Peter T Young

January 9, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Courthouse

Up to late-1840s, the Judiciary found quarters in other people’s houses.

At the end of 1846 the King’s Privy Council resolved to authorize funds and have Governor Kekūanāoʻa’s stone house within the old fort of Honolulu “be turned into a court house for the foreign judges and Hopkins’ house for a district court house, said houses however to be put in good condition.” Back then this was at the water’s edge.

An act to organize the judiciary department of the Hawaiian Islands was passed in September, 1847. It set up a superior court and otherwise assembled the machinery of law and order.

Beginning early in 1851, as a combined courthouse and jail, work was soon halted “on account of the depth of water found upon the foundation rock, which rendered it impracticable to proceed.”

When work was recommenced in June, the jail had been dropped and the plans for the new building called only for one that would “serve the purposes of the Legislative Assembly, as well as for holding the Courts.”

In October, sixty prisoners were used to cut coral blocks for the Courthouse. One night while staying in houses near their work place (in order to take advantage of a low tide very early in the morning,) forty men overpowered the guards and seized the gun batteries overlooking Honolulu.

Loaded cannon were trained on prominent buildings. But the prisoners lacked fire to set off the pieces. The prisoners were captured and order was restored in the morning.

On July 5, 1852, the superior court of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi met for the first time. At the time, it was the second largest building in the kingdom and served concurrently as a courthouse, parliament house and civic center.

Judge Lee opened the session of the superior court with an address in which he asked those in attendance to “pause a moment, as we meet for the first time in this temple dedicated to justice, and reflect upon our duties as lawyers, as jurors, and as judges.”

In concluding his address, Judge Lee referred briefly to the new courthouse: “I well remember when I landed on these shores, now nearly six years ago, the court met in an old grass house, floored with mats, without benches, seats or comforts of any kind …”

“… with one corner partitioned off with calico, for judge’s office, clerk’s office, police court, and jury room, standing on the very ground where now stands this substantial edifice erected at a cost of upwards of forty thousand dollars, and which would do credit to any land.”

He continued, “Justice in a grass house is as precious as justice in one of coral, but no one can fail to agree with me, that the latter with all its comforts and conveniences is greatly to be preferred, inasmuch as it tends to promote that dignity and propriety of manners so essential to secure a proper respect for the law and its administration.”

“May this Hall ever be the temple of Justice – may its wall ever echo with the accents of truth – may its high roof ever look down upon us in the faithful discharge of our duties — and may the blessing of Him who builded the Heavens and whose throne is the fountain of all justice ever rest upon us.”

When the court house was built, the city gained a new and bigger set of public rooms. The result was that the chambers dedicated to the government’s judicial and legislative processes were the scene of a variety of private and community functions.

In addition to its official function as a courthouse and legislative hall, the building was frequently used for public meetings. The congregation of the Second Foreign Church of Honolulu announced it would use the new court house for its services.

Among the more colorful events to be held at the courthouse were the festivities given during the reign of King Kamehameha IV. On November 13, 1856, the Chinese merchants of Honolulu and Lāhaina combined to give a grand ball to their majesties King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, in honor of their recent marriage.

Almost the last official action to take place in the courthouse was the special session of legislature, called for February 12, 1874, to elect a successor to King Lunalilo, who had died without having designated an heir to the throne.

Lunalilo himself had been elected king in this building on January 8, 1873, after Kamehameha V died without issue and without having proclaimed an heir on December 11 of the preceding year.

In accordance with the provisions of the constitution in cases where the previous occupant of the throne failed to nominate or proclaim a successor, the cabinet of the late king called a meeting of the legislative assembly to “elect by ballot some native alii of the kingdom as successor to the throne.” Such a meeting was ordered by the cabinet for noon Feb. 12.

With the Court and Legislative functions in the old Courthouse ended, the regular session of the legislature for 1874 met on April 30, 1874 in the legislative hall of the new government building – Aliʻiolani Hale.

