Categories

September 8, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nobuo Fujita

On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, an American naval base in Honolulu. Thousands of American soldiers were killed, and as a result, the United States officially joined World War II in the Pacific.

The United States conducted the “Doolittle Raid,” a comparably small air raid off Tokyo in April 1942, just four months after Pearl Harbor. While the damage to Japan was relatively minor—fifty people were killed—it served as a morale booster for the Allies and a demonstration to Japan that its main islands weren’t safe from air attack.

Following the raid, Japan set out to show that the United States could also be bombed. (NCTAsia) A wartime mentality set in immediately, as coastal residents were commanded to black out their homes at night by covering windows with shades and blankets. (Oregon History Project)

“The Pacific Coast, totally dimmed out … twice previously has been subjected to shelling by submarines – apparently Japanese- but presumably never before has undergone aerial bombardment.”

“On February 23, during President Roosevelt’s fireside chat, a submarine lofted more than fifteen shells into an oil field near Goleta, Calif., 120 miles north of Los Angeles, and on June 21 a submarine pitched nine shells near a United States Army fort at Seaside, Ore.” (Courier Journal, Sept 15, 1942)

Then, “A foot-deep crater, apparently caused by an incendiary bomb gave evidence today of what may have been the first aerial assault on United States home soil, an apparent attempt to set fire to an isolated forest on the southern Oregon coast.”

“The Army’s Western Defense Command, in a carefully-worded communique, disclosed that an unidentified, small seaplane or a type that might have been carried on a submarine was seen coming inland just before dawn September 9, and was heard roaring out to sea about half an hour later.”

“Some time after the plane was seen circling the Mount Emily area nine miles northeast of Brookings, Oreg., a fire was observed, and forestry patrols who extinguished the blaze found a crater and metal fragments …”

“… which the Army said bore ‘markings of Japanese ideographs which may have been part of a code indicating the arsenal where the bomb was manufactured.” (Evening Star, Sept 15, 1942)

It was later concluded that a submarine was fitted with a modified Zero seaplane, that catapulted off the deck of the sub. It was fitted with two 170-pound incendiary bombs and flew toward Mt. Emily in the Siskiyou National Forest.

Piloted by Nobuo Fujita, the plane dropped both bombs on the heavily forested mount slope starting a small forest fire that was easy to control due to the wet conditions. (Fujita was the only foreign pilot to drop bombs on the continental United States.)

“When all was ready, the catapult was fired. [Petty officer Shoji Okuda was his crewman.] I flew straight ahead toward Cape Blanco lighthouse, crossed the coast, and swung northeast for the bombing area.”

“The sun filled the eastern sky with a red-gold brightness. After flying an estimated 50 miles, I ordered Okuda to release the first bomb, which burst, and splashed a brilliant white light over the earthscape.”

“I took no chances on the return flight, for someone had certainly sighted me before. It must not happen again, so I cut the Zero’s engine and glided down to 1,000 feet, passing north of Cape Blanco and well out to sea before starting it again.”

“I flew westward for the amount of time Okuda specified and, on reaching the rendezvous point, looked around me. No I-25 [the submarine].” (Fujita, US Naval Institute)

This attack by the Japanese submarine was intended to start a large enough forest fire that large numbers of resources in men and money would be allocated to suppress a massive wildfire. It was also a reprisal for the American bombardment of Tokyo in April. (Hughel, Oregon NG)

A total of four bombs were dropped over two occasions with the intent of starting forest fires; however, due to damp conditions, little damage occurred.

“It was too wet and it just stopped raining. He dropped these thermite bombs and they just fizzled. They created enough smoke so the forest service saw them,” says Brenda Jacques, a retired reference librarian in Brookings. (OPB)

The war ended on September 2, 1945; in 1962, the Brookings Jaycees invited Fujita to Brookings for their annual Azalea festival as an occasion of historical significance. (Brookings, Oregon)

But not everyone in town was thrilled. A full-page op-ed was printed in the local paper, The Brookings-Harbor Pilot, in 1962. Part of it read, “[Fujita’s] sole claim to fame is that he’s the only Nip pilot who bombed the mainland of the United States by airplane … Why stop with Fujita?”

