Waimanalo | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 10, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Mauna Loke

Called the “Prince of Entertainers” and the “Entertainer of Princes,” John Cummins was a prosperous businessman known for his generous and lavish hospitality to royalty and commoner alike and for his knowledge and love of Hawaiian traditions.

John Adams Kuakini Cummins was born on O’ahu on March 17, 1835, the son of High Chiefess Kaumakaokane Papali‘ai‘aina and Thomas Jefferson Cummins, Jr.

He was a namesake of island governor John Adams Kuakini (1789–1844,) who in turn took the name of John Quincy Adams.

His mother was a descendent of the Lonoikahapu‘u line and was a cousin of King Kamehameha I. His father was a wealthy and aristocratic Englishman, born in Lancashire and reared in Massachusetts, who came to the Islands in 1828.

Cummins married Rebecca Kahalewai (1830–1902) in 1861, also considered a high chiefess, and had six children: Matilda Kaumakaokane, Jane Pi‘ikea, Kaimilani, ‘Imilani, Thomas Puali‘i and May Ka‘aolani. When she died, her pallbearers included Princes David Kawānanakoa and Jonah Kalaniana‘ole. In 1903, he married his son-in-law’s sister, High Chiefess Elizabeth
Kapeka Merseberg.

Cummins was a staunch monarchist, who, in his later years, was arrested, tried, imprisoned and heavily fined by the new Republic of Hawaiʻi.

Thomas Cummins purchased or leased lands known as the Waimanalo Sugar Plantation; the first record of this was March 27, 1842, when High Chief Pākī leased Cummins a parcel of land on which to build a house.

This residence was later named Mauna Loke, or Rose Mont. (He had another home, Ahipu‘u, named after the hill and caves behind the house. Today it is the site of the O’ahu Country Club.)

However, it was Mauna Loke, the family home in Waimānalo that was the scene of lavish Hawaiian-style living and entertaining that was synonymous with Cummins’s name.

It was said that the food served there excelled that of the best in San Francisco, and the wines were of the choicest vintage. Although always offering plenty to drink, Cummins himself never touched a drop.

His guests included royalty, starting with Kamehameha V, as well as foreign visitors. This included German Princes and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869.

“Cavalcades of horsemen and horsewomen braved the dangers of the steep pali and the rocky trail in order that they might reach the fertile valley and beach where John Cummins kept open house for all who came his way.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 21, 1913)

King Kalākaua often enjoyed Cummins’s hospitality at the spacious home. There were several grass houses scattered throughout the grounds, one for the exclusive use of Kalākaua and one exclusively for Princess Kaʻiulani.

As a child, Kaʻiulani helped “Uncle John” erect a flagpole nearby, then she raised the Hawaiian flag and christened it with a bottle of champagne.

King Kamehameha V also liked to visit Mauna Loke. In order to avoid the difficult trip over the Pali trail, the king purchased a small steamboat in which to ride around the island from town and had a short railway line installed from the boat landing to the house.

A huge celebration took place at Mauna Loke in November 1874, the first stop of a two-week “Grand Tour of O’ahu” by Queen Emma.

The queen stayed three days, by which time the number present – both invited and uninvited – was in the hundreds. Guests brought food by the wagon load: hogs, bullocks, ducks, turkeys and poi.

Three hundred torches burned throughout the night of the lū‘au. (By the way, Pukui notes, “lū‘au” is not an ancient name, but goes back at least to 1856, when so used by the Pacific Commercial Advertiser; formerly a feast was called pāʻina or ʻahaʻaina.)

There were fireworks, bonfires, swimming, surfing, stream fishing, lei making, horse racing, rifle shooting and hula troupes performing one after another until daylight the next day.

Cummins then escorted Emma on the rest of the tour around the island.

Cummins was elected representative for his Koʻolau district in 1873 and assisted in the election of King Lunalilo that same year. The following year, he aided in the election of King Kalākaua and eventually served as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Cummins was instrumental in helping King Kalākaua effect a reciprocity treaty with the United States in 1874, after which the sugar industry prospered and the value of Waimānalo Plantation was greatly enhanced.

John Adams Cummins died March 21, 1913, his obituary read, in part, “Being one of the last of the high chiefs, whose youth was spent in associating with the kings and princes of the realm, if he had no love for the Hawaiian flag and of the traditions of his country, then no one had. He had been dandled on the knee of Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III.”

