Japanese | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 10, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Japanese Internment

During World War II, Japanese Americans were incarcerated in at least eight locations in Hawaiʻi.

These sites that include Honouliuli Gulch, Sand Island, and the U.S. Immigration Station on Oahu, the Kilauea Military Camp on the Big Island, Haiku Camp and Wailuku County Jail on Maui, and the Kalaheo Stockade and Waialua County Jail on Kauai.

The forced removal of these individuals began a nearly four-year odyssey to a series of camps in Hawaiʻi and on the continental United States.

They were put in these camps, not because they had been tried and found guilty of something, but because either they or their parents or ancestors were from Japan and, as such, they were deemed a “threat” to national security.

In all, between 1,200 and 1,400 local Japanese were interned, along with about 1,000 family members. The number of Japanese in Hawai‘i who were detained was small relative to the total Japanese population here, less than 1%.

By contrast, Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorized the mass exclusion and detention of all Japanese Americans living in the West Coast states, resulting in the eventual incarceration of 120,000 people.

The detainees were never formally charged and granted only token hearings. Many of the detainees’ sons served with distinction in the US armed forces, including the legendary 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service.

During the war, there was a Hawaii Defense Act, Order No. 5 that stated “all aliens were forbidden from possessing weapons, firearms, explosives short-wave radio receiving sets, transmitting sets, cameras, or maps of any United States military or naval installation.”

They could not travel by air, change residence or occupation or move without written permission from the provost marshal.

On December 8, 1941, the first detention camp was set up on Sand Island. Several factors made Sand Island a logical place for establishment of the first detention camp. Geographically, it was an island immediately adjacent to the city of Honolulu in the Honolulu Harbor.

The Territorial Quarantine Hospital had been located on Sand Island and it had housing, food prep and administrative facilities.

Within one week of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI detained 370 Japanese, 98 German and 14 Italians. Almost all of the Japanese detainees were men; of the European detainees, many were women. The European and Japanese internees were segregated.

The first POW of the war (Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki, of the captured Japanese submarine that beached at Waimanalo) was also interned at Sand Island.

Each compound operated its own mess and maintained its own sanitary and internal administrations. The detainees supplied their own recreational activities, such as softball and volleyball games. Each compound had its own spokesman.

While most of the internees were residents of Oʻahu, there were Japanese detained on the Neighbor Islands.

On Kauai internees were crowded into the county jail. According to Gwen Allen (Hawaii War Years), the December 12, 1941 issue of the Kauai newspaper reported that “the men are building double decker bunks.” On the Big Island, detainees were interned at Kilauea Military Camp at Volcano.

Restrictions at each were different. On Kau‘i, after two days of war, a newspaper announcement invited families to call on detainees any day between 1 pm and 3 pm and they were allowed to take clean laundry and simple Japanese food.

On Maui, each detainee was given a questionnaire asking if they had any animals that needed feeding and other care, and if so, where can they be found. On the Big Island, there was no public visiting until February 14, 1942.

For some O‘ahu internees, they began their detention at the Immigration Station at Fort Armstrong and were then moved to Sand Island. Internees at Sand Island lived in tents until wooden barracks were built.

“Until books and other materials were allowed, the internees passed the time by smoothing sea shells for necklaces by rolling them on the concrete floors.”

In March 1942, Sand Island closed. Some detainees were sent to Honouliuli Internment camp.

Because arrests and detentions continued through the war, the community remained on edge, fearful as to who might be next. Japanese culture became equated with Japanese political affiliation, and Japanese language clothing and customs suddenly disappeared.

Though some detainees were released after a short imprisonment, the majority were detained for the duration of the war, with most eventually transferred to camps on the continental United States, for a period approaching four years.

Most eventually returned to Hawai‘i after the war.

In 2006, President Bush signed the Camp Preservation Bill (HR 1492), which authorized $38 million in funding for the preservation of former World War II confinement sites.

In part, the intent is that the Honouliuli site become a public historical park where the Hawai‘i internees story can be shared with future generations.

The fact that the internment did happen here in the Hawaiʻi are something to never forget.

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Sand Island-Internee tents shortly after the camp opened in December, 1941

Sand Island, 1946. What remains of the internment camp can be seen in the middle portion of the image.

Kilauea Military Camp, 1942

Hawai‘i internee group at Sante Fe camp, 1944

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March 30, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Upena Poepoe

“Ua akamai kekahi poe kanaka Hawaii I ka lawaia, no ia mea, ua kapa ia lakou, he poe lawaia. O ka makau kekahi mea e lawaia ai. O ka ‘upena kekahi, a o ka hinai kekahi.”

