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February 23, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

J Alfred Magoon

“A half-dozen mixed in a free-for-all fight, that originated between two lawyers, was the scene witnessed yesterday morning in the judiciary building close to the doors of the Circuit Court.”

“The principal combatants were Hon. Cecil Brown, lawyer, Senator of the Territory and president of the First National Bank of Hawaiʻi, and J Alfred Magoon, lawyer, owner of the Magoon block.” (San Francisco Call, December 21, 1905)

“The trouble arose through the affairs of the American Savings and Trust Company, a branch of the First National Bank of Hawaii, of which Cecil Brown is president. A meeting of stockholders of the trust company was held last week, Magoon being attorney for the majority.”

“Brown as president ruled out some of their stock … As the Magoon faction was five shares short of a majority, President Brown declared that the old board of directors remained in office.”

“The differences between the stockholders have existed for nearly a year, and the courts will now be called upon to decide them if the Treasury Department at Washington does not step in.” (San Francisco Call, December 21, 1905)

Whoa … let’s step back and get some perspective here.

John Alfred (J Alfred) Magoon was the son of John C and Maria Sophia Eaton Magoon.

John C Magoon was born on December 9, 1830, at Litchfield, Maine. In 1857, he married Maria Sophia Eaton; the newly married couple started west and settled in Kossuth, Iowa, where their son and only child, J Alfred Magoon, was born on July 22, 1858.

After suffering intensely from fever they made their way back to Maine, having endured the greatest hardships in the journey owing to the primitive mode of travel. In 1863, Mr Magoon went to California, where in 1869 his wife and son joined him.

J Alfred enrolled in Heald’s Business College remaining there until he graduated. He entered mercantile life immediately, filling the position of bookkeeper with several well-known firms. He was engaged for a time in the office of the Santa Rosa Democrat.

His father bought a ranch near Lower Lake in Lake County and was afterward engaged in quicksilver mining until he and his wife came to the Hawaiian Islands in 1876. Being a farmer he located at Wahiawa, Oʻahu, but a drought destroyed his crops and he moved to Honolulu.

J Alfred joined them shortly afterward and secured a position as bookkeeper on the Halstead plantation at Waialua. It was during this engagement that he decided to adopt law as a profession, and spent what spare time he had reading his law books.

He remained on the plantation for a year and then entered the office of Benjamin H Austin, where he remained for a year, when his straitened finances compelled him to abandon it for the more lucrative position of deputy sheriff at Makawao, Maui.

He afterward resigned and took the position of bookkeeper at Paia Mill and pursued his study of the law as the opportunity was offered. In 1883 he resigned and went to Ann Arbor University, where he took a law course. Upon his graduation two years later he returned to Honolulu and was admitted to the bar.

“He has, perhaps, the largest practice of any of the members of the Honolulu bar, and it was this fact that compelled him to refuse the judgeship when he was first called upon to take it.”

J Alfred Magoon has been selected by the Executive to fill the position of Circuit Court Judge caused by the appointment of Judge HE Cooper to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. Judge Magoon is one of the best young men practicing at the bar. (Hawaiian Gazette, November 5, 1895)

J Alfred married Emmeline Marie Afong and had 7 children: Julia H S Kamakea Magoon (1887-1933) – Harmon Anderson Kipling of California; John Henry N “Lani” Magoon (1889-1975) – Juliet Carrol; Chun Alfred Kapala Magoon (1890-1972) – Ruth L; Eaton Harry Magoon (1891-1970) – Genevieve Burrall Sicotte (teacher in Makaweli;) Mary “Catherine” Kekulani Magoon (1892-1996;) Marmion Mahinulani Magoon (1896-1969) and Emeleen Marie Magoon (1898-1974) – Orville Norris Tyler.

Oh, the earlier fight … “The pugilistic encounter of the two competing leaders will pass into history. It has been ignored by the local press.” (San Francisco Call, December 21, 1905)

OK – here are some connections, if you haven’t already seen them (there are more.)