“Why not assemble the ashes of Judas Iscariot, the corpse of Atilla the Hun, a shovel full of dirt from the spot where Hitler died … .” (“Nip” is a derogatory abbreviation of “Nippon,” the Japanese name for Japan.) (OPB)

Fujita accepted the invitation and came back to Oregon. He donated his Samurai sword, which had flown with him in the cockpit, to the City of Brookings “in the interest of peace and friendship.” Fujita was later named an honorary citizen and an ambassador of goodwill by the City of Brookings for his continued peace efforts. (Brookings, Oregon)

Fujita returned to Brookings in 1990, 1992, and 1995. In 1992, he planted a tree at the bomb site as a gesture of peace. In 1995, he moved the samurai sword from the Brookings City Hall into the new library’s display case.

He died in Japan on September 30, 1997, at the age of 85. His family honored his wishes and buried his ashes by a tree he had planted as a peace gesture at the bombing site during his 1992 visit. (KTVL)

Fujita fulfilled a promise to bring a small group of high school students to Japan for a cultural exchange “I just can’t admire the man enough. Just to keep this friendship between the town and himself. He was so good about that.” (Greg Jacques, OPB)

September 7, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Labor Day

Hawai‘i is an exceptional case in American labor history because of its workforce made up of mostly non-white and immigrant workers.

The sugar planters increased the labor supply as needed to decrease labor’s demands. The major sugar planters grew into five big companies that eventually dominated the Islands’ economy.

Alexander & Baldwin, American Factors, Castle & Cooke, C Brewer and Theo H Davies before long constituted a power in the islands that controlled virtually all business and commercial as well as public employment opportunities.

Over the years in successive waves of immigration, the sugar growers brought to Hawai‘i 46,000 Chinese, 180,000 Japanese, 126,000 Filipinos as well as Portuguese and Puerto Ricans, each one used generally to offset the bargaining power of its predecessor.

“It was advantageous to have on your plantation groups from different ethnicities so that if one of them got it in their mind to strike that you would still be able to get things done by the other groups,” says William Puette, the Director of the Center for Labor Education and Research at the University of Hawai‘i – West O‘ahu.

“That obviously, they didn’t admit to this but it laid the groundwork for them to be able to have one group pitted against the other by making sure that they didn’t play well together.”

Hawai‘i’s labor unions during this period were organized based on ethnic groups. Sugar planters pinned these distinct groups against each other by difference in wages, hiring more workers from different countries, and used the Portuguese as a model minority.

Hawaii’s workers attempted strikes since the beginning of the sugar industry beginning in the 1800s. Some of the more significant in size occurred in 1909, 1919, 1924, and 1937.

In 1935, President Roosevelt, as part of his New Deal legislation, passed the Wagner Act giving workers the legal right to organize unions that could demand employer recognition. (UH West O‘ahu Center for Labor Education and Research)

Some unions were able to win small gains, but most strikes were broken and workers were forced to return to the plantations with harsher treatment. (Martinez)

Hawaiian officials expressed harsher anti-union attitudes by undermining the National Labor Relations Board, canceling union contracts, and threatening workers.

Employers froze wages to show that employees would not be hired in other locations. In addition, anti-Japanese hysteria after the bombing of Pearl Harbor deepened discrimination on the islands.

Blake Clark, a professor at the University of Hawaii, wrote in 1942, “A great many mainland Americans believe that most of the Japanese in Hawai‘i are hiding around in the canefields, ready at a signal to leap out and stab us in the back.”

Intimidated Japanese Hawaiians, who made up a significant portion of plantation labor, halted organizing. Police on the islands jailed anyone who did not follow the laws and ILWU membership froze to about 900 from the start of war until 1944.

Pent-up rage made workers receptive to ILWU organizers, due to the difficult conditions of life. Living quarters were more compressed as shacks “averaged less than 500 square feet for a family of five, with as many as eight persons living in a room of about 100 square feet,” and most homes lacked indoor plumbing.

When families requested maintenance of their housing or working facilities, managers deducted the cost from their pay. Controversy also spread about children on plantations in Hilo, working and missing school days.

