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December 6, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Flagship of the Fleet

Some suggest the name was probably coined by melding the words arid and zone, to designate the dry area in the southwestern United States which was admitted to the Union as a state on February 14, 1912.

However, some authorities maintain that the name was derived from the Aztec Indian word Arizuma, which can be translated as “silver bearing.” (Navy)

The first ‘Arizona’ was an iron-hulled, side-wheel steamer completed in 1859; she operated out of New Orleans carrying passengers and cargo to and from ports along the gulf and Atlantic coasts of the US.

Her commercial service ended on January 15, 1862 when Confederate Major General Mansfield Lovell seized her at New Orleans along with 13 other steamers for use as a blockade runner. (Navy)

On the evening of February 27, 1865, a fire broke out and rapidly spread. When no possibility of saving the ship remained, the crew manned the boats; some leaped overboard and swam to shore. The vessel burned until she exploded. Out of a crew of 98 on board four were missing. (Navy)

“The second Arizona was launched at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1865 and named the Neshaminy. Her name was changed to Arizona on May 15, 1869. Her name was again changed on August 10, 1869, this time to Nevada.” (New York Times, June 12, 1915)

“The naval constructors at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn are busy completing the arrangements for the laying of the keel of the battleship. No. 39, which is to be a sister ship of the new Pennsylvania, and which with that ship will share the honor of being the world’s biggest and most powerful.” (New York Times, July 1, 1913)

The keel of the third ‘Arizona’ (Battleship No. 39) was laid on the morning of March 16, 1914 with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt in attendance.

She was launched on June 19, 1915; “The Arizona, biggest of the super dreadnoughts of our navy, was launched at the Brooklyn Navy yard yesterday afternoon, while 75,0000 people – the greatest crowd that ever gathered to see an American ship go down and the ways – cheered to the echo Uncle Sam’s newest battleship named for the newest of the States.” (New York Times, June 20, 1915)

Arizona had an overall length of 608 feet, a beam of 97 feet (at the waterline), and a draft of 29 feet 3 inches at deep load. She was propelled by four direct-drive Parsons steam turbine sets, each of which drove a propeller 12 feet 1.5 inches in diameter. At full capacity, the ship could steam at a speed of 12 knots for an estimated 7,500 nautical miles (8,790 miles.)

She was commissioned on October 17, 1916, and went on a shakedown cruise. The battleship returned the day before Christmas of 1916 for post-shakedown overhaul, completing the repairs and alterations in April 1917.

Arizona left the yard on April 3, 1917; on April 6, 1917, two days after the US Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the US House of Representatives endorsed the decision by a vote of 373 to 50, and the US formally entered the First World War.

Assigned to Battleship Division 8 operating out of the York River, Arizona was only employed as a gunnery training ship for the Navy crewmen who sailed on armed merchant vessels crossing the Atlantic in convoys.

The fighting ended on November 11, 1918 with an armistice. A week later, the Arizona left the US for the United Kingdom, then on to France. Arizona joined nine battleships and twenty-eight destroyers escorting President Woodrow Wilson on the ocean liner George Washington into Brest for one day on Wilson’s journey to the Paris Peace Conference.

A recurring theme in subsequent years was the annual ‘Fleet Problems,’ large-scale fleet versus fleet naval exercises. Four months after ‘Fleet Problem IX’ in January 1929, Arizona was modernized at the Norfolk Navy Yard.

Arizona carried twelve 14-inch guns in triple gun turrets. The turrets were numbered from I to IV from front to rear. The ship carried 100 shells for each gun.

Defense against torpedo boats was provided by twenty-two 51-caliber five-inch guns mounted in individual casemates in the sides of the ship’s hull. They proved to be very wet and could not be worked in heavy seas. Each gun was provided with 230 rounds of ammunition.

The ship mounted four 50-caliber three-inch guns for anti-aircraft defense, although only two were fitted when completed. The other pair were added shortly afterward on top of Turret III. Arizona also mounted two 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes and carried 24 torpedoes for them.

