Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Generations

Ichi, Ni, San, Shi, Go, Roku, Shichi, Hachi, Kyu, Jyu

That’s counting in Japanese, from 1 to 10.

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 1868, an American businessman, Eugene M Van Reed, sent a group of approximately 150-Japanese to Hawaiʻi to work on sugar plantations and another 40 to Guam. This unauthorized recruitment and shipment of laborers, known as the gannenmono (“first year men”,) marked the beginning of Japanese labor migration overseas. (JANM)

However, for the next two decades the Meiji government prohibited the departure of “immigrants” due to the slave-like treatment that the first Japanese migrants received in Hawaiʻi and Guam. (JANM)

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.

OK, why the initially counting lesson?

As suggested by the title, the respective generations of Japanese in the Islands and elsewhere are identified by the simple numbering pattern. Literally speaking, the Japanese terms Issei, Nisei, Sansei, etc mean first, second and third generation.

The Issei (first generation) were born in Japan and emigrated here from 1885 to 1924 (when Congress stopped all legal migration.) (The Immigration Act of 1924 (aka Johnson-Reed Act) limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia. (State Department))

Like the other ethnic immigrant groups, the Issei worked on sugar and pineapple plantations. The term Issei came into common use and represented the idea of a new beginning and belonging.

The children of the Issei were the Nisei, the second generation in Hawaiʻi and the first generation of Japanese descent to be born and receive their entire education in America, learning Western values and holding US citizenship.

However, to some degree, preservation of their mother language and culture was reinforced by attending Japanese language schools and by being members of the audience at Japanese cultural plays.

The Nisei hold a significant legacy in Hawaiʻi – this is the generation through the World War II years that included internment for some and service in the US military for many.

In all, between 1,200 and 1,400-local Japanese were interned in Hawaiʻi, along with about 1,000-family members. The number of Japanese in Hawai‘i who were detained was small relative to the total Japanese population here, less than 1%.

By contrast, Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorized the mass exclusion and detention of all Japanese Americans living in the West Coast states, resulting in the eventual incarceration of 120,000-people.

The Nisei made up the storied 442nd Combat Team and 100th Infantry Battalion (which later became the 1st Battalion of the 442nd,) composed entirely of Americans of Japanese ancestry.

Having been born in the Islands, all of the men were citizens of the US; however, very few had ever been to Japan and most of them could not speak Japanese. The “Go For Broke” soldiers of the 442nd are the most decorated infantry regiment in the US Army.

Another term used to describe some of the generations that followed the Issei were the Kibei (return to America) – those who were American born, but who were educated in Japan and returned home to America.

Subsequent generations follow the simple counting patter; the Sansei were children born to the Nisei (the third generation;) Yonsei, the fourth generation – born to at least one Sansei parent and Gosei, the fifth generation – the generation of people born to at least one Yonsei parent, etc.

The Japanese did not just emigrate to Hawaiʻi and the US. Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan (they first started emigrating there in 1908 to work on the coffee plantations.) There were between 1.5-million people of Japanese descent in Brazil; 1.3-million in all of the US, with a little over 185,000 in Hawaiʻi.

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“Where Rail Meets Sail”

Actually, it’s where the river, railway and roadway intersect; but that’s getting a little ahead of the story.

The original inhabitants of the area were variously called The Cawalitz, Cow-a-lidsk, Cowalitsk, Cow-e-lis-kee, Cowelits, Cowlitch, Co-litsick, Kawelitsk, Cowalitsk, Kowlitz, Kowlitz; but the most common name is Cowlitz.

At the time of first contact with Europeans and Americans, there were as many as 6,000-members of the tribe who lived in cedar-plank longhouses in about 30-villages along the river and its tributaries.

In the Lewis and Clark journals, Lewis and Clark refer to the river as “Cath la haws Creek” (1805,) while Ordway calls the river “Calams” and Whitehouse calls the river “Calamus” (1806.)

