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October 9, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Fernhurst

“In the block on King street, bordered by Alapai and facing makai, there stands a garden. It is an old garden because the royal palms tower so high, and only ancient palms attain so majestic a height.”

“For many years the owner of this garden, Mrs. Juliette M. Atherton, planted and tended the shrubs, vines and ferns with loving care. She named her home embowered in the shade of growing things, Fernhurst.” (The Friend, November 1921)

Let’s step back a bit and get some context.

William Richard Castle and Amos Starr Cooke founded the Castle and Cooke Company in 1851. Joseph Ballard Atherton began his career as a clerk with Castle and Cooke after coming to Hawaiʻi in 1858.

He married Amos’ daughter Juliette Montague Cooke and rose to the presidency of the company, one of the “Big Five” firms that had a major influence on the economy of Hawaiʻi.

The Atherton’s home was ‘Fernhurst,’ described above.

In 1921, the Atherton family gifted their near-downtown residence, Fernhurst, to the YWCA in memory of their daughter, Kate, and in tribute to her deep interest in the welfare of girls.

The YWCA of Oʻahu is the oldest continuous service organization devoted to women and children in Hawaiʻi; in 1900, a small group of women met at Mrs. BF Dillingham’s home at Arcadia on Punahou Street to organize the YWCA.

From the beginning, the YWCA was organized to provide the working women of Honolulu a safe place to build friendships, develop or maintain solid values and learn skills to become more productive members of the community; but over the years, the vehicles for accomplishing those goals have changed in response to the times.

Earliest classes included English, Bible and lace-making. By 1906, when it joined the YWCA of the USA, recreational and athletic programs including tennis and swimming classes had been added.

The first YWCA residence for young working women, The Homestead, was opened and addressed community concerns over the lack of safe and affordable housing accommodations in Hawaii.

Then, in 1921, Fernhurst was added to the YWCA. The original Fernhurst served as a temporary home for as many as 10,000 young working women.

In the 1940s, when housing was at a premium due to the arrival of civilian war workers, Fernhurst was one of the most active gathering places in the city.

‘The Friend’ recorded the house blessing: “Another generation will pass in and out the noble driveway and occupy the inviting rooms and broad lanais of the commodious white building, risen on the site of the family home of the Athertons, as if it grew there like the protecting trees that shield it from the glare of our Island sunlight.”

“Perceiving the need of a new YWCA home for girls who come from their own far-off homes, the Atherton family have built this sheltering roof tree, and have presented it to the Association, a fitting memorial to their sister, Kate Marion Atherton.”

“It bears the same name as the former Fernhurst, home of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Atherton, that Christian home of cheer and friendliness, where the latch-string was always out for friend and stranger alike.” (The Friend, November 1921)

Three years later, in 1924, Julia Morgan was retained to design a new main YWCA facility on Richards Street and “Laniākea,” as it was aptly named, was dedicated in 1927.

Later, in 1952, the Fernhurst property was sold to the Honolulu Rapid Transit Authority (the site is now the bus transit depot at Alapai and King Streets) and another ‘Fernhurst’ opened at its present location on Wilder Avenue, near Punahou School in Makiki.

Today, the facility is entirely mission oriented and dedicated to empowering women successfully transitioning from prison back into the community.

Homebase is offered as an extended affordable housing option for women who complete the Ka Hale Ho‘āla Hou No Nā Wāhine furlough program. (YWCA)

1917 Queen Liliuokalani's YWCA Membership Card-(YWCA)

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Sanborn Fire map illustrates HRT car barn and electric power house-1927

October 8, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Li Ling Ai

1941 – At the Academy Awards, John Ford accepted the Oscar for his directing of the ‘Grapes of Wrath,’ ‘Pinocchio’ won for best Original Score and ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ won for best song.

Keep this in mind; it will put some context to the end of this story. First, let’s look back.

In 1896, western-trained doctors from the Canton School of Medicine, Li Khai Fai and Kong Tai Heong, married and then emigrated to Honolulu from China.

A few short years later, they were one of the first to diagnose the bubonic plague in Honolulu’s Chinatown. This led to the “state of emergency,” quarantine and subsequent “sanitary fire” of Chinatown in 1900.