J Alfred’s wife Emmeline was daughter to Chun Afong and Julia Fayerweather Afong. Afong made his fortune in retailing, real estate, sugar and rice, and for a long time held the government’s opium license. He was later dubbed, “Merchant Prince of the Sandalwood Mountains” and is Hawaiʻi’s first Chinese millionaire.

Mary Catherine, the second daughter of Emmeline and J Alfred Magoon, married Frank Ward Hustace, becoming step-mother to seven Hustace children. (Kauai Historical Society) Hustace was the first son of Frank and Mary Elizabeth “Mellie” Ward Hustace, the eldest of seven daughters of Victoria Robinson Ward. Victoria’s sister, Mary Robinson, married a Foster.

Here are some prior stories on those families:

That’s enough for now.

No wait, back to the Magoons …

Like many businessmen, Magoon bought properties as investments, for development or for sale for a profit at a later date. By 1914, he built on the Queen Street lot a two-story structure with shops on the ground floor and residential apartments on the top floor, described as “Hawaii’s First Apartment House.”

Additional structures were built in the early twentieth century in a parcel called the “Magoon Block” on the eastern side of Kakaʻako. The apartments were generally low-rent and inhabited by bachelors, although some poorer families crowded into the larger apartments. (Cultural Surveys)

As the population of Honolulu swelled, tenement buildings were quickly constructed to meet the rapidly growing demand for housing. Hawaiians congregated in the Chinatown and the Kakaʻako districts, both of which were near the waterfront and the center of town. (McGregor)

Magoon Block had a meat market, a grocery store, an ice cream parlor, a furniture store, a little restaurant, and a barber shop on the ground floor, all in one big building. Above the storefronts were rooms with a common kitchen, bath and toilet facilities. It was a little shopping center for the district. (McGregor)

J Alfred Magoon helped found the Sanitary Steam Laundry, invested in Consolidated Amusement Co and the Honolulu Dairy. He died and Emmeline took over leadership of his business interests. In her 70s, she moved to South Kona and managed the Magoon Ranch at Pāhoehoe – riding horseback and overseeing the cattle ranch. She died in 1946 at age 88.

J Alfred Magoon, prominent Honolulu lawyer and promoter of the Honolulu Consolidated Amusement Co. (which controlled the Bijou, Hawaii, Ye Liberty and Empire theatres at Honolulu), died July 26, 1916 at Baltimore, following a fall from a bridge. (Variety, 1916)

The family formed Magoon Estate, Ltd t. In additions to land holdings in Hawaiʻi, the estate owned the 21,000-acre Guenoc Ranch; and also owned and operated Guenoc Winery, a producer of premium California wines. (The winery was sold to Foley Family Wines in 2012, and then to Langtry Farms LLC in 2021. The winery is now known as Langtry Farms Vineyard and Winery.)

OK, that’s enough, for now … by now, you should get the sense that there are more stories on this and related families, properties and businesses.

February 22, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Some Playground History

“In recognition of the truth of Joseph Lee’s declaration, ‘A boy without a playground is father to the man without a job’, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association is making a valiant effort … to secure a trained playground worker for Honolulu.” (The Friend, April 1912)

Initially private groups, rather than public agencies, undertook efforts to build playgrounds in American cities. Some of the first privately operated playgrounds open to the public were established in Boston in the 1880s, but most cities witnessed a burst of private initiative in the following decade.

A major objective of private playground organizers was to convince city officials that public recreation ought to be a municipal responsibility. As a result, by the opening decade of the twentieth century most large American cities had established playgrounds owned and operated by municipal governments.

Shifting from an initial desire to get children off the streets, the playground movement evolved in the first two decades of the twentieth century into a well-organized and articulate national crusade.

Its proponents saw the playground not only as a refuge from urban perils, but also as a place of social reform. They believed play had educational value, and emphasized that it should be organized and supervised by the director of the playground.

The social mission of playgrounds was emphasized in playground literature across the nation and in Honolulu. In Hawaiʻi, as elsewhere, the goal of playground activities not only included vigorous physical exercise and mental satisfaction, but also the ability to work as a team member and to develop ‘a disposition to strive for high ideals.’

