Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Coaling Station

Prior to the early-1900s, most vessels were powered by sail; the absence of a fuel to move was a major factor in the flexibility of fleets. And, the carrying capacity of the sailing ship made it an indispensable element in its own logistic support.

For centuries, the most critical item of supply was water, which sailing ships found difficult to carry in sufficient quantities and to keep drinkable for long voyages. Food was somewhat less of a problem, except for its poor quality in the days before refrigeration, the sealed container and sterilization. (britannica)

The advent of steam propulsion resulted in faster and more direct travel for ships (in the early years, ships with steam engines still sailed, and used the engines only as auxiliary power – coal was burned to produce the steam to power the engines.)

The gain in control of where you were going (without reliance/variation in the wind) was a significant improvement for the long haul. But, for a time, the inordinate amount of space that had to be allocated to carry coal seriously inhibited the usefulness of early warships.

Steam warships were slow to catch on, but by the late-1850s, all new warships built by the Navy featured steam engines. The engines did not make the ships dramatically faster, and many steam ships continued to use sails preserve fuel on long trips. These ships looked and functioned much like ships from the age of sail except for the tell-tale smokestack rising above their decks. (Bailey)

The replacement of sailing ships with steam led to a requirement for fuel to be widely available. Ultimately, this produced the need for numerous coaling stations – places where the ships replenished/refueled their supply of coal.

Noting the need for a refueling site in the Pacific, Captain AT Mahan noted, “To any one viewing a map that shows the full extent of the Pacific Ocean, with its shores on either side, two circumstances will be strikingly and immediately apparent. He will see at a glance that the Sandwich Islands stand by themselves in a state of comparative isolation, amid a vast expanse of sea”.

“From San Francisco to Honolulu, 2,100 miles easy steaming distance, is substantially the same as from Honolulu to the Gilbert, Marshall, Samoan, Society, and Marquesas groups (the nearest inhabited islands,) all under European control”.

“Too much stress cannot be laid upon the immense disadvantages to us of any maritime enemy having a coaling station well within 2,500 miles of every point of our coast line from Puget Sound to Mexico. Were there many others available we might find it difficult to exclude from all. There is, however, but the one.”

“Shut out from the Sandwich Islands as a coal base, an enemy is thrown back for supplies of fuel to distances of 3,500 or 4,000 miles – or between 7,000 and 8,000, going and coming – an impediment to sustained maritime operations well nigh prohibitive.”

“It is rarely that so important a factor in the attack or defence of a coast line – of a sea frontier – is concentrated in a single position, and the circumstance renders it doubly imperative upon us to secure it, if we righteously can.”

In the 1860s, a coaling station was established in Honolulu to refuel coal burning American ships. US warships followed a policy of cruising the Hawaiian Islands starting in 1866, and rented a coaling station for them. (globalsecurity)

The lease of land for the coaling station was the first regular US Navy shore-side presence in the Hawaiian Islands. This station practically fell into disuse shortly after it was built due to the policy that required warships to use sail power wherever possible. (navy-mil)

Then, in 1873, Secretary of War, William W Belknap, issued confidential instructions to investigate the defensive capabilities of Honolulu to Major-General John McAlister Schofield (the Barracks up the hill from Pearl Harbor were later named for him (1908)) and Lieutenant-Colonel Barton S Alexander. (Young)

General Schofield reported: “The Hawaiian Islands constitute the only natural outpost to the defenses of the Pacific Coast. In possession of a foreign naval power, in time of war, as a depot from which to fit out hostile expeditions against this coast and our commerce on the Pacific Ocean, they would afford the means of incalculable injury to the United States.”

“With one exception there is no harbor on the islands that can be made to satisfy all the conditions necessary for a harbor of refuge in time of war. This is the harbor of ʻEwa, or Pearl River. … If the coral barrier were removed, Pearl River Harbor would seem to have all, or nearly all, the necessary properties to enable it to be converted into a good harbor of refuge.”

“It is to be observed that if the United States are ever to have a harbor of refuge and naval station in the Hawaiian islands in the event of war, the harbor must be prepared in advance by the removal of the Pearl river bar. When war has begun it will be too late to make this harbor available, there is no other suitable harbor on these islands.”