“Alexander Liholiho, Kamehameha IV, and his gentle Queen Emma were his most intimate friends and companions. Kalākaua owed his election largely to the instrumentality of Mr. Cummins, and would gladly have had him near him continually.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 21, 1913)

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Mauna_Loke_(Rose_Mont),_Waimānalo,_Hawai'i

Kaiulani,_Liliuokalani,_and_Poomaikelani_at_Mauna_Loke_1880s

Princess Ruth Keelikolani with hapa-haole chiefs Samuel Parker and John Adams Cummins as kāhili bearers

October 1, 2019 by Peter T Young 5 Comments

Makapu‘u Point Lighthouse

The origin of the Pacific Ocean Division of the US Army Corps of Engineers goes back to 1905 when Lieutenant John R. Slattery became the first Honolulu District Engineer.

In the early years the District constructed lighthouses and improved harbors in the Territory of Hawaii and erected seacoast fortifications for the defense of Honolulu and Pearl harbors on the island of Oahu.

The direct cause of assigning a Corps of Engineers’ officer to Hawaii was neither river and harbor improvements nor construction of fortifications. Lieutenant John R. Slattery, four years out of West Point, arrived in Honolulu in February 1904 because Hawaii had been found “woefully deficient” in lighthouses.

This conclusion had been reached by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico during its investigation of the condition of lighthouses and other federal matters in the Territory in 1903.

The Corps of Engineers’ responsibilities concerning lights and other aids to navigation had begun in 1852. Because of past problems in the Treasury Department office responsible for the construction and operation of lights, the Congress had authorized the creation of a Lighthouse Board that year.

The coasts of the United States were divided into districts, of which the Pacific Coast became the Twelfth Lighthouse District with its office in San Francisco.

The Army Engineer assigned to the Twelfth District had responsibilities in the construction, inspection, and maintenance of aids to navigation from the Canadian to the Mexican border.

In the early days at San Francisco, this officer was at times the San Francisco Engineer District Officer and at times the staff engineer assigned to the U.S. Army’s Department of California.

By 1903, however, lighthouse duties had become so complex that an Army Engineer, at this time Lieutenant Colonel Thomas H. Handbury, with a staff of his own, had become the Twelfth Lighthouse District Engineer.

Unlike San Francisco Bay, the ports of Hawaii do not experience navigational problems caused by fog. Early efforts in Hawaii to aid seamen were centered on the erection of lights at harbor entrances and at a few dangerous points of land near sea lanes.

Most of these lights were “fixed,” that is, steady beams of light with no revolving apparatus, and were low-powered and of short range.

Of an estimated 35 lights in the islands before aids to navigation became a United States responsibility in 1904, 19 had been erected by the Hawaiian government and the other 16 were privately owned.

The first light to be erected is said to have been at the port of Kawaihae on the northwest coast of Hawaii. Privately owned, it was lit in 1859 to guide whaling vessels into the harbor. Another port heavily used by whalers was the Lahaina Roadstead, Maui.

Makapu‘u Point is the extreme southeastern point of the island of Oahu. To the east of it is the Ka‘iwi Channel, which passes between the islands of Oʻahu and Molokai.

Makapu‘u was a supernatural being who, after arriving from Tahiti, took up residence on the point now bearing her name.

This being’s defining feature was her set of eight bright eyes, which is reflected in her name Makapu‘u (meaning bulging eye.)

For years, there was no light on the entire northern coast of the Hawaiian Islands to guide ships or warn them as they approach those islands.

The lack of such a light not only rendered navigation at times very dangerous, but in bad weather or at night often compelled them to slow down and await clear weather or daylight.

With the increasing importance of commerce between the United States and the Hawaiian Islands, and the commerce passing the Hawaiian Islands and stopping at Honolulu, the need was evident for this aid to navigation

Essentially, all the commerce from the west coast of North America bound to Honolulu passes Makapuʻu Lighthouse.

On October 1, 1909, the light from another bright, bulging eye was seen on the rocky point of Makapu‘u as the giant lens in the Makapu‘u lighthouse was illuminated for the first time.

Although the tower is only 46-feet high, the light is 420-feet above the sea.

Makapu‘u Lighthouse has the largest lens of any lighthouse of the US, known as a hyper-radiant lens. The inside diameter is 8’2”, sufficient for several people to stand in.

The 115,000-candlepower light can be seen for 28-miles. The effectiveness of this lighthouse has been greatly increased in recent years through the establishment of a radio beacon at the station; radio signals may be heard 200 and more miles at sea.

