Kaneohe | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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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December 26, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Benjamin and Mary Parker

From the time of early Polynesian settlement the ahupuaʻa of Kāneʻohe was a desirable place to live.

With its fertile land and abundant water sources, it is estimated that the 1779 population of the Kāneʻohe Bay area was probably somewhere between 15,000 and 17,000 people.

When foreigners began to settle in Hawaiʻi, Kāneʻohe was relatively isolated. The Bay did not provide a good anchorage and the trail over the Pali was treacherous.

The American Protestant missionaries decided to open a mission in Kāneʻohe.

The Rev. Benjamin Wyman Parker (born October 13, 1803 in Reading, Massachusetts) and his wife Mary Elizabeth Parker (known in Hawaiʻi as “Mother Parker” – of Branford, Connecticut) were in the Sixth Company of the Sandwich Island Mission, arriving in Honolulu on May 1, 1833 on the ship “Mentor.”

Almost immediately they joined the Alexander and Armstrong families to open a mission in the Marquesas, on July 21, 1833. Their first and only son, Henry Hodges Parker was born there. They returned to Honolulu and were assigned to the “Kāneʻohe Station” on Windward Oahu.

“We reached this little nook after a voyage of two days in safety. This little bay—Kaneohe—is now our home. The people speak to us in an unknown tongue, yet are exceedingly kind. We have a large grass house to live in, without a window, partition or floor—not one fixture—not even a shelf.”

“Almost all we had was left behind … Surely we may live and feel like pilgrims without any difficulty. Our cookhouse is two stones sheltered only by the open heavens.” (Mary Parker, The Friend, May 1933)

When the Kāneʻohe Mission Station first opened in 1835, “high chief Liliha, who officiated as a sort of ‘Mother-superior’ of the place [Koʻolaupoko], located her ‘new teachers’ [Missionary Parker and his family] on a little bluff on the edge of a beautiful bay [Kaneohe Bay]”

In 1835, Parker opened a school for 60 children; and another for men and women. The following year, he had 100 children.

“The high Chiefess Liliha had located her “New Teachers,” as she called them, on this bluff overlooking a beautiful bay. The locality was called “Aipaakai,” literally an invitation to eat salt. Here they began the work of a lifetime.”

“The Hawaiians from Waimanalo, one extreme, to Kualoa, the other extreme of the district, numbered about 10,000. The barrier of language was soon removed as they learned to speak the Hawaiian language; and within a few weeks (Parker) preached his first sermon to his people.” (The Friend May, 1933)

The school was initially in a grass hut. Later, they moved into a stone mission house provided again by Liliha, a quarter mile inland.

“Our new stone meeting-house, now nearly finished, is 95 feet in length by 42 in width. It has been erected by the voluntary effort of the church members. Our old grass house, in which we had worshipped eight years, had become too poor to allow of our assembling in it much longer. …”

“The people are poor, and destitute of every facility for erecting a permanent house. Yet they entered more than willingly upon the work … not more than 75 (of the 100 male members) are able to labor at such work, a number being aged and infirm.

“Yet these 75 have collected the materials for the house, consisting of stone, wood, and lime; they have assisted in laying the walls; they have been to the mountains to cut and draw timber, besides contributing in other ways to pay the carpenters and masons. The female members of the church have contributed monthly 12 ½ cents in money, or in some available articles, for the same object.” (The Friend, May 1933)

“(Parker) preached to large congregations; organized schools; taught classes; took long journeys either on foot or horseback to outlying districts, going from house to house, advising, helping, instructing his people; inspected the schools, guided the Hawaiian teachers; collected timber in the mountains for building purposes; superintended the building of churches and schoolhouses; planted trees; laid out roads; and directed the course of a stream of water from the mountains.”

“The brook which runs its way in front of the modern public school is due to his foresight.” (The Friend, May 1933) He also helped survey the Koʻolau lands for the Great Māhele.

