Economy | Page 164 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

June 20, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Japanese High School

Japanese came to Hawai’i between 1885 and 1924, when limits were placed on the numbers permitted entry. “The government contract workers who arrived in Hawaii in the 1880s did not have much time or energy to worry about their children’s education.”

“Their only aim was to make enough money to return to Japan. With mothers going to work from early in the morning the children were virtually left to themselves all day long.” (Duus)

“At first the parents had no mind to settle permanently in this territory. One day they would go back to Japan and take their children with them. But they would be greatly to blame if their children were found unable to speak and write in their mother tongue.”

“It was thus the earnest wish of the parents for the welfare of the children that they should be fully equipped with Japanese instruction, so as to enable them, on their return home, to stand on an equal footing with those who were born in Japan and educated there.”

“In the early days then, Japanese schools tried very hard to meet this request of the parents. Though the school hours were limited to less than two hours in the morning or two hours in the afternoon, they used to give not only the language lesson, but teach as many subjects as you will find in the curriculum of Japanese instruction in Japan.” (Imamura)

“Because of the lack of higher education among most immigrants and their children in Hawai’i, Buddhist Bishop Yemyo Imamura proposed building a Hongwanji high school, incorporating dormitories for students from rural O‘ahu and the neighbor islands.”

“While in Japan in early 1906 he gained approval from the Honzan, Hongwanji’s headquarters temple in Kyoto, and on his return to Hawai‘i he spoke to (Mary) Foster about the new project.” (Karpiel)

“Mary Foster donated a large piece of land covered with kiawe trees, now bisected by the Pali Highway, which was used to construct Hongwanji High School in 1907 (the first Buddhist High School in the United States) and the new Honpa Hongwanji Betsuin in 1918.” (Tsomo)

The final stretch of the Pali Highway to be completed was the segment which connected it to the downtown area between Coelho Lane and the intersection of Bishop Street and Beretania Street. It impacted the school. Planning for this segment had
begun as early as 1953.

When the Pali Highway was constructed, the Honpa Hongwanji, whose property was bisected by the proposed new segment, requested three of its buildings be relocated and a pedestrian underpass be constructed under the new highway to connect the temple with its school premises. (HHF)

The Japanese High School of the Hongwanji got the attention of others. “The ﬁrst Japanese language program at a public school was established at McKinley High School in Honolulu on October 1, 1924.” (Asato)

“The minutes of the Japanese committee of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, dated September 10, (1924) a month before the Japanese program at McKinley High School began, reveals who was involved with this movement.”

“During the meeting, Treasurer Theodore Richards expressed his concern about female high-school students who attended the Hongwanji School for advanced Japanese language study, saying that they ‘were getting led away from Christianity.’”

“Richards was discussing the Hongwanji Girls’ High School (Hawai Kōtō Jogakkō) established in 1910, the girls’ counterpart of Hongwanji’s junior high school, Hawai Chūgakkō, established three years earlier.” (Asato)

World War II totally disrupted Buddhist activities in Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, the Buddhist community was busily preparing for Bodhi Day services at various temples. The next day the temples were closed, and the Buddhist ministers were interned.

Labeled “potentially dangerous enemy aliens,” most Buddhist clergy, language school teachers, community leaders, businessmen doctors, anyone who had been identified as possible enemies of the United States, were rounded up to be taken away to detention camps, passing through the assembly center at Sand Island on O‘ahu. (Hongwanji Hawaii)

In 1949, one of the most momentous decisions made by the Hongwanji after the war was the adoption of a proposal to establish the Hongwanji Mission School, the first Buddhist, English grade school.

In 1992, the Hongwanji Mission School became available for students up until the 8th grade. Prior to that, the school was an elementary school with students from preschool to the sixth grade. In September of 1993, the middle school building was completed, and the class of 1994 was the first class to occupy it.

In the fall of 2003, with the encouragement of Bishop Chikai Yosemori, the Pacific Buddhist Academy (PBA) opened its doors to the first class of fourteen students. PBA is a college preparatory high school, and the first Shin Buddhist high school in the western world.

The school’s mission is “to prepare students for college through academic excellence; to enrich their lives with Buddhist values; and to develop their courage to nurture peace.” (Hongwanji Hawaii)

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Japanese High School plaque

Aloha Garden-Japanese High School

June 19, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ulu Melia

The Outdoor Circle started in France; in 1911, Cherilla Lowrey, Mrs Henry Waterhouse and her daughter Elnora Sturdeon marveled at the splendor of the Gardens of Versailles.

