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October 7, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

250 Years Ago … American Revolution

This post brings back some reminders on the American Revolution. I learned I am a descendant of a Patriot, Israel Moseley, who fought in the Revolutionary War. I researched and prepared a series of summaries as part of my learning experience about the Patriots who helped form our country 250 years ago. …

In 1578 Humphrey Gilbert, the author of a treatise on the search for the Northwest Passage, received a patent from Queen Elizabeth to colonize the “heathen and barbarous landes” in the New World which other European nations had not yet claimed. It would be five years before his efforts could begin. When he was lost at sea, his half-brother, Walter Raleigh, took up the mission.

In 1585 Raleigh established the first British colony in North America with a group of colonists (91 men, 17 women and nine children) on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina. The colony was later abandoned.

It would be 20 years before the British would try again. This time – at Jamestown in 1607 – the colony would succeed, and North America would enter a new era. (Alonzo L Hamby)

The early 1600s saw the beginning of a great tide of emigration from Europe to North America. Spanning more than three centuries, this movement grew from a trickle of a few hundred English colonists to a flood of millions of newcomers. Impelled by powerful and diverse motivations, they built a new civilization on the northern part of the continent.

The Early Colonists Wanted to Remain English, Even Though They Were Persecuted and Arrested

Seeking the right to worship as they wished, the Pilgrims had signed a contract with the Virginia Company to settle on land near the Hudson River, which was then part of northern Virginia. The Virginia Company was a trading company chartered by King James I with the goal of colonizing parts of the eastern coast of the New World. London stockholders financed the Pilgrim’s voyage with the understanding they would be repaid in profits from the new settlement.

Between 1620 and 1635, economic difficulties swept England. Many people could not find work. Even skilled artisans could earn little more than a bare living. Poor crop yields added to the distress. In addition, the Industrial Revolution had created a burgeoning textile industry, which demanded an ever-increasing supply of wool to keep the looms running. Landlords enclosed farmlands and evicted the peasants in favor of sheep cultivation. Colonial expansion became an outlet for this displaced peasant population.

By 1750, some 80 per cent of the North American continent was controlled or influenced by France or Spain. Their presence was a source of tension and paranoia among those in the 13 British colonies, who feared encirclement, invasion and the influence of Catholicism.

In 1700, there were about 250,000 European settlers and enslaved Africans in North America’s English colonies.

How Did the Colonists View Britain Before 1763?

When asked what the ‘temper of America towards Great Britain” was before the year 1763, Benjamin Franklin responded,

“The best in the world.”

“They have submitted willingly to the government of the Crown, and paid, in all their courts, obedience to acts of parliament.”

“Numerous as the people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons or armies, to keep them in subjection.”

“They were governed by this country at the expence only of a little pen, ink and paper. They were led by a thread. They had not only a respect, but an affection, for Great Britain, for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce.”

“Natives of Britain were always treated with particular regard ; to be an Old England-man, was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us.” (Franklin in Examination related to repeal of the Stamp Act)

In the 1600s and 1700s, Europeans came to North America looking for religious freedom, economic opportunities, and political liberty.

They created 13 colonies on the East Coast of the continent. Each colony had its own government, but the British king controlled these governments.

In the early years, voluntary contributions supported spending on civic activities and church ministers. Too many free riders induced leaders to make contributions compulsory.

But taxes were not long in coming.

Growing populations in the colonies necessitated defensive measures against Indians and other European intruders, along with the need to build and maintain roads, schools, prisons, public buildings, and ports and to support poor relief. A variety of direct and indirect taxes was gradually imposed on the colonists.

In 1638, the General Court in Massachusetts required all freemen and non-freemen to support both the commonwealth and the church. Direct taxes took two forms: (1) a wealth tax and (2) a poll, or head tax, which in some instances evolved into or included an income tax.

Direct taxes were supplemented by several import and export duties in the New England colonies (save in Rhode Island). For several brief periods, Massachusetts imposed a “tonnage duty” of 1s. per ton on vessels trading, but not owned, in the colony, which was earmarked to maintain fortifications.

Taxation Without Representation in the British Parliament Led to War

John Adams wrote a letter to Otis’s biographer William Tudor, Jr., in 1818. After quoting that letter at length Tudor wrote in his book:

“From the navigation act the advocate [Otis] passed to the Acts of Trade, and these, he contended, imposed taxes, enormous, burthensome, intolerable taxes; and on this topic he gave full scope to his talent, for powerful declamation and invective, against the tyranny of taxation without representation.”