As a means of solidifying a site in the central Pacific, the US negotiated an amendment to the Treaty of Reciprocity in 1887. King Kalākaua, in his speech before the opening session of the 1887 Hawaiian Legislature, stated (November 3, 1887:)

“His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, grants to the Government of the US the exclusive right to enter the harbor of Pearl River, in the Island of Oʻahu, and to establish and maintain there a coaling and repair station for the use of vessels of the US and to that end the US may improve the entrance to said harbor and do all things useful to the purpose aforesaid.”

Ten years later, “Secretary Long has sent to Congress a report of the project for the establishment of a naval coaling and repairing station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi, submitted by Rear Admiral Miller, commander-in-chief of the Pacific naval station.”

“As a result of the surveys and examination Admiral Kirkland reported that … the Government should acquire possession of the whole of the Waipiʻo Peninsula, comprising 800-acres of land, if a station is to be located at Pearl Harbor.”

“Secretary Long recommend(ed) that Beckoning Point be selected as a site for the contemplated station, on account of its proximity to East Loch, which has the largest anchorage, as drydocks may be easily built, and as there is ample room for space to dock and undock vessels of any size.” (Sacramento Daily Union, April 2, 1898)

In May, 1899, a coaling station with a capacity of 1,000-tons was established and plans involved increasing that capacity 20-fold. Six months later the Naval Station, Honolulu, was established.

As an example of the coal demand for ships, the battleship USS Massachusetts burned 8-12 tons of coal per hour at full power. In order to fully stock for a deployment at sea, a warship would load thousands of tons of coal on board ship, all of it moved by hand. (Colamaria)

The US Navy dredged the first deep-draft channel into its coaling station at Pearl Harbor in 1903, and suddenly the US had a strategically important naval station in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. (Sanburn) On May 28, 1903, the first battleship, USS Wisconsin, entered the harbor for coal and water. (navy-mil)

The next decade saw steady and continuous growth. On September 23, 1912 Pearl Harbor was closed to all foreign commercial shipping, and foreign warships might enter only by special permission. (Young)

The post-World War I period was characterized by irregular growth of the Naval Operating Base. Appropriations tended to diminish with the economies of the twenties. In 1921, the Naval Station in Honolulu was forced to close because of insufficient funds. Although the Secretary of the Navy referred to Hawaiʻi as the “Crossroads of the Pacific,” nothing was being done to take advantage of its position. (navy-mil)

Networks of coaling stations were established, effectively extending the range of warships; however, the era of the steam warship powered exclusively by coal was relatively brief-lasting from 1871 until 1914.

Fuel oil was the emerging fuel technology. In the early-1900s oil refining procedures had been standardized to the point that fuel oil (bunker oil) was now a better option to feed the fires that powered the ships (plus, the bunker oil took up less storage room on the ships.) (Scott)

The USS Texas, commissioned in 1914, was the last American battleship built with coal-fired boilers. It converted to burn fuel oil in 1925 – resulting in a dramatic improvement in efficiency. By 1916, the Navy had commissioned its first two capital ships with oil-fired boilers, the USS Nevada and the USS Oklahoma.

To resupply them, “oilers” were designed to transfer fuel while at anchor, although underway replenishment was possible in fair seas. During World War I, a single oiler refueled 34 destroyers in the mid-Atlantic – introducing a new era in maritime logistics. (American Oil & Gas Historical Society)

Wartime needs called for more expansion to the Pearl Harbor base facilities. Construction began on a fourth large drydock at the location of the old Coaling Station; these went into service in 1944.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Unbreakable Code

When US military codes kept being broken by the Germans in WWI a Native American tribe came to the rescue. They just spoke their own language – which baffled the enemy.

In the autumn of 1918, US troops were involved in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on the Western Front. It was one of the largest frontline commitments of American soldiers in WW1, but communications in the field were compromised.

The Germans had successfully tapped telephone lines, were deciphering codes and repeatedly capturing runners sent out to deliver messages directly.

The solution was stumbled upon by chance, an overheard conversation between two Choctaw soldiers in the 142nd Infantry Regiment. The pair were chatting in camp when a captain walked by and asked what language they were speaking.

Realizing the potential for communication, he then asked if there were other speakers among the troops. The men knew of Choctaw soldiers at company headquarters.