They wanted Hawaii to be a place of beauty and in 1912 the women started the Outdoor Circle.

In the early years, The Outdoor Circle planted the Mahogany trees that line Kalakaua Avenue at Waikiki. Shower trees were planted along Pensacola Avenue and Royal Poinsianas were put along Wilder Avenue.

More was done – including the post-war-years’ ‘Ulu Melia’, ‘To Grow Plumeria’ program. (Loy)

“The Plumeria, before 1947, was primarily used as a graveyard flower; however, The Outdoor Circle wanted to promote an interest in this exotic tree so that It would be planted all over the Islands.”

“Thus the Circle held a lavish festival called Ulu Melia (“To grow plumeria”), in June, 1947 at the McCoy Pavilion in Ala Moana Park.”

“Thousands of cuttings were given away, in order to blanket the hill of Honolulu with Plumeria rather than the unattractive Haole Koa trees.”

“Four hundred cuttings alone were given to Mr. Wilbert Choi of Makiki Nursery for planting in Makiki Valley. Rare cuttings from the Robinson’s on Kauai were sold for $10 apiece.”

“This rare tree, a diploid, was later planted by The Outdoor Circle in the Plumeria garden at Washington Place.” (Star Bulletin, 1977)

“Reminiscent of a Far East garden, plumeria decked Moana park this morning for a scene of bustling activity with Outdoor Circle members and artists completing their flower arrangements.” (Star Bulletin, June 19, 1947)

“The last large event of this kind in the court (of McCoy Pavilion) was the flower show sponsored in 1941 by the Garden Club of Honolulu.”

“Among the thousands who attended, many will recall that the plumeria as the featured flower of that occasion. Its success was spectacular when in huge leis which were draped over the curtain wall inclosing the court and around the great urn which centers the main pool.”

“Plans for Ulu Melia call for a greatly enlarged use of the flower both as a decorative unit and in special arrangements made by groups and individuals.” (Advertiser, June 15, 1977)

“This new effort of the circle is being directed by Mrs Alice Spalding Bowen and her landscape committee. Other members include Mrs Robert Thompson, vice chairman; Mrs Philip Spalding, Mrs Theodore Cooke, Mrs AV Molyneus and the organization’s president, Mrs AGM Robertson.”

“Good will from the Hawaiian Islands came in by clipper today when a Pan American plane arrived in the bay area laden with fragrant leis of plumeria …”

“… the islanders’ way of saying ‘Aloha’ to the mainland as they celebrate their annual Ulu Melia (growing of the plumeria) with a gala flora festival sponsored by the Outdoor Circle of Honolulu.” (San Mateo Times, June 20, 1947) (Photos from Babcock.)

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Plumeria 1-Babcock

June 13, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Beachcombers

“Who have burst all bonds of habit,
And have wandered far away,
On from island unto island,
At the gateways of the day.” (Chambers, 1881)

This is not a story about a happy couple strolling hand in hand, picking up shells along the sandy coast; the young enthusiast brandishing his newly purchased metal detector; nor the amateur artisan, bending and stooping for each hard-to-come-by scrap of sea glass which might one day become a one of a kind piece of jewelry. (Ruger)

While it is about ‘beachcomers,’ these were typically a motley crew of castaways, deserters, traders and escaped convicts. (Castaways may be defined as simply involuntary beachcombers: for the most part the victims of shipwreck, but including persons marooned by their captains or kidnapped by the islanders. (Maude))

The Oxford English Dictionary calls the beachcomber a resident “on the islands of the Pacific, living by pearl-fishing, etc., and often by less reputable means”.

“In the more precise terminology of the anthropologist he is a regional variety of the world-wide class of individuals called by Hallowell ‘transculturites’…

“… persons who, throughout history, ‘are temporarily or permanently detached from one group, enter the web of social relations that constitute another society, and come under the influence of its customs, ideas and values to a greater or lesser degree’.” (Maude)

“Beachcomber is a word of American coinage. Primarily, it is applied to a long wave rolling in from the ocean, and from this it has come to be applied to those whose occupation it is to pick up, as pirates or wreckers, whatever these long waves wash in to them.”

“Nothing comes amiss to the so-called beachcomber; he is outside of civilization – is indeed a waif and stray not only on the ocean of life, but on the broad South Pacific, and he is certainly not above picking up those chance crumbs of the world around him which may be washed within the circle of his operations.”