Although properly set, the fire soon went out of control and caused the destruction of all premises bounded by Kukui Street, River Street, Queen Street (presently Ala Moana Boulevard) and Nuʻuanu Avenue. No lives were lost in the fire, but 4,000 people were left homeless, without food and with little of anything else.

Li Khai Fai was vilified by many Chinese for reporting one of the first bubonic plague cases to the authorities, resulting in what author James C Mohr calls “the worst civic disaster in Hawaiian history” next to the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor — the accidental burning of the entire Chinatown district and the forced quarantine of all its inhabitants. (Lung)

But that’s not what this story is about – the rest of this story deals with conflict in the Li’s homeland, China – and, the telling of that story has more Hawaiʻi links.

Li Khai Fai and Kong Tai Heong had several children; a daughter, Li Ling Ai, was born in Honolulu and was a 1926 graduate of Punahou School and later a graduate from the University of Hawaiʻi.

In 1930, she traveled to Pekin and studied Chinese theater. The second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) forced her to leave China.

Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements – so-called “incidents”. The last of these was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, marking the beginning of total war between the two countries.

Initially, the invading Japanese scored major victories in Shanghai, and by the end of 1937 captured the Chinese capital of Nanking. After failing to stop the Japanese in Wuhan, the Chinese central government moved to Chongqing in the Chinese interior.

In 1937, Li Ling Ai and Rey Scott tell the stories of that war through film – ‘Kukan,’ a color documentary of China at war.

Though she defied tradition in many ways, Li Ling Ai identified closely with her father and his efforts to bring reform to China. After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, it became her mission to bring China’s plight to the attention of the western world.

Educating Americans about the history and culture of China was an integral part of that mission, and she would employ her dramatic personality and exotic beauty to do so. (Lung)

When it premiered in New York on June 23, 1941 the US was still maintaining a policy of neutrality in military conflicts abroad. But the film clearly depicted the brutality of the invading Japanese military against the citizens of China, and it became a rallying point for those who wanted to sway public opinion towards US engagement in the Chinese war. (Lung)

The film about the Chinese resistance to Japanese aggression during the early part of World War II was screened at the White House for President Roosevelt, was widely covered in newspapers across the country and was the subject of editorials in papers like the New York Times and Chicago Daily Times.

“A crudely made but intensely interesting fact film about modern China, the land of unconquerable people … “Kukan” means “heroic action” – or perhaps, more freely, “courage” – and a more appropriate word could not be found to express the spirit of this film.” (New York Times, June 24, 1941)

“’Kukan’ is one of the few pictures ever made about China which conveys an overpowering sense of the vastness and variety of that great nation, of the tenacity of its millions of people and the mass strength which lies in its depths.” (New York Times, June 24, 1941)

In 1941, Rey Scott was awarded a Special Academy Award for “for his extraordinary achievement in producing Kukan, the film record of China’s struggle, including its photography with a 16mm camera under the most difficult and dangerous conditions,” making Kukan the first American feature documentary to win an Academy Award. Co-producer Li Ling Ai was also listed as the film’s “Technical Advisor.”

However, after the war’s end and the Communist takeover of China, the film faded from view along with the story of its creators. In fact, until recently, Kukan was officially categorized as a “lost” film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

At the end of 2009, after a year of preliminary research into the life of Li Ling Ai, producer Robin Lung discovered the only known copy of ‘Kukan’ and has been on a mission ever since to find out more about the film and its creators.

Lung’s quest to restore the badly damaged print of Kukan and the story of its makers to their rightful place in history sends her from one end of the country to the other, searching for answers in the past to validate her vision for the future.

In a quickly changing future obsessed 21st Century world, “Finding Kukan” (a film on the film) pauses to look back, examining how history is made vs. how it’s recorded; how it shapes current issues surrounding race, gender, identity and art; and why a healthy future depends on preserving diverse stories from our past.

Like ‘Kukan’, ‘Finding Kukan’ has been recognized with American Library Association “Notable Film for Adults” 2019; Broadcast on PBS World’s America ReFramed Series, May 2018; Audience Award, LA Asian Pacific Film Festial 2017; Honorable Mention, Documentary Award, CAAMFest 2017; Best Documentary, Special Jury Award, Hawaii International Film Festival 2016; Courage in Cinema Award, UMass Boston Film Series 2017; Audience Award Honorable Mention, Boston Asian American Film Festival 2017.