This was followed up by declarations at the Stamp Tax Congress in New York in October 1865. The Stamp Act Congress passed a ‘Declaration of Rights and Grievances.’ This claimed that American colonists were equal to all other British citizens, protested taxation without representation, and stated that, without colonial representation in Parliament, Parliament could not tax colonists. In addition, the colonists increased their nonimportation efforts.

By 1775, on the eve of revolutionary war, there were an estimated 2.5 million people in the colonies.

The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) was sparked after American colonists chafed over issues like taxation without representation, embodied by laws like The Stamp Act and The Townshend Acts. Mounting tensions came to a head during the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, when the “shot heard round the world” was fired.

It was not without warning; the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770 and the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773 showed the colonists’ increasing dissatisfaction with British rule in the colonies.

The Declaration of Independence, issued on July 4, 1776, enumerated the reasons the Founding Fathers felt compelled to break from the rule of King George III and parliament to start a new nation. In September of that year, the Continental Congress declared the “United Colonies” of America to be the “United States of America.”

France joined the war on the side of the colonists in 1778, helping the Continental Army.

But, was the ‘Revolution’ really the ‘War?’

George Washington, Commander in Chief of all Virginia forces (and later First President of the United States) wrote to Robert Dinwiddle on March 10, 1757 expressed some thoughts about the changing conditions,

“We cant conceive, that being Americans shoud deprive us of the benefits of British Subjects; nor lessen our claim to preferment …”

“As to those Idle Arguments which are often times us’d—namely, You are Defending your own properties; I look upon to be whimsical & absurd; We are Defending the Kings Dominions”

“and althô the Inhabitants of Gt Britain are removd from (this) Danger, they are yet, equally with Us, concernd and Interested in the Fate of the Country”

“and there can be no Sufficient reason given why we, who spend our blood and Treasure in Defence of the Country are not entitled to equal prefermt.”

“Some boast of long Service as a claim to Promotion – meaning I suppose, the length of time they have pocketed a Commission –“

“I apprehend it is the service done, not the Service engag’d in, that merits reward; and that their is, as equitable a right to expect something for three years hard & bloody Service, as for 10 spent at St James’s &ca where real Service, or a field of Battle never was seen”

John Adams, Second President of the United States also spoke of the Revolution; in a letter to Thomas Jefferson (August 24, 1815) Adams stated, “What do We mean by the Revolution? The War?”

“That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen Years before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington.”

“The Records of thirteen Legislatures, the Pamphlets, Newspapers in all the Colonies ought be consulted, during that Period, to ascertain the Steps by which the public opinion was enlightened and informed concerning the Authority of Parliament over the Colonies.”

“The Congress of 1774, resembled in Some respects, tho’ I hope not in many, the Counsell of Nice in Ecclesiastical History. It assembled the Priests from the East and the West the North and the South, who compared Notes, engaged in discussions and debates and formed Results, by one Vote and by two Votes, which went out to the World as unanimous.”

Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States, noted, “Societies exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without government … 2. Under governments wherein the will of every one has a just influence … 3. Under governments of force …. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen.”

“I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. … . It is a medecine necessary for the sound health of government.”

These leaders help us understand that there is a difference between the ‘Revolution’ and the ‘War.’ The Second Continental Congress declared American independence on July 2, 1776.

The Lee Resolution, also known as the resolution of independence, was an act of the Second Continental Congress declaring the United Colonies to be independent of the British Empire. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia first proposed it on June 7, 1776; it was formally approved on July 2, 1776.

The document justifying the act of Congress – Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence – was adopted on the fourth of July, as is indicated on the document itself. In it we learn more about the difference between the ‘Revolution’ and the ‘War.’

By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, the Thirteen Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year.

That war lasted from April 19, 1775 (with the Battles of Lexington and Concord) to September 3, 1783 (with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.) It lasted 8 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 1 day; then, the sovereignty of the United States was recognized over the territory bounded roughly by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west.

Click the following link to a general summary about the American Revolution:

Click to access American-Revolution.pdf

October 6, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“… no one could have been nearer to instant death …”

Then-Princess Liliʻuokalani was on a tour around Oʻahu. “I was accompanied by my sister, the Princess Likelike, who had with her the little child-princess Kaʻiulani, and that infant’s governess, Miss Barnes; Mr. JH Boyd was of the number of our attendants.”