The river is a 45-mile tributary of the Columbia River, in the state of Washington. It begins on the southwest slope of Mt. St. Helens and flows west-southwest and enters the Columbia River.

While steep in its upper reaches, at the lower 8-miles it is flat to moderate. At the mouth, there’s a town.  The town’s motto is “The Little Town with the Big Aloha Spirit.”

The town is named after the river; the river is named after a Hawaiian, John Kalama.

John Kalama was born in Kula, Maui in 1814; he left home at sixteen to seek employment. John joined a fur-trading vessel returning to the Northwest Coast of America.

Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) records indicate Kalama started working there in 1837, and continued working for the firm until 1850.  He worked at several of the HBC posts, Nez Perces, Snake Party, Nisqually, Fort Vancouver and Cowlitz Farm.

HBC was a fur trading company that started in Canada in 1670; its first century of operation found HBC firmly focused in a few forts and posts around the shores of James and Hudson Bays, Central Canada.

Fast forward 150-years and HBC merged with North West Company, its competitor; the resulting enterprise now spanned the continent – all the way to the Pacific Northwest (modern-day Oregon, Washington and British Columbia) and the North (Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.)

Fur traders working for the HBC traveled an area of more than 700,000-square miles that stretched from Russian Alaska to Mexican California and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

Ships sailed from London around Cape Horn around South America and then to forts and posts along the Pacific Coast via the Hawaiian Islands.  Trappers crossing overland faced a journey of 2,000-miles that took three months.

By 1824, HBC employed thirty-five Hawaiians west of the Rocky Mountains.  It is estimated that by 1844 between 300 and 400-Hawaiians were in HBC service in the Pacific Northwest, both in vessels and at posts.  By 1846, Hawaiians made up half of the Hudson’s Bay workforce.

Hawaiians worked as trappers, laborers, millers, sailors, gardeners and cooks; however, HBC employed more people at agriculture than any other activity.

The daily routine was work from sun up to sun down, with only Sundays off.  Kalama’s service record notes he was employed as a Middleman and Laborer.

Kalama met and married Mary Martin, one of five daughters of Indian Martin, chief of the Nisqually tribe in southern Puget Sound.  He and his wife lived at the mouth of the river which now bears his name, the Kalama River (Calama River is an old variant name.)

He hunted, fished and trapped for many years, and the area soon became recognized as his domain.  (The Kalama family also once owned land where Fort Lewis now stands.)

John and Mary had one son, Peter Kalama, born in 1860. When Peter was about seven years old, Mary died and Peter went to live with other members of the Nisqually tribe.   Peter graduated at the top of his class at Chemawa Indian School.  (Naughton)

John Kalama married a second time and had a daughter, but there are no other records of this second child. John died around 1870.  (KalamaCofC)

The town on the river was first settled in 1853 by Ezra Meeker and his family. One year later, Meeker moved to north Puyallup, Washington, but he sold his Donation Land Claim to a Mr. Davenport, who, with a few others, permanently settled in the area.

The present day City of Kalama was born in 1870 when the Northern Pacific Railway Company (NP) purchased 700-acres for the terminus of the new railroad and turned the first shovel of dirt.

The town was officially named in 1871 by General John Sprague, an agent for the Northern Pacific; Sprague adopted the same name as the Kalama River that runs through the area just to the north of town.  (KalamaCofC)

Near the present day location of the Kalama Marina, the Northern Pacific Railroad began construction of the first mainline rails in the northwestern United States on March 19, 1871; Northern Pacific established its headquarters in Kalama (the headquarters was later moved to Tacoma.)

This western rail would ultimately connect with work started on February 15, 1870 near Carlton, Minnesota, creating a transcontinental line across the northern portion of the United States.

Kalama was selected because Northern Pacific engineers determined it was down-river from winter river ice, the Columbia River channel depth was the same as at the river’s bar at Astoria, and it was close to Portland and the Willamette Valley.

Since the Columbia was the main ‘highway,’ this area became more closely tied economically with Portland and Astoria.  The first regularly scheduled trains between Kalama and Tacoma began January 5, 1874.