The timing was ripe. Union organizers mobilized on the islands by speaking to workers’ grievance, as union power surged following the war. Workers from different ethnic and national backgrounds were soon convinced to join the union with each other.

Members of the ILWU went door to door to explain the need to unite under their union and strike in order to gain better wages and working conditions. Union bulletins, newspapers, voting ballots, and contracts were printed in each of the workers’ native languages.

The Sugar Strike of 1946 began on Labor Day. It was the first strike to ever shut down Hawai’i’s powerful sugar industry. More than 26,000 plantation workers and their families went on strike for nearly three months, closing all but one of 34 plantations across the island chain. (HPR)

The strike succeeded in changing the balance of power between workers and the plantation. In collective bargaining, the ILWU secured benefits such as housing, medical, pensions, and wages, as inherent rights for workers instead of privileges granted as favors by plantation owners.

“The politics of Hawai‘i would never be the same after that. And certainly labor relations would not be the same after that,” says Puette.

“Leadership in all the different areas would not be the same because you started to see the rise of people from the different ethnic groups, not just Japanese, but Filipinos, and everybody else which you wouldn’t have seen without that landmark strike of 1946.”

Based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, noting Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by state, 2019-2020 annual averages, Hawai‘i ranks #1 in 2020 with Percent of Employed – Members of Unions (23.7%) and Represented by Unions (25.7%). New York is #2.

September 6, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Mānoa Arboretum

Hahai nō ka ua i ka ululāʻau
The Rain Follows the Forest

“Not enough rain and not enough water in the streams are great evils”.

“It appears to me to be unnecessary to again go deeply into the theory of the relation between forests and rainfall when all intelligent and observing people admit that the decrease or increase of rainfall goes pari passu (‘hand-in-hand’) with the decrease or increase of the forests.”

“The forest, which not only produces rain, but also retains the rainwater, holding it among its leaves and branches, its undergrowth, its myriads of roots and rootlets and its fallen debris, letting the rainwater trickle down slowly to the water streams and keeping them supplied for a long time”.

“(T)hat forest is not there. Rain pours down, the water rushes in torrents through the streams to the sea and soon after everything is dry again.” (Gjerdrum to HSPA, 1897)

“The ultimate success of forestry in Hawaiʻi depends on the continued cooperation of individuals and private corporations with the Territorial Government.” (Board of Agriculture and Forestry, December 31, 1907)

In the early-1900s, Mānoa Valley’s lower slopes were stripped of their native vegetation by excessive agricultural cultivation and the overgrazing of cattle.

Without healthy forest cover, rainwater flowed to the ocean rather than recharging the ground water table, Hawaiʻi’s primary source of drinking water. This loss was of special concern to the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA,) because sugar required great quantities of water.

In 1918, HSPA established Mānoa Arboretum in order to develop methods of watershed restoration, test tree species for reforestation and collect plants of economic value.

They put Dr Harold L Lyon, a young botanist from Minnesota, in charge of 124-acres at the back of Mānoa Valley. He was, at the same time, superintendent of the Territory’s Department of Botany and Forestation.

The site lies in the ʻili (land division) of Haukulu and ʻAihualama, in Mānoa. Several man-made features, including stone platforms, loʻi and the occurrence of many Polynesian-introduced plants note early use of the site.

One of Dr Lyon’s tasks at the arboretum was to identify trees suitable for rebuilding watersheds. Lyon observed that the adverse conditions of soil created from volcanic rock erosion appeared to affect the growth, survival and eventual death of many tree species.

He also noted that native plants did not thrive in areas that were previously trampled by cattle and other animals. The experiment station’s goal was to find trees that not only could survive in soil containing volcanic rock components, but also would comprise efficient water-conserving forests.

Mānoa Arboretum was a test site to evaluate trees that could be used for reforestation throughout the islands, and to test sugarcane seedlings. The test site became the basis of the Mānoa Arboretum.

Tree-planting was a coordinated effort involving Lyon, HSPA and Territorial Forestry under the direction of Ralph Sheldon Hosmer, the Territorial Forester. The early foresters planted many types of trees on an experimental basis, but concluded that native species were of limited utility and turned largely to introduced species for large-scale reforestation efforts. (Woodcock)

Lyon concluded that healthy forests should be preserved, that heavily damaged native forests could not recover on their own, and that damaged watersheds could be restored with introduced plants. Planting began in 1920, and was essentially completed by 1945.