“After a generous lunch at Waimanalo, on the estate of Mr. Cummins, we left for Maunawili, the country-place of Mr. and Mrs. Boyd”. (On a prior trip to that house, Liliʻuokalani was inspired to write ‘Aloha ʻOe;’ when leaving, she witnessed a particularly affectionate farewell between a gentleman and a young.)

This trip, on October 6, 1881, was different.

“We were descending the steep side of a hill, (in some unaccountable manner the reins of one of the horses became entangled in the bit of another) and the result was that the driver had no longer control of the animals.”

“Consequently the carriage came down the hill with such velocity that I was thrown violently out, and landed between two rocks; but fortunately there was a bit of marshy ground where I struck.”

“(T)he vehicle was overturned, falling upon the Princess who had been previously thrown out and furthermore, the royal lady was precipitated down a steep embankment a distance of about 50 yards. When the rest of the party joined the suffering lady, she was speechless for some length of time.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 8, 1881)

“Certainly no one could have been nearer to instant death.” (Liliʻuokalani)

“At first it was thought my back was broken by my fall; for when I endeavored to rise after recovering from the first shock, it was impossible to do so, nor could I change in any way my position until assisted by my followers”.

“Even then, when depending upon their strength of arm as they tried to raise me, the least exertion or motion gave me the greatest pain.”

“It was a matter of immediate wonder that my life had been spared.” (Liliʻuokalani)

“This had been witnessed from the homestead of our hosts; and Mr. Cummins, arriving on the scene almost immediately, sent for a stretcher, which was sent at once from the residence of Mrs. Boyd. On this I was placed, and the litter raised upon the shoulders of four men; thus was I carried all the way to Waimanalo.”

“Mr. Cummins, having preceded the sad procession, met us at the foot of the hill with a wagon.” (Liliʻuokalani) “Cummings, who was aware that the steamer Waimanalo, then anchored about four miles distant, was about to start for Honolulu. He dispatched a messenger to delay her.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 8, 1881)

“When all had been made ready, the word was given to proceed, and the procession started. To me it was a solemn moment, one which can never be forgotten, (the throngs of people watched in) respectful silence broken only by their smothered sobs or subdued weeping, and with it all the steady, measured tread of the soldiers who were drawing the wagon on which I had been laid by my devoted friends.”

“(U)nder the kind care of Mr. Cummins and Mrs. Kaae, the wagon was driven to the wharf, where the little steamer Waimanalo, belonging to Mr. Cummins, awaited me. All that tenderest care and kindest heart could suggest was done to make me comfortable by my kind hosts; and the cavalcade of retainers, with which I had come out so gayly, followed in demure silence.” (Liliʻuokalani)

“My return, thus to my people and my family from the very border of death left an impression upon me which is too sacred for any description.” (Liliʻuokalani)

“My physician, Dr. Webb … made a careful examination of my condition, and was relieved to find that the injuries to my back were no more serious than a very severe wrench and strain.”

“At the end of three weeks I was not yet able to raise myself, or even sit up in my bed; so finally it was the opinion of my medical advisers that I should make a great effort and persevere in spite of the pain, lest I should become bedridden.”

“These instructions were followed out with a result which proved the wisdom of the course recommended; for I was soon able to ride about in my buggy, still weak, but improving slowly.”

“But the process of recovery was very gradual, and only successful by the most constant care and great patience of my attendants. These were divided into watches of three hours each, and three persons were always at my bedside.”

“To one of these was assigned the duty of waving the kahili … to another that of using the fan for my comfort, both of these being women; while to the third, a male attendant, belonged the duty of doing any necessary errands, and of making my female attendants comfortable in whatever way their needs might require.”

“Whenever I was lifted, or even turned, it was done by the strong yet tender hands of six men, three on each side. Had these been nurses trained by years of experience to manage the sick they could not have proceeded with more skill and gentleness; so quietly and gradually was my position changed that I could scarcely perceive the movements, which were such as to give me the least pain.”

“All classes of adherents had been represented in the watchers about my bedside. … Most of these gentlemen were accompanied by their wives as assistants in their kind offices. Princess Ruth and my sister, the Princess Likelike, were daily visitors.” (Liliʻuokalani) The image shows then-Princess Liliʻuokalani.