“If the average British colonist and capitalist has not since his boyhood’s days, when he may have dipped into Cook’s Voyages, given a thought to the islands of the great South Sea, other white men have; and these pioneers of the Pacific are chiefly of their own stock – English or American.” (Chambers, 1881)

“In the majority of cases, the beachcomber has been a seafaring man, who has become weary of a life of hard work, with but scant remuneration, on board of Whalers or trading craft; and having landed from his vessel on one of the Pacific islands, and becoming domesticated among the natives”.

“The beachcomber is therefore stalwart, smart, and lively; and some of them can lift a kedge-anchor and carry two hundred cocoanuts or more upon their shoulders.”

“As a rule, they can climb trees like apes, and dive for fish to feed their families. They rarely, or never, wear shoes, but go barefooted at all times on beaches of sharp gravel and reefs of prickliest coral.”

“Beachcombers generally marry native women and as a rule have large families. Their sons are often like bronze statues; and their daughters are models of beauty and strength.”

“While it is true that their intellect is of a low order, and that they know little or nothing of ordinary morality, as we understand it, it yet must be borne in mind that the race of half-castes thus produced is likely to form a prominent factor in the future civilisation of Polynesia.” (Chambers, 1881)

“What really differentiated the beachcombers from other immigrants was the fact that they were essentially integrated into, and dependent for their livelihood on, the indigenous communities …”

“… this source of maintenance might occasionally be supplemented by casual employment, with payment usually in kind, as agents and intermediaries for the captains or supercargoes of visiting ships, but to all intents and purposes they had voluntarily or perforce contracted out of the European monetary economy.” (Maude)

“Historically beachcombing is as old as European contact itself, for the first beachcombers came from Magellan’s own Trinidad, deserting at one of the northern Marianas.”

“(N)ot more than a handful of Europeans settled in the islands, either voluntarily or as castaways, in all the two and a half centuries of the age of discovery, which may be said to have lasted roughly to the founding of New South Wales.”

“The basic pre-requisite for a beachcombing boom – commercial shipping – was in fact absent … while discipline on the exploring ships was in general too strict to permit successful desertion, and stops were usually too short for plans to be perfected.”

“Desertion was attempted, of course; even Cook, on his last voyage, had difficulty in recovering a midshipman and two others who deserted at Raiatea, and he recorded that they were ’not the only persons in the ships who wished to end their days at these favourite islands’.” (Maude)

“(I)t was the north-west fur trade between America and China, stemming direct from Cook’s last voyage and having nothing to do with Australia, which brought the first voluntary beachcombers to be landed from commercial shipping.”

“In 1787, or less than ten years after the death of Cook, the Irish ship’s surgeon John Mackey, formerly in the East India Company’s service, was landed in Hawai‘i from the Imperial Eagle, en route to China, at his own request.”

“Within a year he had been joined by three deserters – Ridler, carpenter’s mate of the Columbia; Thomas; and a youth named Samuel Hitchcock …”

“… while by 1790 the Hawaiian beachcombers numbered 10, including John Young, kidnapped at Kealakekua, and Isaac Davis, spared at the cutting off of the Fair American, both of whom were destined to leave their mark on Hawaiian history.” (Maude)

“In 1791 Captain Joseph Ingraham in the brig Hope, while cruising off Maui, was hailed by a double canoe in which were three white men, besides natives. These men were dressed in malos (loin cloths), being otherwise naked.”

“They were so tanned that they resembled the natives. They told Captain Ingraham that they had deserted Kamehameha, who had maltreated them, after the arrival at Kailua of the boatswain of the Eleanora.”

“These men were I Ridler, James Cox and John Young (an American, not the boatswain of the Eleanora). They begged Ingraham to take them to China with him, which he did in the summer of 1791.” (Cartwright)

“Most of the early Europeans congregated on Hawai‘i itself, around the chief Kamehameha, who was quick to realise their importance to his plan for conquering the other islands; there were at least 11 with him in 1794.”

“A minority, however, settled on O‘ahu, including the American Oliver Holmes, who after the death of Isaac Davis was considered the most influential foreigner in the islands.”