“As an influential board member on the Agriculture and Forestry Commission, Harold Lyon succeeded in persuading the Territorial Commission to import seed of a vast number of alien tree species. … nearly 1,000 alien species were outplanted in Hawaiʻi forest reserves.” (Mueller-Dombois)

Various trees and plants were imported from diverse areas of the world including Madagascar, Australia, India, Brazil, the Malay states, China, the Philippines, southern Europe, the East Indies, the West Indies, New Zealand, Central America and South Africa. Trees that successfully survived the Mānoa Valley soil conditions and promoted water conservation were then widely planted throughout the arboretum

Eucalyptus species, silk oak, paperbark and ironwood were the most frequently planted trees due to their fast growth and their resistance to adverse environmental conditions. However, these very qualities, as well as their ability to seed profusely, would lead to some species such as tropical ash and albizia. (Iwashita)

The number of trees planted rose to many millions by the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was available for planting. From 1935 to 1941, with the help of the CCC, an average of close to two-million trees were planted per year in the forest reserves.

Lyon envisioned the plantations as a buffer zone that would be established between the remaining native forests and the lower-elevation agricultural lands to protect the native forests and perform the functions (maintaining input of water to aquifers.)

This large-scale attempt to engineer nature was probably the largest environmental project ever carried out in the islands. Forestry introductions have been a significant contributor to Hawaiʻi’s alien-species crisis, with many of these tree species now problem invasive species. (Woodcock)

In his 1949 annual report to the HSPA entitled, ‘What is to be the fate of the arboretum?,’ Lyon declared the Mānoa Arboretum’s mission to test new plant introductions to be essentially complete; he believed that the HSPA should not remain the arboretum’s custodian.

On July 1, 1953, HSPA conveyed the Mānoa Arboretum to the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaiʻi. The regents were individually entrusted with the fiduciary duty of maintaining the arboretum. In 1962, the Board of Regents transferred the arboretum to the University of Hawaiʻi.

Dr. Lyon remained with the arboretum as its first director under the regents’ and university’s stewardship. After Dr. Lyon’s death in 1957, an advisory committee directed the arboretum until 1961, when Dr. George Gillette assumed the directorship on a part-time basis.

When Dr. Lyon died, the Board of Regents renamed the facility the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum (Lyon Arboretum) in honor of the man so closely associated with its growth and fruition.

In the early years, eight cottages were built on the arboretum site for staff use. The cottages were given alphabetical designations, beginning with cottage “A” at the foot of the hill leading into the arboretum site and ending with cottage “H” at the top of the hill. Lands surrounding the cottages were planted with sugar cane. Dr. Lyon also erected an orchid greenhouse between cottages “F” and “G,” which is still used today.

Cottage “H” was expanded over time and is now the main center of the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, housing offices, a reception area, an educational office, and a book and gift shop.

Forestry, Forest Reserves, Watershed Partnerships, invasive species and related water and habitat concerns were very much a part of daily activities when I was at DLNR.

I am honored and proud to have served as a director on the Hawaiʻi Forest Institute, an organization dedicated to promote the health and productivity of Hawaiʻi’s forests, through forest restoration, educational programs, information dissemination and support for scientific research.

September 5, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

About 250 Years Ago … First Continental Congress

In 1774, the British Parliament passed a series of laws collectively known as the Intolerable Acts, with the intent to suppress unrest in colonial Boston by closing the port and placing it under martial law. In response, colonial protestors led by a group called the Sons of Liberty issued a call for a boycott.

Merchant communities were reluctant to participate in such a boycott unless there were mutually agreed upon terms and a means to enforce the boycott’s provisions.

Across North America, colonists rose in solidarity with the people of Massachusetts. Goods arrived in Massachusetts from as far south as Georgia, and by late spring 1774, nine of the colonies called for a continental congress. Virginia’s Committee of Correspondence is largely credited with originating the invitation. The colony of Connecticut was the first to respond.