The lighthouse and about 5,000-square feet around it are owned by the Coast Guard and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The rest of the surrounding area – about 40 acres including a lookout – belongs to the State and is under the control of State Parks within DLNR, which maintains a public wayside park and trail to the vicinity of the Makapu‘u Lighthouse.

The Makapu‘u Point trail, within Ka Iwi State Scenic Shoreline, offers outstanding views of O‘ahu’s southeastern coastline, including Koko Head and Koko Crater.

From the trail’s destination at Makapu‘u Head, there are also magnificent views of the windward coast and offshore islets, as well as the historic red-roofed Makapu‘u Lighthouse (the lighthouse itself is off-limits).

On a clear day, you may even see Molokai and Lāna‘i.

The offshore islets (Mānana – Rabbit Island and Kāohikaipu – Flat Island) are wildlife sanctuaries for Hawaiian seabirds.

This trail is an excellent place to view migrating humpback whales in season (November-May). An interpretive sign and viewing scope along the trail help you view and identify the whales seen from this location.

This is a moderate 2-mile hike that is paved but is a bit steep in spots. There is no shade or restroom facilities along this trail (start before noon due to the heat, bring plenty of water and wear sunscreen.) STAY ON THE TRAIL.

When I was at DLNR, we finally made necessary improvements to get hikers’ parked cars off Kalanianaole Highway and into parking lots (one at the Makapuʻu Beach overlook and a larger on at the head of the Makapuʻu Point trail.)

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Makapuu Light House – Site before Sea Life Park

Makapuu_Lighthouse-vthawaii-com

Makapuu Signal Company-1929

Lighthouse Keeper John Sweeney-1934

Makepuu_point_light-1989

Makapuu-Lighthouse-(NationalGeographic)

Makapuu_Point_Lighthouse

Makapuu_Lighthouse_From_Above_Makapuu_Beach

August 6, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Waimānalo Sugar Plantation

High Chief John Adams Kuakini Cummins was born on Oʻahu on March 17, 1835, the son of High Chiefess Kaumakaokane Papaliʻaiʻaina and Thomas Jefferson Cummins, Jr. His mother was a cousin of King Kamehameha I. His father was a wealthy and aristocratic Englishman, born in Lancashire and reared in Massachusetts, who came to the Islands in 1828.

Thomas Cummins first acquired interests in land in Waimānalo (meaning potable water) on March 27, 1842, when High Chief Paki leased Cummins a parcel of land on which to build a house (that he named Mauna Loke, or Rose Mount)

On November 25, 1850, Cummins leased 970 acres in the same vicinity from King Kamehameha III. This property extended from Popoʻokaʻala Point to the hills of Kaʻiwa and Kaʻakaupu of the Koʻolau district. Over the years more land was acquired. In 1890, Cummins leased nearly 7,000-more acres for his sugar operation.

The land was first used as cattle pasture and horse breeding ranch. After attending the Royal School, Cummins worked on his father’s ranch, becoming manager in 1855.

One of the goals in horse breeding related to racing, an item of interest to the royalty and elite in Honolulu. Cummins had one of the largest stocks of race horses (and introduced some blooded stock to the islands) and was a promoter of horse racing. In about 1872, a horse racing track was laid out at Kapiʻolani Park. He was a Charter member of the Hawaiian Jockey Club in 1885.

John Cummins was elected representative for his Koʻolau district in 1873 and assisted in the election of King Lunalilo that same year. The following year, he aided in the election of King Kalākaua.

Cummins was instrumental, in helping King Kalākaua effect a reciprocity treaty with the United States in 1874, after which the sugar industry prospered.

Cummins conceived the idea of converting the ranch into a commercial sugar venture in 1877, two years after King Kalākaua had concluded a reciprocity treaty with the United States, greatly enhancing the sugar industry in the kingdom. Its first mill started grinding cane in January 1881.

The mill stood near Poalima Street behind present-day Shima’s Market on Kalanianaʻole Highway. Homes were on both sides of the highway. Rail tracks were laid out and three locomotive engines were brought in to haul cane to the mill and the wharf.

The sugar industry became a huge success.

The sugar plantation required more water than was easily available and a ditch was built to divert water from Maunawili Stream to Waimanalo. Two million gallons of water per day was pumped through a 2-mile long tunnel through Mount Olomana and into a reservoir where it was tapped to Waimanalo Sugar Company until the 1950s.