Kalama was entirely a Northern Pacific railroad creation. Northern Pacific built a dock, sawmill, car shop, roundhouse, turntable, hotels, hospital, stores and homes.

In just a few months into 1870, the working population exploded to approximately 3,500 and the town had added tents, saloons, a brewery, and a gambling hall. Soon the town had a motto: “Rail Meets Sail”.

The population of Kalama peaked at 5,000 people, but in early 1874, the railroad moved its headquarters to Tacoma, and by 1877, only 700 people remained in Kalama.

It’s now home to about 2,500 (in town and about 5,500 in the surrounding area.)  Kalama is also home to one of the tallest single-log totem poles in the world (140-feet tall,) carved by Chief Lelooska.

River and Railway: check … what about the Road?

Interstate 5 (I-5) runs through Kalama, with 3-exits serving the town and surrounding community (I-5 runs from Mexico to Canada.)

Its path follows an old Indian trail connecting the Pacific Northwest with California’s Central Valley.  By the 1820s, trappers from the Hudson’s Bay Company were the first non-Native Americans to use the route of today’s I-5.

by Peter T Young 4 Comments

A Short Piece on a Short Cut

It wasn’t the same back then; they didn’t have two cars in the garage and other mobility options. Back then, land travel was only foot traffic, over little more than trails and pathways.

In 1803, the first horses arrived. However, until the mid-1800s, overland travel was predominantly by foot and followed the traditional trails.

By the 1840s, the use of introduced horses, mules and bullocks for transportation was increasing, and many traditional trails were modified by removing the smooth stepping stones that caused the animals to slip.

In 1868, horse-drawn carts operated by the Pioneer Omnibus Line went into operation in Honolulu, beginning the first public transit service in the Hawaiian Islands.

The first gasoline-powered automobile arrived in the Islands in 1900. That year, an electric trolley (tram line) was put into operation in Honolulu, and then in 1902, a tram line was built to connect Waikīkī and downtown Honolulu. The electric trolley replaced the horse/mule-driven tram cars.

“In those days – there were only four automobiles on Oahu in 1901 – you lived downtown because you worked downtown, you couldn’t live in Kaimuki or in Manoa.” (star-bulletin) The tram helped changed that.

In 1899, one of Honolulu’s first subdivisions was laid out – Pacific Heights, just above Honolulu. They built the Pacific Heights Electric Railway to support the housing development.

If you look at the layout and topography of Pacific Heights, due to the slope, as you go up the hill, the road switches back and forth – making the walk a lot longer. You quickly see the challenges those in the middle or upper section have in getting to the bottom.

It is not clear how far the tram traveled up the subdivision; but if you lived near the top and needed to get up/down the hill, you had a long way to go to get there.

The developer must have seen that, too.

Hidden in overgrowth (or in use by neighboring properties,) is a flight of stone steps from the bottom of the subdivision to the middle section of the subdivision (as the road bends back, just above the Water Department facility;) it was in the original subdivision.

Middle and upper homeowners walking up/down the hill could bypass the lower switchbacks and take a bee-line to/from the bottom.

Early mapping of the subdivision notes this short cut down the hill.

While Charles Desky (the developer) is reported to have “pulled several shady land transactions”, he got it right, here – with the stone step short cut. The images show portions of the stone steps in the Pacific Heights short cut.

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Keawaʻula

Keawaʻula was believed to be part of the Kaʻena Point leina a ka ʻuhane (leaping places of souls into the spirit world;) at the northern part of the Waiʻanae coastline, it is at the western most point of Oʻahu.

