overhead trolley system is in vogue, with power supplied from a modern generating plant operated by oil fuel.”

“The entire equipment conforms to the latest offered by modern invention, providing for safety, durability and comfort.” (Overland Monthly, 1909)

“The company’s service extends to Waikiki beach, the famous and popular resort of the Hawaiian and tourist, and where the aquarium, the property of the company, is one of the great objects of attraction.”

“Kapiolani Park, the Bishop Museum, the Kahauki Military Post, the Royal Mausoleum, Oahu College and the Manoa and Nuuanu valleys are reached by the lines of this company.” (Overland Monthly, 1909)

Bus service was inaugurated by HRT in 1915, initially using locally built bodies and later buses from the Mainland (acquired in 1928.) Trolley buses operated on a number of HRT routes from January 1938 to the spring of 1958. Electric street cars, first used by HRT on August 31, 1901, were withdrawn early in the morning of July 1, 1941. (Schmitt)

“At two o’clock on the afternoon of June 31, 1941, car 47 left the HRT carhouse. Number 47’s run that day was unusual. To begin with, it was an old open car, one of those originally built about 1908. In addition, the car sported one of the largest leis ever made, which circled it completely.”

“At the controller was George Bell, son of Jack Bell who ran HRT’s first car in 1901. The car ran over the remaining rail line all afternoon and evening … The end finally came at 1:30 a.m. on July 1, 1941.” (Hawaiian Tramways)

The streetcars were replaced completely by buses (first gasoline and later diesel buses.)

Entrepreneur Harry Weinberg from Baltimore began investing in HRT in 1954 and methodically proceeded to take over HRT in 1960. After Weinberg took control of HRT he went on to continue investing in real estate and other corporations.

The confluence of several milestone developments up to mid-1960s became the precursors of an unfolding drama that culminated in a battle of titanic proportions that led to the transfer of the company from private hands to public ownership by the City & County of Honolulu. (Papacostas – ASCE)

First came the establishment of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in 1913; HRT started to spin off non-utility properties and operations to a subsidiary (Honolulu Ltd) to avoid regulatory oversight.

Then, in April 1937, the US Supreme Court validated the 1935 National Labor Relations Act that strengthened to role of labor (or trade) unions. The thirds came from the US Congress in the form of “The Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964,” which provided funding for urban mass transit systems. (Papacostas – ASCE)

Through this provision, Frank F. Fasi, who was first elected mayor of the City & County of Honolulu in 1969 and who was destined to become the longest-serving person in that capacity initiated definite moves toward the ultimate take-over of HRT. (Papacostas – ASCE)

Bernard W. Stern states in his book on Rutledge Unionism, “as early as 1970 the Federal Department of Transportation, in response to an inquiry, advised Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi that Honolulu was eligible to receive two-thirds of the acquisition costs of HRT, Wahiawa Transport, and Leeward Bus Company.”

The “Wahiawa” and “Leeward” companies were suburban lines, the first also being run under majority ownership by Weinberg. (Papacostas – ASCE)

The company suspended all service after December 31, 1970, because of a labor dispute, and was succeeded a few months later by MTL, Inc. (a new management company established by the City and known as Mass Transit Lines (MTL.) (Schmitt)

As a consequence of court decisions, the March 22, 1973 issue of the Honolulu Advertiser declared that finally “Weinberg, City agree to quick takeover of site.” (Papacostas – ASCE)

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King at Fort Streets
Park your auto safely at home use the street car service.
Park your auto safely at home use the street car service.

January 8, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

From the “Land of the Immortals” to the “Land of Aloha”

According to Japan’s Health Ministry, the average life expectancy on Okinawa is 81.2 years – 86 for women, 75 for men – the highest in the world. Okinawa’s average is significantly higher than that for all of Japan – 79.9 – which tops all countries in life expectancy. Hong Kong, at 79.1 years, is second.

Okinawa (the main island of a tropical chain of 160-coral islets) is the southernmost prefecture of Japan. It consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over 620-miles long. The islands extend southwest from Kyushu (the southwestern-most of Japan’s main four islands) to Taiwan. The Okinawa Prefecture encompasses the southern two thirds of that chain.

For centuries independent, Okinawa shared relationships with Japan, China and other south-east Asian entities and it became a prosperous trading nation (although China and Japan made claims to the islands through various dynasties.)

The islands became Okinawa Prefecture of Japan in 1879; after the end of World War II (1945,) Okinawa was under United States administration for 27 years, when (in 1972) the US government returned the islands to Japanese administration.

OK, so what about Hawaiʻi?

While Okinawa over the centuries benefitted from trade with its neighbors, and was described as a “connecting point” between China and Japan, the loss of independence saw growing hostility between Okinawans and Japanese immediately after its annexation to Japan.

Likewise, the islands of Ryukyu possessed only limited natural resources. Typhoons continuously destroyed crops. With increasing population, people faced the problem of inadequate food.

Out-migration was seen as a solution.

At about this same time, news was spreading about the 1885 agreement between the government of Japan and Hawaiʻi to export Japanese laborers to work on Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations on the basis of a three-year contract. A large wave of Japanese laborers started arriving in 1885. Japanese also emigrated to Brazil and Argentina.

