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May 23, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Blackouts Before the Bombing

“From 1931 onward, Japan had been increasing aggressive in Asia. They had gone to war and taken over Manchuria, then they went to war openly with China in 1937, and (later) took over French IndoChina.” (Brown)

The threat of war was increasing. “By the late 1930s Schofield Barracks was the largest army base in the country, which is astonishing, and Pearl harbor was this huge naval base.” (Brown)

The Honolulu District of the US Army Corps of Engineers was involved with intense planning and vast preparations for what was an increasing possibility of a war in the Pacific. (Fitzgerald)

The possibility of a Japanese attack was real.

“Notwithstanding the seeming ‘normality’ of the prewar years, both military and civil authorities were taking steps to prepare for possible conflict”.

“Navy fleet exercises as early as 1938 simulated attacks on US defensive positions. On March 29, 1938, Hilo was the object of an exercise mounted by joint Army and Navy operations.”

“On May 23, 1940, the territory of Hawaii conducted its first island-wide ‘blackout’ requiring residences and business to shut off or shield their lights, cars to stay off the roads, and towns and cities to cut the power to streetlights.” (Chapman)

“Army Planes to Drop Leaflets On Blackout … Switching the entire territory into total darkness on the night of May 23 as part of maneuvers of the Hawaiian Department of the army is being prepared for on a wide as well as intensive scale. The smallest detail will not be spared to make this first territory-wide blackout a complete success.”

“For many weeks military officials have been working with the cooperation of civilian committeemen so that the blackout of the islands will be staged with the utmost precision and with the least possible inconvenience.”

“Army authorities announced that, in the effort to convey the information to all possible persons on all the islands, army planes will leave Hickam field on May 21 and shower the whole territory with blackout leaflets.”

“The message will be in English, Japanese, Chinese and Filipino and will serve as a reminder that cooperation of every one in the territory is imperative.”

“The ‘bombardment’ with blackout notices will be over Hawaii, Maui, Kauai, Molokai and Lanai. On Oahu, similar notices are being sent out through the mails and by house to house distribution.”

“Separated island residents will also receive these notices by mail. Planes will drop about 50,000 leaflets on out-islands. About 200,000 leaflets in all will be distributed.”

“Through the circulars the entire territory will be sent the message: ‘Blackout enemy planes will simulate attack on your island, Thursday night, May 23rd, 1940, sometime between 8:30 and 9 pm.’”

“‘When warning bells are rung or sirens are, sounded, IMMEDIATELY put out all lights, inside and outside. Turn off all signs. Don’t use flashlights, matches, etc. Blackout completely.”

“‘While the raid is only make-believes, do your part in this rehearsal for an event we hope will never come. Outblack the last blackout.’” (Nippu Jiji, May 8, 1940)

“The territory conducted a second island-wide blackout on May 20, 1941 … Yet another blackout exercise occurred on August 23.” (Chapman)

Then, it happened … Shortly before 8 am, December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft from six aircraft carriers struck the Pacific Fleet as it lay in port at Pearl Harbor and other sites on O‘ahu.

According to plans developed over a decade earlier, martial law was imposed on Hawai‘i the same day of the bombing December 7, 1941. (Tanigawa)

“General Order 16 prescribed the painting of automobile headlights for night travel. It prescribed that the headlights be painted with black center and the tail lights be painted entirely blue.”

“The requirement that automobile headlights be painted might seem silly at a time when a war was going on but I can certify that it was a very serious matter. In operating a car in blackout it was imperative that each driver know which way the other was going.”

“Until it was satisfactorily regulated, it was like being blindfolded during a battle royal. It was next to impossible to proceed faster than a snail’s pace and even this was at great peril.”

“The color of the required painting was changed a number of times in an effort to satisfy drivers and also pedestrians. The latter complained bitterly that they had no protection against drivers who could not see them, and that they had to ‘run for it’ at all times and could not tell which way the automobile was moving.”

“On their side, the drivers complained that pedestrians loomed up in front of them at the most unexpected times and places. The lens color finally adopted was dull red which could be seen by drivers and pedestrians, if they concentrated on it and could not be seen by aircraft.” (Maj Gen Thomas H Green)

Beginning in July 1942 the powers of government were gradually restored to civilian authority, but some degree of martial law continued.

