Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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The lighthouse is reached, no drop! the outer buoy, no stop!

This is a story about Joseph Lawrence Van Tassell.  But before we get to Van Tassell, let’s look at a predecessor and his attempts at the first successful aeronautical event in Hawaiʻi.  At the time, the technology was hot air balloons.

Emil L Melville had advertised a balloon show where he would hang from a trapeze in his 86-foot balloon.  For Melville, third time was the charm.

The headline on the first attempt tells the story, “An Immense Audience – No Ascension.”  It goes on to note, “The crowd continued to surge into the (Kapiʻolani) Park until about the time set for the ascension when there were from 3,000 to 4,000 persons within the enclosure and perhaps 2,000 more in the surrounding grounds.”

“Promptly at the advertised hour 2 o’clock (March 2, 1889) Prof Melville arose from a nap with which he was refreshing himself in a room near the grand stand and dressed himself in a gay suit of tights.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 5, 1889)

“What the process is actually remains a professional secret … the canvas in a few moments began to flutter and fill then bulge out into something like rotund shape. … Matters were in this struggling stage at 5:45 o’clock … a wreath of smoke curling up from the upper slope of the cloth … Another burst … Many of the helpers ran off panic-stricken … The next scene was a grand and speedy dispersion (of the crowd.”)   (Hawaiian Gazette, March 5, 1889)

A week later, the paper noted, “’There could not have been a better day,’ (March 11, 1889) was the universal remark, suggested by the very slight stir in the air and such motion as there was being off the sea. The balloon filled up beautifully – was in fact every moment looking more like an article of that name until it had about three fourths of its capacity-charged with concentrated caloric and smoke.”

“The furnace roars once and again and next thing the aeronaut thunders out ‘All let go!’ … and away the monster creeps laterally … off she goes and then up, only the spectators in the inner rings observing the gallant Professor Melville dragging headforemost to the trapeze – he had no time to fasten on the parachute.”

“Up through the wicked spikes of the young algeroba (kiawe) thicket the aeronaut was dragged … Now the balloon is fast sinking with the man’s weight. It disappears behind the bush and almost immediately soars majestically aloft but there is no man dangling from the trapeze.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 12, 1889)

Finally, on April 6, 1889, “ … Prof Emil Melville with the assistance of sailors from HBMS Cormorant was inflating his balloon, the one used in the two previous attempts to fly skyward.  About half-past 2 o’clock … the balloon was up.  Sure enough there it was sailing gracefully over the town at an elevation of two or three thousand feet.”

“… a little steady gazing was rewarded by the vision of a streak of red the aeronauts athletic costume … going through movements on the bar which made the balloon sag and sway at intervals.”

“At a point nearly over Palace Square the balloon was noticed to be descending which caused the rush of hundreds to the water front to see the finish of the aerial voyage.  … The aeronaut let go when near the surface of the water dropping in about four or five feet depth on the reef inside the breakers off Kakaʻako. His balloon in a few seconds took the water having careened on its side under a gust of wind.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, April 9, 1889)

Joseph Lawrence Van Tassell was another balloonist who came to Hawaiʻi.

Some credit him with the first flight in the islands, but it is clear from the above, that Melville made it on his third try (although unceremoniously with a dunking in the water.)

Like Melville, Van Tassell staged a flight from Kapiʻolani Park, collecting admission fees from spectators.  On November 2, 1889, “The attendance at Kapiʻolani Park … was not so large as it ought to have been. About five hundred persons were in the enclosure, but there was a much larger number outside. Many people witnessed the ascension from the top of Punchbowl and other commanding positions”.

“… It progressed so rapidly and in such a thorough manner that at four o’clock ‘let go’ was heard and the balloon ascended gracefully into the air. (At the appropriate time,) “the aeronaut partly opened the parachute and a few seconds later parted from the balloon, coming down in a very graceful manner”.  (Daily Bulletin, November 4, 1889)

What’s it like?  “We go up in a balloon which holds 75,000 cubic feet of gas and lifts 2,800 pounds. … The parachute is fastened to the side of the balloon with a rope. … Underneath the parachute is an ordinary trapeze. When we get ready to jump, we swing out of the balloon throwing one leg out of the trapeze under the parachute.”

“Then we cut it loose at the same instant pulling a cord that collapses the balloon. We fall the first two hundred feet with terrible rapidity and then comes the most dangerous part of the jump, next to landing, for in falling the two hundred feet the parachute opens and it brings up with a jerk that almost hurls you off the bar.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 26, 1889)

Then, a fateful event.