Using a field telephone the captain got the men to deliver a message in their native tongue which their colleagues quickly translated back into English. The Choctaw Telephone Squad was born and so was code talking. (BBC)

Every WWII combatant appreciated the need for an unbreakable code that would help them communicate while protecting their operational plans. The US Marines knew where to find one: the Navajo Nation. (US National Intelligence)

Philip Johnston was the initiator of the Marine Corps’ program to enlist and train the Navajos as messengers. Although Johnston was not a Navajo, he grew up on a Navajo reservation as the son of a missionary and became familiar with the people and their language.

Johnston was also a World War I veteran and knew about the military’s desire to send and receive messages in an unbreakable code. (National Archives)

Johnston assembled four Navajos and on February 28, 1942, they assisted Johnston in demonstrating his idea. Prior to the demonstration, General Vogel had installed a telephone connection between two offices and wrote out six messages that were typical of those sent during combat.

One of those messages read “Enemy expected to make tank and dive bomber attack at dawn.” The Navajo managed to transmit the message almost verbatim: “Enemy tank dive bomber expected to attack this morning.” (National Archives)

Marine Corps leadership selected 29 Navajo men, the Navajo Code Talkers, who created a code based on the complex, unwritten Navajo language. (US National Intelligence)

The code primarily used word association by assigning a Navajo word to key phrases and military tactics. This system enabled the Code Talkers to translate three lines of English in 20 seconds, not 30 minutes as was common with existing code-breaking machines.

This code consisted of words, most of which were Navajo terms that had been imbued with new, distinctly military meanings in order to compensate for the lack of military terminology in the Navajo vocabulary.

The tribal languages didn’t have their own words for modern concepts such as “tanks”, “machine guns”, “battleships”, “radar”, and so on. It was at Camp Elliott that the initial recruits, along with communications personnel, designed the first Navajo code.

Instead of using the English terms, which would have rendered the “code” almost useless, the code-talkers invented their own terms for such things, for example using the Navaho words for “iron fish” for a submarine, “hummingbird” for a fighter plane, “eggs” for bombs, and so on. Apparently the Choctaw code-talkers had come up with a similar scheme during the WWI.

At first, the list of Navaho codewords had 274 entries, though this was later expanded to 508. For terms with no Navaho equivalent that weren’t covered in the list, a “phonetic alphabet” was devised, using the Navaho equivalents of English words whose first letters spelled out the phrase: “Ant” for “A”, “Bear” for “B”, “Cat” for “C”, and so on.

For example, “fighter plane” was called “da-ha-tih-hi,” which means “humming bird” in Navajo, and “dive bomber” was called “gini,” which means “chicken hawk.”

In addition, the code talkers also designed a system that signified the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet. For example, the letter A was “wol-la-chee,” which means “ant” in Navajo, and the letter E was “dzeh,” which means “elk.” Words that were not included in the 211 terms were spelled out using the alphabet. (National Archives) Some training occurred in Hawai‘i.

The first Navaho “code-talkers” went ashore with the Marines at Guadalcanal in August 1942.

The Navajo Code Talkers participated in all assaults the U.S. Marines led in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945, including Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu and Iwo Jima.

During the nearly month-long battle for Iwo Jima (February 19 – March 26, 1945), for example, six Navajo Code Talker Marines successfully transmitted more than 800 messages without error. Marine leadership noted after the battle that the Code Talkers were critical to the victory at Iwo Jima. (US National Intelligence)

No code-talker transmission was ever cracked, and in fact, during the evaluations Marine cryptologists said they couldn’t even transcribe the language, much less figure out what was being said.

It is estimated that between 375 to 420 Navajos served as code talkers. The Navajo code talker program was highly classified throughout the war and remained so until 1968.

Returning home on buses without parades or fanfare and sworn to secrecy about the existence of the code, the Navajo code talkers are only recently making their way into popular culture and mainstream American history.

The “Honoring the Code Talkers Act,” introduced by Senator Jeff Bingaman from New Mexico in April 2000, and signed into law December 21, 2000, called for the recognition of the Navajo code talkers.

During a ceremony at the US Capitol on July 26, 2001, the first 29 soldiers received the Congressional Gold Medal. The Congressional Silver Medal was presented to the remaining Navajos who later qualified to be code talkers. (National Archives)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The First Filipino

 

The Philippines is an archipelago comprising of more than 7,100-islands.  It is thought that the earliest inhabitants of the islands arrived 40,000 years ago.  Folks from Borneo, Sumatra and Malaya migrated to the islands; the original people were ancestors of the people known today as Negritos or Aeta.