The old Courthouse was advertised for sale at auction in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser of May 9, 1874. The courthouse property was sold to H. Hackfeld & Co., predecessor of American Factors, Ltd. (AmFac – one of Hawaiʻi’s Big Five,) at the upset price of $20,000. As reported by the Hawaiian Gazette, “It is the best business stand in Honolulu.”

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January 8, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

From the “Land of the Immortals” to the “Land of Aloha”

According to Japan’s Health Ministry, the average life expectancy on Okinawa is 81.2 years – 86 for women, 75 for men – the highest in the world. Okinawa’s average is significantly higher than that for all of Japan – 79.9 – which tops all countries in life expectancy. Hong Kong, at 79.1 years, is second.

Okinawa (the main island of a tropical chain of 160-coral islets) is the southernmost prefecture of Japan. It consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over 620-miles long. The islands extend southwest from Kyushu (the southwestern-most of Japan’s main four islands) to Taiwan. The Okinawa Prefecture encompasses the southern two thirds of that chain.

For centuries independent, Okinawa shared relationships with Japan, China and other south-east Asian entities and it became a prosperous trading nation (although China and Japan made claims to the islands through various dynasties.)

The islands became Okinawa Prefecture of Japan in 1879; after the end of World War II (1945,) Okinawa was under United States administration for 27 years, when (in 1972) the US government returned the islands to Japanese administration.

OK, so what about Hawaiʻi?

While Okinawa over the centuries benefitted from trade with its neighbors, and was described as a “connecting point” between China and Japan, the loss of independence saw growing hostility between Okinawans and Japanese immediately after its annexation to Japan.

Likewise, the islands of Ryukyu possessed only limited natural resources. Typhoons continuously destroyed crops. With increasing population, people faced the problem of inadequate food.

Out-migration was seen as a solution.

At about this same time, news was spreading about the 1885 agreement between the government of Japan and Hawaiʻi to export Japanese laborers to work on Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations on the basis of a three-year contract. A large wave of Japanese laborers started arriving in 1885. Japanese also emigrated to Brazil and Argentina.

The economic depression in Japan (and into Okinawa Prefecture) made the prospects in Hawaiʻi more attractive; adding to the burden, it was the custom for the eldest son to inherit the farm, leaving the other siblings to fend for themselves; and others sought to avoid the military draft.

The similarity of climate of Okinawa and Hawaiʻi was an added attraction and enhanced the decision to make the move; Okinawa’s subtropical has an average summer temperatures in the mid-80s. Much of the year can also be rainy and humid.

Because of this climate, Okinawa produces sugarcane, pineapple, papaya and features popular botanical gardens; along the shore, Okinawa has abundant coral reefs. Hawaiʻi looked like home.

While Japanese from the four main islands were emigrating to Hawaiʻi, it took some time for folks on Okinawa to participate. Finally, under the leadership of Kyuzo Toyama (referred to as the Father of Okinawan Emigration,) on December 5, 1899, 26-Okinawans set out to sail from Naha Port and arrived in Hawaiʻi about a month later on January 8, 1900.

A statue of Kyuzo Toyama was constructed in Okinawa. He stands at the top of a long set of stairs, a globe is on his left side and he is pointing with his right towards the direction of Hawaiʻi. His vision was, “Let us set out and let the five continents be our home.”

But, life in Hawaiʻi wasn’t easy.

On most plantations, different nationalities were housed in separate camps. Although they adopted one another’s food, clothing, and speech, the various ethnic groups did not socialize with one another. Even within the same ethnic group, a separation of sorts existed based on regional and prefectural differences. (Yano)

Among the Japanese, the greatest distinction existed between the Naichi, people from the main islands of Japan, and the Uchinanchu, people of Okinawa. Uchinanchu were looked down upon by the Naichi and were assigned the hardest jobs. (Yano; Higashionna)

Adding to their problem was the Okinawan tradition of tattooing. Although outlawed with annexation with Japan, many Okinawan women had traditional tattooing of their hands and arms.