Colonial legislatures empowered delegates to attend a Continental Congress which would set terms for a boycott. The colonies elected delegates to the First Continental Congress in various ways. Some delegates were elected through their respective colonial legislatures or committees of correspondence.

The Congress first convened in Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 5, 1774, with delegates from each of the 13 colonies except Georgia. (Georgia was facing a war with neighboring Native American tribes and the colony did not want to jeopardize British assistance.)

As delegates pondered the fate of Massachusetts, Joseph Warren and a committee of men from Suffolk County, Massachusetts, formulate a plan of resistance. Proposed on September 9, 1774 and, speaking with one voice, the delegates unanimously endorse the document on September 17, their first official act.

This plan encouraged Massachusetts to protest the Intolerable Acts by stockpiling military supplies, operating an independent government, boycotting British goods, and announcing no allegiance to Britain and a king who failed to consider the wishes of the colonists.

Reaction to these Resolves was mixed. While some supported such a bold proposal and felt it was an appropriate reaction to the British, others feared it would cause war.

Debate was later stalled for weeks while a statement of American rights was debated at length. Producing this statement required answering constitutional questions that had been asked for over a century.

The hardest constitutional question surrounded Britain’s right to regulate trade. Joseph Galloway, a conservative delegate from Pennsylvania, insisted on releasing a statement clarifying Britain’s right to regulate trade in the American colonies. However, other delegates were opposed to giving Britain explicit rights to colonial trade.

During this debate, Galloway introduced A Plan of Union between the American Colonies and Britain. The Plan of Union called for the creation of a Colonial Parliament that would work hand-in-hand with the British Parliament. The British monarch would appoint a President General and the colonial assemblies would appoint delegates for a three-year term. Galloway’s plan was defeated in a 6-5 vote.

On October 14, 1774, the First Continental Congress adopted their Declaration and Resolves. This stated the group’s objections to the Coercive Acts, listed the rights of the colonists, and itemized objections to British rule beyond the Intolerable Acts.

The list of rights insisted that Colonists were “entitled to life, liberty, and property” and “that foundation of English liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council;”

Furthermore, the delegates promptly began drafting and discussing the Continental Association. This would become their most important policy outcome. The Continental Association, adopted October 20, 1774, reaffirmed the Colonists’ British connections and allegiance to the King,

The Association called for an end to British imports starting in December 1774 and an end to exporting goods to Britain in September 1775. This policy would be enforced by local and colony-wide committees of inspection.

These committees would check ships that arrived in ports, force colonists to sign documents pledging loyalty to the Continental Association, and suppress mob violence. The committees of inspection even enforced frugality, going so far as to end lavish funeral services and parties. Many colonial leaders hoped these efforts would bond the colonies together economically.

Virginia secured the Continental Association’s delay in ending exports to Britain. Before the Continental Congress, Virginia had passed its own association that delayed ending exports to avoid hurting farmers with a sudden change in policy. The delegates from Virginia showed up to the Continental Congress united, and refused to waiver on the issue of delaying the ban on exports to Britain.

The idea of using non-importation as leverage was neither new nor unexpected. Prior to the Continental Congress, eight colonies had already endorsed the measure and merchants had been warned against placing any orders with Britain, as a ban on importation was likely to pass.

Some colonies had already created their own associations to ban importation and, in some cases, exportation. The Virginia Association had passed at the Virginia Convention with George Washington in attendance.

Washington’s support of using non-importation as leverage against the British can be traced back as far as 1769 in letters between him and George Mason. When the colonies first started publicly supporting non-importation, Bryan Fairfax, a longtime friend of Washington’s, wrote to him urging him to not support the Continental Association and to instead petition Parliament.

Many delegates felt that using the Continental Association as leverage would be impractical without explicit demands and a plan of redress. However, Congress struggled to come up with a list of rights, grievances, and demands.

Furthermore, to only repeal laws that were unfavorable to the delegates without a list of rights would be a temporary fix to the larger issue of continued British abuse. To address these issues, Congress formed a Grand Committee.

