Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Raising the United States Flag

A Command from Captain Wiltse to Lieutenant Commander Swinburne; USS Boston, Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, February 1, 1893 …

“Sir: You will take possession of the Government building, and the American flag will be hoisted over it at 9 am. Very respectfully, GC Wiltse, Captain US Navy, Commanding USS Boston.”

The following is a summary of a report prepared by Lieut. Commander Swinburne in preparation and response to that order and the events that followed (as recorded in the Report of the Committee of Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 1894.)

In accordance with that order, the battalion of the Boston landed at Brewers Wharf, in the city of Honolulu, at 5 pm January 16.

The following summarizes the forces that landed: Company A, Artillery, 40 men; Company B, Infantry, 35 men; Company C, Infantry, 34 men; Company D, Marines, 30 men;  Color guard, 4 men; hospital corps, 1 apothecary, 4 stretchermen; signalmen, 2; music, 3. Total, 153 men, 11 officers.

Each man carried the regulation knapsack, with blanket and change of clothing, haversack with mess gear and ration of hard bread, and filled canteen. Those armed with Lee rifle wore the double webbing belt carrying 60 cartridges in the loops and 20 in magazines. The marines were fitted out with the same belts, but the loops only were filled.

The ammunition boxes of the Gatling gun contained four filled Accle’s Feeds and 1,380 extra rounds of .45 caliber in pasteboard boxes. The ammunition boxes of the 37 mm contained 64 cartridges, common shell. Reserve ammunition in 37 mm. caisson was as follows: After compartments, 112 37 mm. cartridges, common shell; forward compartment 1,600 caliber .45 cartridges in pasteboard boxes; top or center compartment, four filled Accle’s Feeds, and 800 .38 caliber revolver cartridges.

After the battalion was formed, they marched first to the United States consulate, where Lieut. Draper, with his company, was detached with orders to proceed to the legation and leave half his command in charge of the orderly sergeant, returning with the remainder to the United States consulate, himself, and remain there as a guard until further orders.

The remainder of the battalion then marched down King Street. In passing the palace the battalion, in column of companies, gave a marching salute, trumpeters sounding four ruffles in honor of the royal standard, which was flying there.

On arriving at the residence of Mr. JB Atherton, an American, the command was halted, and permission having been obtained, was marched into the grounds, arms stacked and ranks broken.  About 8 in the evening the battalion marched to Arion Hall and camped there.

During the night the men were kept ready for an instant’s call, but there were no disturbances of any kind.

At reveille the next morning, 17th, the camp routine was published and has been strictly carried out in all its details. Latrines were built in the yard and every sanitary precaution taken.

At 2:30 pm, a civilian, armed, reported that a policeman had been shot while attempting to stop a wagonload of ammunition which was being conveyed to the old armory where the civilian forces enrolled by the committee of safety were then assembling, and that a large crowd was collecting on Merchant Street.

The battalion was immediately assembled under arms in the yard in rear of the building to await developments. Until nearly 6 o’clock, the men leading the citizens’ movement had assumed charge of the Government building without opposition of any kind; the civilian companies under arms had marched in and established a line of sentries about the Government building.

The Boston’s battalion was kept in rear of the camp, at their company parades, with arms stacked. About 1 pm, they were notified that a Provisional Government, of which Mr. SB Dole was presiding officer, was in complete possession.  A letter from the United States minister recognized it as the de facto government of the Hawaiian Islands, and the battalion was to consider it as such.

During the night, again, officers and men were kept ready for a moment’s call, but the city was perfectly quiet.

During the day of the 18th the royal standard was hauled down over the palace, and the household troops disbanded, by order of the Provisional Government, except a small guard of honor, who accompanied the ex-Queen to her residence on Beretania street.

On January 19 new quarters were provided for the battalion at the unoccupied house on King street, the property of Mr. CR Bishop.  Having thoroughly policed the old camp, the battalion moved into the new quarters at 1:30 pm.  Daily routine followed.

In accordance with verbal orders given the evening of January 31, the battalion was paraded on the morning of February 1, at 8:30, in front of the quarters – ‘A’ Company as artillery with Gatling and 37 men; the rest as infantry in light marching order.

As the line was formed, a written order, dated February 1, was given; in obedience to those orders the battalion marched to the Government building, where we were received by the civilian troops, who presented arms as they entered. President Dole and all members of the ministry and advisory council were also present.

According to the order, Col. Sofer, Commander in Chief of the Provisional Government forces, at once turned over the custody of the building to Lieut. Commander Swinburne.