Tradition suggests this started in the middle of the last millennium; Okinawan women tattooed the top of their hands fingers with purple ink to repel the samurai, who considered the markings distasteful. Tattooing then grew into a sign of adulthood and was part of rites of passage at key moments in an Okinawan girl’s life, when she gets married, has children, becomes a widow, etc.

In Hawaiʻi, the Japanese from other prefectures considered tattoos to be a sign of low class or of a criminal element (yakuza.) This made many of the women ashamed and so they often hid their hands.

As the last prefectural group of Japanese to come to Hawaiʻi, the Okinawans faced additional difficulties integrating into the established community of Japanese who were predominantly from the southwestern prefectures of Japan. Before Japanese immigration would terminate in 1924, 20,000 more would follow from Okinawa. (Yano)

Plantation work was hard – 10-hour days, 6 days a week under the brutal sun. Okinawans also endured double discrimination from both the local population and their fellow Japanese workers who treated them as second-class citizens. At the peak, some 1,700 Okinawan immigrants had settled in Hawai‘i.

Many of the Okinawan Issei (first-generation arrivals) had planned to come to Hawaiʻi, work for a few years, and then go back to Okinawa with their riches. They sent money home, which helped the Okinawan economy.

However, conditions in Okinawa deteriorated, with a post war depression following the Russo-Japanese War and World War I and people were starving. Compared to immigrants from other parts of Japan, more Okinawans brought wives or sent for their wives and children; this made it easier for them to adapt to Hawaiʻi, so many of them ended up staying.

Certain character traits and behaviors helped the Okinawans to settle into their new homes in Hawaiʻi. Tege, meaning easygoing, is an adjective describing the Uchinanchu personality. Translated it means “almost acceptable” or “it will do for now.” (Higashionna)

The people of the Ryukyu islands operate on “Okinawan Time,” which means doing things on one’s own terms rather than someone else’s terms and schedules. It is an amazing lack of time-urgency, a sense of “What is the hurry? We have tomorrow.” (Higashionna)

About half of the Okinawan immigrants either returned to Okinawa or moved to the continental US in search of better opportunities.

Today it is estimated that there are over 50,000 people who can trace their roots to Okinawa. Legacies that remain (in spirit and presence) from the Okinawan immigration: Times Supermarkets, Tamashiro Market (Kalihi,) Zippy’s, Arakawa Store (formerly in Waipahu,) Hawai‘i Okinawa Center (Waipiʻo Gentry of Waipahu,) Haari Boat Races (Hilo,) Center for Okinawan Studies (UH-Mānoa.)

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Kyuzo_Toyoma-Original_Statue-Kin_Okinawa-1931

Kyuzo_Toyoma-Missing_Statue-Kin_Okinawa-1944

20000104 CTY Volunteer workers and vistors to the Hawaii Okinawa Cneter visit this 18 ton rock that was brought over from Okinawa. Inscribed is “Let’s set out into world. Our home is the Five Continents. With sincere forth and determination. Remembering the marble stone of Kin.” PHOTO BY DENNIS ODA. JAN. 4, 2000. FRAME #5020.

A young woman being tattooed with Okinawan hajichi (a practice outlawed in 1899)-1919

Hajichi tattoos on the back of women’s hands were a sign of their status in the society

Hajichi tattoos on the back of women’s hands-a sign of their status in the society

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Japan_map_marked_for_approx_limits_of_Okinawa_Prefecture

January 7, 2020 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Henry J Kaiser

In 1954, a bold, rotund tourist arrived on Hawaiʻi’s shores.

Vacationing with his second wife, he rented a Diamond House, rather than the scarce hotel accommodations. He made Hawaiʻi his home.

While, today, we look back at Henry J Kaiser for his developments such as Hawaiʻi Kai and the Hilton Hawaiian Village, these things are part of his later legacy.