In the 1870s, Waimānalo Sugar Company built a 700-foot pier, Waimānalo Landing (near what is now the intersection of Huli Street and Kalaniana’ole Highway,) to use to transport the sugar, as well as serve as a landing for inter-island steamers (it was dismantled in the early 1950s.)

The railroad tracks from the mill culminated at a long wooden pier; at the end of the pier, winches and cranes lifted the bags of sugar onto the vessel alongside. Today, the line of broken pilings and all the landing’s machinery and crane and rigging, lies submerged beneath 12-15 feet of water at Waimānalo Beach Park.

The 86-foot ocean steamer “SS Waimānalo” (later renamed “SS John A. Cummins” or “Kaena”) owned by John Adams Cummins of the Waimanalo Sugar Plantation Company, made trips twice a week between stops in Koʻolaupoko (Heʻeia and Waimānalo) and Honolulu, exporting sugar and returning with supplies and goods.

Control of the plantation passed to W. G. Irwin and Co. in 1885, with Cummins continuing as manager. Cummins was ahead of the time in adopting a sort of “social welfare” plan for his employees, building a large structure containing a reading room and a section for dances and social gatherings for the plantation laborers.

It was decorated with Chinese and Japanese fans on the ceiling and pictures of King Kalākaua and other members of the royal family on the walls, and contained books, tables, an organ and singing canaries.

John Cummins left the sugar business to William G. Irwin, agent of Claus Spreckles, and developed a commercial building called the Cummins Block at Fort and Merchant streets in Downtown Honolulu.

In 1889 he represented Hawaiʻi at the Paris exposition known as Exposition Universelle. On June 17, 1890 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs in Kalākaua’s cabinet, and thus was in the House of Nobles of the legislature for the 1890 session.

He died on March 21, 1913 from influenza after a series of strokes and was buried in Oʻahu Cemetery.

Due to security concerns, an Executive Order from President Woodrow Wilson in 1917 significantly changed Waimānalo and Waimānalo Sugar Company – more than 1,500-acres belonging to the Waimānalo Sugar Company were converted to a military reservation.

In 1947, the plantation was shut down.

One lasting remnant of those plantation days is the Saint George Catholic Chapel. It is among the oldest parishes in Waimānalo. Built in 1842, it still has a sizable congregation, many of them descendants of the Portuguese and the Filipinos who worked for the sugar company.

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Waimanalo Sugar Plantation c1890s

1941_01_00 – Waimanalo sugar? SB BW photo.

Small flat cars piled high with sugarcane-(Smithsonian)

Plantation field worker hauling sugar cane up a handmade ramp onto the 4-wheel flat car-(Smithsonian)

‘Olomana’ and ‘Pokaa’ (Chloe) at work in Oahu on the Waimanalo Plantation

Locomotive ‘Thomas Cummins’ at Waimanalo

Hauling sugarcane to mill-(Smithsonian)

Engineer guiding train over temporary tracks-(Smithsonian)

Cars being hauled over temporary track-(Smithsonian)

14-1-14-38 =waimanalo plantation mill j.a.cummins photog- Kamehameha Schools Archives

John Adams Kuakini Cummins’ 80-foot steamer ‘Waimanalo’ anchored off the Waimanalo Sugar Company’s pier

Aerial_view_BellowsField_(note_sugar_cultivation)-1942

The old St George Church, ca. 1933 (StGeorgeChurchWaimanalo)

December 6, 2014 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

1st POW

11 pm, December 6, 1941, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki and Petty Officer Second Class Kiyoshi Inagaki entered their 2-man midget submarine and were released from their mother sub about 10-miles off Pearl Harbor.

They were part of Special Attack Forces, an elite 10-man group of five 2-man midget submarines that would attack Pearl Harbor.

They planned to carry out suicide attacks against the enemy with no expectation of coming back alive: “That the personnel of the midget submarine group was selected with utmost care was obvious.”

“The twenty-four, picked from the entire Japanese navy, had in common: bodily strength and physical energy; determination and fighting spirit; freedom from family care. They were unmarried and from large families.”

“None of us was a volunteer. We had all been ordered to our assignment. That none of us objected goes without saying: we knew that punishment was very severe if we objected; we were supposed to feel highly honored.” (Sakamaki)

His 78.5-foot-long submarine, HA-19, and four other midget subs, each armed with a pair of 1,000-pound torpedoes, were to attack American destroyers or battleships. (NYTimes)

From the beginning, things went wrong for Sakamaki and Inagaki. Their gyrocompass was faulty, causing the submarine to run in circles while at periscope depth – they struggled for 24-hours to go in the right direction.