On February 8, 1943, power was restored to the Governor, the courts and the legislature. The commanding general proclaimed, “Full jurisdiction and authority are hereby relinquished by the Commanding General to the Governor and other officers of the Territory of Hawaiʻi”. (Anthony)

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Blackout Notice-May 23, 1940

Practice Blackout Notice-BishopMuseum-May 1941

May 22, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

500,000 Feathers

In the dawn hours of January 18, 1778, on his third expedition, British explorer Captain James Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)

Cook continued to sail along the coast searching for a suitable anchorage. His two ships remained offshore, but a few Hawaiians were allowed to come on board on the morning of January 20, before Cook continued on in search of a safe harbor.

On the afternoon of January 20, 1778, Cook anchored his ships near the mouth of the Waimea River on Kauai’s southwestern shore. After a couple of weeks, there, they headed to the west coast of North America.

After the West Coast, Alaska and Bering Strait exploration, on October 24, 1778 the two ships headed back to the islands; they sighted Maui on November 26, circled the Island of Hawaiʻi and eventually anchored at Kealakekua Bay on January 17, 1779.

At the time, the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokai, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

Kalaniʻōpuʻu was on the island of Maui. Kalaniʻōpuʻu returned to Hawaiʻi and met with Cook on January 26, 1779, exchanging gifts, including an ʻahuʻula (feathered cloak) and mahiole (ceremonial feather helmet.) Cook also received pieces of kapa, feathers, hogs and vegetables.

In return, Cook gave Kalaniʻōpuʻu a linen shirt and a sword; later on, Cook gave other presents to Kalaniʻōpuʻu, among which one of the journals mentions “a complete Tool Chest.”

“For Native Hawaiians, the ʻahuʻula, mahiole, and all other featherwork were reserved exclusively for the use of their ali‘i (royalty), symbolizing their chiefly divinity, rank and power.”

“It embodied the life essence of a thriving abundant environment which are the telltale signs of leadership, as it takes a healthy forest ecosystem to produce enough bird feathers and cordage to make these regal pieces.” (OHA)

The construction of featherwork in ancient Hawai‘i required an incredible amount of labor and craftsmanship. The ‘ahu‘ula of Kalaniʻōpuʻu has 500,000 feathers (lashed one-by-one) from about 20,000 birds.

“Skilled trappers caught the birds by employing various techniques such as snaring their prey midair with nets, or using decoy birds to lure them onto branches coated with a sticky substance.”

“They often harvested only a few feathers from each bird before releasing them back into the wild so they could produce more feathers. Skilled workers belonging to the aliʻi class crafted the olonā cordage backing, a netting used as the foundation for the cloak, onto which the bundles of feathers were attached, creating bold designs.”

“After the ‘ahu‘ula and mahiole left on Cook’s ship, both were taken to England and passed through the hands of various museum owners and collectors.”

“They eventually came under the care of the Lord St Oswald, who unexpectedly presented his entire collection in 1912 to the Dominion Museum in New Zealand, the predecessor of Te Papa Tongarewa. The cloak and helmet have been in the national collection ever since.”

“In 2013, discussions began among the Bishop Museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, and OHA to bring these treasures back to Hawai‘i, culminating in this significant homecoming.” (OHA)

In a partnership between the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), The National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the ‘ahu‘ula and mahiole of Kalani‘ōpu‘u came back in March 2016 and are displayed at Bishop Museum on long-term loan.

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Kalaniopuu-Ahuula

Kalaniopuu-Ahuula-Mahiole

Kalaniopuu Mahiole-Ahuula-500000 Feathers-KuProject

Ahuula_from_Kalaniopuu_to_Captain_Cook-Jan_26,_1779

May 20, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Tetautua

“The voyage of the Tetautua is as remarkable as that of the Japanese junk which came ashore here in the early fifties or sixties. The Islands are the dumping ground of all kinds of ocean flotsam and jetsam.”

Early in the year 1898 the clipper schooner Tetautua was lost to its bearings about a week out of Papeete, Tahiti, and eighty-two days from the beginning of the voyage arrived May 21, 1898 at the port of Ho‘okena, Hawai‘i. (HHS)

“She had sailed from Tahiti for Penrhyn Island (also called Tongareva, Mangarongaro, Hararanga and Te Pitaka), but, a short time after her departure, a terrific storm broke, before which she was driven for several hours.”

“In this gale the compass was lost, and the crew, unable to navigate the small vessel, insufficiently supplied for a voyage of any length, decided merely to go with wind and tide. The amazing fact is that the schooner is not drifting yet.”