Kaiser had a long successful career prior to coming to Hawaiʻi.

Before getting here, he had several successful enterprises as wartime shipbuilder, automaker, steelman and millionaire chief of a vast industrial empire.

Kaiser was born on May 9, 1882 in Sprout Brook, New York; at 13, he left school to work to help support his parents and three sisters, by working in a dry goods store.

He moved to the West in 1906, and his sales jobs led him into the construction business and the first company he formed in 1914.

Let’s fast-forward a bit through several of his endeavors.

Through the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond, California during World War II, Kaiser built “Liberty Ships” and “Victory Ships” (cargo ships.)

His operations built more ships than any other during the war (now part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Park.) (He formed Kaiser Steel to supply steel plate for the shipbuilding.

He also made automobiles (including jeeps,) and later formed Kaiser Aluminum (where the operations included mining, refining, aluminum production and fabricated aluminum parts.)

In addition to building medical hospitals, centers and school, he formed a foundation focusing on health care needs in the country and also founded Kaiser Permanente. (In 1958, he opened Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Honolulu.)

A consortium, called Six Companies, Inc., with Henry J. Kaiser as chairman of the executive committee, was formed to build Hoover (Boulder) Dam on the Colorado River.

This group, with Kaiser at the helm, also collaborated on the building of Bonneville, Grand Coulee and Shasta Dams, natural gas pipelines in the Southwest, Mississippi River levees, and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge underwater foundations.

The two most notable Kaiser products in Hawaiʻi are the Kaiser Hawaiian Village Hotel (today known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village) and Hawaiʻi Kai.

Back in 1891, at Kālia, the ‘Old Waikiki’ opened as a bathhouse, one of the first places in Waikīkī to offer rooms for overnight guests. It was later redeveloped (1928) as the Niumalu Hotel. Kaiser bought it and adjoining property and started the Kaiser Hawaiian Village.

He sold to Hilton Hotels in 1961 and the property (now totaling 22-acres) continues to be known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

That year, Bishop Estate leased a 6,000-acre area, which included Kuapā Pond, to Kaiser Aetna for subdivision development. The development is now known as “Hawaiʻi Kai.”

Kaiser Aetna dredged and filled parts of Kuapā Pond, erected retaining walls and built bridges within the development to create the Hawaiʻi Kai Marina.

Henry J Kaiser died on August 24, 1967 at the age of 85 in Honolulu.

By the time of his death, Henry J. Kaiser had founded more than 100 companies, which operated 180 major plants in 32 states and 40 foreign countries, employing 90,000 people and making 300 products and services, with assets of $2.5 billion.

The Kaiser pink … it was reportedly the favorite color of his wife Alyce Chester Kaiser (his second wife.) Since Kaiser often wore pink, it was likely also a favorite of his.

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January 6, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiian Tuna Packers

In lawaiʻa hi aku (fishing for aku,) “the slapping of the fish against the men’s sides and the arching of the bamboo poles as the aku bent them were like a double rainbow or the crescent shape of the moon of Hoaka.” (Maly)

A special canoe was used that served as a live bait well (malau,) it was joined by a double hulled canoe for the fishers (kaulua;) following the noio birds to the schooling aku, several canoes would form around them and the live bait released – then the lines of the bamboo fishing poles were cast. (Maly)

When the fish took the bait and broke water, the fisherman stood up straight and grasped the pole with both hands. The fish came completely out of the water and slapped against the side of the fisherman, who then shoved the aku forward in the canoe and cast again. (Maly)

In 1899, Gorokichi Nakasugi, a Japanese shipwright, brought a traditional Japanese sailing vessel, called a sampan, to Hawai‘i, and this led to a unique class of vessels and distinctive maritime culture associated with the rise of the commercial fishing industry in Hawai‘i. (Cultural Surveys)

The Japanese technique of catching tuna with pole-and-line and live bait resembled the aku fishing method traditionally used by Hawaiians. The pole-and-line vessels mainly targeted skipjack tuna (aku.)