In the tenth century, Muslim traders came from Kalimantan (Indonesia.)  Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to visit the Islands, in his expedition around the world on behalf of Spain (1521.)

Other Spanish expeditions followed, including one from New Spain (Mexico) under López de Villalobos, who in 1543 named the islands ‘Las Islas Felipenas’ (Islands belonging to Philip,) for Felipe, the Prince of Asturias (Spain) (title given to the heir to the Spanish throne;) he later became Philip II of Spain.  (The name Philippines stuck.)

The Philippine Islands became a Spanish colony during the 16th-century and were under Spanish control for the next 330+ years.   Spanish called natives Indios.

Natives called themselves based on where they are geographically located, like Cebuanos of Cebu and Tagalog of Manila. The Philippine islands are scattered; there was no unity.  The reference of being a Filipino, back then, was more of a geographic name than united citizens of a nation.     (Abenaza)

Then, conflict arose – there was opposition to Spanish colonialism in the Islands.  In steps José Protacio Rizal.

According to historians, there was no ‘Filipino’ before Rizal.  Prior to Rizal people were simply protecting their territory, pushing their own personal interests. They were just people of their own lands. None of them fought for the Philippines, nor fought as Filipinos.  This is what makes Rizal the First Filipino. He was first in seeking unity in the Philippines.  (Abenaza)

Rizal was born on June 19, 1861, in the town of Calamba, Laguna. He was the seventh of 11 children (2 boys and 9 girls.) Both his parents were educated and belonged to distinguished families (his father was Filipino, his mother Chinese.)  (Montemayor)

In 1877, at the age of 16, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree with an average of “excellent” from the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. He passed the Surveyor’s examination on May 21, 1878 (but because of his age, 17, he was not granted license to practice the profession until December 30, 1881.)

In 1878, he enrolled in medicine at the University of Santo Tomas but had to stop in his studies when he felt that the Filipino students were being discriminated upon by their Dominican tutors. On May 3, 1882, he sailed for Spain where he continued his studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid and received a degree in medicine.   (Montemayor)

In 1886, he studied at the University of Heidelberg and wrote his classic novel Noli me Tangere, which condemned the Catholic Church in the Philippines for its promotion of Spanish colonialism.

Immediately upon its publication, he became a target for the police who even shadowed him when he returned to the Philippines in 1887.  He wrote a second novel, El Filibusterismo (1891), and many articles in his support of Filipino nationalism and his crusade to include representatives from his homeland in the Spanish Cortes.  (LOC)

“During the years 1890-93, while traveling in the archipelago, I everywhere heard the mutterings that go before a storm. It was the old story: compulsory military service; taxes too heavy to be borne, and imprisonment or deportation with confiscation of property for those who could not pay them; no justice except for those who could afford to buy it …  these and a hundred other wrongs had goaded the natives and half-castes until they were stung to desperation.”  (Worchester; Anderson)

Dr. Rizal returned to the Philippines in 1892 and created the La Liga Filipina, a political group that called for peaceful change for the islands. Implicated in the rebellion, he went into exile for four years.

Meanwhile, Katipunan (Supreme Select Association of the Sons of the People) became an offshoot of La Liga Filipina and things started to get rough.  Rizal quickly denounced the movement for independence when it became violent and revolutionary.

Although Rizal did not participate with Katipunan, in 1896, he was captured, convicted and executed by firing squad (December 30, 1896 – he was 35-years old.)

The insurrection continued for two years after his death; Spain fought to maintain its empire not just in the Philippines but also in Cuba and Puerto Rico.  In 1898, this led to the Spanish-American War, when the US officially entered the conflict by declaring war on Spain (with emphasis and concerns mostly directed at conflicts in Cuba, in their war for independence.)

William McKinley was US president and the causal event was the explosion of the battleship USS Maine in Havana Harbor, Cuba on February 15, 1898.  However, many in America suspected that the US had colonial aspirations of its own.  The Spanish‐American War ended 5-months after it began resulting in the US gaining the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and Hawaiʻi.

After its defeat in the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spain ceded its longstanding colony of the Philippines to the United States in the Treaty of Paris.

On February 4, 1899, just two days before the US Senate ratified the treaty, fighting broke out between American forces and Filipino nationalists who sought independence rather than a change in colonial rulers.