A proclamation from Minister Stevens establishing a protectorate over the Hawaiian Islands in the name of the United States, pending negotiations with the Hawaiian Commissioners at Washington, was read.

At 9 am, the United States ensign was hoisted over the building, the battalion and civilian forces presenting arms.  The Hawaiian flag, hoisted on the pole in the grounds, received the same salute.

The civilian forces of the Provisional Government were then withdrawn and the custody of the building turned over to Lieut. Draper with his company of 25 marines, which were withdrawn from the United States consulate for the purpose, the guard at the United States legation being continued but reduced to 5 men. The blue jacket companies of the battalion then returned to their quarters.

© 2023 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pacific Jungle Combat Training Center

Prior to World War II, Kahana and Punalu‘u Valleys were primarily used for agricultural activities.  Taro, rice, and sugar cane were cultivated at the mouths of each valley.  The interior portions of the valleys were heavily vegetated and relatively unused.

The Army initially leased 485.25 acres in Kahana Valley from Hui of Kahana in November 1944, retroactive to May 1943.  Between 1943 and 1947, the Army acquired an additional 1,781.52 acres in the neighboring Punalu‘u Valley from various landowners through leases, licenses, and permits.

In response to an August 9, 1943 directive from the Commanding General, Hawaiian Department, Pacific Jungle Combat Training Center (CTC) was established as a school on Oahu to supplement Department Ranger and Combat School training.

It was located on the northeastern side of the island of Oahu totaling approximately 2,545 acres in the adjacent valleys of Punalu‘u and Kahana in the district of Ko‘olauloa.

Pacific Jungle CTC was also known as Unit Jungle Training Center, Unit Combat Training Center, Pacific Combat Training Center, Jungle Training, Punaluu Training Camp and Green Valley Jungle Training Camp.

Punalu‘u Valley being referred to as “Green Valley” by the Army while Kahana Valley was designated “Red Valley” during utilization of the valleys as a training area.

An Army-built coral-surfaced service road is still referred to as “Green Valley Road” by area residents. This road is also designated by Oahu Civil Defense Agency as an evacuation route to allow coastal inhabitants access to higher ground in the event of a tsunami.

Beginning in September 1943 (during World War II), this property was used as a unit-level jungle combat training center.  The Center was divided into three courses: Red, Blue, and Green.

Basic warfare training was conducted at the Red and Blue courses while advanced warfare training and Instructor Jungle Training School were conducted at the Green course.

Subjects taught during a one-week course included jungle first aid and evacuation, hand-to-hand combat training, construction and passage of wire entanglements, booby traps, patrolling and ambushing, assault of Japanese fortified areas, combat reaction proficiency, and jungle living.

The Army reportedly constructed Japanese villages and pillboxes for training purposes.  Temporary barracks, a mess hall, a bakery, and shower facilities were also erected though no longer exist.

Advanced training on Green Course was discontinued on 28 May 1944 after only its second class as it became necessary to utilize the course for basic jungle warfare training of divisions being staged for the Western Carolines operations.

Jungle warfare was de-emphasized as the war progressed from tropical regions to areas where jungle fighting was not a primary consideration.

All jungle training centers became known as Unit Combat Training Centers in March 1945. On month later, it was redesignated as Pacific Combat Training Center to deemphasize jungle warfare.  Over 241,000 men received basic, advance, or instructor training at the center.

Munitions known to have been used or recovered at the site include 75mm armor piercing rounds, 2.36-inch rockets, MKII hand grenades, rifle grenades, 105mm high explosive rounds, 81mm high explosive and practice mortar rounds, and small arms.

Postwar plans called for closing the majority of the center except for the Green Course in Punalu‘u Valley, which was to be retained to fulfill the Army’s postwar training requirements.

The Army re-opened Punalu‘u Valley on April 1, 1946 to provide emergency shelter for area residents displaced by a tsunami.  Tents were erected for sleeping quarters, to render medical treatment, and to feed approximate 1,700 individuals.

Parcels in Kahana Valley were returned to previous landowners in August 1946.  The leases, licenses, and permits for parcels in Punalu‘u Valley terminated between April 1945 and November 1950 and were reverted back to previous owners.

The Punalu‘u Valley parcels are primarily owned by Kamehameha Schools.  The Kahana Valley parcels are now owned by the State of Hawai‘i and managed by the DNLR, Division of State Parks.