Their three daughters were born at the Kāneʻohe Station, Mary in 1835, Harriet in 1837 and Caroline in 1840. All of their children carried on their parents work. Mary and Caroline were in charge of a boy’s reform school in Pālama. Their son, Henry became pastor of Kawaiahaʻo Church in 1863 and served in that position for 54-years.

“A telescope leveled on the pali for coming visitors told the Parker girls how much taro and sweet potato to prepare for dinner. That telescope and the handbell used as a signal for the sexton to ring the church bell, were part of the family belongings for years.” (The Friend, May, 1933)

In 1848, Rev. Parker reported the foreign population of Koʻolaupoko to be only seven (one Swede, two Englishmen and four Americans) , three of whom were married , each having one child. One was a house carpenter and the others “cultivate the soil to some extent”.

Following the Māhele, Parker acquired Koʻolaupoko lands, the ʻili of Lilipuna and other Kāneʻohe lands (over 55-acres total in 1851) and almost 650-acres of Waiheʻe, in 1855. By 1869 Parker owned all the land of Waiheʻe except for the kuleana lands.

His son Henry formed the Parker Sugar Company and had about 80-acres in cultivation in 1880; they were only planters, the grinding was done at the nearby Kāneʻohe Sugar Plantation.

In 1894, the Parker family, the major landholder in Waiheʻe, leased rice property to the Sing Chong Company, a hui that also possessed or leased lands in Kaʻalaea and Kahaluʻu

In 1853, the Hawaiian Missionary Society reopened the Marquesas mission; Reverend Parker accompanied local emissaries in 1853 and 1867. Later in 1867, he retired and moved to Honolulu. He died in Honolulu March 23, 1877 at the age of 74.

In December 1905, the Hawaiian Mission celebrated the one-hundredth birthday of Mother Parker, noting, “For many years you have remained the sole survivor of that large band of missionaries with whom you labored more than sixty-five years ago …”

“… for the spiritual and social uplifting, through Christ, of these beloved Hawaiian people, while children who remember those early days have grown aged or gone on before.” Governor Carter came with congratulations, and a call from the former Queen was highly appreciated.

In 1927, The Reverend Benjamin Parker School (originally called Kāneʻohe School) opened in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu, on land donated by the Parker family. It is the first school in the Windward district. It started as an elementary and intermediate school, grades 1-8.

Over the years, it expanded in size and grades taught; in 1937 it became an elementary and high school, grades 1-12. In 1951, when Castle High School opened, Parker reverted to an elementary school, serving grades K – 6.

A fire destroyed portions of the school and it was reconstructed in 1973. (Lots of stuff here from The Friend, Kāneʻohe: A History of Change and the Benjamin Parker School website.)

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December 7, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

NAS Kāneʻohe Bay

Dec. 7, 1941 will always be remembered as a “Day of Infamy,” after the devastation of Pearl Harbor. However, some may not be aware of the events that occurred that fateful morning on the other side of the Koʻolau Mountains.

Ten months after being commissioned, US Naval Air Station – Kāneʻohe Bay was one of the first locations on Oʻahu to be attacked by Japanese forces.

Minutes prior to its attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy bombed NAS Kāneʻohe Bay.

The attack on Kāneʻohe was designed to disable the military’s long-range reconnaissance capabilities by knocking out the PBY Catalina seaplanes stationed there.

Navy Lieutenant Fusata Iida was the flight leader of carrier Soryu’s squadron of 12 Japanese dive-bombers who came off the seaward side of the peninsula during a 10-minute strike on the base.

Of the 36 PBY Catalina “flying boat” seaplanes, including those moored in Kāneʻohe Bay, 27 were destroyed and six others were damaged.

Only the three Catalinas that were out on patrol escaped attack. However, departing Japanese Zero aircraft attacked those three; one returned with 81 bullet holes in it.

The first Japanese aircraft destroyed in action during the December 7 attack were shot down at Kāneʻohe.

During the attack, Lt. Iida’s plane had been hit and was leaking fuel, when he apparently used it to make a suicide attack. (Before taking off, he had told his men that if his plane was badly damaged he would crash it into a “worthy enemy target.”)