The ensuing Philippine-American War lasted three years, into the spring of 1902. President Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed a general amnesty and declared the conflict over on July 4, 1902, although minor uprisings and insurrections against American rule periodically occurred in the years that followed.  (State Department)

In 1907, the Philippines convened its first elected assembly, and in 1916, the Jones Act promised the nation eventual independence. The Philippine Islands became an autonomous commonwealth in 1935, and the US granted independence in 1946.  (State Department)

While it is not clear if Rizal ever made it to Hawaiʻi, here are some ties of these events to the Hawaiian Islands.

US foreign policy advocated the taking of the Caribbean Islands and the Philippine Islands for bases to protect US commerce.   Meanwhile, Hawai’i, had gained strategic importance because of its geographical position in the Pacific.  Honolulu served as a stopover point for the forces heading to the Philippines.

On August 12, 1898, the United States ratified the Hawaiʻi treaty of annexation.  At the time, there was no assigned garrison in the Islands until August 15, 1898, when soldiers landed in Honolulu for garrison duty.  They set up camp in the large infield of the one-mile race track at Kapiʻolani Park.

Their camp was named ‘Camp McKinley,’ in honor of the president.  Camp McKinley remained in existence until Fort Shafter was opened in late June, 1907.  The garrison was either artillery or coast artillery troops during this period.

In Hawaiʻi, shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge.  Of the large level of plantation worker immigration, the Chinese were the first (1852,) followed by the Japanese (1885,) then, the Filipinos (1906.)

After the turn of the century, the plantations started bringing in Filipinos.  Over the years in successive waves of immigration, the sugar planters brought to Hawaiʻi 46,000-Chinese, 180,000-Japanese, 126,000-Filipinos, as well as Portuguese, Puerto Ricans and other ethnic groups.

Comprising only 19-percent of the plantation workforce in 1917, the Filipinos jumped to 70-percent by 1930, replacing the Japanese, who had dwindled to 19-percent as the 1930s approached.  (Aquino)

To commemorate José Rizal, statues and monuments have been erected in Hawaiʻi and elsewhere.

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“Ah! What delicious-looking crabs you have here!”

So said the visitor to Ke Awa Lau o Puʻuloa – but he wasn’t speaking of crustaceans, he was speaking of the fishermen he saw as “fat crabs”, that is, a dainty morsel.

He was Mikololou, a man-eating shark from the Kaʻū district on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

He was part of a large company of sharks who came to visit from Hawaiʻi, Maui and Molokaʻi. Most of these had human relatives and were not desirous of eating human flesh, but among them were some who disregarded the relationship, and learned to like them.

The sharks had planned to make a circuit of the islands and perhaps later to visit Kahiki. They stopped at Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor.)

Kaʻahupahau, hearing those words, knew at once that some of the strangers were man-eaters. Guardians of the area, she and her brother Kahiʻuka went into action to protect the fishermen.

But Kaʻahupahau could not distinguish between the good and the bad sharks; she then she changed into the form of a great net and hemmed in her visitors while the fishermen who answered her signal came to destroy them.

Her brother Kahiʻuka struck at intruders with his tail, one side of which was larger than the other; the fishermen hauled in the nets to shore and Mikololou was cast upon the shore with the evil doers, where they were left to die of the intense heat.

All but Mikololou were soon dead; though his body died his head lived on and as the fishermen passed to and from their work, his eyes followed them and tears rolled down his face. At last his tongue fell out. Some children playing nearby found it. They picked it up and cast it into the sea.

Now Mikololou’s spirit had passed out of his head into his tongue and as soon as he felt the water again he became a whole shark. With a triumphant flop of his tail, he headed for home to join his friends again. When Kaʻahupahau saw him, it was too late to prevent his departure.

“Mikololou lived through his tongue,” or, as the Hawaiians say, “I ola o Mikololou i ka alelo.” This saying implies that however much trouble one may have, there is always a way of escape.

Kaʻahupahau lived in an underwater cave in Honouliuli lagoon (West Loch.) Kahiʻuka lived in an underwater cave off Mokuʻumeʻume (Ford Island) near Keanapuaʻa Point at the entrance of East Loch

Kaʻahupahau may mean “Well-cared for Feather Cloak” (the feather cloak was a symbol of royalty). Kahiʻuka means “Smiting Tail”; his shark tail was used to strike at enemy sharks; he also used his tail to strike fishermen as a warning that unfriendly sharks had entered Puʻuloa.