The Kahana Valley parcels are located in the Ahupuaʻa ʻO Kahana State Park. The park was established as a “living park” with the primary purpose to nurture and foster native Hawaiian cultural traditions and the cultural landscape of rural windward Oahu.   (All here is from the Army Corps of Engineers.)

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Heʻeia

The nine ahupuaʻa of Kāneʻohe Bay, beginning at the boundary between Koʻolauloa and Koʻolaupoko Districts (west) and moving eastward, are Kualoa, Hakipuʻu, Waikāne, Waiāhole, Kaʻalaea, Waiheʻe, Kahaluʻu, Heʻeia and Kāneʻohe.

The ahupuaʻa of Heʻeia and Kāneʻohe also included portions of Mōkapu Peninsula (Heʻeia runs from the mountains to the sea, but also crosses over a portion of the water in Kāneʻohe Bay and includes a portion of a Mōkapu peninsula across the Bay.)  Heʻeia also includes Moku-o-Loʻe (Coconut Island,) Kahaluʻu includes Kapapa Island and Kualoa includes Mokoliʻi.

The name of the land of Heʻeia is traditionally associated with Heʻeia, the handsome foster son of the goddess Haumea and grandson of the demigod ʻOlopana, who was an uncle of Kamapuaʻa.

Heʻeia was named in commemoration of a tsunami-type wave that washed Haumea and others into the sea – a great tidal wave that “washed (he‘e ‘ia) … out to sea and back” (Lit., surfed, or washed (out to sea,) or swept away.)

They swam until they were exhausted and were finally washed ashore at Kapapa Island in Kāneʻohe Bay. It was the handsome Heʻeia who fell in love with Kaohelo, a younger sister of Pele and Hiʻiaka, whom he met in Koʻolau, Oʻahu.  (Devaney)

In ancient Hawai‘i, fishponds were an integral part of the ahupua‘a food source.  Hawaiians built rock-walled enclosures in near shore waters to raise fish for their communities and families.  Loko iʻa (fishpond) were used for fattening and storing of fish for food and also as a source for kapu (forbidden) fish.  Walled, brackish-water fishponds were usually constructed on the reef along the shore and one or more mākāhā (sluice gate.)

Heʻeia Fishpond’s wall was one of the longest, extending nearly a mile.  As a large pond, it is subject to considerable evaporation, increasing salinity in the pond; as such, fresh water is added.  Heʻeia is somewhat unique in that it has mākāhā gates on the mauka wall to control the flow of fresh water.

Kalo (taro) was a main staple in the diet of nearly all Hawaiians prior to European contact and was extensively cultivated.  As early as 1789, Portlock described this area:

“… the bay all around has a very beautiful appearance, the low land and valleys being in high state of cultivation, and crowded with plantations of taro, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, etc. interspersed with a great number of coconut trees ….”

The region had a considerable amount of land cultivated in taro up through the early-1800s.  “Southeastward along the windward coast, beginning with Waikāne and continuing through Waiāhole, Kaʻalaea, Kahaluʻu, Heʻeia and Kāne’ohe, were broad valley bottoms and flatlands between the mountains and the sea which, taken all together, represent the most extensive wet-taro area on Oʻahu.” (Handy, Devaney)

The rains that sweep through here have been memorialized in poetry and song.  A traditional mele honoring Kaumuali‘i suggests “the sound of heavy rain drops on dry leaves, or dry thatching of the pandanus leaf, … of the rain accompanying the koʻolau wind, which calms the troubled waters”.

This “heavy-sounding rain” of the Koʻolau has been transformed into a poetical saying, “Ka ua kani koʻo o Heʻeia, The rain of Heʻeia that sounds like the tapping of walking canes”.  (Fornander)

During the early historic times, many of the ruling chiefs favored this area as their place of residence. Kahahana the ruler of Oʻahu sometimes resided there. Kahekili after defeating Kahahana lived in Kailua, Kāneʻohe and Heʻeia.

The Sacred Hearts Father’s College of Ahuimanu was founded by the Catholic mission at Ahuimanu, Heʻeia in 1846.  “Outside the city, at Ahuimanu, Maigret has now a country retreat that he refers to by the Hawaiian word māla.  It is a combination garden, orchard and kitchen garden. …”

“The venerable bishop has built his own vineyard and planted his own orchard … His retreat in the mountain, his “garden in the air” as he terms it, is a pleasant and profitable sight … When the pressure of events allows it, Maigret takes refuge there.” (Charlot)

One of its students, Damien (born as Jozef de Veuster,) arrived in Hawaiʻi on March 9, 1864, at the time a 24-year-old choirboy.  Determined to become a priest, he had the remainder of the schooling at the College of Ahuimanu.  Bishop Maigret ordained Father Damien at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in 1864 and later assigned him to Molokaʻi.  In 2009, Father Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.