He signaled that the rest of the planes should return to the ship and pointed to the ground, indicating that he would attempt to crash his plane into a suitable target.

Missing valuable targets, Iida’s plane crashed into the side of a hill on the base.

Navy Lt. John W. Finn, aviation chief ordnanceman, is credited for shooting down the Japanese Zero. During the attack, Finn left his quarters to man a .50 caliber machine gun mounted in a parking ramp. While doing so, he sustained multiple wounds. His actions earned him the Medal of Honor.

A second wave of bomber planes came approximately 20 minutes later and dropped more bombs. One of the hangars (now Hangar 102) received a direct hit during this attack and exploded.

The second attack is credited for most of the casualties (due to bomb fragments.) The Kāneʻohe raid killed 18 U.S. sailors and one civilian; 65 were injured.

Iida was buried at the Heleloa burial area, near the mass burial site of the 18 Sailors. (The remains of each were later disinterred and returned to their respective homes in the US and Japan.)

A stone and cement marker with bronze plaque, located along Reed Road, marks the approximate crash site. The Iida marker may be the only marker on a US military installation dedicated to an enemy soldier.

Representatives of several Japanese organizations regularly gather to remember Iida with a solemn ceremony and to honor the 19 who died there.

Of the artifacts surviving from pilot’s crash site, a helmet believed to be Iida’s was returned to his relatives at a ceremony at MCB Hawaiʻi in 1999.

There were a total of nine Zero pilots and aircraft lost during the attacks on December 7, 1941.

Three pilots were lost during the first wave attack, Takashi Hirano, from the carrier Akagi along with Kaga-based pilots Seinoshin Sano and Toru Haneda, did not return.

Six Zero fighter pilots were lost in the second wave attack, including Lt. Fusata Iida, Shun-Ichi Atsumi and Saburo Ishii, all members of the same element from the carrier Soryu.

In addition, Shigenori Nishikaichi, from the carrier Hiryu, crash-landed and was killed on the island of Niʻihau. Ippei Goto, along with his companion from the carrier Kaga, Tomio Inenaga, went missing in action. Information and photos summarized here are primarily from Marine and other military sources.

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John Finn defending Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay on Dec. 7, 1941, entitled 'The Warriors of Kaneohe'

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Cars that were strafed by Japanese aircraft pictured at Naval Air Station (NAS) Kaneohe, Hawaii

Lt Iida enroute from the factory to deliver his A6M2 model 11 to China in early 1941 flying past Mount Fuji

Sailors at Naval Air Station (NAS) Kaneohe, Hawaii, attempt to salvage a burning PBY Catalina

The Japanese officer, Lt. Iida, shot down in the attack, is buried with military honors near Kanehohe bay

Burial Ceremony for 18 Sailors Killed in Attack

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July 19, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Rice

Rice production was not a major contributor to Hawaiʻi’s economy until the latter half of the nineteenth century. As whaling declined in importance, greater emphasis was placed on agricultural production, primarily sugar and rice.

It was in 1850 when the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society was formed to develop Hawaiʻi’s agricultural resources that rice made its mark in the Hawaiʻi economy. The group purchased land in the Nuʻuanu Valley and rice seed from China and planted in a former taro patch.

At first the Society offered the rice seed to anyone in Hawaiʻi who wanted to plant it. King Kamehameha IV also offered land grants for cultivation of rice. Because there were no proper milling facilities in Hawaiʻi, it didn’t take off as a viable crop right away.

Then, in 1860, imported rice seed from South Carolina proved very successful and yielded a fair amount of crop. This, combined with the collapse of the taro industry in 1861-1862 (as the Hawaiian population declined, the demand for taro also declined,) added value to the numerous vacant taro patches and a boom in the rice industry.

From 1860 to the 1920s, Rice was raised in the islands of Hawaiʻi, particularly in Kauai and Oʻahu, because of their abundance of rain.

The Hanalei Valley of Kauai led all other single geographic units in the amount of acreage planted in rice. The valley was one of the first areas converted to this use and continued to produce well into the 1960s.