Van Tassell promised a special show to honor King Kalākaua on his 53rd birthday; he had no trouble selling tickets.  He promised to ascend from the crater Punchbowl then parachute to a landing in the palace grounds.  (hawaii-gov)

“The inflation commenced about 2 o’clock and the big bag was quickly filled. … At 2:19 pm the aeronaut declared himself ready and with a pleasant wave of the hand to a few friends he straddled the iron bar of the parachute and grasping the ropes gave the order ‘let go’ and started on his ride”.

“The point of starting was so well sheltered from the brisk trade wind that was blowing that the balloon had an excellent opportunity to rise upward which it did to a height estimated at between five and six thousand feet. “

“The balloon now caught the force of the trade wind and commenced to set slowly towards the south-west, passing over the Palace at which point it had been arranged by the aeronaut he would cut loose and begin his descent.”

“Slowly the balloon passed to a wind directly over the corner of Richard and King streets where it was discernable, now at 2:22 o’clock after being up three minutes, that Professor Joe had at last cut loose.”

“The parachute however instead of coming, as was hoped, directly earthwards seemed on the contrary to have been caught by the trade wind and lifted upward, and also drifted rapidly towards the sea.”

“And now commenced a race between the balloon and parachute to seaward, the parachute with its living freight for the first few minutes appearing to be equal in height with the balloon.”

“The lighthouse is reached, no drop! the outer buoy, no stop! On goes the parachute, on goes the balloon. Now appears the danger, there is no provision for assistance, the parachute is now two miles from shore and still receding. At last he drops …”

“From 3 o’clock until 5:30 search, diligent and careful was made, the sail-boats cruising in different courses, Minister Thurston in the “Hawaii” going well in shore and the tug making circles that covered all probable points.”

“No trace of man or parachute could be found ….”  (The balloon was later recovered,) “Prof. Joseph Lawrence Van Tassell had made his last leap, had jumped into eternity and had added his name to the list of those daring spirits of his profession who had joined the great majority.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 19, 1889)

On November 18, 1889, Van Tassell became Hawaiʻi’s first air fatality.  The image shows an advertisement for the November 2, 1889 ascent and jump from a balloon.

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Getting Around in Kona … in the Old Days

“While in the old days, you walked to school and you walked home. There wasn’t any time for anything else. … Nobody got a ride to school unless they lived five miles away from the school.”  (Sherwood Greenwell, Social History of Kona)

“[We’d] go down swimming … Straight down [from up mauka to Kainaliu beach] of we used to walk down to Keauhou Beach. That’s five of six miles.  Yeah, we used to walk.”  (William Ishida, Social History of Kona)

“I grew up with my aunts and uncles living in a big house with my grandparents and my parents. We walked to school, and we would chit-chatter. In the morning, we never played on the roadside because we had to get to school on time.”

“But coming home after school from Japanese[-language] school, it was different. We’d look around the roadside for thimbleberries, rose apple or mountain apple, or guavas. We didn’t encounter too much animosity growing up together with other nationalities.”

“Hōlualoa was a real multicultural community. We lived among many different races, and we did many things together in the neighborhood.”

“I grew up doing things with my aunties and uncles. It was more family togetherness. We didn’t have anything like television; we couldn’t afford to buy things. We picked seeds on the roadside, and we’d save them to do some craft things.”

“As a teenager, going to movies at the Hōlualoa Theater was a treat. I never went alone; always as a group. We enjoyed visiting our neighbors to sing songs and exchange stories.”

“My childhood days was very simple. It wasn’t like, oh we have to go someplace to have fun. It was a joy to visit my girlfriends’ home and do some embroidery or stitchery; picking guavas and mountain apples from the fields.”

“We would just go in the coffee field and we’d play with simple things, like getting a guava branch for sticks, or whatever. … It was a little community and we all knew the families in Hōlualoa. We knew everyone and we trusted everyone”.

“Coffee season, we’d never go anywhere. From early in the morning we’d go out to pick coffee; it was like we had to do it. We never say, ‘Oh, we don’t want to pick coffee.’ We’d get up and it’s our responsibility, it’s part of our life.”

“We’d pick every day; there’s no Sundays. If it rained, there were other chores, like bagging all the coffee underneath the hoshidana [large coffee sun-drying platforms with retractable roofs] to take it to American Factors.”

“When we were done with our coffee picking, we’d help families in Kainaliu. I remember going to my relative, the Takeguchis, near Konawaena School. The whole crew, my brothers and even my grandmother, we’d all go and help pick their coffee.”

