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January 16, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Battle of Honolulu – 1826

The Hawaiian Islands in the early-1800s were in a state of social and political upheaval. With Kamehameha’s death in 1819, the subsequent breaking of the kapu by Liholiho and the acceptance of the missionaries and their beliefs meant significant changes were taking place.

The first visit to the Hawaiian Islands by the US Navy was in 1826 when the warship USS Dolphin came into port in Honolulu. Commanding the ship was Lieutenant John Percival (aka “Mad Jack” Percival.)

Percival had been sent to the Pacific to bring the mutineers of a whaling ship to justice and to enforce the settlement of debts owed by Hawaiʻi’s ruling chiefs to American sandalwood dealers.

As the ship sailed into Honolulu Bay, these objectives were not uppermost on the minds of the crew, however. The men of the Dolphin, like mariners then, had expectations of female companionship while in port.

They arrived on January 16, 1826, and were surprised to find the port unusually tranquil and utterly devoid of the welcoming maidens the crew had anticipated.

After making inquiries in the village they learned that, under the influence of the missionaries, the chiefs had not only forbidden the women to swim out to the ships, but had restricted the sale of alcohol. His men were outraged.

In a frenzy, Percival demanded to see the Queen in person, warning that if the leader of the missionaries (Hiram Bingham) interfered, he “will shoot him: that he was ready to fight, for though his vessel was small, she was just like fire.”

Percival attempted to persuade the Queen to release her women, reasoning that “It is not good to taboo the women. It is not so in America!”

The Queen replied, in a letter, that she had a “right to control her own subjects in this matter; that in enforcing the tabu she had not sought for money … she had done no injustice to other nations, or the foreigners who belonged to other nations; and that while seeking specially to save the nation from vice and ruin, they had been lenient to strangers … (and) that strangers, passing from one country to another, are bound, while they remain in a country, to conform to its laws.” (Bingham)

Percival said, “Why tabu the women? Take heed. My people will come: if the women are not forthcoming they will not obey my word. Take care of your men, and I will take care of mine. By and by they will come to get women, and if they do not obtain them, they will fight, and my vessel is just like fire.” (Bingham)

Kaʻahumanu replied, “Why make war upon us without a fault of ours as to restraining our women? We love the Word of God, and therefore hold back our women. Why then would you fight us without cause?” (Bingham)

Finally, able to hold his temper no longer, Percival clenched his fists with rage and shouted that the next day he would issue his men rum and turn them loose, where, if they were still denied, they would pull down the houses of the missionaries and take any women they pleased by force.

Kaʻahumanu replied, “Why are you angry with us for laying a tabu on the women of our own country? Had you brought American women with you, and we had tabued them, you might then justly be displeased with us.” (Bingham)

There were several other crews in port, of whom many sympathized with this commander and a large part of his crew. On a Sunday, the commander of the Dolphin allowed double the usual number of his men to spend the day on shore at Honolulu. The violent among them, and the violent of other crews, attempted to form a coalition to “knock off the tabu.”

First, they knocked out seventy of the windows at Kalanimōkū’s house (where church service was being held, with Kaʻahumanu, Kalanimōkū, Nāmāhana and Boki in attendance.) Then, the mob went on to the home of Hiram Bingham, the leader of the missionaries.

When the mob surged forward and one of the sailors struck Bingham, the riot ended as the Hawaiians responded by clubbing the ringleaders unconscious and overcame the remainder.

Shortly thereafter, the captain was back at the palace, admitting that his men may have overreacted, however, repeated their demands for prostitutes. He then told the Queen that the Dolphin would not leave port until his men were taken care of.

The Hawaiians by this time were very anxious to see the end of this and fearful of further violence, agreed to lift the taboo.

The prostitutes then came to the ship, and apparently the Navy’s Hawaiian mission was accomplished. Captain Percival arranged for the repair of the damaged homes and put two of the most violent sailors in irons.

After a visit of about three months, the Dolphin sailed, having obtained the name of “the mischief making man-of-war.” The incident was quickly christened “The Battle of Honolulu.”

Mad Jack’s actions were later renounced by the United States and resulted in the sending of an envoy to King Kamehameha III.

Kalanimōku wrote a letter to Hiram Bingham concerning the battle – in it he notes, “Here is my message to all of you, our missionary teachers. I am telling you that I do not see your wrongdoing. If I should see you to be wrong, I would tell you all. No, you should all just be good.”

“Give us literacy and we will teach it; and give us the word of God, and we will heed it. Our women are restricted, for we have learned the word of God.”

“Then foreigners come, doing damage to our land, foreigners of America and Britain. Do not be angry, for it is we who are to blame for you being faulted, and not you foreigners.” (Kalanimōku to Bingham, October 28, 1826)

You may see that letter (written in Hawaiian) and its translation in the Ali‘i Letters Collection at Hawaiian Mission Houses – here: https://hmha.missionhouses.org/collections/show/178.

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Filed Under: Economy, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Mad Jack, Hawaii, Hiram Bingham, Kaahumanu, Percival, Battle of Honolulu

January 14, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honolulu Rapid Transit (HRT)

Nuʻuanu Valley was the first of the valleys to undergo residential development because it was convenient to the town (when most people walked from town up into the valley.)

In 1888, the animal-powered tramcar service of Hawaiian Tramways ran track from downtown to Waikīkī. In 1900, the Tramways was taken over by the Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co (HRT.)