Crown_Princess_Liliuokalani-1870s-1880s

October 5, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pūlaholaho

In former times, the area we now call downtown Honolulu was not called Honolulu; instead, each land section had its own name. (A map in the album notes many of the different areas and their respective place names. )

‘Kou’ was later used to describe the district roughly encompassing the present day area from Nuʻuanu to Alakea Streets and from Hotel to Queen Streets Street (Queen Street was, then, only a pathway along the water’s edge.)

The harbor was known as Kuloloia. It was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794. He named the harbor “Fair Haven.” The name Honolulu (meaning “sheltered bay” – with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

Kamehameha I, who had been living at Waikīkī since 1804, moved his court here in 1809. His immediate court consisted of high-ranking chiefs and their retainers.

In 1815, Kamehameha I granted Russian representatives permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor. Instead, directed by the German adventurer Georg Schaffer (1779-1836,) they began building a fort and raised the Russian flag. When Kamehameha learned of this, he sent several chiefs to remove the Russians.

The partially built blockhouse was finished by Hawaiians; they mounted guns protected the fort. Its original purpose was to protect Honolulu by keeping enemy or otherwise undesirable ships out.

By 1830, the fort had 40 guns mounted on the parapets; it was called Fort Kekuanohu (literally, ‘the back of the scorpion fish,’ as in ‘thorny back,’) because of the rising guns on the walls. (Fort Street is so named, because of the fort on the waterfront.)

One of the areas nearby was called Pūlaholaho (it is down near the old waterfront, ʻEwa side of where the fort was. (In today’s perspective, it runs from Merchant, Nuʻuanu, Queen Streets and up through the breezeway of the Harbor Court project (this used to be the location of Kaʻahumanu Street.)

April 25, 1825, Richard Charlton arrived in the Islands to serve as the first British consul. A former sea captain and trader, he was already familiar with the islands of the Pacific and had promoted them in England for their commercial potential (he worked for the East India Company in the Pacific as early as 1821.)

Charlton had been in London during Kamehameha II’s visit in 1824 and secured an introduction to the king and his entourage. By the time he arrived in Hawai‘i in 1825, instructions had already arrived from Kamehameha II that Charlton was to be allowed to build a house, or houses, any place he wished and should be made comfortable. This apparently was due to favors Charlton had done for the royal party. (Hawaiʻi State Archives)

Charlton didn’t play well with others. A report by Thrum noted, “July 13th (1827) – Last evening the English consul, in conversation with Boki told him he would cut Kaahumanu’s head off and all the residents were ready to join in it. Guards were ordered out in all parts of the village. Mr. Charlton may be ready to take up arms against the chief but few, if any, I believe would follow or join with him.” (Thrum)

In spite of that, Charlton did receive land for his home and for Consular offices. The records suggest that the land under the present Washington Place premises were part of a grant from the chiefs to Charlton in 1825-26 to provide a permanent location for a British Consulate. (HABS)

(Charlton later sold that property to Captain John Dominis (December 26, 1840,) who later built Washington Place. … By the way, Beretania Street was so named because of the British Consulate there.)

Charlton claimed this and other lands as his personal property. He also claimed land down by the waterfront. There was no disagreement over a small parcel, Wailele, but the larger adjoining parcel he claimed (Pūlaholaho) had been occupied since 1826 by retainers and heirs of Kaʻahumanu.

In making his claim for Pūlaholaho, Charlton showed a 299-lease dated October 5, 1826 issued to him by Kalanimōku. That claim, made in 1840, however, was made after Kalanimōku and Kaʻahumanu had died.

Following Charlton’s presentation of his claim to rights of the entire land section of Pūlaholaho, Kamehameha III sought a means of providing security for the native residents on the land, and claimed that Pūlaholaho belonged to the crown. (Maly)

In rejecting Charlton’s claim, Kamehameha III cited the fact that Kalanimōku did not have the authority to grant the lease. At the time the lease was made, Kaʻahumanu was Kuhina Nui, and only she and the king could make such grants. The land was Kaʻahumanu’s in the first place, and Kalanimōku certainly could not give it away. (Hawaiʻi State Archives) The dispute dragged on for years.

This, and other grievances purported by Charlton and the British community in Hawai‘i, led to the landing of George Paulet on February 11, 1843 “for the purpose of affording protection to British subjects, as likewise to support the position of Her Britannic Majesty’s representative here”.

Following this, King Kamehameha III ceded the Islands and Paulet took control. After five months of British rule, Queen Victoria, on learning the injustice done, immediately sent Rear Admiral Richard Darton Thomas to the islands to restore sovereignty to its rightful rulers.