The earliest of the modern large commercial agricultural ventures started with the cultivation of sugar cane in Kualoa in the 1860s. By 1880, three more sugar companies had emerged in Kahaluʻu, Heʻeia and Kāne’ohe. Heʻeia Sugar Company (also called Heʻeia Agricultural Co. Ltd) operated from 1878 to 1903.

In 1880, the region reported 7,000-acres available for cultivation; in 1883 a railroad was installed at Heʻeia, and by the summer of that year it was noted that the railroad had allowed a much greater amount of land to be harvested, even allowing cane from Kāneʻohe to be ground at Heʻeia; however, the commercial cultivation of sugar cane was short-lived.  (Devaney)

Rice cultivation did not occur in earnest until the decline of sugar, and in 1880 the first Chinese rice company started in the nearby Waineʻe area. Abandoned systems of loʻi kalo were modified into rice paddies. The Kāneʻohe Rice Mill was built around 1892-1893 in nearby Waikalua.

Another commercial crop, pineapple, was also grown here, starting around 1910.  By 1911, Libby, McNeill & Libby gained control of land here and built the first large-scale cannery with an annual capacity of 250,000-cans at nearby Kahaluʻu; growing and canning pineapples became a major industry in the area for a period of 15 years (to 1925.)

The US military first established a presence on the Mōkapu peninsula in 1918 when President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order establishing Fort Kuwaʻaohe Military Reservation (the western portion of Mōkapu is within the Heʻeia ahupuaʻa.)

Today, Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi continues to serve as a fully functional operational and training base for US Marine Corps forces. The Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) here operates a 7,800-foot runway (on the ahupuaʻa of Heʻeia) that can accommodate both fixed wing and rotor-driven aircraft.

With World War II underway, the Navy recognized the need to be able to communicate across the Pacific.  In 1942, a group of radio experts determined a superpower radio station with across-the-Pacific range might be built provided that the antenna could be raised high enough above the ground.

The solution was to find a topographic feature that would act like the “unbuildable” tall tower.  Using technology developed pre-World War I, they strategically positioned four Alexanderson Alternators; one was located in Haiku Valley in Heʻeia.  Haiku Valley with its horseshoe shape and sheer side-walls filled the prescription perfectly.

To build it, mountain climbers pounded spikes into the vertical cliff, then added wooden stairs up the mountain.  A lift to haul up materials was added and they strung cables across the valley.  The Alexanderson Alternator radio system, transmitting Morse code across the Pacific, was operational in 3-months.  A reminder of that facility is the Haiku Ladder, Haiku Stairs – the Stairway to Heaven (a 3,922-step ladder/stairway ascending the summit of the Koʻolau mountain range.)

Today, Windward Mall, portions of Windward Community College, Valley of the Temples, Tetsuo Harano Tunnels (H3,) Hawaiʻi Institute for Marine Biology, MCBH, Heʻeia Kea Small Boat Harbor and a bunch of other folks call Heʻeia home.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Secret Back-Door Short Cut

The United States became a world power and acquired overseas holdings as a result of the Spanish-American War. Hawai‘i’s strategic location made it critical to the military interests of the United States.  (Ireland)

The initial studies for the defense of O‘ahu’s south shore called for seacoast batteries westward along the shoreline from Diamond Head to a point immediately west of the Pearl Harbor Channel.

As early as 1901 consideration was given to placing seacoast guns in the vicinity of Waikiki, where two 10-inch guns on barbette carriages were proposed to supplement the fire of the gun and mortar batteries at Diamond Head as well as those projected for the entrance to Pearl Harbor, thus protecting both Pearl and Honolulu Harbors.  (Gaines)

In 1913, Oahu had eight coastal batteries guarding the naval base at Pearl Harbor and the port of Honolulu, including four at Ft. Kamehameha; one at Ft. Armstrong; two at Ft. DeRussy and one at Ft. Ruger. The Navy had dredged the harbor and placed the dredge material at Ft. Kamehameha to build up the submerged land. (Army Corps 100 Years in Hawaii)

The early 1920s saw major changes in the US Army in Hawaii. The Hawaiian Division was formed of infantry and artillery brigades at Schofield Barracks in 1921.