HRT initially operated electrically powered streetcars on tracks through Honolulu streets.  Power came from overhead wires.  Its “land” component included investments into the construction and operation of the Honolulu Aquarium (now the Waikīkī Aquarium), a popular attraction at the end of the Waikiki streetcar line.

In addition to service to the core Honolulu communities, HRT expanded to serve other opportunities.  In the fall of 1901, a line was also sent up into central Mānoa.

The new Mānoa trolley opened the valley to development and rushed it into the expansive new century. In particular, it would help to sell a very new hilltop subdivision, “College Hills,” and also expand an unplanned little “village” along the only other road, East Mānoa.  (Bouslog)

The rolling stock consisted of ten 10-bench cars; fifteen 8-bench cars; two closed cars; eight convertible cars and ten trailers.  (Electrical Review 1902)

For the line work, wooden poles thirty feet long were used and placed about 100-feet apart. The necessary span wires are so placed to allow the trolley wire, which was 4/0 copper wire, about twenty-feet above the track.  (Electrical Review)

“The company operates on twenty miles of trackage, which is continually being extended to anticipate the demands of traffic. The overhead trolley system is in vogue, with power supplied from a modern generating plant operated by oil fuel.”

“The entire equipment conforms to the latest offered by modern invention, providing for safety, durability and comfort.”  (Overland Monthly, 1909)

“The company’s service extends to Waikiki beach, the famous and popular resort of the Hawaiian and tourist, and where the aquarium, the property of the company, is one of the great objects of attraction.”

“Kapiolani Park, the Bishop Museum, the Kahauki Military Post, the Royal Mausoleum, Oahu College and the Manoa and Nuuanu valleys are reached by the lines of this company.”  (Overland Monthly, 1909)

Bus service was inaugurated by HRT in 1915, initially using locally built bodies and later buses from the Mainland (acquired in 1928.) Trolley buses operated on a number of HRT routes from January 1938 to the spring of 1958. Electric street cars, first used by HRT on August 31, 1901, were withdrawn early in the morning of July 1, 1941.  (Schmitt)

“At two o’clock on the afternoon of June 31, 1941, car 47 left the HRT carhouse. Number 47’s run that day was unusual. To begin with, it was an old open car, one of those originally built about 1908. In addition, the car sported one of the largest leis ever made, which circled it completely.”

“At the controller was George Bell, son of Jack Bell who ran HRT’s first car in 1901. The car ran over the remaining rail line all afternoon and evening … The end finally came at 1:30 a.m. on July 1, 1941.”  (Hawaiian Tramways)

The streetcars were replaced completely by buses (first gasoline and later diesel buses.)

Entrepreneur Harry Weinberg from Baltimore began investing in HRT in 1954 and methodically proceeded to take over HRT in 1960.  After Weinberg took control of HRT he went on to continue investing in real estate and other corporations.

The confluence of several milestone developments up to mid-1960s became the precursors of an unfolding drama that culminated in a battle of titanic proportions that led to the transfer of the company from private hands to public ownership by the City & County of Honolulu.  (Papacostas – ASCE)

First came the establishment of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in 1913; HRT started to spin off non-utility properties and operations to a subsidiary (Honolulu Ltd) to avoid regulatory oversight.

Then, in April 1937, the US Supreme Court validated the 1935 National Labor Relations Act that strengthened to role of labor (or trade) unions.  The thirds came from the US Congress in the form of “The Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964,” which provided funding for urban mass transit systems. (Papacostas – ASCE)

Through this provision, Frank F. Fasi, who was first elected mayor of the City & County of Honolulu in 1969 and who was destined to become the longest-serving person in that capacity initiated definite moves toward the ultimate take-over of HRT.  (Papacostas – ASCE)

Bernard W. Stern states in his book on Rutledge Unionism, “as early as 1970 the Federal Department of Transportation, in response to an inquiry, advised Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi that Honolulu was eligible to receive two-thirds of the acquisition costs of HRT, Wahiawa Transport, and Leeward Bus Company.”

The “Wahiawa” and “Leeward” companies were suburban lines, the first also being run under majority ownership by Weinberg.  (Papacostas – ASCE)

The company suspended all service after December 31, 1970, because of a labor dispute, and was succeeded a few months later by MTL, Inc. (a new management company established by the City and known as Mass Transit Lines (MTL.)  (Schmitt) 

As a consequence of court decisions, the March 22, 1973 issue of the Honolulu Advertiser declared that finally “Weinberg, City agree to quick takeover of site.”  (Papacostas – ASCE)

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  • King at Fort Streets
  • Park your auto safely at home use the street car service.
  • Park your auto safely at home use the street car service.

Filed Under: Economy, General Tagged With: Oahu, HRT, Honolulu Rapid Transit, Hawaii, Honolulu

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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Statue of Kyuzo Toyoma
Kyuzo Toyoma Statue
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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.
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
Tattooed Shisa Hands
Okinawan hajichi
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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Filed Under: General, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Arakawas, Zippys, Okinawa, Kyuzo Toyama, Tamashiro Market

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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Filed Under: Economy, Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Hilton Hawaiian Village, Kalia, Henry Kaiser, Kuapa Fishpond, Hawaii Kai, Kaiser, Hoover Dam

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

Filed Under: Economy, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Hawaii, Sampan, Kewalo, Kakaako, Hawaiian Tuna Packers, Fishing, Aku

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hoʻokuleana LLC is a Planning and Consulting firm assisting property owners with Land Use Planning efforts, including Environmental Review, Entitlement Process, Permitting, Community Outreach, etc. We are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of needs.

Info@Hookuleana.com

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