In the modern fleet, with an average length of 75- to 90-feet, these boats were the largest of the sampans. The pole-and-line fleet generally fished within a few miles of the main Hawaiian Islands, because few vessels carried ice and the catch needed to be landed within four to five hours from the time of capture.

The modern fishing method used live bait thrown from a fishing vessel to stimulate a surface school into a feeding frenzy. Fishing was then conducted frantically to take advantage of the limited time the school remains near the boat.

The pole and line were about 10-feet and used a barbless hook with feather skirts which is slapped against the water until a fish strikes. Then the fish is yanked into the vessel in one motion. The fish unhooks when the line is slacked so that the process can be repeated.

On a pole-and-line vessel a fisherman was required to learn how to cast the line, jerk the fish out of the water, catch the tuna under his left arm, snap the barbless hook out, slide the fish into the hold and cast the line back out – all in rapid succession.

The fishery was dependent on having sufficient bait fish, nehu (Hawaiian anchovy;) a lot of the bait fish, came from Kāneʻohe Bay. Dozens of aku boats would set their nets in the Bay’s shallows; the pier at Heʻeia Kea Boat Harbor was homeport for more than 20 of them.

Initially, most sampans docked in Honolulu Harbor. In the 1920s, Kewalo Basin was constructed and by the 1930s was the main berthing area for the sampan fleet and also the site of the tuna cannery, fish auction, shipyard, ice plant, fuel dock and other shore-side facilities.

The Hawaiʻi skipjack tuna fishery originally supplied only the local market for fresh and dried tuna. Then, the Hawaiian Tuna Packers, Ltd. cannery was established (in 1916,) enabling the fishery to expand beyond a relatively small fresh and dried market.

Six sampans made up the cannery’s initial fleet. The fleet grew and before WWII the fishery included up to 26 vessels. Following the war, as new vessels were built, fleet size increased to a maximum of 32 vessels in 1948.

These vessels carried crews of 7-9 fishermen, and frequently worked 6 days a week. It was hard work and the fishing day may begin with catching bait fish at dawn, followed by fishing to dusk.

Historically, the pole-and-line, live bait fishery for skipjack tuna (aku) was the largest commercial fishery in Hawaiʻi. Annual pole-and-line landings of skipjack tuna exceeded 5.5 million lb from 1937 to 1973.

The new and expanding market for canned product allowed the fishery to grow; from 1937 until the early 1980s most of the skipjack tuna landed in Hawaiʻi was canned.

F Walter Macfarlane opened the Macfarlane Tuna Company at Ala Moana and Cooke street. By 1922, after having changed hands a couple times, the company was incorporated by local stockholders as Hawaiian Tuna Packers Ltd.

Around 1928, tuna processing started in Kewalo Basin. Nearby was the Kewalo Shipyard that serviced and repaired the local aku boats. They also had an ice house.

From the beginning, Hawaiian Tuna Packers label was Coral Tuna or Coral Hawaiian Brand Tuna.

By the 1930s, the Honolulu cannery employed 500 and produced nearly ten-million cans of tuna per year. For several years Hawaiian Tuna Packers also operated a smaller cannery in Hilo.

About ninety percent of the output was shipped to the mainland; the remaining ten percent was sold in Hawaiʻi. (The cans for packing the tuna are furnished by the Dole Company.)

Fishing stopped during WWII because the larger sampans were used by the military for patrol duties and the Japanese fishermen were not allowed to go to sea. (Wilson)

With the entry of the United States in the Second World War came the imposition of area and time restrictions on fishing activities in Hawai’i that virtually eliminated offshore harvesting operations. Many fishing boats were requisitioned by the Army or Navy. (Schug)

The tuna cannery was converted into a plant for the assembly of airplane auxiliary fuel tanks and the shipyard was converted to the maintenance of military craft. Hawaiʻi’s fishing industry was forever changed. (Schug)

In 1960, Castle & Cooke bought out Hawaiian Tuna Packers and made it a part of Bumble Bee Seafoods out of the northwest. They operated the cannery until late-1984, when it ultimately closed.