“I remember asking my grandma, ‘How did you come from Hilo to Kona?’ And she said she and my grandfather walked from Hilo. I said, ‘You mean you walked all the way?’”

“She said they walked to Honu‘apo. You know, Ka‘ū? There’s a landing, Honu‘apo. And I said, ‘Oh, what did you do for sleeping and for food?’ She said they just walked, and during the evening before it gets real dark, they see a dim light here and there.”

“They’d go up, and many of the Hawaiians were very nice. They gave them a place for them to rest on the porch, and I guess they gave them whatever food. They made it to Honu‘apo, rode the boat, and landed at Nāpō‘opo‘o.” (Alfreida Kimura Fujita, Kona Heritage Stores)

“I think on my father’s side, the grandparents, after they finished their contract with the Plantation [in East Hawaii], then they were free, so they came to Kona.”

“But I think – on my mother’s side – I think they took off before their contract was over. My mother was the eldest – she had five brothers. And the one below her, they had to walk all the way [to Kona].”

They walked “From Hilo [to Honu‘apo]. … [T]they had a boat going in and out those days. So, they rode on the boat at Honu‘apo and then came to Kona. … Probably they slept over one night or two nights. Especially when you have a family, you know, it’s hard.“

“[W]e used to make our own fun. Go down the beach, we used to walk all the way. No more cars like today. And everything was nature in the raw. We go down there, and coming home it’s hot.”

“We all walked to school. Like, from Kainaliu till Konawaena – it was up where First Hawaiian Bank is now [next to the Kealakekua Public Library]. That used to be the old Konawaena School.”

“But that’s nothing. There were some people living farther away. They had to walk all the way. And the road was not much of a road, either, you know. Not paved road at all. All gravel road, and rough.” (Norman K. Okamura, Kona Heritage Stores)

“[F]ortunately, my father had two sisters who were schoolteachers, and they didn’t have a car. So every morning my father had to take them to school. So we used to ride in the car and go to school, same way.  So we were real fortunate that my father had a taxi business and we were able to hang on and go to school. Didn’t have to walk.” (Susumu Oshima, Kona Heritage Stores)

“Well, I was really fortunate because the place we live is centralized. They call it central Kona, because all my friends, they all surrounded me. All my classmates and all that we always stood by each other for fun.”

“In fact, in my gang we had about fifteen to twenty of us and in the morning before we go to school, we always got together at the store.”

“We talk story, play cards, and we used to walk to school every day. And I remember because I love my sports, and the way we had to entertain ourselves is those days, we didn’t have any basketball. Tennis ball was available, … in the garage we made a basket out of a Crisco can. And we used to play basketball in that area.”

“And since it was war days when I was about twelve, thirteen, there was no field to play in. The [Māmalahoa] Highway was next to my store, so we played football in the highway because we could see the cars coming. Half an hour later or so (laughs), we own the field. Our field was a road.” (Sukeji Yamagata, Kona Heritage Stores)

“Of course, those days didn’t have many cars so you could take up the whole road to walk.”  (Alfreida Kimura Fujita, Kona Heritage Stores)

“[My father would make] me watch the store. Well, I was old enough to watch. And he goes down, early in the morning, walk – there’s a trail from the church here.”

“And there’s a trail going all the way down. When I grew up, I wanted – I was so curious how to get there. Two girls and I, we took that trail.”

“I said, “Gee, and here my father went all the way to get food.” The walking down is okay but coming home with that basket of fish. . . . [it would take] about half an hour [to walk the trail].” (Madeline Fujihara Leslie, Kona Heritage Stores)

“[L]ots of the Japanese people had donkeys, and so did some Hawaiians, they would come shop, and put [the groceries] on, tie ’em up, so the donkey would pack those things home for them.”

“After they buy their groceries, they put ’em in a bag and then have two bags with some kind of thing around. And then it would balance, and the donkey go back home, up the hill.”

“That was their transportation like. They buy canned goods, like corned beef, cracker, those needed items, they buy. And people live way up, about a mile up the hill. And only by trail, no cars. So they would bring their donkey.”