She had an ongoing history of serving as flag ship for different Admirals across different oceans (the flag ship carries the commander of a group of ships; officers of the rank of Rear Admiral, Vice-Admiral, or Admiral are designated as flag officers.)

When an Admiral takes command of a ship, a task force or a fleet, the chief signalman is given the job of raising the Admiral’s flag. (The Admiral’s flag is blue with white stars. A Rear-Admiral will have two stars on his flag, a vice-admiral will have three stars and a full Admiral carries four stars.)

“During the ceremony, the flag is bunched up into a ball and hoisted up in that fashion until it gently bumps the masthead and the balled up flag breaks open to a full flag furl. When this takes place the flag officer’s flag has broken open and he has taken command.” To say that a Commander “Broke his flag,” means that particular officer has been assigned task force or Fleet Commander. (Everett)

Some reference the Arizona as the ‘Flagship of the Fleet.’ Starting in 1920 the Arizona became flagship for Commander Battleship Division 7, Rear Admiral Edward W. Eberle and later became flagship when Vice Admiral McDonald transferred his flag to Wyoming (BB-33) and Rear Admiral Josiah S. McKean broke his flag on board as commander of the division.

For the next decade and a half, Arizona alternately served as flagship for Battleship Divisions 2, 3 or 4. Based at San Pedro during this period, Arizona operated with the fleet in the operating areas off the coast of southern California or in the Caribbean during fleet concentrations there.

On September 17, 1938, Arizona became the flagship for Battleship Division 1, when Rear Admiral Chester W Nimitz broke his flag.

Arizona’s last ‘fleet problem’ was XXI. At its conclusion, the US Fleet was retained in Hawaiian waters, based at Pearl Harbor. She operated in the Hawaiian Operating Area until late that summer, when she returned to Long Beach in September 1940.

She was then overhauled at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, into the following year. Her last flag change-of-command occurred on January 23, 1941, when Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd relieved Rear Admiral Willson as Commander, Battleship Division 1.

She continued various kinds of training and tactical exercises in the Hawaiian operating area. She underwent a brief overhaul at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard commencing in October 1941, and conducted her last training (with Nevada (BB-36) and Oklahoma (BB-37)) (a night firing exercise) on the night of December 4, 1941.

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 wrought devastation on the battle line and on the facilities defending Hawaii. Arizona’s air raid alarm went off about 7:55, and the ship went to general quarters soon thereafter. Shortly after 08:00, the ship was attacked.

The last bomb hit at 08:06 in the vicinity of Turret II, likely penetrating the armored deck near the ammunition magazines located in the forward section of the ship. While not enough of the ship is intact to judge the exact location, its effects are indisputable. About seven seconds after the hit, the forward magazines detonated in a cataclysmic explosion.

The USS Arizona is the final resting place for many of the ship’s 1,177 crewmen who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. The 184-foot-long Memorial structure spans the mid-portion of the sunken battleship and consists of three main sections: the entry room; the assembly room, a central area designed for ceremonies and general observation; and the shrine room, where the names of those killed on the Arizona are engraved on the marble wall. (Lots of information here is from the Navy, NPS and Arizona.)

USS_Arizona_in_New_York_City

Arizona_(BB39)_At_Launch_Approaching_End_of_Ways-NARA-1915

USS_Arizona_(BB-39)_-_1930s

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Arizona (BB39) before modernized at Norfolk Naval Shipyard between May 1929-Jan 1930-WC

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USS_Arizona_(BB-39)_being_modernized_in_1930

USS_Arizona_(BB-39)_1918

USS_Arizona_(BB-39)_-_1924

Arizona-Pearl_Harbor-1941

The_USS_Arizona_(BB-39)_burning_after_the_Japanese_attack_on_Pearl_Harbor-WC-1941

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December 4, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Tanomoshi

“The establishment of a cash economy and community of foreigners in Hawai‘i during the early years of the Pacific whaling industry also led to the development of commercial fisheries in the waters around the islands.” (Schug)

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

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.

“Japanese social conventions compelled established residents in Hawai’i to offer guidance and support to new arrivals, who could expect assistance especially from ken-jin, fellow immigrants from the same region of Japan.”