The economic depression in Japan (and into Okinawa Prefecture) made the prospects in Hawaiʻi more attractive; adding to the burden, it was the custom for the eldest son to inherit the farm, leaving the other siblings to fend for themselves; and others sought to avoid the military draft.

The similarity of climate of Okinawa and Hawaiʻi was an added attraction and enhanced the decision to make the move; Okinawa’s subtropical has an average summer temperatures in the mid-80s. Much of the year can also be rainy and humid.

Because of this climate, Okinawa produces sugarcane, pineapple, papaya and features popular botanical gardens; along the shore, Okinawa has abundant coral reefs. Hawaiʻi looked like home.

While Japanese from the four main islands were emigrating to Hawaiʻi, it took some time for folks on Okinawa to participate. Finally, under the leadership of Kyuzo Toyama (referred to as the Father of Okinawan Emigration,) on December 5, 1899, 26-Okinawans set out to sail from Naha Port and arrived in Hawaiʻi about a month later on January 8, 1900.

A statue of Kyuzo Toyama was constructed in Okinawa. He stands at the top of a long set of stairs, a globe is on his left side and he is pointing with his right towards the direction of Hawaiʻi. His vision was, “Let us set out and let the five continents be our home.”

But, life in Hawaiʻi wasn’t easy.

On most plantations, different nationalities were housed in separate camps. Although they adopted one another’s food, clothing, and speech, the various ethnic groups did not socialize with one another. Even within the same ethnic group, a separation of sorts existed based on regional and prefectural differences. (Yano)

Among the Japanese, the greatest distinction existed between the Naichi, people from the main islands of Japan, and the Uchinanchu, people of Okinawa. Uchinanchu were looked down upon by the Naichi and were assigned the hardest jobs. (Yano; Higashionna)

Adding to their problem was the Okinawan tradition of tattooing. Although outlawed with annexation with Japan, many Okinawan women had traditional tattooing of their hands and arms.

Tradition suggests this started in the middle of the last millennium; Okinawan women tattooed the top of their hands fingers with purple ink to repel the samurai, who considered the markings distasteful. Tattooing then grew into a sign of adulthood and was part of rites of passage at key moments in an Okinawan girl’s life, when she gets married, has children, becomes a widow, etc.

In Hawaiʻi, the Japanese from other prefectures considered tattoos to be a sign of low class or of a criminal element (yakuza.) This made many of the women ashamed and so they often hid their hands.

As the last prefectural group of Japanese to come to Hawaiʻi, the Okinawans faced additional difficulties integrating into the established community of Japanese who were predominantly from the southwestern prefectures of Japan. Before Japanese immigration would terminate in 1924, 20,000 more would follow from Okinawa. (Yano)

Plantation work was hard – 10-hour days, 6 days a week under the brutal sun. Okinawans also endured double discrimination from both the local population and their fellow Japanese workers who treated them as second-class citizens. At the peak, some 1,700 Okinawan immigrants had settled in Hawai‘i.

Many of the Okinawan Issei (first-generation arrivals) had planned to come to Hawaiʻi, work for a few years, and then go back to Okinawa with their riches. They sent money home, which helped the Okinawan economy.

However, conditions in Okinawa deteriorated, with a post war depression following the Russo-Japanese War and World War I and people were starving. Compared to immigrants from other parts of Japan, more Okinawans brought wives or sent for their wives and children; this made it easier for them to adapt to Hawaiʻi, so many of them ended up staying.

Certain character traits and behaviors helped the Okinawans to settle into their new homes in Hawaiʻi. Tege, meaning easygoing, is an adjective describing the Uchinanchu personality. Translated it means “almost acceptable” or “it will do for now.” (Higashionna)

The people of the Ryukyu islands operate on “Okinawan Time,” which means doing things on one’s own terms rather than someone else’s terms and schedules. It is an amazing lack of time-urgency, a sense of “What is the hurry? We have tomorrow.” (Higashionna)

About half of the Okinawan immigrants either returned to Okinawa or moved to the continental US in search of better opportunities.

Today it is estimated that there are over 50,000 people who can trace their roots to Okinawa. Legacies that remain (in spirit and presence) from the Okinawan immigration: Times Supermarkets, Tamashiro Market (Kalihi,) Zippy’s, Arakawa Store (formerly in Waipahu,) Hawai‘i Okinawa Center (Waipiʻo Gentry of Waipahu,) Haari Boat Races (Hilo,) Center for Okinawan Studies (UH-Mānoa.)

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Kyuzo_Toyoma-Original_Statue-Kin_Okinawa-1931

Kyuzo_Toyoma-Missing_Statue-Kin_Okinawa-1944

20000104 CTY Volunteer workers and vistors to the Hawaii Okinawa Cneter visit this 18 ton rock that was brought over from Okinawa. Inscribed is “Let’s set out into world. Our home is the Five Continents. With sincere forth and determination. Remembering the marble stone of Kin.” PHOTO BY DENNIS ODA. JAN. 4, 2000. FRAME #5020.

A young woman being tattooed with Okinawan hajichi (a practice outlawed in 1899)-1919

Hajichi tattoos on the back of women’s hands were a sign of their status in the society

Hajichi tattoos on the back of women’s hands-a sign of their status in the society

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