“And I’ve seen them put two bags across. Then the donkey would go home with an even weight. Yeah, all had donkeys. I used to ride them, too.” (Madeline Fujihara Leslie, Kona Heritage Stores)

“And we used to go fishing right down here; we walked down. … Yeah, we walked down, because no cars those days. Went down fishing. … And later on when the war stopped, they had surplus jeeps, then we started buying those jeeps. Then we didn’t have to walk anymore.” (Sukeji Yamagata, Kona Heritage Stores)

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Hawaiian Pineapple Day

“Pineapple growers in Hawaii during 1914 and 1915 are said to have sold their fruit at an average loss. Those producing this variety of fruit, and particularly those on the island of Maui, have not yet learned what price they will be offered by the canners this year, although there are indications that it will be better than during the past two years.”

“According to a grower in the Haiku district, island of Maui, there is evidence that the pack will not show the increase this year that it has in the past.”

“Many small growers on Oahu have been compelled to dispose of their holdings by practical inability to sell their fruit at all, and a considerable acreage has been allowed, for this reason, to grow up in weeds.”

“On Maui the crop will be short, both for the reason that the independent growers have not been planting heavily, on account of uncertainty as to price, and that the plantings suffered severely from incessant rains. The quality of the season’s pack also may be below the normal.”

“In order to stimulate planting the canning companies are advancing money to homesteaders and others. This has not been reported for several years. It is done on Oahu, and on Maui the Haiku Fruit & Packing Co. is also helping to finance small growers.”

“A homesteader in the Kuiaha tract has undertaken to plant 50 acres, and has been allowed an advance of $100 per acre for the property. Everything to interest planting has been done. However, the output for the Maui pack for the next two or three years is estimated to be smaller than in the past.”

“The price paid the growers on Maui last season was $11.25 per ton for first-class fruit, which low rate accounts for the indifference of growers in relation to extending their acreage. The new price will be announced in May.”

“The price of canned fruit has advanced some during the year and this may benefit the growers. The total pineapple pack for all the islands in 1915 was 2,175,000 cases.”

“The large pineapple canneries, such as the Hawaiian Pineapple Co., Thomas Pineapple Co., Libby, McNeil & Libby,  Haiku Fruit & Packing Co., and others which have large acreages of their own, independent of individual growers, had a large pineapple tonnage at their direct command throughout the year.”

“The Hawaiian Pineapple Packers’ Association, of Honolulu, entered into two extensive advertising campaigns in 1915. One was a grocery-window display of Hawaiian-canned pineapples in practically every State on the American mainland …”

“… while “Hawaiian Pineapple Day” … called for the preparation of special Hawaiian pineapple menus in American hotels from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”  (Commerce Reports)

“[T]he growers in Hawaii realized that they were not helping themselves by trying to promote individual brands. Instead, they decided to focus on promoting the Hawaiian pineapple over other foreign suppliers to increase America’s awareness of the product and through that, demand.” (Calabretta)

It had an inauspicious start … they proposed November 23, 1915 as ‘Hawaiian Pineapple Day,’ but mainland wholesalers said that was too close to Thanksgiving and retailers didn’t want to give up display space.

“Turkeys, cranberries, roast suckling pigs with apples in their mouths, and other Thanksgiving dainties will fill the windows of the mainland grocers Thanksgiving week, and Pineapple Day would be bound to suffer in the comparison.”

“The advice of the wholesale grocers, however, once given, was controlling. After comparatively little consideration, the joint committee decided that it could not afford to go counter to the judgment of its most valued aids, and took action accordingly.”

So, Hawaiian Pineapple Day was changed and celebrated November 10, 1915.  “On that day the Hawaiian Pineapple will be elevated to royal honors and proclaimed the King of Fruits.”

“We will place on the tables of the President of the United States, the Governors of States and Mayors large mainland cities, delicious bowls of sliced pineapples.”

“We believe that no menu, on Wednesday, November 10, 1915, will be complete unless its array of includes many dishes composed of the juicy Hawaiian pineapple. Last year practically every large hotel and cafe in the United States, and every railroad dining car and steamship dining saloon headed their menus ‘Hawaiian Pineapple Day,’ in red letters.”

“Grocers windows from Boston to San Francisco presented Hawaiian pineapples to the gaze of the passing public.  We ask you to join with us in this celebration, by jotting down the date now, and thus help us show the world that the ‘Paradise of the Pacific’ has a new industry designed to satisfy mankind’s ‘sweet tooth.’” (California Grocers Advocate)

‘Hawaiian Pineapple Day’ was at the Panama Pacific Exposition, held in San Francisco in November 1915, complete with Hawaiian leis for visitors with a pineapple hangtag naming the time and place.