“For forty-two days the crew had no water except what could be caught in sails, and at times suffered severely from thirst.” (Farrell, Pacific Marine Review, December 1920)

“Said (Sheriff) Lazaro: ‘The Tetautua arrived in Ho‘okena (on the Island of Hawai‘i) on May 21st. There was an abundance of food such as flour and rice aboard but no firewood with which to cook it.”

“As to water, it happened that three days before sighting Hawaii, they were blessed with a shower which gave them about three gallons. Previous to this they had suffered for many days from thirst. When the schooner arrived at Ho‘okena the people aboard were in a pitiable state.’”

“‘I furnished them with all the necessaries in the line of eatables and they were made very comfortable.’”

“‘When the Tahitians began to look about them they expressed great wonder at various objects unknown in their native land. Never did they once complain about their ill luck; a more affable set of people I have never met. They are graceful in the extreme and were thankful for the favors done them.’”

“‘The Tahitian language is so very similar to the Hawaiian, that it was not long before I could understand them as well as people of my own race.’”

“‘They do not pronounce their words in a very distinct manner but seem to depend on the sound and force placed on the various syllables for the meaning which they wish to convey.’”

“‘When they first came ashore they shouted ‘Tanotapu,’ one of the islands, near their home. When they spied some of us on horseback they shook their heads signifying a mistake and called our animals ‘pua-a hele honua’ which means pigs that travel over the earth.’”

“‘We told them they had landed in Hawai‘i. This word they could not say but persisted in calling it ‘Pahi.’”

“‘The sympathy of the people of Ho‘okena was with the castaway Tahitians from the moment they landed. They were to have been given a big luau on Tuesday but it was necessary for the vessel to make Honolulu so there was a regular hookupu and all the eatables were sent aboard.’” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 27, 1898)

“There were eight Tahitians aboard the Tetautua when she arrived at Honolulu, and one Frenchman had quit her at Ho‘okena and preceded her to Honolulu”. (Farrell, Pacific Marine Review, December 1920)

“‘On Sunday night the captain of the vessel gave a short and interesting talk in the church, telling of the voyage and of some of the customs and laws of his country.’”

“‘Upon arrival off port on Wednesday night, the Tahitians threw up their hands and shouted ‘Honolulu’ as if they were arriving back in their own home.’”

“Deputy Sheriff Lazaro will return to his home on the Mauna Loa today. He is an old sailor and, on that account was entrusted with the mission of piloting the Tetautua to this port.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 27, 1898)

“The British schooner Tetautua which drifted in towards the Kau coast some time ago, sailed for her home in Tahiti yesterday morning. She was sent back in charge of Captain Cook, an old sea captain, well acquainted with the Islands of the South Pacific.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 10, 1898)

“From (Captain John Cook) a Honolulu gentleman received the following letter by the Moana: Tahite, City of Papeete, July 18, 1898 …”

“‘Friend Charley: Arrived here safe and sound, after a passage of thirty-eight days. We stopped at Hoaheine Island one day to get provisions, and reached this place last night. Mail steamer leaves at 9 this morning. Do not know yet what I will no. Give my aloha to all my friends. Yours truly, John W Cook.’” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, August 22, 1898)

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Hookena Landing, Kona

May 19, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Singing to Me is a Paradise’

Despite the title here, this story is about a writer, not a singer. In fact, her Biography notes, “the Washington Post names Kate Fields ‘one of the foremost women of America,’ and the New York Tribune called her ‘one of the best-known women in America’”. (Moss) (Her name was Mary Katherine Keemle Field, but was generally know as Kate Field.)

“Kate Field, known to all the nation as one of its most wide-awake, progressive women, died a few weeks ago in Honolulu. She died suddenly, among friends for her friends are everywhere but far from her native land and all associations endeared to her by close ties of kinship.”

“Some strange foreboding filled her mind before leaving this city for her pleasure trip to the Islands, and she asked strangely, it seemed then that if she should die in a foreign land her remains might lie in the soil of her own country.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, August 17, 1896)

“Kate Field was born in St Louis, Mo., October 1, (1838). When a young girl she with her mother and sister removed to Chicago, where Miss Field adopted the stage as a profession, appearing first at McVicker’s Theater.”

“Being a woman of strong individuality, the doubtful success to be achieved as an actress made her abandon the stage for the rostrum, delivering lectures through the United States, meeting with success wherever she spoke.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

In a June 9, 1868 note to Charles Warren Stoddard, she notes, “I thank you for your kind words and am more than pleased that my little books should have strayed off to California. If I live I hope to do something more worthy of praise.”