The submarine was spotted by an American destroyer, the Helm, which fired on them, and the midget sub later got stuck temporarily on a coral reef. The submarine became partially flooded, it filled with smoke and fumes from its batteries, causing the two crewmen to lose consciousness.

With the air becoming foul due to the battery smoking and leaking gas, the midget sub hit a coral reef again. They abandoned the sub.

Sakamaki reached a stretch of beach, but, again, fell unconscious. In the early dawn of December 8, he was picked up on Waimanalo Beach by Lt. Paul S. Plybon and Cpt. David Akui of the 298th Infantry. (hawaii-gov)

Sakamaki became Prisoner No. 1 (the first US Prisoner Of War in WWII.)

He was the only crewman to survive from the midget submarines; his companion’s remains later washed up on the shore. All five subs were lost, and none were known to have caused damage to American ships.

Humbled to have been captured alive, Sakamaki inflicted cigarette burns while in prison at Sand Island and asked the Americans permission to commit suicide. His request was denied and the first prisoner of war spend the rest of the war being transferred from camp to camp. (Radio Canada)

He spent the entire war in various POW camps in Wisconsin, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas. He and others were offered educational opportunities through the “Internment University” that had lectures on English, geography, commerce, agriculture, music, Japanese poetry, Buddhist scriptures and other subjects.

He became the leader of other Japanese POWs who came to his camp; he encouraged them to learn English. He also tried to address the problem of other Japanese POWs’ wanting to commit suicide after their capture, since he previously had gone through the same feelings.

At the end of the war, he returned to Japan and wrote his memoirs, ”Four Years as a Prisoner-of-War, No. 1,” in which he told of receiving mail from some Japanese denouncing him for not having committed suicide when it appeared he could be taken captive.

His memoirs were published in the United States on the eighth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack with the title, ”I Attacked Pearl Harbor.” (NYTimes)

Mr. Sakamaki became a businessman, serving as president of a Brazilian subsidiary of Toyota and then working for a Toyota-affiliated company in Japan before retiring in 1987.

His submarine was salvaged by American troops, shipped to the United States in January 1942, and taken on a nationwide tour to sell War Bonds. Admission to view the submarine was secured through the purchase of war bonds and stamps.

On April 3, 1943, HA-19 arrived in Washington DC for the war bond drive and for a brief time sat in front of the United States Capitol Building for people to see.

On arriving in Alexandria, Virginia, “George W. Herring, Virginia lumberman, bought $16,000 worth of war bonds yesterday for the privilege of inspecting a Jap submarine. One of the two-man submarines captured at Pearl Harbor was here for a one-day stand in the war bond sales campaign.”

“Those who buy bonds are allowed to inspect it. Herring held the record for the highest purchase and was the first Alexandrian to take a peek at the submarine. War bond sales for the day totaled $1,061,650.” (Belvedere Daily Republican, April 3, 1943)

It was placed on display at a submarine base in Key West, Florida, in 1947 and later transferred in 1990 to its current site, the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, home of Admiral Chester W Nimitz (who served as Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet during WWII.)

Back to Sakamaki … when he returned from America, he saw a woman working in a neighbor’s field with whom he fell in love at first sight, although he reviewed her papers (“a health certificate, academic records, a brief biography, a certificate of her family background, all certified as to their accuracy”) prior to making the commitment to marriage.

Her father and brother had died in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, so her mother and she had moved back to their ancestral home next to Sakamaki’s home. They married on August 15, 1946, the first anniversary of the end of WWII. (Lots of information here from Gordon and hawaii-gov.)

The image shows the beached midget submarine at Waimanalo. In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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October 24, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

United Nations

States first established international organizations to cooperate on specific matters. The International Telecommunication Union was founded in 1865 and the Universal Postal Union was established in 1874.

In 1899, the International Peace Conference was held in The Hague to elaborate instruments for settling crises peacefully, preventing wars and codifying rules of warfare. It adopted the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes and established the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which began work in 1902.

The League of Nations, conceived during the first World War and established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles, was established “to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security.” (The League of Nations ceased its activities after failing to prevent the Second World War.)