It was felt that playgrounds developed such virtues as: health, physical efficiency, morality, initiative, self-confidence, imagination, obedience, a sense of justice, happiness and good citizenship. At the same time they discouraged such undesirable traits as: idleness, temptation, exclusiveness, social barriers, selfishness, gang spirit, rowdyism, unfairness and delinquency.

Established in 1895, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association and one of Hawaiʻi’s first eleemosynary organizations, offered the first teacher training program and free kindergarten to all of Hawaiʻi’s children.

The teacher training program was eventually moved to what became the University of Hawaiʻi, and the kindergartens were taken over by the Territorial Department of Education, allowing the organization to focus on serving younger children.

Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association established the first public playground in the city in 1911, Beretania Playground, at the corner of Beretania and Smith streets in the heart of Chinatown. It was intended for boys and girls under ten, and for older girls accompanying the very young, and the “play garden” was open seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm.

Initially, administration of municipal playgrounds was delegated to existing agencies such as park boards or school boards. However, many cities eventually established special playground commissions, which often led to jurisdictional problems.

Largely through the association’s efforts, a Recreation Commission was established within the city government in 1922, following the recommendations of Henry Stoddard Curtis, a former secretary of the nationwide Playground Association and the author of Education Through Play, who lectured in Hawaiʻi in 1920.

Julie Judd Swanzy, the president of the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association, was named as the Commission’s chair. The association turned its four playgrounds (Beretania, Kamāmalu, Atkinson and Aʻala) over to the city, and promptly opened five new municipal playgrounds: Kaimuki, Dole Park, Kalihi-Kai, Kauluwela and Kalihi-Waena.

By the 1930s and 1940s cities began to consolidate separate parks and playground agencies into a single “recreation” department.

The playground of the early twentieth century represented a significant departure from nineteenth century conceptions of a park. Rather than a carefully laid out landscape, planned as the antithesis of the cityscape, the twentieth century playground was usually of modest size and was conceived as a utilitarian space, sometimes embellished with landscaping effects or architectural detail, but frequently not.

The playground was a setting for supervised play and not contact with nature. The idea of the playground was to provide usable play space close to home in the densely populated sections of the city, not a green oasis set apart from the city.

During the 1930s, the City and County of Honolulu created a memorable set of parks and playgrounds. It was at this time that the concept of organized play in Hawaiʻi found its most architecturally significant expression.

Charles Lester McCoy, who was chairman of the Honolulu Park Board from 1931 to 1941, is remembered today as the “virtual founder of Honolulu’s modern park system.” His personal commitment to parks, combined with his administrative ability to get things done despite the scant resources of the time, profoundly shaped the growth of the city park system at this time.

One of McCoy’s most far-reaching decisions was to employ Harry Sims Bent as park architect in 1933. It is Bent’s work that gives the 1930s parks their ‘art deco’ architectural distinctiveness.

Bent started to work for the Honolulu Park Board on the Ala Moana Park project in 1933. His work at Ala Moana included the canal bridge, entrance portals, sports pavilion, the banyan courtyard and lawn bowling green.

In the smaller parks Bent was often responsible for the overall layout as well as the structures, including walls, comfort stations and pergolas.

During the 1930s he designed the following parks for the City and County of Honolulu: Mother Waldron Playground, Kawananakoa Playground, Lanakila Park comfort station, Kalihi-Waena Playground, Haleiwa Beach Park structures, the Ala Wai Clubhouse and the Park Service Center by Kapiolani Park. (Lots of information here from NPS and KCCA.)

February 21, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Penguin Bank

“As for the depths themselves, the greatest yet discovered … was the Penguin Deep, discovered by the British vessel Penguin (in 1896) north of New Zealand where a depth of 5,155 fathoms was found.” (New York Tribune, January 25, 1920) (Four years later, the USS Nero instruments registered a depth of 5,269 fathoms – almost six miles.)