The Commercial Pacific Advertiser noted on October 3, 1861, “Everybody and his wife (including defunct government employees) are into rice – sugar is nowhere and cotton is no longer king. Taro patches are held at fabulous valuations, and among the thoughtful the query is being propounded, where is our taro to come from?”

During the 1860s and 1870s, the production of rice increased substantially. It was consumed domestically by the burgeoning numbers of Chinese brought to the Islands as agricultural laborers.

In 1862, the first rice mill in the Hawaiian Islands was constructed in Honolulu (prior to that it was sent unhulled and uncleaned to be milled in San Francisco.) By 1887 over 13 million pounds of rice were exported.

A particularly important stimulus for the increased demand for rice was the Reciprocity Treaty of 1876. This treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi granted duty-free status to certain items of trade between the two countries, including rice.

Thomas Thrum wrote in 1877 that Kamehameha V and other landowners had “planted a large tract of land in rice (in Moanalua,) and even went so far as to pull up and destroy large patches of growing taro to plant rice.”

In 1899, Hawaiʻi’s rice production had expanded so that it placed third in production of rice behind Louisiana and South Carolina.

Much of this rice acreage was worked initially by Chinese immigrants, who first arrived as contract laborers in 1852. By 1860 this immigrant population totaled 1,200. Chinese immigration continued at a rapid pace until 1884, when the official census estimated the number of Chinese at 18,254.

In 1882 the US Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act; then, Japanese workers were brought in to take their place. Within only five years the Japanese constituted more than forty-two percent of the plantation work force and one-seventh of the total population.

Ironically, this influx of Japanese immigrants accelerated Hawaiʻi’s decline in rice production. Japanese preferred short grain rice rather than the long grain rice the Chinese were used to eating. So rice began to be imported from California for the Japanese.

California’s success would ultimately mean the end of the rice industry in Hawaiʻi. Furthermore, the hand labor techniques of Hawaiʻi’s Chinese and Japanese rice farmers could not compete with California’s mechanized production technology.

Additional problems with the rice bird and rice borer, as well as the lack of interest on the part of the younger generation to continue rice farming, eventually meant the end of a once prosperous industry.

Attempts to revive rice production by the Agricultural Extension Service of the University of Hawaiʻi were made in 1906 and 1933, primarily in Hanalei.

As a result the acreage planted in rice on the island rose from 759 acres in 1933 to 1,058 in 1934. For areas like Hanalei Valley, such efforts, coupled with the valley’s general remoteness and absence of competing demands for the land, allowed rice cultivation to continue as a regional activity long after it had been abandoned throughout the rest of Hawaiʻi.

Today, there is no trace of the rice fields in Hawaiʻi. However, Hoʻopulapula Haraguchi Rice Mill museum in Hanalei Valley provides a remnant look at the once prospering agricultural venture.

It was built by the Chinese and purchased by the Haraguchi family in 1924. The Haraguchi family has restored the mill three times; after a fire in 1930, then again after Hurricane Iwa in 1982 and Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

The mill ceased operating in 1960 when Kauai’s rice industry collapsed. A nonprofit organization was formed to preserve and interpret the mill, which has been visited by thousands of school children and adults in the past 29 years.

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Rice

View of rice fields towards Pālolo Valley from the back of Waikīkī, Hawai`i, ca. 1910

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Rice_fields_workers_beneath_Punchbowl_Crater,_Honolulu,_in_1900

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The Iron Horse Comes to Hawaii-Peter Hurd-1889

Chinese water buffalo plowing rice field Hawaii Tai Sing Loo-(KSBE)=

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Rice

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March 10, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Luluku Agricultural Terraces

Terraces for the irrigated cultivation of taro once occupied a significant area within every major stream valley on O‘ahu. Taro pondfields (lo‘i kalo) were particularly numerous in Kailua and Kāne‘ohe ahupua‘a (traditional land divisions) in Ko‘olaupoko District, on the windward side of the island.