On July 31, 1843 the Hawaiian flag was raised. The ceremony was held in area known as Kulaokahuʻa; the site of the ceremony was turned into a park, Thomas Square.

On November 26, 1845, legal title to Charlton’s land claim was secured and was sold to British businessman, Robert C Janion (of Starkey, Janion and Co – that company later became Theo H. Davies & Co and one of Hawaiʻi’s ‘Big 5.’) (Liber 3:221; Maly) Charlton stayed in Honolulu until February 19, 1846, when he left Hawai’i for the last time.

Pūlaholaho was subdivided and Janion auctioned off the properties in 1846. Captain Heinrich (Henry) Hackfeld opened a store on one of them in October 1849. His company, H Hackfeld & Co, later became American Factors, Amfac, another Hawaiʻi ‘Big 5’ company.

A lasting legacy is the Melchers Building, the oldest commercial building in Honolulu, erected in 1854, at 51 Merchant Street, built for the retail firm of Melchers and Reiner. Its original coral stone walls are no longer visible on most sides, under its layers of stucco and paint (check the makai side of the building to see the coral blocks.)

October 4, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kahikinui

Ku ka moku i Kahiki; o Kahiki nui ka moku
i olelo ia ilaila i poohina ai ka makani.

The district that resembles Kahiki, is to Kahiki-nui, the district which is said to be made silvery by the winds (descriptive of the winds bearing salty sea-spray from the ocean.) (Ka Hoku o Hawaii, March 11, 1915; Maly)

Archaeologists and historians describe the inhabiting of these islands in the context of settlement which resulted from voyages taken in canoes, across the open ocean. Some believe the first Polynesians to arrive at Hawaii came ashore at Kahikinui.

They have proposed that early Polynesian settlement happened with voyages between Kahiki (Tahiti – the ancestral homelands of the Hawaiian gods and people) and Hawai‘i, with long distance voyages occurring fairly regularly through at least the thirteenth century.

It has been generally reported that the land-sources of the early Hawaiian population – the Hawaiian “Kahiki” – were the Marquesas and Society Islands. The moku (district) of Kahikinui is named because from afar on the ocean, it resembles a larger form of Kahiki, the ancestral homeland. (Maly)

Some suggest place names illustrate the historical ties between Kahikinui (Great Tahiti) and the islands of Tahiti. Some believed there were navigational ties between the two places and that they had ancestral ties to Tahiti.

Other place names in Kahikinui include: Manawainui (The big water/river) for a big gulch where a lot of water is generated there during heavy rain; Kanaloa for a place where Kanaloa may have landed: Manamana which refers to spiritual powers: and Mahamenui which refers to Mahame trees, a hard wood, and probably prolific through the area at one time.

Some believe that along Kahikinui were given names that referred to Hawaiʻiloa, an ancient navigator. These included fishing koʻa, and astronomical and navigational sites on the mountain. (Matsuoka)

There are eight named subdivisions within Kahikinui (ahupuaʻa and/or ʻili;) from west to east, these named land units are: Auwahi, Lualaʻilua, Alena, Kāpapa, Nakaohu, Nakaaha, Mahamenui, and Manawainui. Most maps indicate that the eastern boundary of Kahikinui was Wai‘ōpai Gulch. (Pacific Legacy) However, today, most of these get joined together into a single reference to Kahikinui.

The first written description of the region was made by La Pérouse in 1786 while sailing along the southeast coast of Maui in search of a place to drop anchor:

“I coasted along its shore at a distance of a league (three miles) …. The aspect of the island of Mowee was delightful (Hāna to Kaupō.) We beheld water falling in cascades from the mountains, and running in streams to the sea, after having watered the habitations of the natives, which are so numerous that a space of three or four leagues (9 – 12 miles) may be taken for a single village.” (La Pérouse, 1786; Bushnell)

“… the sea beat upon the coast with the utmost violence, and kept us in the situation of Tantalus, desiring and devouring with our eyes what it was impossible for us to attain … After passing Kaupō no more waterfalls are seen, and villages are fewer.” (La Pérouse, 1786; Bushnell)

Then, as they passed Kahikinui, “We saw no more waterfalls, the trees were fairly sparsely planted along the plain, and the villages, consisting only of 10 or 12 huts, were quite distant from each other.”