HMS Penguin was an Osprey-class sloop (United Kingdom, later Australia.) Launched on 1876, Penguin was operated by the Royal Navy from 1877 to 1881, then from 1886 to 1889.

She was 170 feet long, had a beam of 36 feet, a draft of 15 feet 9 inches and had a displacement of 1,130 tons. The propulsion machinery consisted of a single engine that gave her a top speed of 9.9 knots and a maximum range of 1,480 nautical miles (1,700 mi.) (She was also Barque rigged.) The standard ship’s company was 140-strong.

After being converted to a survey vessel, Penguin was recommissioned in 1890, and conducted survey work around the Western Pacific islands, New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef until 1908, when she was demasted and transferred to the Australian Commonwealth Naval Forces for use as a depot and training ship in Sydney Harbor.

After this force became the Royal Australian Navy, the sloop was commissioned as HMAS Penguin in 1913. Penguin remained in naval service until 1924, when she was sold off and converted into a floating crane. (The vessel survived until 1960, when she was broken up and burnt.)

In addition to finding the deepest bottom of the ocean (at the time, as noted above,) Penguin was involved in finding other ocean bottoms – one happened in Hawaiʻi.

Let’s step back a bit.

Hawaiʻi is the world’s most-isolated populated-place. In round numbers, we are 5,000-miles from Washington DC, New York, Florida, Australia, Philippines, Hong Kong & the North Pole; 4,000-miles from Chicago, Tokyo, New Zealand & Guam and 2,500-miles from Los Angeles, all other West Coast cities, Samoa, Alaska & Mexico.

While, today, technology keeps us constantly and instantly in touch and aware of world events, the same was not true in the past. Prior to the beginning of the 20th century, you had at least a one-week time lag in receiving “news” (that arrived via ships.)

At the time, Great Britain and its possessions were spread across the globe. Communicating between these holdings created challenges.

Step in Sir Sandford Fleming, a Scottish-born Canadian engineer and inventor. Among other feats, he proposed worldwide standard time zones, designed Canada’s first postage stamp, and, in 1862, Fleming had submitted a plan to the Government for a trans-Canada railway.

In the same year, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the British-Australian Telegraph Company. Fleming was one of the staunch advocates for a Pacific telegraph cable.

A Colonial Conference held in Sydney in 1877 passed resolutions concerning a Pacific cable, one of which sought subsidies from the US Government for a cable running from the United States to New Zealand.

In 1879, Fleming wrote to the Telegraph and Signal Service in Ottawa about the railway and cable: “If these connections are made we shall have a complete overland telegraph from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast.”

“It appears to me to follow that, as a question of imperial importance, the British possessions to the west of the Pacific Ocean should be connected by submarine cable with the Canadian line. Great Britain will thus be brought into direct communication with all the greater colonies and dependencies without passing through foreign countries.”

The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, and with it a telegraph line across Canada, strengthened Fleming’s position. The decision to extend the railway to Vancouver in 1886 helped even more. (atlantic-cable)

At the 1893 Australasian Conference held in Sydney the Postmaster General of New South Wales suggested laying a cable from New Caledonia (already linked to Australia by cable) to Fiji, Honolulu and San Francisco.

That brings us back to the Penguin. She was commissioned to make soundings and survey areas for suitable cable routes and station locations.

That brought her to Hawaiʻi.

“The Penguin left Sydney on April 10, proceeding by way of Suva Fiji to Palmyra Island, where a party was landed to observe the tides. The steamer then proceeded to the north and made an accurate survey of Kingman reef, which was found to be sixty miles due north of Palmyra Island. (The Sun (NY,) July 30, 1897)

“The British survey steamer Penguin, which arrived (in Honolulu) yesterday, has just completed the preliminary survey for the Australian-British Columbian cable. She ran a line of soundings from Palmyra Island to a point 300-miles to the southward of Honolulu, finding and average depth of 2,700 fathoms.”

“After spending three weeks here in receiving general repairs the Penguin will return to Palmyra Island and run a line of soundings southwest to Sydney.” (The Sun (NY,) July 30, 1897)

The Penguin made another discovery here.