“Some of the people of Hawaii were very knowledgeable about fishing, and they were called fisher-people. The hook was one thing used in fishing. The net was another, and the basket trap, another.” (WE Kealaka‘i, Ka Hae Hawaii, 1861; Maly)

“Not one kind of net only was known here in Hawai‘i in ancient times, there were many, large ones and small ones, according to the kind of fish desired to catch, such was the net.”

“These are some of them: Akule net, Opelu net, Weke net, Malolo net, Uhu net, Amaama net. Koki net and Papa was another kind of net, and so on.” (Hoku O Hawaii, 1912; HawaiiAlive)

“Fishermen, or those skilled in the art of catching fish, were called poe lawaiʻa. Fishing was associated with religious ceremonies, or idolatrous worship. The heiaus or altars, at which fishermen performed their religious ceremonies, were of a class different from all others.”

“There were many different methods of fishing: with nets; with hook and line; with the pa, or troll-hook; with the leho, or cowry; with the hina’i, or basket; the method called ko’i; and with the hand thrust into holes in the rocks.” (Malo)

“The olona and the hopue were plants from whose bark were made lines and fishing nets and a great many other things. … Cordage and rope of all sorts (na kaula), were articles of great value, serviceable in all sorts of work.”

“Fishing nets (‘upena) and fishing lines (aho) were valued possessions. One kind was the papa-waha, which had a broad mouth; another was the aei (net with small meshes to take the opelu) ; the kawaa net (twenty to thirty fathoms long and four to eight deep, for deep sea fishing) ; the kuu net (a long net, operated by two canoes) ; and many other varieties.”

“Net-makers (poe ka-‘upena) and those who made fishing-lines (hilo-aho) were esteemed as pursuing a useful occupation. The mechanics who hewed and fashioned the tapa log, on which was beaten out tapa for sheets, girdles and loincloths for men and women were a class highly esteemed.” (Malo)

“Cordage and rope of all sorts (na kaula), were articles of great value, serviceable in all sorts of work. Of kaula there were many kinds. The bark of the hau tree was used for making lines or cables with which to haul canoes down from the mountains as well as for other purposes.”

“Cord (aha) made from cocoanut fiber was used in sewing and binding together the parts of a canoe and in rigging it as well as for other purposes. Olona fibre was braided into (a four- or six-strand cord called) lino, besides being made into many other things. There were many other kinds of rope (kaula).” (Maly)

“… Our ancestors said “Mai uhauha” (Don’t be greedy)! Because the ocean is our ice box. You take what you need for today, you come back tomorrow. There is still some for tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after and next week. So, take what you need just for the day.”

“But sometimes, when you throw the net, you get more fish in the net, you think of your neighbors, share with them, help them.” (Kāwika Kapahulehua; Maly)

“The cast net (or, throw net – ‘upena poepoe, also ‘upena kiloi) is a comparatively recent introduction in the islands, having been brought in by the Japanese about ten years ago, so it is reported, although this is somewhat doubtful.” (Cobb, 1903)

“The Japanese, like most immigrants, were contracted to work on Hawai’i’s sugar cane plantations. When their plantation contracts expired many Japanese who had previously been skilled commercial fishermen in the coastal areas of Wakayama, Shizuoka, and Yamaguchi Prefectures remained in Hawai’i and turned to the sea for a living.” (Schug)

“Some local Japanese fishermen coined their own slang for throw nets, calling them nageami, a term derived from nageru, ‘to throw,’ and ami, or ‘net,’ while Hawaiians called them ‘upena ho‘olei, ‘nets are thrown like a lei.’ A poetic description of the nets’ circular shape in flight.” (Clark)

“The early Japanese fishermen used throw nets and poles. The fashioned throw nets like they had used in Japan ands introduced throw-net fishing to Hawai‘i.” (Clark)

“‘In spite of the fact that it is one of the most photographed of all Hawaiian fishing techniques, throw net fishing is not a native sport. It was brought from Japan about 1890 and quickly adopted by the Hawaiians because of its effectiveness along Ilsnad Shores.’” (MacKellar; Clark)

“Fishermen in Japan call throw-net fishing toami, which literally means ‘to cast a net’”. (Clark) “The to-ami or throw-net is used over every pool, as nearly every boy in Japan learns to throw it, and we got our first lesson in the art.”