“Every moment made us regret the country which we were leaving behind, and we only found shelter when we were faced with a frightful shore, where the lava had once run down as waterfalls do today in the other part of the island.” (La Pérouse, 1786; Kirch)

Handy observed that, “In … Kahikinui, the forest zone was much lower and rain more abundant before the introduction of cattle. The usual forest zone plants were cultivated in the lower upland above the inhabited area.”

Kahikinui was arid along the coast but well-forested above the cloud line. Fishing was good along its rugged shores. Hawaiians lived in isolated communities on the broken lava, scattered from one end of the district to the other close to the sea or slightly
inland, wherever potable water was found in a brackish well or a submarine spring offshore.

The Hawaiians of Kahikinui developed garden holes also, but their primary cultivation area was upland, just below the forest zone and where the rainfall was plentiful. There, they developed upland plots or dry taro and other edible plants. (Handy; Matsuoka)

“From…Kahikinui … the sweet potato was the staple food for a considerable population, supplemented with dry taro grown in the low forest zones. This is the greatest continuous dry planting area in the Hawaiian islands.” (Handy; Maly)

“The district was populated largely by makaʻāinana, common folk, who were derided by officials of the nineteenth-century Hawaiian Kingdom as ‘ili ulaula, “red skins,” a reference to their sunburned bodies, reflecting long hours of toil in the sweet potato patches.” (Kirch)

The ocean off Kahikinui is a wealth of marine resources that remain available for education, traditional practices, subsistence lifestyles and recreation. As its name implies Kahikinui means big Tahiti and points to ancestral directions and paths to ancestral places over the ocean. It is an important wayfinding place for places beyond the island chain. (DHHL)

“The fishermen along the coasts of Kahikinui and Honua’ula used to exchange their fish for sweet potatoes and taro grown by those living up on the kula; Hawaiian tradition gives ample evidence that the population of this now almost depopulated country was considerable…” (Handy; Maly)

As time went on, due to climate change, ranching, goats and other animals had caused the dry-land forest to recede far in-land. The Southside on Maui has now turned to mostly dust, cinder, invasive trees, cattle and a population of about less than a hundred people. Only 5% of the dry-land forest is left in the state, which can be found only on Maui and the Big Island. (KUPU)

Kahikinui is “most remote and undeveloped region;” it constituted an entire moku, an ancient political district, which had never suffered from the effects of Westernized ‘development’ … lacking in freshwater or rich soils, Kahikinui was spared the effects of sugarcane or pineapple plantations”. (Kirch)

Kahikinui is 7 miles long and 6 miles wide and ranges in elevation from sea level to 10,000-feet. Its slope at the 3,000-foot level in the forest reserve was greater than 20%, and between 10% to 20% closer to the shoreline. The land section contains several Puʻu (cinder cones.) (Matsuoka)

In 2012, the Auwahi Wind project (in the westernmost ahupua‘a of Kahikinui) installed an 8-turbine, 21-MW wind farm, with battery storage.

Leeward_Haleakala_Kahikinui_Forest-DLNR

kahikinui_Marino

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kahikinui-overflight_hawp

kahikinui-overflight hawp

Kahikinui-gullies-hawp

kahikinui_Osher

Auwahi Wind turbines

Historic_Mokus_of_Maui_Map_(Kahikinui)-AhaMoku

Historic_Mokus_of_Maui_Map

Historic_Mokus_of_Maui_Map_(Kahikinui)

October 3, 2024 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Shashin Hanayome

Omiai, the practice of arranged marriages, had been common among Japanese samurai families, as they often needed to arrange unions across long distances to match their social standing. (Koch)

Beginning in the Meiji Period (1868-1912) Omiai spread through all classes of Japanese society. (Koch) During this time, these marriages were an agreement between two families, and children had no right to choose their own spouse. (Ishimura)

Under Japan’s Civil Code of 1898, the government legally defined arranged marriages and the patriarchal household system, which has been practiced by the upper-class warrior clans, the nobility and merchants alike during feudalism, as the authentic and traditional marriage and family system. (Tanaka)

Husbands simply had to enter the names of their brides into their family registries. Thus, men and women became legally betrothed no matter where they resided. (Nakamura)

The practice came to Hawaiʻi, tied back to Japan.

A shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.) The sugar industry grew, so did the Chinese population in Hawaiʻi. Concerned that the Chinese were taking too strong a representation in the labor market, the government passed laws reducing Chinese immigration. Further government regulations, introduced 1886-1892, virtually ended Chinese contract labor immigration.