“After the conquest of O‘ahu in 1795 these joined Kamehameha’s entourage and with the development of Honolulu as the main shipping port and Kamehameha’s transfer there in 1804 this became the principal beachcomber centre, though a rival group settled on Kauai round the independent chief Kaumuali‘i, at least until his voluntary submission to Kamehameha in 1810. “

“In 1806 there were estimated to be 94 whites on O‘ahu alone, but by 1810 departures had reduced the total to about 60; these were nearly all beachcombers and included at least seven escaped convicts from New South Wales. Eight years later there were said to be as many as 200 in the whole group of islands.”

“Most of these, however, were mere transients, for hardly a ship called without adding its quota of deserting or discharged seamen, anxious to sample the supposed delights of life on a South Sea island, while there were always plenty of others who had had their fill and were anxious to get away.”

By the 1830s, “the geographical distribution of beachcombing had changed. The beachcomber had ceased to be a factor of political importance in Hawai‘i, Tahiti and Tonga, and civilization with all its attendant restrictions – governmental sanctions, missionary disapproval and consular action – was driving them from earlier centres to the remoter islands”. (Maude)

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June 12, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hawaiian Fertilizing Company

The first sugar to be made in Hawai‘i is credited to a man from China. The newspaper Polynesian, in its issue of January 31, 1852, carried this item attributed to a prominent sugar planter on Maui, LL Torbert:

“Mr. John White, who came to these islands in 1797, and is now living with me, says that in 1802, sugar was first made at these islands by a native of China, on the island of Lānaʻi.”

“He came here in one of the vessels trading for sandalwood, and brought a stone mill and boilers, and after grinding off one small crop and making it into sugar, went back the next year with his fixtures, to China.”

In 1825 an English agriculturist named John Wilkinson arrived at Honolulu on the frigate Blonde. He had made some arrangement with Governor Boki, while the latter was in England, to go out and engage in cultivating sugar cane … and, probably, rum. (Kuykendall)

Although sugar cane had grown in Hawaiʻi for many centuries, its commercial cultivation for the production of sugar did not occur until 1825. In that year, Wilkinson and Boki started a plantation in Mānoa Valley. Within six months they had seven acres of cane growing and processing. The sugar mill was later converted into a distillery for rum. (Schmitt)

The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started at Kōloa on Kaua‘i in 1835. It was to change the face of Hawai‘i forever, launching an entire economy, lifestyle and practice of monocropping that lasted for well over a century.

Over the years, sugar‐cane farming soon proved to be the only available crop that could be grown profitably under the severe conditions imposed upon plants grown on the lands which were available for cultivation. (HSPA 1947) A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.

“After the experiment station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association was started in 1895, analysis of soils and fertilizers became one of its major functions. On the basis of the chemical analyses. fertilizers were prescribed, and when necessary specially compounded to suit the requirements of each plantation.”

From 1890 two local fertilizer companies started: The Pacific Guano and Fertilizer Company (when first organized in 1890 by George N Wilcox); and The Hawaiian Fertilizer Company (started by Amos F Cooke). (Kuykendall)

Amos Francis Cooke was born December 23, 1851 in Honolulu, son of Amos Starr and Juliette (Montague) Cooke, early missionaries to Hawaiian Islands. He organized Hawaiian Fertilizing Co. of Honolulu, 1889, selling out in 1898. The company primarily serviced the sugar and pineapple plantations in the ‘Ewa plains.

The Hawaiian Fertilizing Company was organized by the present proprietor and manager, A. Frank Cooke, in 1888, and has grown from a struggling enterprise, furnishing to plantations two thousand tons of stable manure annually, to one of the largest fertilizing works on the Islands, the grounds and buildings covering nearly five acres of land at Iwilei.

When he conceived the plan of supplying plantations with fertilizers he engaged the old bone mill at Kalihi Kai, formerly owned by GJ Waller.

But by economy and rare managerial ability the business soon outgrew the accommodations and facilities to supply the demand made upon it.

Land was leased at Iwilei and the company, yielding to the pressure brought by a growing clientele, the lines were extended until Mr. Cooke bought more land.

Besides consuming yearly hundreds of tons of bones gathered here, the company was the first among the largest importers of nitrates and phosphates in the country.

It has business connections in the United States, Europe and South America, who supply the home factory with the highest grade fertilizers for compounding purposes.

From the United States and Germany sulphate of ammonia, double super-phosphates and potash is secured, while the nitrates used are from the famous banks in Chile.

At the industry’s peak a little over a century later (1930s,) Hawaii’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures. Of the nearly 385,000 workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix.