“The transition to American society was eased for Japanese immigrants by the establishment of tightly knit communities. … These cohesive communities were important sources of financial and social capital for budding entrepreneurs.” (Schug)

“Plantation workers had no credit and minimal income, so banks were quick to deny them loans.” (CUInsights)

“Families … banded together in times of hardship and celebration. Families not only shared their harvests, but also helped others out financially through a feudal Japanese system known as ‘tanomoshi.’ Families regularly invested to create a large sum of money to provide financial assistance.” (Nancy Iwasaki Saiki; Zentoku Foundation)

“In the Tanomoshi the Japanese have put a unique concept of co-operation into effect. Tanomoshiko as used in Western Japan comes from ‘tanomui’ which means “dependable.’”

“The procedure seems to have originated in pooling contributions to a given fund and drawing lots to see who might go on pilgrimages to the shrines and temples. During the early part of the Tokugawa Period [1603–1867],Tanomoshi took on a definite economic meaning.” (Bogardus)

“If a man needs money to pay debts, to build a house, or to bear the expenses of marrying off his daughter, he invites a group of friends, usually on payday, to drink tea.”

“There is no limit to the uses of the tanomoshi. One group of women held a five dollar one until they all had wrist watches. Among men a suit tanomoshi is favored.” (Bradford Smith)

Tanomoshi required mutual trust among its members because these loans did not have collateral. Families trusted one another that loans would be paid back and acted in the best interest of the community. (Kanase, Zentoku Foundation)

Tanomoshi is an informal collaborative funding pool that participants can draw on. Call it venture capital. The system is somewhat intricate and was used to fund hundreds of businesses and other ventures. (HPR)

“The tanomoshi-ko is normally promoted by a person who is in urgent need of money. Suppose, for instance, he needs $100 and decides to organize a tanomoshi.”

“He asks nine friends to subscribe $10 a month each to his tanomoshi. They meet and each deposits the $10, making the total of $100.”

“The first month’s receipts always go to the promoter, who gets the entire amount, interest free.”

“Because the promoter is not required to pay interest to the other members, who must thereafter pay interest besides their $10 when they want to use the capital, the tanomoshi is often described as ‘aid for a friend in need,’ insofar as the promoter is concerned.”

“Each month thereafter for nine months, all the members contribute their regular $10 shares and, depending upon their immediate needs, bid for the use of the capital.”

“At all subsequent meetings, the members who wish to draw the principal submit bids of the interest they are willing to pay for the use of the money.”

“At times there is considerable competition for the use of the capital. The member making the highest bid gets the principal for the month, but he must also pay each shareholder the amount of interest he bids.”

“If the highest bid in the second month is $2, the bidder has to pay this amount to each member what has not received his share. Thus, he would have to pay out a total of $16 to the eight members whose shares have not been drawn, leaving him with $84.”

“After a person draws his share, he does not benefit thereafter from interest payments, although he continues to make his monthly payments until the tanomoshi has run its course.” [“When everyone has had the pot, the ko ends.” (Bradford Smith)]

“Each member before receiving his share must have two persons stand witnesses for him. These witnesses must be members of the ko.”

“If a borrower can not finish his payments after drawing his share, the witnesses are obliged to meet his payments thereafter. If tanomoshi they cannot pay, their share is withheld from them.” (SB Nov 4, 1939)

“Private money clubs or mutual financial aid and saving associations are commonly identified as one of the contributing factors to high small business ownership rates among Chinese, Japanese, and Korean immigrants in the United States.” (Yoon)

“While the first tanomoshi groups were bound by a shared ethnicity or culture, they soon evolved into circles of individuals that had common jobs or interests. From those groups, credit unions were born.” (CUInsights)

December 3, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kanaka Pete

“It is my painful duty to report to you that the extreme sentence of the law has been carried out upon a native born Hawaiian, who had been in this Colony for many years, and who was convicted at the last assizes of the murder of his wife and child, and his wife’s father and mother.” (Henry Rhodes, Hawaiian Consulate, Victoria, May 18, 1869; Hawaiian Gazette, July 7, 1869)

Today, there is a place known as Kanaka Bay, named after Kanaka Pete on the east side of Newcastle Island, off Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Let’s look back.