The exposition was widely advertised. Canned pineapple was placed before President Wilson and the State Governors on that day, and hotels and cafes throughout the United States featured Hawaiian pineapple. (Canning Trade)

In San Francisco the day was observed in an impressive manner, the event culminating in a celebration on the grounds of the Panama-Pacific Exposition that the San Francisco Chronicle believed was by far the most impressive of the events designed to promote a food product.”

An immense crowd was attracted and 5,000 cans of pineapples were given away to visitors at the Palace of Horticulture. (San Francisco Chronicle)

The association was so helpful, we take it for granted in ads today. Similar to how California was portrayed as a wealthy, luxurious paradise, Dole capitalized on Hawaii’s tropical flair and mystery tenfold.

Hawaii was incredibly exotic and fantastic to mainland Americans who had only read of such a place in books. Pineapples represented “the flavor of aloha” as stated on Dole’s website.  (Calabretta)

The statistical results of the [Hawaiian Pineapple Day] campaign have been compiled by the Hawaii Promotion Committee and the Hawaiian Pineapple Packers’ Association, indicating that it was satisfactory.” (American Food Journal)]

The association not only helped increase sales, but also let Hawaiian growers command a higher price, even today. Many pineapples are grown and sold cheaper in Taiwan, but America’s trust has already been placed in the Dole Corporation and its Hawaiian fruits. (Calabretta)

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Teacherages

The teacher’s home stands in almost the same relation to the school that the parsonage or manse does to the church.

Various names, such as teacher’s home, manse, teacherage, attic apartment, “lean-to,” and dominage, are applied to the district-owned buildings or to rooms in the schoolhouse that provide living quarters for teachers.  (Muerman)

In the New England States the academies of the early days usually provided dormitories for the pupils. In these dormitories rooms were frequently set apart for members of the faculty who had supervision over the students who lived in the dormitories.

Several of these academies have been purchased by the school committees for use as public-school buildings, and with this purchase a home is provided for the teacher.

In the year 1894 rural school district No. 1, in Hall County, Nebraska, built a teachers’ home at a cost to the district of $1,000. This is perhaps the first one built by a school district for this purpose.

100 years ago, “It is not difficult to secure the services of competent teachers for such schools as have been supplied with teachers’ homes …”

“… and when good teachers schools as have been supplied with teachers’ homes, and when good teachers have been hired for these schools there seems to be less difficulty in retaining them for a greater number of years than they would be willing to stay in schools where teachers’ homes have not been provided.”

“The teachers who live at these homes are able to do better work; they live at a lower cost; they are happier; they have a place in which to prepare their work undisturbed …”

“… they are free from liability to entanglement in neighborhood differences; they are not so apt to make enemies during the school year because of a change of boarding places …”

“… they have a place in which to entertain patrons of the school, who as a rule are inclined to call on the teachers more often than where they are expected to go to the homes of their neighbors in order to do so …”

“… they go home less frequently on Friday evenings; in fact they live at home, feel at home, act at home, and are at home at the school.”  (Muerman)

As part of the national discussion about teacherages 100 years ago, “The discourse about the cottages reveals that the issue is larger than just providing housing for teachers.”

Some saw them as a way to accomplish the goal of integrating scientific management techniques into the education system.   “For them, teacherages provided an opportunity to put into practice their theories about home economics, vocational training and the cultivation of community life through schools.”

Others, particularly women, saw teacher housing as one of the several reforms needed to remediate women’s position in education and society.  (Felber)

“The system of providing teachers’ cottages is an old one in Hawaii, going back to the middle of the last century.  The teachers’ residence was built on the school lot, which was owned either by the Mission or by the Crown. The first cottages were small and primitive, in keeping with the simple architecture of the time.”

“It must be remembered that Hawaii had a highly developed educational system long before the western States were extensively settled. At one time, children were sent from the Northwest and from California to Hawaii to receive their education.”

“From those early days down to [100-years ago], there has been a steady growth in the number and character of the teachers’ cottages.”

100 years ago in Hawai‘i, “constructed cottages compare favorably with the better suburban bungalows and cottages. For example, the type of cottage [then] provided at a number of our larger rural schools would rent in Honolulu for from sixty to ninety dollars per month.” (MacGaughty)

“The school cottages are almost invariably built on the school lot adjacent to the regular school buildings. In most of the larger rural schools, the principal has a separate cottage for himself, or herself, and family.”

“[T]here is no other part of the United States where the teachers’ cottage system has been developed to the degree found in Hawaii. Here, it is a regular feature of all rural schools throughout the Territory.”