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June 10, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kamehameha Takes A Walk

“The subject of interest which engrossed attention this week, was the question of the location of the second statue of Kamehameha the Conqueror, which we were officially (or rather Royally) informed is designed for Kohala, and very rightly so, as this was his birth-place.”

“At the request of the Governess, who has recently been paying us a visit, a committee was selected to decide upon the site upon which the statue shall be erected upon its arrival.”

“This committee, consisting of twenty-four members, met on the 22d, at the Court-house, in Kapaau, to discuss the question of location. Among the members were the following foreigners: Messrs. Vida, Woods. Chapin, Kenton, Holmes, Atkins, Smith, Sheldon, Ewart, and others who did not put in an appearance.”

“The native members consisted of the Police Magistrate, who acted as chairman, native lawyers, and sugar planters. Various locations were suggested and their claims and advantages warmly advocated.”

“Among others, the respected birth-place of the grand old King, near Kohala Plantation, called Halaula; Hapuu, near Halawa. where he was raised, and his favorite dwelling place, on the bluff near which he stood and marshalled the fleet of war canoes for the expedition which resulted in the final conquest of Maui; and Niulii, at the Eastern end of the District.”

“It was finally decided by an almost unanimous vote, that the statue shall be placed at a point nearly central of the District, on an elevation in the land of Ainakea, near the Government road, and almost equidistant from the Star Mill and that of Kohala Plantation.”

“If placed on a high pedestal it can there be seen front a long distant in every direction.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 31, 1883)

Initially, “On the grounds of the Ainakea school, near by, is a statue of the first Kamehameha.” (Anglo-American Magazine, September 1901)

Later, attempts were made to relocate the Kohala statue. “Kaniho presented an amendment providing $500 for the removal of the statue of Kamehameha from its present location in Kohala to the Court house yard. He said the statue was now in a neighborhood where nobody lived and the people of Kohala had petitioned for its removal as they had to deck it with wreaths.”

“Lewis opposed the scheme saying the statue was in a school yard where children could see it and would always be reminded who their great chief was.”

“Chillingworth asked if the statue was not on the birth place of Kamehameha, and replied that It was ten
miles distant.”

“Aylett disputed the statement, saying he was present when the statue was unveiled and it was said at that time that this was Kamehameha’s birth place.”

“Keliinoi moved an amendment to move the statue to Lahaina. Pulaa said the statue had already traveled a good deal; when it was on the way out it fell overboard and when recovered the statue was minus an arm.”

“‘If the money appropriated the statue will be on the move again,’ he said. Both Home Rulers and Republicans voted in favor of the removal.”

“‘The birth place of Kamehameha was in Kohala,’ said Pulaa. ‘I was not there, but my grandmother told me so.’”

“Kealawaa said the statue should not be disturbed. ‘It is not right to remove the statue,’ said he, ‘what is placed there should remain. It is just like this building. It should not be moved.’ Kaniho and Oili talked some more but the interpreter did not consider their remarks worth translating.”

“The motion lost 13 to 12.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 3, 1903)

A year later, the newspaper noted in a page 1 headline, “Kamehameha To Take A Walk.”

“Kamehameha I’s statue in Kohala is going to be moved, not out of the district but to a position where it may be seen by the visitor.”

“By a relocation of the main road, involving a deep cut through a hill, the statue has been left out of sight of the passing way farer.”

“It is proposed therefore to remove it from its old site in front of the schoolhouse to a position in front of the courthouse.”

“As the statue is Territorial property the Board of Supervisors of Hawaii county asked the permission of the Superintendent of Public Works for Its removal. Mr. Holloway has compiled with the request.”

“The Kohala statue is the original. It was sunk at sea near Cape Horn in the vessel bringing it out from Europe.”

“After a replica, from the sculptor’s mould, had been procured to set up in Honolulu the original was fished out of the depths, brought to the islands and set up in Kohala, amidst the scenes of the great monarch’s earlier military exploits.” (Sunday Advertiser, March 24, 1904)

“To Move Statue Of Kamehameha – Relocation Of Main Road In Kohala Bars Attraction From View Of Visitors. The statue of Kamehameha the Great in Kohala is going to be moved to a position where It can be seen by visitors.”

“By a relocation of the main road the statue is cut off from the observance of wayfarers. The Public Works Department has granted the Hawaii Supervisors the right to move the attraction.” (Hawaiian Star, March 25, 1907)

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