Such guardian sharks, which inhabited the coastlines of all the islands, were benevolent gods who were cared for and worshiped by the people and who aided fishermen, protected the life of the seas, and drove off man-eating sharks.

Pukui notes Kaʻahupahau in ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings, No. 105: “Alahula o Puʻuloa, he alahele na Kaʻahupahau”: “Everywhere in Puʻuloa is the trail of Kaʻahupahau.”

“Said of a person who goes everywhere, looking, peering, seeing all, or of a person familiar with every nook and corner of a place.” Kaʻahupahau was noted for traveling about, vigilantly guarding her domain against man-eating invaders.

Puʻuloa also was home to Komoawa, (or Kamoawa,) a large shark who was Kaʻahupahau’s watcher. His cave, called Keaaliʻi, was at the entrance of Puʻuloa. (Thrum, Hawaii-edu) Kualiʻi guards the entrance to Pearl Harbor, while the home of Kaʻahupahau is deeper into Honouliuli lagoon.

Years later, the US Navy, having acquired Pearl Harbor, was working to expand the facilities. This included dredging the channel, adding a coal station and construction of a drydock.

“The dredging of the Pearl Harbor channel was begun long before the drydock was more than desultorily talked of – in 1900. It took many years to deepen, straighten and widen the channel into the lochs sufficiently for a man of war to enter.”

“But the work progressed steadily if slowly, and on December 14, 1911, the cruiser California steamed from Honolulu to the entrance to Pearl Harbor, and then, turning her gray nose inward, proceeded majestically through the still tortuous channel and dropped her anchor off the dry dock site.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

The drydock was to be the “Largest In (the) World – Less than a decade will have elapsed between the beginning of the great work and its completion.”

“And when the Pearl Harbor drydock is finished it will be the largest and the finest in the world, capable of accommodating any vessel now built or building, or that probably ever will be built by the United States.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

But, during construction, disaster occurred. “Much progress had at that time been made on the construction of the drydock, and success seemed assured. But the contractors had been having trouble with the bed of the drydock … it suddenly blew up with a tremendous explosion. No lives were lost, although there were several narrow escapes.”

“But the work of years had been wrecked … pressure had forced the bottom of the drydock up until it literally burst (on February 17, 1913.”) (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

“For a time it was feared that the entire project might have to be abandoned. But Uncle Sam’s engineers refused to be defeated by natural forces, and finally, after long experiment, mean were found for anchoring the bottom of the drydock.”

“Admiral Harris was one of the board that came to Hawaii to investigate the causes for the explosion and try to find a way of preventing future disasters of similar nature.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

They cannot say they were not forewarned. “While at work three Hawaiian fishermen come to where we were working, one of whom was aged, who asked me what we were doing there.

‘Digging a hole 50 feet deep’ was the reply. He then told me to move away from there; and when asked why, he said, ‘These places are tabu; they belong to shark god, name Kaʻahupahau.’” (Richards (a worker on the drydock project,) Navy-mil)

“The old man was watching my men working, and talking to them. Again he came over to me with tears in his eyes and asked me to quit digging ‘til my boss came. “I told him, I can’t do that.” They stayed there several hours, then he said to me that, ‘You people will be punished severely.’” (Richards, Navy-mil)

“Several years ago, some will remember, when work started on the Pearl Harbor naval dry dock, some of the Hawaiians said the location chosen would disturb a “shark god” who would be affronted and they prophesied dire disasters.”

“The work was started and there came a collapse. The forecasters of trouble were prophets. Changes were made in plans and locations.” (Maui News, June 9, 1922)

Merely a coincidence? Some think not.

One of the workers on the project noted, “As we went along pumping the water out of the dock, we pumped out five feet and cleaned the side and plastered and corked all the leak, 15 to 20 days and then pumped till we got to the bottom which was full of mud and in the middle of the dock where I went through a cave of nine feet diameter.”

“Mr. Hartman, assistant boss, found a backbone of a big shark, 14′ 4″ long. I came by where they were working when Mr. Hartman said to me, ‘You certainly got the shark. Here it is.’” (Richards, Navy-mil) (The Story of Mikololou is from Wiggins, Beckwith)

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“Prostitution is one of the oldest vices of the human race, and civilized communities have been experimenting with its control for centuries.  The only definite conclusion that has been reached is that it is likely to exist as long as the passions of the human beings remain what they are today.”   (Police Commissioner, Victor Houston; Leder)

Given that most visitors and migrants to Honolulu were male, whether they were explorers, sailors, traders, plantation workers, military or tourists, it was only a matter of time before organized prostitution flourished in the areas surrounding their arrival and lodging near the port.