Finally, at the end of the First Continental Congress, the delegates adopted a Petition addressed to “The King’s Most Excellent Majesty” on October 26, 1774. In noted, in part,

“Your majesty, we are confident, justly rejoices, that your title to the crown is thus founded on the title of your people to liberty; and therefore we doubt not but your royal wisdom must approve the sensibility that teaches your subjects anxiously to guard the blessing they received from divine providence, and thereby to prove the performance of that compact which elevated the illustrious house of Brunswick to the imperial dignity it now possesses. …”

“By giving this faithful information we do all in our power to promote the great objects of your royal cares, the tranquillity of your government and the welfare of your people. …”

“Yielding to no British subjects, in affectionate attachment to your majesty’s person, family, and government, we too dearly prize that privilege of expressing that attachment, by those proofs which are honourable to the prince who receives them, and to the people who give them, ever to resign it to any body of men upon earth. …”

“We ask but for peace, liberty and safety. We wish not a diminution of the prerogative, nor do we solicit the grant of any new right in our favour. Your royal authority over us and our connection with Great-Britain, we shall always carefully and zealously endeavour to support and maintain. …”

“We therefore most earnestly beseech your majesty, that your royal authority and interposition may be used for our relief, and that a gracious answer may be given to this petition.”

Many delegates were skeptical about changing the king’s attitude towards the colonies, but believed that every opportunity should be exhausted to de-escalate the conflict before taking more radical action.

They did not draft such a letter to the British Parliament as the colonists viewed the Parliament as the aggressor behind the recent Intolerable Acts. Not fully expecting the standoff in Massachusetts to explode into full-scale war, the Congress agreed to reconvene in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775.

By the time Congress met again, war was already underway, and thus the delegates to the Second Continental Congress formed the Continental Army and dispatched George Washington to Massachusetts as its commander.

Click the following link to a general summary about the First Continental Congress:

Click to access First-Continental-Congress-SAR-RT.pdf

Click to access First-Continental-Congress.pdf

September 4, 2026 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

‘And Now I Must Pay’

“Ten minutes to eight. Margaret died instantly. She did not suffer. And now I must pay.”

(So said the note found on the seat of a car at the edge of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater at Volcano.) (Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1932)

The next day (June 3, 1932,) an 8.2 earthquake off the coast of Colima and Jalisco in Mexico produced a tidal wave which was recorded strongly at Hilo, Hawaii (little damage and no deaths were recorded.) (Seismicity of the Earth)

“Natives construe the tidal waves which swept the mouth of the Wailoa river and lower Kūhiō bay yesterday as an omen that Pele resents having two lifeless mortals at the threshold of her fiery kingdom.”

“They expressed fear that the tragedy which ended the lives of Sylvester (William) Nunes, 20, and Margaret Enos, 17, may lead to some dire calamity.” (Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1932)

Whoa … let’s look back ….

“The tragedy had its inception when Nunes, a Portuguese, wished to take the young high school student (Enos) in marriage. She declined to consider matrimony.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

“The twenty-year-old youth (Nunes) was educated in American schools and had started a promising business career.”

“About a year ago Sylvester met Margaret Enos. She was a laughing, gay native girl and he loved her smile and bubbling spirits.”

“Occasionally she accompanied Sylvester on motor rides in his smart red roadster. Sometimes they rode to nearby beaches, swam and went surf-riding, a sport at which both were adept.”

“Some weeks ago he proposed to Margaret, ‘I am too young to marry and settle down,’ she told him. ‘Wait a few years – then perhaps who can tell about such things.’”

“But she would accept none of the many gifts Nunes tried to shower on her and refused to commit herself (to) marrying him. … To the seventeen-year-old Hawaiian beauty life was too happy and joyous a thing to be spoiled by the moody bursts of temper of a disappointed admirer.”

“Margaret in a very short time became an obsession with him. He couldn’t eat, was unable to sleep. He bombarded her with impassioned love-letters.”

“When she went out with other native boys he followed them and watched in agony the girl’s flashing eyes and listened to her laughter. The things he saw were innocent enough. Margaret was a respectable girl but the sight of a rival’s arm on the back of her chair and her gayety at parties shot poison into his heart.”

“Several times he warned her boy-friends, “Margaret is engaged to me. Leave her alone!””

“In the end Sylvester, with his spying, his letters and his jealous protests, became such a nuisance that the girl told him she never wanted to see him again. He threatened, cajoled and pleaded, but the girl merely shook her little head.”