“I can say nothing to you, a stranger, that will be worth the reading. Everyone must work out his own salvation and in his own particular way.”

“My motto is Emerson’s ‘Hitch your wagon to a star.’ If you do you will rise sooner or later. Try it and see if the effect is not a beneficial one in character. I am Very truly yours, Kate Field” (Stoddard; National Magazine, January 1906)

“For six years prior to her coming to (Hawai‘i) she owned and edited ‘Kate Field’s Washington’… It was during this time that she toured the country lecturing … As a public woman and a writer she was known all over the world. In Washington she was a recognized power in the lobby during the Republican administrations of the last twenty years.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

“Field worked for several years as a freelance journalist before grabbing another set of literary coattails: those of Charles Dickens. Field covered his 1867-68 American reading tour with such rhapsodic brio that she earned ‘wide, spasmodic notoriety’ …”

“… as Mark Twain put it, becoming ‘a celebrity at once.’” (Downing) some suggest she was “a more prominent journalist than Clemens [Mark Twain].” (Weber)

“(S)he headed west, writing a series of anti-Mormon articles and lectures and another series in praise of Alaska. She also won a lucrative contract to promote California wines — to preach “the gospel of the grape,” as she put it.”

“Eventually Field swung back east, this time to Washington, which she predicted was ‘destined to be the social, literary and artistic center of this country.’ … There she founded an influential weekly paper, Kate Field’s Washington, which ran from 1890 to 1895.” (Downing)

She came to the Islands “to personally investigate the condition of the Hawaiians and obtain their views of annexation.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896) However, “she contracted (pneumonia) on the Island of Hawaii.”

“The first appearance of the disease which resulted in the death of Miss Field was in Kailua, while at the boarding house of Miss Paris. This was on Wednesday, May 13th. Deceased complained of feeling pains in her chest but did not consider the matter serious.”

“With her usual zeal for work, she told Miss Paris that it was her intention to go on to Kaawaloa and from there to the volcano on the journey that she had mapped out in the beginning.”

“Miss Paris accompanied Miss Field to Kaawaloa. Upon arrival at that place Miss Field went to the Greenwell’s. It was there that her condition began to grow worse, and Miss Paris remonstrated with her as to the inadvisability of going on to the volcano, to such good effect that she heeded the advice and decided to return to Honolulu.”

“As soon as she arrived aboard, Dr. Adriance took charge of her and kept administering restoratives, to which the disease yielded but temporarily.”

“During the evening some of the Coronet party grouped in the neighborhood of Miss Field’s stateroom on the port side of the steamer, and began singing familiar songs. When it was suggested that it might disturb her, she answered in a manner characteristic of the woman …”

“‘No, indeed! Singing to me is a paradise compared with the quiet of the country. Don’t talk to me about the quiet of the country, with chickens cackling, roosters crowing and dogs barking wow! wow! wow!’ After this utterance she seems to have responded to the soothing effect of the music, and went off to sleep.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

“She died on the 19th of May, 1896, in the fifty-seventh year of her age. She once said: ‘I want to live every day as if it were my last,’ she also said: ‘I am a cremationist, because I believe cremation is not only the healthiest and cleanest, but the most poetical way of disposing of the dead. Whoever prefers loathsome worms to ashes, possesses a strange imagination.’”

“That her visit to Honolulu resulted in materially lengthening list of friends and she had made was evidenced by the number of people who attended the funeral services at Central Union Church yesterday. The assembly was not one made up of curious ones, but of those who knew her in life.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

She was initially embalmed and buried in a casket in the John Paty vault at O‘ahu Cemetery. The San Francisco Press Club set up ‘The Examiner Kate Field Memorial Fund’ to return her remains to the continent.

Later, “A small copper box containing the ashes was placed in a grave beside that of Miss Field’s mother. … There was no ceremony at the grave. … It is all over now. Kate Field has been interred in an unmarked grave” in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. (San Francisco Chronicle, January 11, 1897)

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Kate_Field

Kate_Field_with_signature,_1898

Kate_Field

Kate_Field,_1897

Kate Field-Hawn Gazette-May 22, 1896

Kate_Field-Stoddard

Kate Field headstone

Paty Vault-Hawn Gazette-May 22, 1896

May 17, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Belgian Company of Colonization

Peter Allan Brinsmade, 25, accompanied by his wife and child; William Ladd, 26, with his wife and child, and William Hooper, 24, single, arrived on Kauai on July 27, 1833, on the Brig Velocity. Brinsmade and Ladd were from Hallowell, Maine and Hooper from Boston, Massachusetts.

