Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Camp POW

American entry into World War II necessitated a rapid expansion of facilities in dealing with enemy prisoners. Civilian Conservation Corps camps were secured to house the first arrivals; more camps were constructed throughout the war. Of the 50,000 Italian captured soldiers and sailors, 5,000 Italian prisoners of war were sent to Hawaiʻi; Japanese Americans were also incarcerated in at least eight locations on Hawaiʻi. On December 8, 1941, the first detention camp was set up on Sand Island.

The Sand Island Detention Center held war captives as well as civilians of Japanese, German or Italian ancestry who were under investigation. Another prisoner of war facility was in Hilo; it was in Ponahawai, up Kaumana Drive. During WWII the Army’s 27th Infantry division was housed and trained on the property. Later, the Marines were stationed there and Japanese prisoners of war were confined there. The camp became known as Camp POW. After the war, the camp buildings were converted into rental properties. For safety reasons the buildings were eventually demolished in the 1980s. (Many of the photos in the album are from Raymond W McCracken’s son’s post on flickr.)

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Pu‘umaile Home

“The Territory of Hawaii has a high death rate from (tuberculosis) as compared with most mainland cities. … The County of Hawaii has the highest rate of the disease of any of the counties in the Territory.” The treatment of those afflicted is carried out by seven institutions, including Pu‘umaile Home in Hilo. “Pu‘umaile Home is the only institution for the care of tuberculosis in the Territory that is maintained solely from Territorial funds. One hundred and twenty-two were admitted during the year, with 68 Patients remaining at the end of the period, just double the number as compared with the previous year.”

The original Pu‘umaile Home was built in about 1912 at a site that is now in the vicinity of the old terminal building at Hilo Airport. The Hilo Airport was dedicated in February 1928 and in April 1938 a new facility was constructed at the end of Kalanianaʻole Avenue (at what is now Lehia Park.) Some incorrectly suggest that the hospital washed away by the 1946 tsunami; however, it was spared. The hospital remained on the shoreline until 1951 when it was relocated into new facilities on the grounds of the Hilo Memorial Hospital, above Rainbow Falls. Shortly after (1955,) Pu‘umaile was combined with the Hilo Memorial Hospital to establish Hilo Hospital (now Hilo Medical Center.)

by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Haili Church

Three years after the arrival American Protestant missionaries of the Pioneer Company in 1820, Asa Thurston, Artemis Bishop, Joseph Goodrich and William Ellis toured the island of Hawaii to identify appropriate Mission Stations there. The reported on six locations, with the priority given to Kailua in the Kona District and Waiakea in the Hilo District. At Waiakea, the missionaries erected two houses and a church within two months after their arrival. The needs of the congregation increased. A larger building was required as well as one that could weather the climate for a longer period of time.

The first churches for the Waiakea Mission Station were of Hawaiian thatch construction and were replaced, as they deteriorated. Haili, the name of the church, was derived from the forest, Haili Kulamanu (Paradise of the Birds) from which most of the ‘ōhi‘a wood was cut, located 6 to 8 miles southwest of the church. The Hawaiians hewed the wood in the forest, then hauled it to the mission with drag ropes. “The Haili Church Choir is one of the oldest and most widely acclaimed Hawaiian church choirs. Since the beginning of the 1900s, it has been the ‘training school’ for some of Hawai‘i’s foremost names in traditional Hawaiian music, both sacred and secular.

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Nikai Camp

A shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor. Starting in the 1850s, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America. By 1884, Hawai‘i Island counted more than thirty plantations, many of them in the Hilo area. Immigrants were arriving by the thousands, mostly from Asia. They fulfilled labor contracts and afterward stayed on.

There used to be a Japanese plantation workers camp associated with Wainaku Mill known as Nikai Camp – for most, it was referred to as the Japanese Village. It became an attraction. “A mile and a half from Hilo, above the Wainaku mill, there is to be found, in a green, fern-clad valley with a sparkling stream and a dashing waterfall, a complete Japanese village, with thatched roofs and bamboo walls for its houses.” However, tragedy struck the village … “During Monday afternoon, the 15th (January 15, 1895,) the Japanese camp at Wainaku was completely destroyed by fire.”

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kaiwiki Sugar Company

After several acquisitions and changes in operation by it and other sugar plantations, in 1909, the defunct O‘okala Sugar Company (it was bankrupt and the controlling interest passed to Theo. H. Davies & C) was sold to Kaiwiki and it was renamed Kaiwiki Sugar Company. O‘okala Sugar Company owned a total of 8,679 acres, its cane land was limited to 1,405 in fee simple and 3,005 acres of leased land.

Located between the Hāmākua district and the rain-drenched lands of the Hilo district, the land rose to an elevation of 1,800 feet, with steep slopes and a frontage on the sea of about 4 ½ miles and a depth of 2 ½ miles. Kaiwiki Sugar Company’s almost fifty years of existence ended when the company and neighboring Laupahoehoe Sugar Company merged on January 3, 1957. It should not be confused with Kaiwiki Milling Company.