“After that final quarrel Nunes disappeared temporarily from Hilo, where both lived. For a week no one saw or heard from him. … Then one late afternoon, the jilted admirer reappeared in Hilo.”

“In his red roadster he drove straight to the home.” (Fresno Bee, July 24, 1932) “Margaret’s sister, Mrs. Manuel Furtado, with whom she lived, grappled with Nunes.” (Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1932)

”‘I will go,’ said Margaret with assumed placidity … Obviously she thought she could quiet him once they were outside. But Mrs. Furtado stood in the doorway. ‘You will not go with him,’ she announced. Taking Margaret by the hand, Nunes tried to push past her older sister. But Mrs. Furtado seized him by the coat and would not let go.”

“In a rage, the young Hawaiian shot the woman through the hand. While Mrs. Furtado screamed with rage, Nunes picked up the girl and carried her to his waiting car. She fought, bit and scratched, but his superior strength proved too much for her.”

“‘I will kill you unless you keep still,’ he told the girl. Terrified, she allowed him to drive her away. The revolver he kept by his side as they drove through the sleepy streets of Hilo.”

“As police later reconstructed the story, Nunes drove about the country for several hours. Again and again he begged the beautiful girl to marry him.” (Fresno Bee, July 24, 1932)

“Taking Margaret to the volcano, where sweethearts are in the habit of keeping trysts, it is presumed he again made his protestations of love and asked her to marry him. She evidently refused, for evidence indicates he shot her and, clasping her in his arms leaped into the fiery pit.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

“Park rangers found Nunes’ rented motor car on the brink of the firepit at noon. It was spattered with blood. On a seat was an automatic pistol and a note which read:”

“‘Ten minutes to eight. Margaret died instantly. She did not suffer. And now I must pay.’” (Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1932)

“With powerful glasses Hawaiian National Park rangers located the bodies of the pair on a ledge 800 feet below the brink of the 1,200 foot deep pit.” (Stanford Daily, June 3, 1932)

“One of the strangest rescues ever attempted was effected successfully today when Rikan Konishi, a Japanese weighing 85 pounds, took the bodies of a despairing lover and the sweetheart he killed from the troubled kingdom of the fire goddess Pele in the smoking crater of the volcano Halemaumau.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

Aided by dozens of helpers, Konishi worked night and day building platforms and used 3 tractors and 2 caterpillars to help string a mile of cable – the effort dragged on for more than a week. The gondola was 30-inches wide and 6-feet long (with 3-foot sides.) (Farabee)

“Lighting a cigaret, Konishi entered a cage he had constructed at 9 o’clock this morning. He sat on a low stool with his head almost hitting the roof, while paraphernalia was packed all around him.”

“He protected himself as best he could against the gaseous fumes of the crater and tied himself with a slipknot to guard against falling out. He also had a telephone contact with his brother-in-law, who remained on the crater’s rim.”

“Konishi phoned directions for raising or lowering the cage, which was manipulated by a winch. As the descent started rocks were dislodged and thundered down as he swung out over the 1,200 foot chasm and descended slowly until he reached Talus slope, 800-feet down, where the bodies lay.”

“Landing about thirty feet from the nearest body, that of the young girl, the midget Japanese wrapped it in canvas. He then walked on loose rocks, holding on to a guide rope, to the body of Nunes, which he prepared in like manner.”

“The bodies were too heavy for the slight rescuer to move, so he attached them to ropes from the cage. He ordered the cage raised until both were dangling together. He then had it lowered until they lay upon a ledge, side by side.”

“He secured them to the bottom of his conveyance, unfurled a white flag to signal success, took a drink of water, and sat calmly in the cage as it made its ascent.”

“He reached the rim from the pit shortly after 6 o’clock this evening with both bodies wrapped in canvas. The entire operation took about eight hours, throughout which Konishi displayed the calm courage of his Japanese ancestors. … Konishi, who is a contractor, will collect $1,000 for his work.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

Benefits and fund-raising efforts over the next two weeks added $1,114 to the $1,000 guaranteed by the National Park so that Konishi could meet his expenses. (Farabee)