“The net is generally circular, of a diameter of about twelve feet; the outer edge has leaden weights attached to it all round, at distances of eighteen inches to two feet. These sinkers are made of different shapes, according to the nature of the ground over which they are to be used.” (Dickson, 1889)

“Unlike the fishermen in the United States, the Japanese hold no part of the net in the mouth, but manipulate it entirely with the hands. About two-thirds of the outer edge is gathered up and the net is thrown with a sort of twirling motion, which causes it to open wide before it touches the water.”

“The leads draw the outer edges down very rapidly, and as they come together at the bottom the fish are inclosed in a sort of bag.”

“The net is then hauled in by means of a rope attached to its center, the weight of the leads causing them to hang close together, thus preventing the fish from falling out as the net is hauled in. The fish are shaken out of the net by merely lifting the lead line on one side.” (Cobb, 1903

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Throwing net at Keauhou Bay 1915

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Fisherman in malo with throw net-UH-1940

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March 2, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Buddhism

New England Congregationalists first brought Protestant Christianity to the islands in 1820. Roman Catholic missionaries came to Hawaii in 1827. Quakers came in 1835 and Mormons in 1850. Methodists came in 1855, and members of the Church of England arrived in 1862.

Shortage of laborers to work in the growing sugar plantations prompted the Hawaiian Legislature to pass “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system (labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.)

Japanese immigration to Hawaiʻi that began in 1868 marked the beginnings of large-scale settlement and, with it, the establishment of a strong religious base of Buddhism.

A large wave of Japanese laborers started arriving in 1885; 29,000 Japanese traveled to Hawai‘i for the next nine years to work on sugar plantations under three-year contracts.

The history of formal Buddhism teachings in Hawai‘i can be traced to the arrival of Soryu Kagahi, a priest of the True Pure Land Sect and a native of Oita Prefecture.

Upon learning of the extreme hardship, both physical and spiritual, of the Japanese immigrants in Hawaiʻi due to the differences in language and culture, he came to Hawaii to comfort these immigrants and to help in alleviating their hardship.

Kagahi, the first Hongwanji minister, came to Hawai‘i to minister to the religious needs of Japanese immigrants and to share the teachings of Shakamuni Buddha and Shinran Shonin.

Upon arriving in Honolulu on March 2, 1889 (which is presently celebrated as Hawai‘i Kyodan’s “Kaikyo Kinen-bi” or “Hongwanji Day”, the founding day of the mission), Reverend Kagahi rented a house and hung a sign, “The Great Imperial Japan Hongwanji Denomination Hawaii Branch” and used it as a base for his religious activities.

He also traveled to Kauaʻi, Maui and Big Island and conducted religious services. He visited the Big Island on two occasions and helped the people in Hilo in founding the fukyojo, the forerunner of the present Hilo Betsuin. (Hilo at that time had a larger Japanese population than did Honolulu.)

In October 1889, Reverend Kagahi returned to Japan to report on the Hawaiʻi situation and to urge establishment of Jodo Shinshu in Hawaii. He also stressed the need for financial assistance to Hawaiʻi to carry forward these activities.

However, since authorities in Japan initially viewed the Japanese presence in Hawaii as “transient,” they did not see the need for a Hawaiian mission.

That changed in 1897 when the Japanese immigrants petitioned the Honpa Hongwanji headquarters in Japan and requested that Buddhist missionaries be sent to Hawai‘i.

They expressed the urgency and need for “community stability” – a stability achieved through religious institutions and the revival of cultural commonalities among the immigrants.

Leadership in Japan, now aware that the Japanese immigrant had become more than a transient, responded enthusiastically, and more missions were established.

The rise of Buddhism in a predominantly Christian environment was due, in part, to this deeper expression among the Japanese immigrants of their need for a sense of community.

Several of the sugar plantations were sympathetic and supportive of the desire for temples and donated parcels of land near the immigrant camps.

In 1898, the Rev. Honi Satomi arrived as the first Bishop of Hongwanji and property located off Fort Street at the end of Kukui, in the area called Fort Lane (just above Beretania Street and Central Fire Station) was purchased for the first site of the temple.

Queen Lili’uokalani and Mary Foster (donor of Foster Botanical Garden,) attended a Buddhist service in 1901 to commemorate the birth of founder Shinran Shonin.

In 1918, the Honpa Hongwanji Mission was built in Honolulu, the world’s first reinforced concrete Buddhist temple.

Several Buddhist sects came to Hawai‘i in the late-1800s and early-1900s to fill the needs of the early Japanese: Jodo Shin-shu Honpa Hongwanji Sect, Jodo Sect, Shingon Sect, Nichiren Sect, Jodo Shin Sect and the Higashi Hongwanji Sect.