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October 5, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Fort Alexander

When we think of Russia’s interest in Hawai‘i, we initially (and, typically, only) think of what we refer to as “Russian Fort Elizabeth” in Waimea, Kauai. However, Hawai‘i’s interactions with Russia go well beyond that, yet only short-lived. (And, it really wasn’t a Russian fort.)

In the early-1800s, multiple foreign interests, including Russia, were developing trading relationships with Hawai‘i. Hawai‘i served as an important provisioning site for traders, whalers and others crossing the Pacific.

The Russian story starts when three-masted Behring wrecked on the shores of Kauai’s Waimea Bay early on the morning of January 31, 1815. The Behring had a load of seal skins/otter pelts bound for the Russian-American Trading Company in Sitka, Alaska.

Russian-American Company’s governor, Alexander Baranov, sent German-born Georg Anton Schäffer (1779-1836) to the Hawaiian Islands to retrieve the cargo (he wanted to exchange the furs for sandalwood.)

Schäffer first landed in Honolulu and, under the pretext of building a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor, began building a fort and raised the Russian flag. Kamehameha had him removed and Schäffer then voyaged to Kauai.

There, King Kaumuali‘i, who had ceded Kauai to King Kamehameha I in 1810, had seized the Behring’s cargo and had the valuable pelts taken to his home in west Kauai.

Schäffer quickly gained favor with Kaumuali‘i – and, reportedly, Kaumuali‘i was considering joining forces with Russia to reclaim his rule from Kamehameha (that Kaumuali‘i had ceded over 5-years before.)

On May 21, 1816, and without the knowledge or approval of Czar Alexander Pavlovich, Kaumuali‘i signed a document that put Kauai under the protection of the Russian Empire.

In return, Schäffer promised Kaumuali‘i protection and an armed Russian warship to lead an attack on Kamehameha’s forces. (Baranoff later informed Schäffer that he was not authorized to make such agreements.)

On July 1, 1816, Schäffer and Kaumuali‘i entered into a secret agreement to use Schäffer’s (purported) Russian authority to reclaim Kauai from King Kamehameha I, and also to launch expeditions against other islands that Kaumuali‘i felt he had a hereditary right to rule.

Kaumuali‘i had thoughts of conquering Maui, Lānaʻi, Moloka‘i and O‘ahu, which he felt to be his right based on lineage.

Subsequently, Kaumuali‘i gave Schäffer Hanalei valley and two or three other valuable pieces of land. Schaffer went to Hanalei on September 30 and renamed the valley Schäffertal (Schäffer’s Valley.)

Schäffer began work on two earthen fortresses in Hanalei: Fort Alexander (named after the Czar Alexander and built in what is now Princeville – by the valet parking at the Princeville Resort); and Fort Barclay, named for Russian general Barclay deTooly and built nearer to Hanalei River.

Unlike Waimea’s Fort Elizabeth (with massive stone walls,) Fort Alexander had low earthen walls. Schaffer’s main focus for the Russian-American Company was not Waimea, but Hanalei, and they spent most of their time around Princeville.

Schäffer’s grandiose gestures were not confined to fort-building. He was also able to take possession of the ship Lydia and promptly gave the Lydia to Kaumuali‘i.

Meanwhile, rumors of Schäffer’s activities had filtered back to the Czar’s court. On November 21, 1816, Lieutenant Otto von Kotzebue arrived in Hawai‘i on the Russian Navy brig Rurik.

He repudiated Schäffer’s acts, informing King Kamehameha that Schäffer and Kaumuali‘i did not have the support of the Russian Emperor.

On May 8, 1817 the Russians were expelled from Hawai‘i; some of Schäffer’s men left for Sitka and Schäffer was provided safe passage from the Hawaiian Islands.

It wasn’t until August 1818 that all parties had agreed that Kauai had indeed been abandoned by the Russian-American Company, and for a couple of years following that, efforts were still being made to recover from the damage done by Schäffer.

An outline of the foundation of Fort Alexander may be seen on the lawn at the St. Regis Princeville Resort.