Keawaʻula (red harbor or land) got the name from the squid that used to come into the area. When the squid would come into the ocean, from the shore it would appear as a reddish brown color. (ksbe)

Archaeologists turned up evidence of ancient agriculture in Keawaʻula when terraces indicating a former taro site were found at the bottom of the cliff. Several fishing shrines also existed here. (WaiʻanaeHS)

Poha Cave is said to have existed here. This cave had streams of fresh water running through it that were carried to Kaieiewaho Channel between Oʻahu and Kauaʻi. It is said that ancient Hawaiians out fishing would dive down at certain places with large calabashes and come up with fresh water from these streams. (WaiʻanaeHS)

Many years later, in 1859, when a house lot was being cleared in this area, a cave entrance covered by three large, flat stones was found. Freshwater was found inside, and people came from miles around to drink. This cave has since been named Keawaʻula Cave, but many believe it to be the fabled Poha Cave. (WaiʻanaeHS)

Missionary Levi Chamberlain during a trip along the Waiʻanae and Waialua coastline sometime prior to 1849 traveled northwest by canoe from the village of Keawaʻula to a “cove,” presumably a canoe landing, at the southeastern side of Kaʻena Point. (DLNR)

In “front of the little cove” was “a cave used by fishermen occasionally for a residence” which was about 30 feet high and had dimensions of 30 and 15 paces. The cave is described as being at “nearly the west point of the island” and south of the Waiʻanae and Waialua District boundary which dissects Kaʻena Point in an east-west direction. (DLNR)

He traveled from the cave “a short distance over a very rough path along the shore and came to the mokuna (boundary) of the large divisions of the island Wainai and Waiarua.” This may be the cave called “Ke Ana Moe of Kaʻena” in 1954 which was said to be used by travelers from Mākua to Waialua. This cave may have been obscured by construction of the railway bed. (DLNR)

Keawaʻula was known for its aku and ahi fishing grounds. The coastal fisheries were also noted as particularly productive when submerged, woven basket traps (hinaʻi) were used to catch kala and hinalea. (DLNR)

When describing basket traps in general, Kamakau notes a particular pattern and size of basket trap that was made for kala fish and also states it to be “a land abounding in kala fishs”. (DLNR)

Most of the government lands and private lands at Keawaʻula were leased for ranching during the second half of the 1800s and first half of the 1900s. A major portion of Keawaʻula became government land after Laʻamaikahiki relinquished “½” of the ahupuaʻa to the King during the 1848 Māhele and the King then designated it government land. (DLNR)

When the privately-owned lands along the coast were acquired by the State of Hawaiʻi in the 1970s to create Kaʻena Point State Park, all were owned by ranching interests or by families with ranching interests in the area. The Keawaʻula section of the point was owned by Elizabeth Marks who inherited McCandless Ranch.

Keawaʻula is now generally referred to as Yokohama Bay. Several stories suggest the later name. One story suggests this was a favorite fishing spot for Japanese living on Oʻahu; they gave it the nickname Yokohama after the famous fishing village in Japan. (ksbe)

When OR&L extended its rail line around Kaʻena Point, boats carried Japanese laborers, equipment and supplies to the site and freight back; on October 14, 1897, the place where the first Japanese laborers landed for this job is known to this day as “Yokohama Beach.” (ascehawaii)

Another story is that there was a Japanese man who ran the train station there. Because he was Japanese, people nicknamed him “Yokohama” – and thus the place carried it. (WaiʻanaeHS)

The Bay is at the beginning of the Kaʻena Natural Area Reserve. There is a lifeguard and restroom (only at the reserve entrance;) no facilities exist beyond that point. Under the Natural Area Reserve system, off-road driving is prohibited in the area to protect native plant and animal habitats.

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by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hawaiians Leaving Home

We consistently hear of folks coming to Hawaiʻi, but often overlook that many were/are out-migrating from Hawaiʻi.

And, the increased scale of migration between Hawaiʻi and California and other parts of the continent may have started with us to them, rather than the reverse.

There is historical evidence suggesting that Hawaiians began moving to the US mainland as early as the late-1700s for economic survival.

As early as 1811, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) had already hired twelve Hawaiians on three year contracts to work for them in the Pacific Northwest. By 1824, HBC employed thirty-five Hawaiians west of the Rocky Mountains.