Peter Kakua (‘Kanaka Pete’) left his home in Honolulu in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi for Fort Vancouver, Washington Territory, in 1853. He travelled to Victoria in 1854 but soon departed for Fort Rupert in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Pete remained at Fort Rupert for five years, then returned to Victoria where he “worked for Sir James Douglas (Governor of both Vancouver Island and British Columbia) for a year.” He left and took a job with the Vancouver Coal Company at Nanaimo. (Illerbrun)

Kakua’s aboriginal wife, Que-en (his ‘common law’ wife of about six years, known as Mary,) told him, via her brother, that she was leaving her husband. Kakua returned home to find Mary, their young child, plus Mary’s parents, packing up her things. (Fryer, BC Local News)

Then, on December 4, 1868, four bodies were found in Peter Kakua’s home and the Hawaiian was missing. They didn’t have to look far, however, to find him; he was sitting beside a fire on Newcastle Island.

December 5, 1868, he was arrested and charged with the murders of his Indian wife, Que-en (known as Mary;) their infant daughter and his wife’s parents (Squash-e-lik and Shil-at-ti-Nord.) (Cunningham, BC Local News)

At the Coroner’s Inquest, Pete willingly offered the following statement, “My wife had gone away and left me for some days, and had sent me a message by her brother to say that she did not intend living with me anymore.”

“I began drinking and continued up to the night of Thursday the 3rd Decr. About 12 o’clock on that night I returned to my house with the intention of going to bed.”

“When I opened the door I found a fire burning, and my wife and her father and mother sitting round it. I asked them what they wanted, and if my wife was going to live with me again, they told me no, they had only come for her things.”

“I got some drinks from a friend. I then thought I would go and sleep in my own house on the floor. When I went in I found the old man in bed with his daughter. I thought this too bad, and took hold of him to drag him out.”

“He caught hold of my hair and pulled me down on the bed and got my finger into his mouth and called out to the old woman to come and beat me. The old woman rushed at me and began striking me on the head and body with a stick, my wife also striking me.” (Kakua’s hand had a mangled stump, he claimed his wife’s father had bitten off his finger.)

“Being considerably intoxicated at the time, and owing to the pain I was suffering I became almost mad and laid hold of the first thing I could reach which was an axe, produced in court, and laid about me indiscriminately.”

“After a time I fell down and remember nothing more until I awoke at daylight on Friday the 4th instant when I saw my Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, my wife and child all dead.”

Those at the Inquest heard more from Dr. Klein Grant, who had examined the bodies of the victims. According to Grant, who described the condition of each corpse in detail, the wounds which brought death “were all inflicted by a heavy weapon such as the axe produced.” (Illerbrun)

After pleading not guilty to four counts of ‘wilful murder,’ Pete was tried on two counts, one heard on February 16, 1869, the other on February 17. (Illerbrun)

“The jury, upon the first trial (murdering Que-en,) upon the testimony furnished, found the prisoner guilty of murder, and recommended him to mercy.” (Henry Rhodes, Hawaiian Consulate, Victoria, May 18, 1869)

The mercy recommendation was made on the ground that “Kanakas (Hawaiians) are not Christians and killing men may not be such an offense in their eyes.” (Illerbrun)

He was then tried upon the second indictment (murdering Shil-at-ti-nord, Que-en’s mother,) and a verdict of guilty was rendered against him, without the recommendation of the first jury.” (Henry Rhodes)

The “crime of passion” aspect of the case, though not clearly enunciated in Kakua’s own testimony, had apparently made no impact on the jurors, for Judge Needham had informed them that if Que-en was involved in “open adultery” Pete should not be found guilty of murder. (Illerbrun)

The next day he was sentenced to be hanged “on a day to be henceforth designated by the Executive.”