Both of these ahupua’a were of central importance to early rulers: Kailua had once been the capital of O‘ahu; and Kāneʻohe was so favored by Kamehameha I that he retained the land division as his personal property when other conquered lands were distributed to his soldiers and retainers in 1795. (Allen)

Unbeknown to many, land within the loop in the off-ramp road from H-3 connecting to Likelike Highway holds evidence of an inland component of the prehistoric settlement in Kāneʻohe.

This area is a small part and representative example of what constitutes the most extensive early wetland agricultural complex known on Oʻahu and has evidence of a long period of continued use.

The ‘ili (a smaller land division within an ahupuaʻa) of Luluku, located in the ahupuaʻa of Kāneʻohe, district of Koʻolaupoko, is where these numerous agricultural terraces are located. The site is currently inaccessible to the public.

Luluku is one of five upland ‘ili (Luluku, Punalu‘u Mauka, Kapalai, Pa‘u and Kea‘ahala) that are within the traditional boundaries of Kāneʻohe.

The terrace system in Luluku followed the stream channels and utilized all of its tributaries to irrigate the various loʻi kalo (taro,) forming a continuous mosaic of lo‘i from the inland slopes to the lowlands along the coast.

The buried field systems at Luluku predate AD 1600 and the period of state development. The majority of the terraces at Luluku were almost certainly under cultivation by the fifteenth century; their cultivation may have figured importantly in the development of the ahupua‘a socioeconomic system. (Allen)

The upstream and downstream surface terrace sets in Luluku were awarded to different people during the mid-nineteenth-century redistribution of lands in fee simple: the upstream set belonged to Kekane (or Kikane), the downstream set to Makaiohua. Both men claimed taro lo‘i. (Allen)

The evidence from Luluku and some surrounding areas suggest that:

1) lo‘i cultivation in windward O‘ahu began in areas at the forest edge, where both forest and agricultural products could be collected for exchange.

2) agricultural production became standardized in some upland areas as early as AD 1000, suggesting developing centralization and involvement in a redistributive economic network.

3) agricultural construction and production in areas along major streams were coordinated at a broad level by A.D. 1400, probably predating and contributing to the emergence of the ahupua’a system of land division and administration.

4) production of taro surpluses by A.D. 1400 reflects the centralized control of agriculture not only for economic reasons but to ensure that a support base existed for administrators in an elaborated political hierarchy; and

5) coordination of elaborate water distribution networks that used water from main streams for agricultural purposes is reflected before A.D. 1500 and probably contributed to the development of the ahupua’a system, predating the development of the state system of government and codification of the Hawaiian legal system. (Allen)

As late as 1940, especially in the lowland terraces, Kāneʻohe ahupua’a was still one of the most active communities in planting commercial taro.

In modern times, uplands were planted in bananas and papaya; lowlands were planted with rice and taro.

I remember this upland area known as the “Banana Patch.” Large-scale banana plantations began in 1930s; rice and taro farmers also planted bananas in areas unsuitable for their main crop. (There’s even a “Banana Patch” boat design from this area.)

The lo‘i kalo complex of agricultural terraces were initially divided by the construction of the Likelike Highway. The terraces were further impacted by the construction of H-3 and are now located within the Kāneʻohe Interchange.

As part of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) Highways Administration and H-3 Cooperative Agreement, Hawai’i Department of Transportation and Office of Hawaiian Affairs are undertaking a project that would preserve and interpret the cultural resources at the Luluku Terraces in Kāneʻohe.

To date, an Interpretive Development Plan has been prepared, a Hālawa-Luluku Interpretive Development Working Group has been formed, and mitigation measures and actions are identified. These efforts will restore a small portion of the once extensive loʻi kalo in Kāneʻohe.

The vision of the program is, “The Luluku Agricultural Terraces shall be restored through the perpetuation of culturally appropriate science, engineering and agricultural practices.”

“Research will be demonstrated through the planting of primarily native Hawaiian kalo using ancient and contemporary techniques in water resource management and sustainable agricultural practices.”

“The relationship between the land and its people are of both historical and cultural importance in the context of interpretations which emphasizes Luluku’s ability to feed many people in the Kāneʻohe district and areas beyond.”

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