Over the past 120 years, the Japanese community established 174 temple sites and through the process of building and rebuilding, constructed nearly 300 Buddhist temples throughout the islands, many of which were built in sugar plantation villages by early Japanese immigrants and served tiny congregations.

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Hilo Hongwanji Temple, 1889

Soryu Kagahi

Buddhism_in_Hawaii-Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin-(honoluluadvertiser-com)

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Mililani Hongwanji Mission

Lahaina Hongwanji Mission

Honpa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple-Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii is located at 1727 Pali Highway

Hanapepe Hongwanji Temple

June 20, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Japanese High School

Japanese came to Hawai’i between 1885 and 1924, when limits were placed on the numbers permitted entry. “The government contract workers who arrived in Hawaii in the 1880s did not have much time or energy to worry about their children’s education.”

“Their only aim was to make enough money to return to Japan. With mothers going to work from early in the morning the children were virtually left to themselves all day long.” (Duus)

“At first the parents had no mind to settle permanently in this territory. One day they would go back to Japan and take their children with them. But they would be greatly to blame if their children were found unable to speak and write in their mother tongue.”

“It was thus the earnest wish of the parents for the welfare of the children that they should be fully equipped with Japanese instruction, so as to enable them, on their return home, to stand on an equal footing with those who were born in Japan and educated there.”

“In the early days then, Japanese schools tried very hard to meet this request of the parents. Though the school hours were limited to less than two hours in the morning or two hours in the afternoon, they used to give not only the language lesson, but teach as many subjects as you will find in the curriculum of Japanese instruction in Japan.” (Imamura)

“Because of the lack of higher education among most immigrants and their children in Hawai’i, Buddhist Bishop Yemyo Imamura proposed building a Hongwanji high school, incorporating dormitories for students from rural O‘ahu and the neighbor islands.”

“While in Japan in early 1906 he gained approval from the Honzan, Hongwanji’s headquarters temple in Kyoto, and on his return to Hawai‘i he spoke to (Mary) Foster about the new project.” (Karpiel)

“Mary Foster donated a large piece of land covered with kiawe trees, now bisected by the Pali Highway, which was used to construct Hongwanji High School in 1907 (the first Buddhist High School in the United States) and the new Honpa Hongwanji Betsuin in 1918.” (Tsomo)

The final stretch of the Pali Highway to be completed was the segment which connected it to the downtown area between Coelho Lane and the intersection of Bishop Street and Beretania Street. It impacted the school. Planning for this segment had
begun as early as 1953.

When the Pali Highway was constructed, the Honpa Hongwanji, whose property was bisected by the proposed new segment, requested three of its buildings be relocated and a pedestrian underpass be constructed under the new highway to connect the temple with its school premises. (HHF)

The Japanese High School of the Hongwanji got the attention of others. “The ﬁrst Japanese language program at a public school was established at McKinley High School in Honolulu on October 1, 1924.” (Asato)

“The minutes of the Japanese committee of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, dated September 10, (1924) a month before the Japanese program at McKinley High School began, reveals who was involved with this movement.”

“During the meeting, Treasurer Theodore Richards expressed his concern about female high-school students who attended the Hongwanji School for advanced Japanese language study, saying that they ‘were getting led away from Christianity.’”

“Richards was discussing the Hongwanji Girls’ High School (Hawai Kōtō Jogakkō) established in 1910, the girls’ counterpart of Hongwanji’s junior high school, Hawai Chūgakkō, established three years earlier.” (Asato)

World War II totally disrupted Buddhist activities in Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, the Buddhist community was busily preparing for Bodhi Day services at various temples. The next day the temples were closed, and the Buddhist ministers were interned.

Labeled “potentially dangerous enemy aliens,” most Buddhist clergy, language school teachers, community leaders, businessmen doctors, anyone who had been identified as possible enemies of the United States, were rounded up to be taken away to detention camps, passing through the assembly center at Sand Island on O‘ahu. (Hongwanji Hawaii)

In 1949, one of the most momentous decisions made by the Hongwanji after the war was the adoption of a proposal to establish the Hongwanji Mission School, the first Buddhist, English grade school.

In 1992, the Hongwanji Mission School became available for students up until the 8th grade. Prior to that, the school was an elementary school with students from preschool to the sixth grade. In September of 1993, the middle school building was completed, and the class of 1994 was the first class to occupy it.