The day after sentencing, Attorney General Crease wrote: “Although the murders were committed by the same person and at nearly the same time the facts the provocation and the law were different in their application to each individual case and were so stated by the Judge in his charges.” (Illerbrun)

Henry Rhodes, Hawaiian Consulate, Victoria, noted, “I endeavored to get his sentence commuted, and for this purpose requested his Counsel to draw up a petition to the Governor praying for a commutation.”

“This petition (forwarded to the Colonial Secretary) was signed by a number of the members of the Legal profession and by a number of influential gentlemen of this city”.

“Taking all these matters into consideration, and the ignorance of the prisoner, and the uncertainty I feel as to the statement taken down by the magistrate, … I have no hesitancy in joining the prayer of the petitioners, and I sincerely hope, that taking these matters into consideration. His Excellency will find sufficient ground for exercising the prerogative of the Crown, and acceding to the prayer of the petition.” (Henry Rhodes)

Rhodes was later notified that “the Governor regrets that in this instance, he cannot interfere with, the course of the law, by acceding to the prayer of the petition.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 7, 1869)

Peter Kakua (Kanaka Pete) was hanged at Nanaimo, “the scene of his fearful crimes,” at 7 am on the morning of March 10, 1869. “He ascended the scaffold unflinchingly, made no remarks, and struggled but slightly after the drop fell. His neck was evidently broken.” (Illerbrun)

Being of neither Caucasian nor First Nations descent, Kakua could not be buried in any of the city’s cemeteries and was instead interred on his last place of freedom – the east side of Newcastle Island.

Unfortunately, Kakua was still not allowed to rest. Thirty years later, the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company unearthed Kakua’s coffin as they dug for a new coal mine. Kakua was reburied, in another unmarked grave, for good. (Nanaimo News Bulletin)

Today, the gory tale lives on in the form of ghost stories told around the fire by those camping on Newcastle Island. (Nanaimo Daily News) Many claim the most haunted area in the Pacific North West is Newcastle Island.

December 1, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William L Lee

William Little Lee did not plan to go to Hawaiʻi, let alone spend his life there. (Dunn)

Lee had received the best legal education available for an American of his time. He had been a law student at Harvard under US Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story and the renowned law teacher Samuel Greenleaf. After a year’s practice in Troy, New York, his recurring illness caused him to leave. (Silverman)

In February 1846, he sailed for the Oregon Territory with his friend and fellow adventurer, Charles Reed Bishop. After a long and stormy voyage, their ship (the Henry,) after about eight months at sea, arrived in Honolulu harbor October 12, 1846, needing extensive repairs. (Dunn)

While waiting there, Lee was consulted by some American residents on a legal question. He caught the attention of officials in the Hawaiian kingdom and was recruited by Attorney General John Ricord and Dr. Gerrit Judd, the Minister of Finance for Kamehameha III. Lee, then 26 years old, was only the second trained attorney in the Islands (after Ricord). (Dunn)

After some persuasion, he consented to stay, provided his friend could also be provided with employment. This was done, and Lee and Bishop made their home in Honolulu. (Bishop later married a Princess, Bernice Pauahi, founded Bishop & Company (what is now known as First Hawaiian Bank) and became a well-known financier and philanthropist.)

On December 1, 1846, Governor Mataio Kekūanāoʻa appointed Lee a judge in the newly organized court system. The appointment of Lee marks the beginning of a new era in the history of the Hawaiian judiciary. His character and attainments were such that under his leadership the courts won and retained public confidence. (Kuykendall)

The greater part of the Statute Laws of His Majesty, Kamehameha III was drafted by Attorney General Ricord before he resigned from the government; it was completed by Judge Lee. (Kuykendall)

The Act of 1847 expressly provided that the judges should be entirely independent of the executive department, and that the
King in his executive capacity should not control the decisions of the judges.

Following this, Lee presided over the Superior Court of Law and Equity (this court was later elevated to become the Supreme Court.) Lee served as Chief Justice (the Islands’ first CJ,) Lorrin Andrews and John ʻĪʻi as associate justices. The three justices heard all cases of original or appellate jurisdiction above the district court level. Lee was appointed to the Privy Council.