The Artillery District of Honolulu was redesignated the Hawaiian Coast Artillery District on April 5, 1921, moving its headquarters from Fort Ruger to the Alexander Young Hotel in downtown Honolulu until facilities at Fort Shafter were available on June 21, 1921.  (Gaines)

Between the two world wars, nearly a dozen more coast artillery reservations for seacoast batteries, searchlights, fire control stations, and command posts were established on tracts of land of various sizes and placed under the Honolulu Harbor defenses.

Prior to World War II, only the slightest defenses were provided for Oahu’s Windward Coast and North Shore. Shortly before World War II, the Harbor Defense Honolulu was also directed to oversee the initial defense of a new naval air station on Oahu’s

Windward Coast, at Kaneohe Bay. (The Harbor Defenses of Kaneohe Bay was constituted as a separate command in the latter part of 1941.)

During World War II, more gun batteries and fire control installations were built throughout the Honolulu harbor defenses.

During much of this same time, “Hawaii has started in the footsteps of America by projecting a railroad around the island of Oahu, and actually perfecting, within the period from April 1st, 1889, to January 1st, 1890, a well equipped railroad in running order, extending from Honolulu along the southern shore of the island to a temporary terminus at Ewa Court House, a distance of twelve miles.”

“A hundred men told him his scheme was infeasible where one offered encouragement. He believed he was right, and so put forth every endeavor to secure a franchise, which was granted to him only after vigorous legislative opposition to the measure.”

“With all the disadvantages that remoteness from the manufacturing centers of America offered, Mr. Dillingham undertook the contract of building and equipping the railroad. Rails were ordered in Germany, locomotives and cars in America, and ties in the home market; rights of way were amicably secured, surveyors defined the line of road, and grading commenced.”

“The work was prosecuted with the utmost speed consistent with stability and safety, and there was hardly a day’s delay from the time grading commenced, in the spring of 1889, till September 4th following, when the first steam passenger train, loaded with excursionists, left the Honolulu terminus, and covered a distance of half a mile.”  (Whitney)

The OR&L railroad had built a spur from the coast to Wahiawa in 1905, to haul cane and pineapples down to the coast and later to haul men and supplies from Pearl Harbor to Schofield Barracks in Wahiawa through Waikakalaua Gulch in Waikele.

Right after the attack on Pearl Harbor the Army commandeered their entire stock of rails and bridge timbers.

A cut-off between Wahiawa and the windward side of the island was vital to defense, the brass decided it had some 90-ton railway guns for coast defense and feared that enemy attack might sever the main line and make it impossible to spot them along the shoreline in case the Japanese tried to make a landing.

The cut-off was be a sort of a secret back-door short cut. And so, an extremely hush-hush track was laid down from Wahiawa to Haleiwa.

The OR&L only had two miles of steel in stock, and the cut-off was pieced out with light plantation rail.  This “secret railroad” provided a short cut from Pearl Harbor to Army facilities at Kahuku on the north shore of O‘ahu and then over to the windward side.

Fortunately, it was never needed; and, the chances of the heavy guns ever negotiating it successfully were slim, to say the least. (Kneiss)

With the end of World War II came the realization that many of the various batteries and coastal defense guns were no longer capable of meeting the needs of the US military in Hawaiʻi. The giant guns were cut up and sold for scrap, having never fired a shot in anger or defense.

© 2022 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Something was happening”

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 lasted 110 minutes, from 7:55 am until 9:45 am. Japanese naval forces included 4 heavy aircraft carriers, 2 heavy cruisers, 35 submarines, 2 light cruisers, 9 oilers, 2 battleships and 11 destroyers.

The attacking forces came in two waves, the first consisting of 183 aircraft which included 40 torpedo planes, 49 level bombers, 51 dive bombers and 43 fighters. The second wave included 170 planes, 54 of them level bombers, 80 dive-bombers and 36 fighters.  Over 350 Japanese planes were involved in overall attack.

As a result of the December 7, 1941 attack, there were 2,403-people killed and 1,178-wounded. Among the deceased were 2,008-Navy personnel, 109-Marine, 218-Army and 68-civilians.  (navy-mil)

For part of the attack, and aftermath, first, let’s look back.

In 1899, Gorokichi Nakasugi, a Japanese shipbuilder, brought a traditional 34-foot Japanese sailing sampan to Hawai‘i; this led to a unique class of vessels and distinctive maritime culture associated with the rise of the commercial fishing industry in Hawai‘i.