In the fall of 2003, with the encouragement of Bishop Chikai Yosemori, the Pacific Buddhist Academy (PBA) opened its doors to the first class of fourteen students. PBA is a college preparatory high school, and the first Shin Buddhist high school in the western world.

The school’s mission is “to prepare students for college through academic excellence; to enrich their lives with Buddhist values; and to develop their courage to nurture peace.” (Hongwanji Hawaii)

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Japanese High School plaque

Aloha Garden-Japanese High School

April 5, 2018 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Japanese Language Schools

Japanese came to Hawai‘i to work on the plantations between 1885 and 1924, when limits were placed on the numbers permitted entry.

“The government contract workers who arrived in Hawaii in the 1880s did not have much time or energy to worry about their children’s education.”

“Their only aim was to make enough money to return to Japan. With mothers going to work from early in the morning the children were virtually left to themselves all day long.”

“Takie Okumura, posted in Hawaii as a minister after his graduation from Doshisha University, was astonished as he made his pastoral rounds at how little communication the immigrant children had with their parents.” (Duus)

“Christian missionary Reverend Takie Okumura, who started Honolulu’s ﬁrst Japanese language school, was moved by a little girl’s peculiar Japanese: ‘Me mama hanahana yōkonai’ in response to his question ‘Are you with your mother?’[“

“He learned that ‘me mama’ was pidgin for ‘my mother’, ‘hanahana’ was the Hawaiian word for ‘work,’ and ‘yōkonai’ was a Japanese expression equivalent to ‘cannot come.’”

“Okumura credits this exchange for his strong urge to establish a school.”

“After several failed attempts to receive support from either the Japanese consul general in Honolulu or politicians in Japan, Reverend Okumura decided to establish a school independently.”

“On April 6, 1896, he opened the Nihonjin Shōgakkō (Japanese Elementary School) in a room of the Queen Emma Hall, originally used as Queen Emma’s residence, with 30 students. Okumura purchased desks and chairs from $15 in donations and was able to use the room for free.”

“The ﬁrst Japanese language program at a public school was established at McKinley High School in Honolulu on October 1, 1924.

“The first instructor of Japanese language at the public school was University of Hawaii Japanese Professor Tasuku Harada, who had a close relationship with Reverend Okumura. Harada was a former president of Dōshisha University (Congregationalist).” (Asato)

“Both Harada and Okumura were on the Japanese committee of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association and members of the Textbook Revision Joint Committee.”

“This Japanese language program was arranged by the Committee for Oriental Language Studies, chaired by University of Hawaii President Arthur L. Dean, who also was an American member of the Joint Committee for Textbook Revision.”

“The minutes of the Japanese committee of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, dated September 10, a month before the Japanese program at McKinley High School began, reveals who was involved with this movement.”

“Okumura and Imamura had a long history of confrontation over creating their own high schools. Imamura invited Ryūsaku Tsunoda, who later established Japanese Studies at Columbia University, to be principal of the ﬁrst Japanese junior high school, the Hawai Chūgakkō.”

“Okumura tried to compete by offering a junior-high-school-level class at his “secular” Honolulu Nihonjin Shōgakkō, although this advanced class was short-lived because of low enrollment.”

“Then, in 1910 the Hongwanji Girls’ High School opened, and Okumura again countered by expanding his Japanese school with both its junior high school and girls’ school, renaming it the Hawaii Chūō Gakuin or Central Institute.”

“So it was no surprise that in 1924, after discussion, the Evangelical Association appointed Harada and Okumura to ‘investigate the matter of organizing a Japanese high school.’”

“At their next meeting, on October 8, 1924, Reverend William D. Westervelt reported that Japanese instruction at McKinley High School was arranged by working with Superintendent Willard E. Givens, University of Hawaii President Dean, DPI supervisor of foreign language schools Henry B. Schwartz and McKinley High School Principal Miles E. Cary. “

“Westervelt also reported that the University of Hawaii agreed to recognize the credits students earned from the Japanese program at the high school as entrance credits for the university. Okumura stated that ‘this plan was satisfactory for the present taking care of the Japanese High School teaching’”.

“Although Japanese instruction began at public schools in 1924, it did not seem to prosper. Besides McKinley High School, only one other public school seems to have offered Japanese. Reverend Kikujiro C. Kondo of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association began teaching Japanese at Maui High School in 1925 while taking care of the Paia church on Maui.”

“Reverend Kondo later moved to Honolulu to take over the McKinley High School Japanese program from Mr. Kunimoto, Harada’s successor, in 1926.” (Asato)

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