He strenuously urged upon the king and chiefs the policy of giving up to the common people a third of their land, and when a law to that effect was passed, he was appointed president of the Board of Commissioners to Quiet Land Titles (the Land Commission) to carry out its provisions, but he declined to accept any compensation for his services. (Ellis)

As much as anyone, Lee was responsible for carrying into effect the system of private property ownership. All of his deepest beliefs came together in his support of land ownership by commoners. He felt that “merely to preserve” their rights “would be no gain.” He wanted to go forward to “define their rights—to separate them from those of their chiefs.”

He sought “to give them what they have as their own, to inspire them with more self respect, more independence of character, and to lead them if possible to work, and labor, and cultivate, and improve their land.” (Silverman)

In 1851, he was elected to the Legislature and became Speaker of the House of Representatives. Among his labors were the framing of the revised constitution of the kingdom, and the task of drafting criminal and civil codes for the kingdom. (Ellis)

Lee brought major areas of substantive Western law into the Hawaiian legal system by drafting legislation which was frequently passed without alteration.

He wrote the Masters and Servants Act (1850) which governed the terms of contract labor of thousands of Hawaiian and immigrant plantation workers. He drafted the Marriage and Divorce law (1853) which liberalized divorce grounds to include several causes, instead of adultery only. He undoubtedly drafted basic business legislation, such as the bankruptcy law (1848.) (Silverman)

As Chief Justice, first of the Superior Court (1847-52) and then the Supreme Court (1852-57,) Lee administered the court system. He created the position of clerks in the Supreme and Circuit courts and placed them under centralized control.

By the time of the 1852 Constitution, aliʻi authority combined with Western precedents to create a Hawaiian judicial system that was Western in philosophy, structure and procedure.

Soon after the 1852 Constitution went into effect, Chief Justice Lee moved into the newly constructed coral block courthouse located near the harbor. This courthouse was the first structure in the islands built expressly for court purposes. It was built on the site of Halekauwila, a large Hawaiian house belonging to Kamehameha III, where earlier court sessions had been held. (Silverman)

Judge Lee’s health, always delicate, gave way as a result of undue exposure in attendance upon sick natives during an epidemic of smallpox in 1853.

This brought on a return of his early malady, and in 1855, in order to obtain medical advice, he accepted an appointment as minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary to negotiate a treaty with the US by which sugar from the islands was to be admitted free of duty, in return for the admission to the islands of lumber, fish and some other productions of the Pacific states. (Ellis)

He went to the continent; however, his health did not improve and he returned to the Islands, where he died (May 28, 1857; he is buried as Union Cemetery, Fort Edward, Washington County, New York.)

November 30, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Plain of Numbering

At about the same time of Christopher Columbus crossing the Atlantic to America (he was looking for an alternate trade route to the East Indies,) exciting stuff was happening here in the Hawaiian Islands.

The political governance and land management system by Aliʻi-ai-moku, was expanding and developing after two centuries since its inception, and there was a wake of progress taking place on our shores.

It was a natural progression, which began with three brothers as the first Aliʻi-ai-moku in the 12th century; Kumuhonua on Oʻahu, Olopana on Hawaiʻi, and Moikeha on Kauai, as grandsons of Maweke. (Yardley)

When they arrived from Tahiti with their new system, their first cousins were already serving as High Chiefs – “Laʻakona, High Chief of ʻEwa; Nuakea, Queen Consort of Molokai; Mōʻī, kaula (prophet) of Molokai; and Hinakaimauliawa, High Chiefess of Koʻolau.” (Beckwith, Yardley)

Then, in the time of Columbus, the new Aliʻi-ai-moku were: Māʻilikūkahi on Oʻahu, Piʻilani on Maui, ʻUmi-a-Līloa on Hawaiʻi and Kukona on Kauai.

ʻUmi-a-Līloa (ʻUmi) from Waipiʻo, son of Līloa, defeated Kona chief Ehunuikaimalino and united the island of Hawai‘i. He then moved his Royal Center from Waipi‘o to Kona.