On January 1, 1942, representatives of 26-Allied nations fighting against the Axis Powers met in Washington, DC to pledge their support for the Atlantic Charter by signing the “Declaration by United Nations”. This document contained the first official use of the term “United Nations”, which was suggested by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (UN)

The United Nations officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, when the Charter was ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council (China, France, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom and United States) and the majority of other signatories.

The United Nations was founded by 51 countries as an international organization committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. (UN)

The UN needed a home.

At the height of world capital search in late-1945, the United Nations and newspaper accounts typically reported that between thirty and fifty suggestions for the headquarters site had been received.

The range and scope of proposals indicated the previously unexplored public fascination with the prospect of creating a “capital of the world” and offered a source base for investigating the evolving relationship between local, regional and national identity, and global consciousness. (Capital of the World)

Hawaiʻi got caught up in this, as well.

At the July 4, 1945 meeting of the National Governor’s Association, Hawaiʻi Governor Ingram M Stainback was successful in amending the group’s motion “we respectfully invite and urge all of you to use your good offices to locate the headquarters and capitol site of the United Nations organization at some place within the continental United States of America.”

Stainback noted, “I think Hawaiʻi would be a good place to locate the headquarters and suggest the word ‘continental’ be removed.” (His amendment passed unanimously.) (NGA)

Folks in Hawaiʻi then got to work and Governor Stainback initiated a campaign to attract the UN to Honolulu. In contrast to other contenders, who stressed their proximity to world capitals, the Hawaiians stressed the advantages of being “far enough removed from any of the potentially explosive situations of the world.” (Capital of the World)

“A resolution adopted by the Hawaiian Senate emphasized that Hawaiʻi is especially appropriate for UNO headquarters because it is the home of Pearl Harbor, whose treacherous bombing brought the United States into the war and gave the world a symbol of unity of action.” (Herald Harper, November 23, 1945)

“The decision to propose Hawaiʻi as the permanent site of the United Nations Capitol was made relatively late, after other cities (nearly 250-across the US) had prepared elaborate campaigns to ‘sell’ themselves. However, a highly effective presentation was prepared and shipped to London by Hawaiʻi’s committee”. (Dye)

“A huge book presenting Hawaiʻi’s invitation, the most comprehensive yet presented, signed by IM Stainback, Governor of the Territory, and Hawaiʻi’s leading businessmen and industrialists, has been received in London for consideration by the UNO’s preparatory commission.” (Herald Harper, November 23, 1945)

“The huge volume was sent with an attractive cover with a tapa cloth and flower lei design and a decorative map emphasizing Hawaiʻi’s central location in the Pacific. It was mounted on a wooden standard for ease in reading. The word ‘Hawaiʻi’ was spelled out on the cover in letters hard-carved of wood.” (Dye).

The site of the Hawaiʻi proposal? … Waimanalo.

However, the dream of the UN moving its sweet home to Nalo Town was short-lived.

A site committee of the United Nations Preparatory Commission voted after two hours of bitter debate to locate the permanent headquarters of UNO in the Eastern US. (United Press, December 22, 1945)

In the end, they picked New York. A last-minute offer of $8.5-million by John D Rockefeller, Jr, for the purchase of the present site was accepted by a large majority of the General Assembly on December 14, 1946. New York City completed the site parcel by additional gifts of property. (UN)

The cornerstone was laid on October 24, 1949; the United Nations headquarters in New York is made up of four main buildings: the Secretariat, the General Assembly, Conference Area (including Council Chambers) and the Library.

The tallest of the group, consists of 39 stories above ground and three stories underground. The exterior facings of the 550-foot tall Secretariat Building are made exclusively of aluminum, glass and marble. (UN)

This was not the first lost-opportunity for international awareness. In early-visioning for the home of the UN, President Franklin D Roosevelt “thought that the Secretariat of the organization might be established at Geneva, but that neither the Council nor the Assembly meetings should be held there.”

“He believed that the Assembly should meet in a different city each year, and that the Council should have perhaps two regular meeting places, one being in the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic and the other on an island in the Hawaiian group in the middle of the Pacific.”

“He felt that locating the Council in the Azores or the Hawaiian Islands would bring the benefit of detachment from the world. Being at heart a naval man, he liked the perspective obtained from surveying the world from an island out at sea.”

“(Roosevelt) had been eager, in the later thirties, to promote a meeting of the heads of nations on a battleship or on such an island as Niʻihau.”

The image shows a portion of a newspaper graphic showing Waimanalo as Hawaiʻi’s UN home proposal. In addition, I have included other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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