“The teachers who are assigned to the rural schools are given lodgings gratis, with no additional charge and in addition to their regular salary.” (MacGaughey)

The following letter from a group of mainland teachers, who came to the Islands 100-years ago, will indicate one reaction of newcomers to the teachers’ cottage system in Hawaii: “To the Editor of the Hawaii Educational Review” …

“Dear Sir: From the deepest gratitude we write this public testimony to the unexpected and very generous welcome the six coast teachers received. No one can fully appreciate the pleasure that we felt unless she too has been a coast girl plunged into the new and not altogether easily adaptable circumstances of a teacher in a plantation school of the Hawaiian Islands.”

“From the moment we crossed the landing place, where we were met by some kindly citizens with cars, and given the best breakfast obtainable at one of the local hotels, until we crossed the threshold of the cottage which was to be our home for the next year, we have felt welcome and wanted.”

“But more especially when we entered the cottage did we see evidences on every side of the thoughtfulness of the men and women of the interior of the cottage had been freshly painted, the necessary furniture had been made the previous school year by the manual training boys and nicely stained during the summer.”

“The windows shone clear and were hung with dainty curtains, and the dressers and tables were fitted out with covers to match. The kitchen was almost completely equipped with the needed utensils, and there was a very complete set of tasteful and pretty dishes – all of which girls especially appreciate.”

“From the outset of the school year, we have been called upon by the women of the plantation, and we really have felt an enthusiasm for entering into community affairs.”

“The clean and dainty appearance of our cottage as we explored it made us long to do the best we could for the boys and girls whose parents had been so thoughtful of us who were almost strangers to them.”

“Since all these things have been done for our comfort, we feel that it would be the least we could do in return to give their boys and girls the best we have of ourselves, our ideals, and our advantages”. (signed, the teachers)

“The effects of the teachers’ cottage system in stabilizing the teaching force are obvious.”

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Koreans in Hawai‘i

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.

In 1882, the United States and Korea signed a formal trade agreement.  Under provisions of the treaty, Koreans were able to travel to, reside and study in, and trade with the US.

Although they had a signed trade agreement, there was little activity between the two countries.  That changed moving into the early-1900s – the first of several waves of Korean immigration started in 1903.

Korean immigration to Hawaii can be compared to ocean waves and there have been four waves of Korean immigrants.

Between 1903 and 1905, the first wave brought nearly 8,000 Koreans to Hawaiian shores.  The January 13, 1903 edition of the ‘Evening Bulletin’ (forerunner of the Star-Bulletin) reported, “The Korean immigrants who arrived this morning are an experimental case.  If these workers prove to be good workers and possess a kind and courteous attitude, it is evident that more Koreans will be arriving here aboard the ships from the Orient in the future.”

By April 1905, 65-ships brought 7,843 Koreans to Hawai‘i – 6,701 men, 677 women and 465 juveniles (under the age of 14.)  Men out numbered women, 10 to 1.

Most of the early immigrants were young men about 20-years of age.  Since sugar plantations wanted to import farm workers, prospective immigrants listed their occupation as farmers in their immigration applications; however, only one-seventh of the Korean immigrants had actually been farmers.

Most had dreams of making a fortune and then returning to Korea to get married.  However, for many, there was no country to go back to.

In the 1894-1895, then in 1904-1905, two wars broke out around the Korean Peninsula – Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese, respectively.  Japan took over financial and diplomatic powers from the Koreans in 1905.

Eventually, Japan assumed absolute governance of the Korean Peninsula and, finally, in 1910, annexed Korea.

Back in Hawai‘i, the young immigrants soon became middle-aged and many remained bachelors.  Preferring to marry Korean brides, a decision was made to import brides from Korea.

This started the second wave of immigration, dominated by “picture brides.”   951 young picture brides journeyed to Hawai‘i; they were greeted by the nearly 5,000 Korean bachelors eagerly looking to get married.

The third wave of Korean immigration to Hawai‘i was during the post-war period of 1947-1967.  This included students, “War Brides” (also known as “Peace Brides”) and war orphans.

These early students became leaders upon returning home after Korea was liberated from Japan as the Republic of Korea in 1948.  The War Brides married GIs while American soldiers were stationed in Korea.

The final wave of Korean immigration, starting around 1967, included immigrants from a broad range of occupations, unlike the initial job-specific focus.  Many well-educated people moved to Hawai‘i and the continent who were entrepreneurs, doctors, investors and other professionals.

According to recent population data for Hawaiʻi, of the approximate 1.4-million Hawaiʻi residents, nearly 50,000 are Korean.  Many are the descendants of these early immigrants to Hawaiʻi.

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