The third law of Kauikeaouli in 1835 dealt with various kinds of “illicit connections” – adultery, fornication, prostitution and rape – and specified fines ranging from ten to fifty dollars for differing offenses.  (Greer)

Since the 1830s, Honolulu’s official and unofficial laws have vacillated between banning and regulating the business, which is in part why the red-light district moved between Chinatown and Iwilei. (Chinatown)

At the turn of the century and until May 1917, a segregated red-light district flourished in Iwilei.  They called it the ‘Iwilei Stockade.’  Inside a high stockade wall were long rows of rooms, each 8×10; there were 225 of them.  Most of the women were from Japan.  From 4 pm to 2 am, the stockade gates were open.  (Gallagher)

Local law enforcement condoned and controlled the activities, under the guise that it was “a public necessity.”  “The whole of Iwilei makai of the Oʻahu Prison has been used for the purpose of prostitution for some time past.”  (Special Legislative Committee Report, 1905)

The Iwilei brothels (or “boogie houses,” as they were also called back then) were later forced to relocate to Hotel Street and a few adjoining parts of Chinatown.   By 1916, the Iwilei Stockade was shut down.

The closure of the Iwilei red-light district in conjunction with growing military presence meant that Chinatown was the red-light district for decades to come. The early-1930s saw a strictly, but unofficially, regulated industry monitored and heavily taxed by local law enforcement. Female prostitutes were both local and from the mainland.  (Chinatown)

At the onset of World War II in 1941, Hawaiʻi had 258,000-civilians and 43,000-soldiers. Six months later, the number of soldiers nearly tripled.  In 1944, there were approximately 400,000-military members in Hawai’i.

Quick to spend military paychecks before entering combat zones, men indulged in drinking, tattoos, souvenirs, massages, penny arcades, fortune telling and prostitutes within a 10-block area of Chinatown. The ‘lights-out’ policy at sunset instituted after the bombing of Pearl Harbor increased the urgency to fit in all vice activities during the day.  (Chinatown)

Hotel Street was the center of Honolulu’s red light activities, through which some 30,000 or more soldiers, sailors and war workers passed on any given day during most of World War II.

Prostitution was illegal in Hawaiʻi. None-the-less, it existed as a highly and openly regulated system, involving the police department, government officials and the military.  (Bailey & Farber)

During the war, approximately 250-prostitutes were registered with the Honolulu Police Department.  They paid $1 a year for an “entertainers” license.

The going rate was $3 for servicemen – sessions lasted 3-minutes. Of the $3 charge, the madam took $1 off the top; the prostitute paid for room, board and laundry from her $2 cut.

Most houses operated officially from 8 am to noon.  Most brothels required girls to see at least 100-men a day and to work at least 20 days per month.  They could make $30,000 to $40,000 per year (versus the average working woman’s typical $2,000.)

The majority of official Honolulu prostitutes were white women recruited through San Francisco.  Each prostitute arriving from the mainland was met at the ship by a member of the vice squad; she was then fingerprinted and given a license.

There were rules to follow; breaking them could result in a beating or removal from the Islands.  Few lasted more than 6-months before heading back to the West Coast.

While Hotel Street had the reputation as the home of the brothels, most of the houses were in an area bounded by Kukui, Nuʻuanu, Hotel and River streets.

During the war years, fifteen brothels operated in this section of Chinatown, their presence signaled by neatly lettered, somewhat circumspect signs (‘The Bronx Rooms,” “The Senator Hotel,” “Rex Rooms”) and by the lines of men that wound down the streets and alleyways.

On September 10, 1944, Governor Stainback sent the following to Ferris F Laune, the council’s secretary: “I have … requested the Police Commission to take steps to close and keep closed the existing houses of prostitution in the City and County of Honolulu.”  The Police Commission instructed closure of the houses on September 24. (Greer)

It hasn’t gone away; today, anyone engaged in prostitution – as a prostitute or as a client – faces a petty-misdemeanor charge, and first-time offenders, if not granted a deferred judgment, can be fined not less than $500 but not more than $1,000, or spend up to 30 days in jail, or be sentenced to probation. Subsequent offenses have higher penalties. (HRS 712-1200)

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