They started the firm Brinsmade, Ladd and Hooper; the name of the firm was changed in 1835 to Ladd & Company. On September 13, 1835, Ladd & Co., began the first major (and successful) Hawaiian sugar plantation.

In 1836, the Koloa Sugar Plantation consisted of 25 acres of sugar cane, 20 houses for laborers, 1 house for a superintendent, carpenter shop, blacksmith shop, mill dam, sugar house, boiling house, and the mill. (Ladd & Co)

They ran a sugar plantation for 12 years. In addition to the enterprise at Kōloa, Kauai, the company ran a profitable mercantile operation in Honolulu.

On November 24, 1841, Ladd and Company signed an agreement with the Hawaiian Kingdom. Then on May 17, 1843, an agreement was signed in the city of Brussels, in the kingdom of Belgium, between the Sandwich Islands Government, the Belgian Company of Colonization, and Ladd and Company.

The ‘Belgian Contract,’ signed in Brussels May 17, 1843, was a tripartite agreement between Kamehameha III (represented by Ha‘alilio and William Richards), Ladd and Company, and the Belgian Company of Colonization.

Ladd and Company transferred all of their properties and rights in the Hawaiian islands to the Belgian Company of Colonization, and the latter company agreed to organize a subsidiary corporation, called the ‘Royal Community of the Sandwich Islands.’

Its intent was “to develop as promptly as possible, the civilization and resources of the Sandwich Islands, by creating agricultural, manufacturing and commercial establishments, and by instituting commercial relations between these Islands and Belgium.” (Kuykendall)

“It was really a gigantic sale of Ladd and Co.’s property, involving all concessions and privileges obtained by them, the price for which, taken in the contract, was $1,067,000, or £42,680.”

“The manner of proceeding was, the transfer by Brinsmade of all property material and immaterial which he had power to pass, together with rights and concessions over which Mr. Richards had power, to the Belgian Company of Colonisation.”

“The contract or treaty was tripartite, the three parties to it being the King of Hawaii, represented by Haalilio and Richards; the house of Ladd and Co., acting by Brinsmade; and the Belgian Company of Colonisation, by its deputies, the Count of Hompesch and M. Joseph Vanderburghen de Binckum.”

“The Colonisation Company was only instrumental in this transaction. Its office was to organise the ‘Royal Community of the Sandwich Islands’ and to transfer to that society, when formed, the property, rights, and titles which it was to possess.”

“The community was, however, on its European side, to remain under ‘the patronage and high administration of the Belgian Company of Colonisation;’ whilst in the scene of its activity, it would he under the patronage and protection of the Hawaiian king.”

“Four interests were to be created in the undertaking, namely, the King of Hawaii; the Belgian Colonisation Company; the Labourers and Employes; and the Stockholders. “

“The property acquired by the Belgian Colonisation Company was to be divided into 500 titles, 100 of which were to be given to the King of Hawaii, so that His Majesty would still possess a share of his own country.” (Hopkins)

“By the 28th article, ‘all persons, of whatever profession in the service of the community, and introduced into the islands under the auspices of the community, with the approbation of the King of the Sandwich Islands, shall receive in fee simple twenty hectares of land.’”

“By the 27th article, 100 titles were set apart to support schools for the children of the labourers, a health establishment, an orphanage, and pensions for impotent and superannuated employes.” (Hopkins)

On April 13, 1844, at Brussels, the “Statutes of the Royal Community of the Sandwich Islands” were signed by Haalilio, Richards, Brinsmade, and the president of the board of directors of the Belgian Company of Colonization. (Kuykendall)

“(T)he effect of which, had it actually become operative, would have been to have destroyed the independence of the islands and to have gradually vested all property in them in the proprietary of the Belgian Company.” (Hopkins)

“Ha‘alilio signed the contract with great reluctance, and the king and chiefs were highly displeased over its execution. This Belgian contract gave a great deal of trouble before it was finally discredited.” (Jarves)

“Fortunately for the people of Hawaii, this new South Sea scheme never went into operation.” (Hopkins)

“The first blow which fell on its promoters was the news of Lord George Paulet’s occupation of the islands; then came delays until October 1844, when some merchants wanted to re-construct the plan ‘as a purely commercial company.’”

Nothing, however, came of the last proposition. (Hopkins)

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Belgium Colonization Ambitions in Central America