At about the time of ʻUmi, a significant new form of agriculture was developed in Kona; he is credited with starting it. Today, archaeologists call the unique method of farming in this area the “Kona Field System.”

The Kona Field System was planted in long, narrow fields that ran across the contours, along the slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualālai. As rainfall increases rapidly as you go up the side of Hualālai, the long fields allowed farmers to plant different crops according to the rainfall gradients.

In lower elevations all the way to the shore, informal clearings, mounds and terraces were used to plant sweet potatoes; and on the forest fringe above the walled fields there were clearings, mounds and terraces which were primarily planted in bananas.

This intensive agricultural activity changed farming and agricultural production on the western side of Hawai’i Island; the Kona field system was quite large, extending from Kailua to south of Honaunau

In the lower reaches of the tillable land, at elevations about 500-feet to 1,000-feet above sea level, a grove of breadfruit half mile wide and 20 miles long grew. Sweet potatoes grew among the breadfruit. Above the breadfruit grove, at elevations where the rainfall reached 60-70 inches or more, were fields of dry land taro.

The Kona Field System was described as “the most monumental work of the ancient Hawaiians.” The challenge of farming in Kona is to produce a flourishing agricultural economy in an area subject to frequent droughts, with no lakes or streams for irrigation.

The field system was not the only contribution of ʻUmi.

The history of data processing in Hawaii covers almost five centuries, from the legendary census of King ʻUmi (c. 1500) to the present time.

It embraces at least five forms of technology: pre-contact manual methods, post-contact manual methods (including the abacus and slide rule,) the adding machine and desk calculator, punched-card equipment and the modern computer. (Schmitt)

No statistical record of pre-contact population still exists, unless you look at the legendary census of ʻUmi. ʻUmi’s census, taken at the beginning of the 16th century, was an early example of data processing.

For this census, each inhabitant of the Island of Hawaiʻi was instructed to come to a place called the “Plain of Numbering” to put a rock on the pile representing his own district. The result, still visible today, was a three-dimensional graphic portrayal of population size and distribution.

ʻUmi collected all the people of Hawaiʻi at a small plain between the cones on the inner side of Hualālai. Two small hills are said to have been the seats of the king and queen, with their retainers, while the census was being taken

Later all the people went down on the plain, where each deposited a stone, the strongest the largest, making huge stone-pile memorials around the heiau, one for each district and on the sides toward the districts. (Baker)

Here are some early accounts getting there. “… after a day’s travel they reached the site of the ancient temple … These ruins lie equally distant from three mountains, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Hualālai. This temple is said to be built by ʻUmi ….” (Wilkes, 1841)

“Up the long slope of Hualālai we ascended to Kaʻalapuali, following the old Judd trail through fields of green cane, through grass lands, through primeval forests, over fallen monarchs, finally out on that semi-arid upland which lies between Hualālai and Mauna Loa. Here we turned up the slope of Hualālai, climbing through a forest cover of ʻōhiʻa lehua and sandalwood carpeted with golden-eyed daisies – another picture of Hawaii, never to be forgotten.”

“Farther up the Judd trail, we came to that unique “Plain of Numbering”, where King ʻUmi built his heiau over four centuries ago and called his people together from all the Island of Hawaiʻi. There is a romantic glamor hanging around those heaps of rocks which numbered the people who gathered at Ahu a ʻUmi that will remain as a fond memory throughout eternity.” (Thrum, 1924)

“… we unexpectedly fell upon an ancient temple of the Hawaiian gods, built in a dreary wilderness, far from the habitations of men. … (it) is a square, 100 feet on a side. Its walls, built of the fragments of ancient lava, were eight feet high, and four feet thick. … Around the principal structure, and at the distance of ten to twenty feet, there were eight pyramids, about twelve feet in diameter, and twelve to fifteen in height.” (Hiram Bingham, 1830)

The piles (pyramids, as Bingham called them) showed the relative size of the population of the districts. “Kona is the most populous of the six great divisions of Hawaiʻi.” (Kohala is next.) (Lots of information here from Baker, Schmitt and Thrum.)