In March 1881, King Kalākaua visited Japan during which he discussed with Emperor Meiji Hawaiʻi’s desire to encourage Japanese nationals to settle in Hawaiʻi.

Kalākaua’s meeting with Emperor Meiji improved the relationship of the Hawaiian Kingdom with the Japanese government and an economic depression in Japan served as motivation for agricultural workers to move from their homeland. (Nordyke/Matsumoto)

The first 943-government-sponsored, Kanyaku Imin, Japanese immigrants to Hawaiʻi arrived in Honolulu aboard the Pacific Mail Steamship Company ‘City of Tokio’ on February 8, 1885. Subsequent government approval was given for a second set of 930-immigrants who arrived in Hawaii on June 17, 1885.

With the Japanese government satisfied with treatment of the immigrants, a formal immigration treaty was concluded between Hawaiʻi and Japan on January 28, 1886. The treaty stipulated that the Hawaiʻi government would be held responsible for employers’ treatment of Japanese immigrants.

Between 1885 and 1907, thousands of Japanese came to Hawaiʻi in numbers so great that by 1897 Japanese constituted the largest single ethnic group in the Islands. In 1888, there were 6,420 Japanese in Hawaiʻi; in 1890, 12,360; in 1896, 24,407; in 1900, 61,111. By 1900, the Japanese composed nearly 40% of the population in Hawaiʻi. (Ogawa & Grant)

Many decided to stay – but it was men who initially came to work and men outnumbered adult women 2-to-1 in the Territory; in some communities, the sex ratio was even more skewed. The men needed brides.

Letters were written home requesting that their parents contact the matchmakers in the village so that respectable women could be found. Pictures of the men were taken by professional photographers who often used the same worn suit over and over so that these laborers looked a little more distinguished.

Picture brides’ personal backgrounds were varied: While most were daughters of farmers or fishermen, some picture brides came from lower and middle-class family backgrounds – daughters of Christian ministers, teachers, shop owners and entrepreneurs, for example. (Tanaka)

Women did have greater marital opportunities in Hawaiʻi because of the gender disparity within the Japanese community and while some marriages did end in divorce, the majority of men and women accepted the arranged marriage. (Nakamura)

In general, the picture bride practice conformed to traditional marriage customs as parents or relatives in Japan chose wives for single migrant men working in America and Hawai’i. In Japan, heads of households met through an intermediary. (Ogawa & Grant)

These go-betweens arranged meetings between family heads who discussed and negotiated proposed unions with little input from the prospective spouses. An exchange of photographs sometimes occurred in the screening process, with family genealogy, wealth, education and health figuring heavily in the selection criteria. (Nakamura)

Portraits were then tucked into the letters. In time they would receive from Japan the exciting news that a bride had been found and if approved, arrangements would be made to send the young woman across the ocean to this foreign land. Inside the envelope would also be the photograph of the prospective bride.

The wife was entered into the husband’s family registry, making the marriage official under Japanese law. Many of these women then married their husbands immediately upon arrival in Hawaiʻi, in mass marriage ceremonies performed on the wharf. (West & Seal)

Many picture brides were genuinely shocked to see their husbands for the first time at the Immigration Station. Picture brides were often disappointed in the man they came to marry.

Husbands were usually older than wives by ten to fifteen years, and occasionally more. Men often forwarded photographs taken in their youth or touched up ones that concealed their real age. (Nakamura)

The first major waves of Japanese Shashin Hanayome “picture brides” began in 1908 and before all immigration was stopped from Japan in 1924, these tens of thousands of women would reshape the Japanese community in Hawaiʻi.

In addition to being wives and mothers who took care of the home, Japanese women immigrants also worked alongside their husbands in the fields. (Ogawa & Grant)

Between 1907 and 1923, over 14,000 picture brides arrived in Hawaiʻi from Japan; they bolstered the Islands’ female population. A 1927 census of all 43-sugar plantations reported that while the ratio of Japanese men to women was 1.5:1. (Bill)

And, as might be expected, this early period of stabilization of the Japanese family coincided with a high birth rate. The birth of the second generation (nisei,) in effect established the identity of the first generation (issei.) (Ogawa & Grant)

The establishment of families was soon followed by the growth of Buddhist and Christian churches, a variety of language newspapers, and self-help organizations that served the needs of the immigrant community. (Ogawa & Grant)

“According to some historians, the majority of Japanese born in the United States can trace their ancestry to a picture bride.” (LA Times)