The number of Hawaiians working as contract laborers for the Hudson’s Bay Company steadily grew. The large number of Hawaiian workers in the village at Fort Vancouver led to the name “Kanaka Town” in the early 1850s – “Kanaka” is the word for “person” in the Native Hawaiian language.

Historians suggest “that young Hawaiian males left Hawai’i as workers on whaling ships and traveled to China, Europe, Mexico, and the U.S. mainland. In addition, many ventured into the Pacific Northwest territory, worked in the fur trade, and ended up settling in those areas.” (pbs-org)

In 1839, John Sutter brought a small group of native Hawaiians with him when he arrived in California. They worked for him and eventually intermarried with local Maidu families. They settled in the area of Vernon, which is now called Verona, where the Feather River flows into the Sacramento River in South Sutter County. (co-sutter-ca-us)

At the time of Sutter’s arrival in California, the territory had a population of only 1,000 Europeans, in contrast with 30,000 Native Americans. It was at that point a part of Mexico and the governor, Juan Bautista Alvarado, granted him permission to settle.

In order to qualify for a land grant, Sutter became a Mexican citizen on August 29, 1840 after a year in the provincial settlement; the following year, on June 18, he received title to 48,827 acres and named his settlement New Helvetia, or “New Switzerland.”

Sutter employed Native Americans of the Miwok and Maidu tribes, Kanakas and Europeans at his compound, which he called Sutter’s Fort.

In his memoirs, Sutter recalled the Hawaiians, using a name then common to describe Hawaiian workers, “I could not have settled the country without the aid of these Kanakas.” They also built the first settlers’ homes in Sacramento – grass shacks, or hale pili, made with California willow and bamboo.

“In the summer of 1865 some Hawaiian fishermen and their “wahine,” who had sailed the placid Pacific in search of new realms for their nomad spirits, arrived in San Francisco bay only to discover that the cool fogs bred dire distress in lungs …”

“… used to none but the fervid breezes of a tropic sea, so on they kept until, after a day and night of clear weather, they reached Vernon, a busy farming community on the banks of the Feather river.” (The San Francisco Call – March 26, 1911)

“It was here that San Mahalone and his companions built their huts and that today their children and grandchildren are peopling this colony this begun over 40-years ago, preserving their individuality and accumulating properties and competencies on the fertile lands of Sutter county.” (The San Francisco Call – March 26, 1911)

“Hawaiians also migrated to Yolo County, California to participate in the Gold Rush and created their own Kanaka Village. There is evidence that Hawaiians settled across California in the late-1800s and even intermarried with Native Americans.”

“Many scholars speculate that Hawaiians migrated to the mainland in order to gain more economic opportunity and to flee from the dramatic Westernization that was changing the face of Hawai’i.” (pbs-org)

In 1894, at Iosepa in Utah, “the colony of Hawaiians established in Skull Valley, Tooele county comes in with a splendid showing this year. This is all the more satisfactory when the difficulties which the colonists have had to contend with are considered.” (Deseret Evening News – December 22, 1894)

“Last spring a few members of the colony accepted the government invitation to return to the Sandwich Islands. Several of these have written back, expressing the wish that they were here, and declaring an intention to return to the colony as soon as practical.” (Deseret Evening News – December 22, 1894)

The Hawaiians’ legacy can be seen today in the places named with Hawaiian words. Theses include include Kanaka, Owyhee (an old Hawaiian name for Hawaii) and Kamai (named after the Hawaiian Kama Kamai): the Kanaka Glade in Mendocino County, California …

… Kanaka Creek in Sierra County, California; Kanaka Bars in Trinity County, California; Kanaka Flats in Jacksonville, Oregon; Kanaka Gulch, Oregon; Owyhee River in southeastern Oregon; and Kamai Point, British Columbia.

Of course, this summary only highlights some of the early outmigration of Hawaiians from Hawaiʻi. Recent decades has seen a flurry of movement of Hawaiians (and others) from Hawaiʻi to the continent. (Some areas on the continent show over 100% increases decade-by-decade in the number of Hawaiians living there.)