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In the late 1930s, Kewalo Basin was filled with sampan fishermen

January 5, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiʻi National Anthem

The history of Hawaiʻi’s National Anthems generally starts in 1861. Before then, the kingdom of Hawaiʻi did not have its own anthem, but used the British royal anthem “God Save the King”.

E Ola ka Mō‘ī i ke Akua (“God Save the King”) (Lunalilo)

The Hawaiian language newspaper, Ka Nūpepa Kū‘oko‘a, wishing to promote a Hawaiian national song sponsored an anthem writing contest in 1861. The rules specified four stanzas in the Hawaiian language, but still set to the tune of God Save the King.

Fifteen anonymous entries were submitted. In January of 1862, the judges chose an entry titled “E Ola ka Mō‘ī i ke Akua” as the winner. The composer was Prince William Lunalilo, age 27; his prize was $10.00.

His song was a faithful translation of “God Save The King” into Hawaiian, yet it fits the music of the British tune. Lunalilo’s new song was sung first on the birthday of Kamehameha IV.

E Ola ka Mō‘ī i ke Akua
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqRB83I3X24

He Mele Lahui Hawaiʻi (“The Song of the Hawaiian Nation”) (Liliʻuokalani)

King Kamehameha V wanted to replace the translated British anthem by a song with a truly Hawaiian background. At the request of King Kamehameha V, the new song “He Mele Lāhui Hawaiʻi” (“The Song of the Hawaiian Nation”) was composed in 1868 by Mrs. John Dominis (later known as Queen Liliʻuokalani.)

Liliʻuokalani’s memoir, Hawaiʻi’s Story by Hawaiʻi’s Queen, stated: “In the early years of the reign of Kamehameha V, he brought to my notice the fact that the Hawaiian people had no national air. Each nation, he said, but ours had its statement of patriotism and love of country in its own music; but we were using for that purpose on state occasions the time-honored British anthem, ‘God save the Queen.'” (Liliʻuokalani)

“This he desired me to supplant by one of my own composition. In one week’s time I notified the king that I had completed my task. The Princess Victoria had been the leader of the choir of the Kawaiahaʻo church; but upon her death, May 29, 1866 I assumed the leadership. It was in this building and by that choir that I first introduced the ‘Hawaiian National Anthem.’” (Liliʻuokalani)

“The king was present for the purpose of criticising my new composition of both words and music, and was liberal in his commendations to me on my success. He admired not only the beauty of the music, but spoke enthusiastically of the appropriate words, so well adapted to the air and to the purpose for which they were written.” (Liliʻuokalani)

The lyrics of this song praise the Hawaiian Islands. It asks the lord for blessing for the land, its people, chiefs and king. Liliʻuokalani was then the leader of the Kawaiahaʻo church choir, which introduced the new anthem in a public service.

He Mele Lahui Hawaiʻi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIDoJUpa7cE

Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī (“Hawaiʻi’s own”) (Kalākaua)

King David Kalākaua (brother of Liliʻuokalani) wrote the words to “Hymn to Kamehameha I” (Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī) in 1874 and the music was composed by Captain Henri Berger, then the king’s royal bandmaster.

Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī was one of the national anthems of the Republic of Hawaiʻi and the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, having replaced Liliʻuokalani’s composition He Mele Lahui Hawaiʻi.

Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī was the adopted song of the Territory of Hawaiʻi; and later became the State song for the State of Hawaiʻi, by an act of the Hawaiʻi State Legislature in 1967:

“HRS-§5-10 State song. The song “Hawai‘i Pono‘i” is adopted, established, and designated as the official song of the State, to be effective for as long as the legislature of the State does not otherwise provide.”