“The Penguin … must await stores and advices before resuming her survey work, but in the interim will make an accurate survey of the shoal discovered to the southward, sailing from here on the 12th for that purpose, and returning again later.” (The Hawaiian Star, August 7, 1897)

“HBMS Penguin will leave at daylight tomorrow to survey a shoal near this group, expecting to be back Sunday morning.” (Evening Bulletin, August 11, 1897)

“Although the officers aboard the Penguin were loathe to give any information it was learned that at about 10 o’clock on Tuesday night (July 20, 1897) and while about 30-miles of the Island of Oʻahu, the ‘tell-tale’ of the ship showed that a shoal 26-fathoms below the surface of the water, had been struck.” (Pacific Commercial, July 22, 1897; Clark)

The name of the shoal appears to have varied early names.

“The steamer JA Cummins went off fishing with a party of excursionists this morning. The steamer will cruise about Kamehameha shoal (the new reef discovered by HBMS Penguin) and return tonight or early tomorrow.” (Evening Bulletin, September 11, 1897)

“The Albatross started from Honolulu on July 9. She first went dredging at the Penguin shoal and went from there to Puako, on Hawaii.” (Evening Bulletin, July 29, 1902)

Today, it’s more commonly referred to as Penguin Bank.

Penguin Bank (about 20 miles long and 10 miles wide within the Kaiwi Channel) is the eroded summit of a sunken volcano, now a broad submarine shelf off Molokai Island with depths of less than 200 feet deep. It is capped with sand and fossil corals. The Bank is generally too deep for most live corals and is a relatively barren habitat compared to shallower waters nearby. The base rock is lava of the same kind that forms Molokai Island. (Grays Harbor)

It was one of the seven principal volcanoes (along with West Molokai, East Molokai, Lānai, West Maui, East Maui and Kahoʻolawe) that formerly constituted of Maui Nui.

The top of Penguin Bank and other banks and shelves throughout the Pacific basin are found at similar depths, because these banks were formed by an interplay between reef growth and past low stands of global sea level. (Agegian)

Penguin Bank is noted for highest concentrations of humpback whales during their winter sojourns in Hawaiʻi. While in Hawaiʻi, Humpback Whales are found in shallow coastal waters, usually less than 300-feet. The average water depth in Penguin Banks is around 200-feet, but water depths can range from about 150-feet to 600-feet. (NOAA)

It’s also one of Hawaiʻi’s premier fishing sites. “Yachts May Cruise – The yachtsmen are thinking of making a cruise starting Saturday and returning Monday night, Monday being Labor Day.”

“Two plans are at present being discussed. One is to go to Waianae and remain off that place fishing. The other plan is a more extensive on. It is to go to Penguin Shoal on the west coast of Molokai to fish, returning Monday via Rabbit Island, where the yachtsmen may stop for a day’s rabbit and bird shooting.” (Evening Bulletin, September 1, 1904)

In 1902, the first submarine cable across the Pacific was completed (landing in Waikīkī at Sans Souci Beach) linking the US mainland to Hawaiʻi, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji and Guam to the Philippines in 1903. (The first Atlantic submarine cable, connecting Europe with the USA, was completed in 1866.)

February 20, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pantheon Block

It was a time before the automobile; folks rode horseback or were carried in horse or mule drawn carriage, trolley or omnibus (the automobile didn’t make it to the Islands until 1890.)

“James Dodd has leased the premises known as the Bartlett House, at the corner of Hotel and Fort streets, he called it the Pantheon Hotel. The premises have been renovated, repaired, painted and papered throughout, making them look almost as good as new.” (Hawaiian Gazette, October 30, 1878)

“Mr. Dodd has had experience in the hotel business, and from his urbanity of manner and good business habits we doubt not but the new place will be well kept. He intends to have, in connection with the hotel, a finely arranged livery stable with a full complement of carriages and saddle horse for the accommodation of the public.” (Hawaiian Gazette, October 30, 1878)

The May 23, 1883 issue of the Daily Bulletin noted, “James Dodd’s Pantheon Saloon is nearly finished building. It is very handsomely designed.”

He also had the Long Branch sea bathing baths in Waikīkī and ran an omnibus (bus) line from downtown to Waikiki.

“The Pantheon Saloon has a large commodius room attached to the bar where its patrons can sit at ease and pass their leisure tune reading the latest papers.” (Hawaiian Star, February 13, 1895)

Then, the “Black Death” (Bubonic Plague) struck Honolulu.

Its presence caused pause in the opening months of 1900 and was on everybody’s mind, with good reason; the same disease had decimated a third of the world’s population during the fourteenth century. It started to spread in Honolulu.

“The other center of infection is block 19, north and east of block 20 at the Pantheon livery stables and saloon. From this place 3 cases in all have been traced, 2 Chinese and 1 white American.” (Public Health Reports, February 8, 1900)

As more people fell victim to the Black Death, on January 20, 1900, the Board of Health conducted “sanitary” fires to prevent further spread of the disease.

The Pantheon premises were condemned and burned.

With five fire engines strategically placed, the controlled incineration of the Pantheon stables and saloon took place in the morning of February 7, 1900. Other places connected with the four victims were also disposed of. (Papacostas)

“The structure mainly consists of a series of heavy timbers for the walls upon which has been laid a corrugated iron roof. … the premises in rear of the stables disclosed the same ramshackly series of lean-tos and sheds as were generally found all through the Chinatown district”. (Hawaiian Gazette, February 6, 1900)

Another fire, started between Kaumakapili Church and Nuʻuanu Avenue, blazed out of control, due to the change in wind. The fire burned uncontrollably for 17 days, ravaging most of Chinatown. People trying to flee were beat back by citizens and guards into the quarantine district.

The extent of the fire and the estimates of the area ranged from 38-65 acres. The fire caused the destruction of all premises bounded by Kukui Street, River Street, Queen Street (presently Ala Moana Boulevard) and Nuʻuanu Avenue.

Dodd died January 21, 1900 – but the Pantheon returned.

“Like the Phoenix the Pantheon arose from its ashes. Although it is not on the same spot it is so near it that one looking for the favorite drinking place cannot go far astray. Ever since the old Pantheon was started many years ago by the late James Dodd it has been noted for the good cheer obtainable there.”

“Now that its old proprietor is no more, the reputation of the place is kept up to its former old standard and there is nothing to be desired in the way of refreshment for the inner man that cannot be obtained there.” (Honolulu Republican, June 16, 1901)

“The Pantheon saloon reopened in the new building at Fort and Hotel streets last night. TA Simpson. FM Kiley and JF O’Connor are in charge there. The house is quite large and looks neat.” (Hawaiian Star, September 25, 1900)

“The Pantheon is homelike and as an oasis in a desert to the tired and thirsty traveller. It is the place to drop in and take a drop. Never is a want left unsatisfied in the Pantheon. To make your want known is to have the want catered to and in a way that is satisfactory. Courteous treatments the rule and although there are other places there is but one Pantheon, the Pantheon on Hotel street.”

The name of the saloon is over the door. It is on Hotel street. There the thirsty may be refreshed and the weary rest. (Honolulu Republican, June 16, 1901)

On July 19, 1909 the Evening Bulletin announced, “Architect HL Kerr has just completed the plans for a two-story building on the Ewa-mauka corner of Hotel and Fort streets, and bids on its construction will shortly be called for. The building will be of concrete and steel construction and will be built so as to allow the erection of more stories if necessary.”

“The structure will be known as the Pantheon building and will be erected by the Pantheon Building Company, of which Mrs JM Dowsett is the principal stockholder.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 20, 1909)

In the 1950s, owners decided to modernize the facade. Concentrating on the shop-fronts the owners added shiny Arizona sandstone surrounds and new plate-glass windows. Failing to transform the building sufficiently to attract shoppers heading to the new Ala Moana and Kahala shopping malls, the owners added paneled treatment for the upper story. (Papacostas)

Contractor Lucas called it “an ornament to the city” and, in its retrospect for 1911, Thrum’s Hawaiian Annual described it as “the principal structure of the year.” (Papacostas) The Pantheon remains today at Hotel Street and the Fort Street Mall.

February 19, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Go For Broke

On January 28, 1943, the US War Department called for volunteers for a new combat team. The mainland quota was 3,000 and the Hawaiʻi quota was 1,500.

But wait, we are getting a little ahead of the story. Let’s look back.

On December 7, 1941, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor forced the US into World War II. On the day of the bombing and for six weeks after, the Nisei (Hawaiʻi born, 2nd generation Japanese in Hawaiʻi) and other cadets in the University of Hawaiʻi’s ROTC were made part of the Hawaiʻi Territorial Guard and assisted in guarding vital facilities on the island of Oahu. They served as part of the armed forces defense of the islands for a 7-week period.

However, on January 19, 1942, the Army discharged all the Japanese Americans in the ROTC – and changed their draft status to 4C … “enemy alien.” Wanting to serve, one hundred and seventy students petitioned the military governor: “Hawaiʻi is our home; the United States our country. We know but one loyalty and that is to the Stars and Stripes. We wish to do our part as loyal Americans in every way possible, and we hereby offer ourselves for whatever service you may see fit to use us.” (hawaii-edu)

A year later, the War Department announced that it was forming an all-Nisei combat team – the call for volunteers for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was made. The Territory of Hawaiʻi raised a total of 10,000-volunteers and so its quota was increased to 2,900 while the mainland quota was lowered proportionately to 1,500.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was activated on February 1, 1943 at Camp Shelby Mississippi; the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce held a Farewell Ceremony for Hawaiʻi 442nd soldiers on March 28, 1943, at ʻIolani Palace. By April 1943, the recruits arrived for training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

The Hawaiʻi-born Nisei, also known as “Buddhaheads,” made up about two-thirds of the regiment. The remaining third were Nisei from the mainland (they came from the Pacific coast, the Rocky Mountain states, the midwest and the eastern seaboard.) Immediately, the two factions fought with each other (because of different perspectives based on where they grew up.) (goforbroke-org)

At the time, Japanese in the US were placed in internment camps; more than 110,000-people of Japanese ancestry (including 60-percent who were American citizens) were forcibly “relocated” from their homes, businesses and farms in the western states (about 1,000 were interned in Hawaiʻi.)

Back at the training camp, the Buddhaheads thought the mainlander Nisei were sullen and snobby, and not confident and friendly. Soon misunderstandings turned into fistfights. In fact, that was how mainlanders got the name “Katonk.” (They say it was the sound their heads made when they hit the floor.)

The Katonks were fairer skinned, and spoke perfect English. The Buddhaheads were darker skinned and spoke Pidgin – a mixture of Hawaiian, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese and broken English. (goforbroke-org)

Money was another big divider between the groups. The Buddhaheads gambled heavily and spent freely using the cash sent by their generous parents who still worked in Hawaiʻi. They thought the Katonks were cheap. They didn’t realize that the Katonks sent most of their meager Army pay to their families imprisoned in the camps. (goforbroke-org)

The friction between the two groups was so bad that the military high command considered disbanding the 442nd. They thought the men could never fight overseas as a unit. The Army decided to send a group of Buddhaheads to visit the internment camps in Arkansas (the men thought Camp Jerome and Camp Rowher were little towns with Japanese families.)

But when the trucks rolled past the barbed wire fence, past the guard towers armed with machine guns pointed at the camp residents, past the rough barracks where whole families crowded in small compartments with no privacy – suddenly the Buddhaheads understood. Word of the camps spread quickly, and the Buddhaheads gained a whole new respect for the Katonks. Immediately the men in the 442nd became united – “like a clenched fist.”

From May 1943 through February 1944, the men trained for combat; they excelled at maneuvers and learned to operate as a team. In March, Chief of Staff General George Marshall inspected the regiment. Following their training, on April 22, 1944, the 442d packed up and were bound for Italy.

The motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was “Go For Broke.” (It’s a gambling term that means risking everything on one great effort to win big.)

The soldiers of the 442nd needed to win big … they did.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the entire history of the US Military.

In total, about 14,000-men served. Members of this unit earned over 18,000-individual decorations including 9,486 Purple Hearts and 5,200 Bronze Stars. The Combat Team earned five Presidential Citations, the only military unit ever to claim that achievement.

General of the Army George C Marshall praised the team saying, “there were superb: the men of the 100/442d … showed rare courage and tremendous fighting spirit … everybody wanted them.” General Mark W. Clark (Fifth Army) said, “these are some the best … fighters in the US Army. If you have more, send them over.” (army-mil)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote, “a combat team … of loyal American citizens of Japanese descent has my full approval, (and) will add to the … 5,000 … already serving in the … (100th Infantry Battalion, and Military Intelligence Service) … Americanism is not … a matter of race or ancestry. A good American is one who is loyal to this country and to our creed of liberty and democracy.”

The 442d may be best known for its rescue of the Lost Texas Battalion of the 36th Infantry Division, in the forests of the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France, near Biffontaine and Bruyeres on October 30, 1944.

The 442nd and the 141st Texas Regiment were both part of the 36th Division under the command of Major General John Dahlquist. They were fighting in Eastern France, near the German border. The 141st Texas Regiment advanced four miles beyond friendly forces – the Germans surrounded them. More than 200 Texans were stranded on a ridge, they were low on food, water and ammo.

Isolated for six days, the Texans had beaten back five enemy assaults. Deaths and casualties mounted. During the six days, the 442nd fought to rescue the Lost Battalion. After 34 days of almost non-stop combat – liberating Bruyeres and Biffontaine, rescuing the 211 Texans, and nine more days of driving the Germans through the forest – the 442nd’s total casualties were 216 men dead and more than 856 wounded.

As part of the Allies’ Southern Group of Armies, the 100/442d fought in eight campaigns and made two beachhead assaults in Italy and France, captured a submarine and opened the gates of Dachau concentration camp.

It is ironic that this team liberated Dachau, because some of these Japanese Americans were detained in American camps before being drafted into service, and still had family in those US camps. Nisei were denied their property, freedom to move, live in their own homes, work, and learn in the western US. (army-mil)

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team included the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, 232nd Combat Engineer Company, 206th Army Ground Force Band, Antitank Company, Cannon Company, Service Company, medical detachment, headquarters companies, and two infantry battalions. The 1st Infantry Battalion remained on the mainland to train new recruits. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions would join the legendary 100th Battalion, which was already fighting in Italy.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was actually composed of two distinct units: the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion. These two units were formed independently at different times and do not share a common lineage. The 100th Battalion would eventually become the 442nd’s 1st battalion in June 1944. (the442-org)

Some quotes about the members of the 442:
“You not only fought the enemy … you fought prejudice and won.” President Harry S Truman

“Never in military history did an army know as much about the enemy prior to actual engagement” General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Pacific Theater

“My fellow Americans, we gather here today to right a grave wrong … now let me sign HR 442.” President Ronald Reagan, Civil Liberties Act of 1988

“The Nisei saved countless lives and shortened the war by two years.” Charles A Willoughby, General MacArthur’s Intelligence Officer

Soldiers wear a wide assortment of insignia, ribbons, medals, badges, tabs and patches. The distinctive unit insignia for the 442d Infantry Regiment, Organized Reserves Corps (Hawaiʻi) was originally approved on May 22, 1952. It was amended to withdraw “Organized Reserves Corps” from the designation on June 30, 1959. (Pentagon-mil)

The 442d’s insignia is blue and white, the colors for the Infantry. The taro leaf, from the coat of arms of the 100th Infantry Battalion, is identified with Hawaiʻi, and the Mississippi River steam boat symbolizes the place of activation of the 442d Infantry Regiment (Camp Shelby, Mississippi.) (Pentagon-mil). (Lots of information here from 442-org, goforbroke-org and army-mil.)