(The term ‘Sampan,’ although usually associate with the Japanese in Hawaiʻi, comes from the Chinese language, meaning three (san) boards (ban,) describing a small simple skiff.)  (VanTilburg)

Japanese-trained shipwrights adapted the original sampan design to the rough waters of the Hawaiian Islands.  The fishermen used traditional live bait, pole-and-line method of fishing and unloaded their catches of aku (bonito, skipjack) and ahi (yellow-fin tuna) at Kewalo Basin.

Local Japanese fishermen opened the commercial tuna industry in Hawaiʻi in conjunction with the innovation of modern packing plants.  It was the ability to can tuna for the distant market which really made possible the expansion and modernization of the fishing fleet.  The industry benefited American canneries.

Vessels began to change with time, as well.  Gasoline engines were fitted into boats beginning in 1905, and more suitable marine diesels by 1927. Shortly thereafter the prominent deckhouse made its appearance.  The Sampans became perfectly adapted to the rough waters between the islands.  (VanTilburg)

The sampan aku fleet was based at Kewalo Basin by 1930, and the McFarlane Tuna Company (later known as Hawaiian Tuna Packers) built a shipyard there in 1929 and a new tuna cannery at the basin in 1933.

By 1940, there were over 450-sampans in the Territory of Hawaiʻi, making the commercial fishery the Islands’ third largest industry behind sugar and pineapple.

That brings us to December 1941, more specifically, December 4 – four sampans (Kiho Maru, Myojin Maru, Shin-ei Maru and the Sumiyoshi Maru) set out for fishing off Oʻahu’s leeward coast.

Later, on the morning of December 7, the Ward (US Destroyer No. 139,) conducting routine antisubmarine patrols in the Hawaiian area, had the distinction of firing the first American gun in anger during the Pacific war.  She searched for a suspected submarine and subsequently fired shots at its conning tower.

(In 2002, the University of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Undersea Research Lab (HURL) team found the submarine about three to four miles off Pearl Harbor and verified it was hit and sunk by the Ward.  (Burlingame))

Heading home, the Ward soon spotted a Japanese fishing sampan, one of many that was a familiar sight in the waters in the Hawaiian archipelago (not part of the four noted before.)

A fisherman suddenly started waving a white flag perhaps he had seen the determined depth-charge attacks and thought that the Americans would bomb anything that moved. Ward slowed and closed to investigate and took the small craft in tow to turn her over to the Coast Guard for disposition.

Nearing the harbor entrance around 0800, those on deck heard the sound of gunfire and explosions, as smoke began to boil into the skies over Pearl Harbor. (Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships)

“Something was happening.”

The Ward had returned and witnessed the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

On the morning of December 8, newspapers announced that all unidentified boats approaching Oʻahu would be fired upon. It was feared that the local fishing fleet, manned predominantly by Japanese might have had rendezvous with Japanese warships. (Roehner)

Then, the fateful day for the four sampans as they were heading home.  “All of a sudden, there were four or five Army P40s flying over us.  Each picked out a target and attacked.”

The war-planes strafed the four fishing boats (Kiho Maru, Myojin Maru, Shin-ei Maru and the Sumiyoshi Maru) about 2-miles off Barber’s Point, about 10-miles west of Pearl Harbor, killing six civilians (nine crewmen survived the mid-morning attack, but most were wounded – most of the crew on the boats were American citizens.)

After the planes attacked, a destroyer arrived on the scene and dispatched launches to tow the sampans, with the dead and wounded, back to Kewalo Basin.  They were then taken to a civilian hospital where the wounded were kept under armed guard.    (European Stars and Stripes, December 9, 1977)

The dead were brought from the waterfront to Hosoi Funeral Parlor. They were: Ogawa Mataichi, Kaichi Okada, Sutematsu Kida, Kiichi Kida, Kiho Uyehara, Riyozo Okogi.  (Scrapbook of Women of WWII Hawaiʻi)

Again on December 12th, sampans were strafed off of both Kailua and Kohala coasts.  (VanTilburg)

World War II had the single largest impact on the sampan fishing industry.   During the war, the fleet was immediately limited to operating only during certain narrow hours in a few selected near shore areas. This, of course, was devastating to the fishery. By the end of 1942, the annual yield was down by a staggering 99%.  (VanTilburg)

In 1967, 26 years after the incident, the widow of the Kiho Maru skipper received $8,000.  Another received about $2,500 and proceeds from the sale of fish that was in his boat on the day of the attack.  (European Stars and Stripes, December 9, 1977)

 

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC