Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Maʻi Pākē

The common Hawaiian name for the disease was Maʻi Pākē, or Chinese sickness.

Its introduction to the Islands was but one of many new diseases; it was called maʻi pākē (Chinese sickness,) maʻi ali‘i (chiefly sickness) and eventually maʻi hoʻokaʻawale ʻohana (disease that separates family.) It is thought that it came to the islands in the early-1800s, but it did not attain levels of great concern until the 1850s and 1860s.  (Inglis)

One of the earliest descriptions of it in Hawaiʻi was written by the Reverend Charles Samuel Stewart, a missionary in the 2nd Company of American Protestant missionaries, who landed at Honolulu in 1823.

An entry in his journal dated May 21, 1823 notes “not to mention the frequent and hideous marks of scourge, which more clearly than any proclaims the curse, of a God of Purity, and which while it annually consigned hundreds of these people to the tomb, converts thousands while, living into walking sepulchres.”

“The inhabitants generally are subject to many disorders of the skin; the majority are more or less disfigured by eruptions and sores found many are as unsightly as lepers.”  (Schrodt)

The association of the disease with the Chinese people probably had to do either with the fact that an individual or individuals of that race were noted to have the disease or simply that the Chinese were familiar with it because they had often seen it in their own country.  (Greene)

The name “maʻi pākē” may, no doubt, have originated on the interrogation by a native of a Chinaman, “What is this disease?”  The Chinaman would probably answer, “I do not know the Hawaiian word, but there are plenty of people sick with the disease in my country.”

“It was recognized by the few Chinese, then on the islands, and this has given it the name of “Maʻi Pākē” here, and not because it has been introduced here by the Chinese.” (Hawaii Board of Health 1886)

From Eastern writings there is good evidence that India, East Asia and China are among its most ancient homes. The earliest reference appears to be rather universally accepted was written in the Chou Dynasty in 6th century B.C.

In the Chinese medical classic entitled Nei Ching there are four passages which may allude to an afflicted patient. If this classic was written by one Huang Ti, it may have been recognized in China over five thousand years ago.  (Schrodt)

Early incidences in the Islands were most often associated with Chinese immigrants to Hawai‘i and thus the name maʻi pākē. Some believed that it came with Chinese plantation workers, but many individuals and groups also arrived from other regions of the world where leprosy was endemic. It could have come from any number of sources such as the Azores, Africa, Malaysia or Scandinavia.  (Inglis)

Further statements from the Board of Health report refute that the disease was started by the Chinese, “if one Chinaman caused such an alarming spread of the disease thirty or forty years ago, there are now, comparatively speaking, so very few cases of leprosy among the seventeen or eighteen thousand Chinamen on these islands.”  (Hawaiʻi Board of Health, 1886)

“Again, if the disease had been introduced by the Chinese, and propagated by them … I should expect to find a much larger proportion of (them) affected with this loathsome malady, and yet we all know that the contrary is the fact.”

“It is much more likely that it came to these islands through the mixed crews of whale-ships, which had negroes, black and white Portuguese, and men of other races, coming from countries where leprosy was, and still is, prevalent.”  (Hawaiʻi Board of Health, 1886)

It rapidly spread on Oʻahu.  In response, the Legislative Assembly of the Hawaiian Islands passed “An Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy” in 1865, which King Kamehameha V approved. This law provided for setting apart land for an establishment for the isolation and seclusion of leprous persons who were thought capable of spreading the disease.

On June 10, 1865, a suitable location for incurable cases of leprosy came up for discussion.  he peninsula on the northern shore of Moloka’i seemed the most suitable spot for a leprosy settlement.

Its southern side was bounded by a pali – vertical mountain wall of cliffs 1,800 to 2,000 feet high, and its north, west and east sides by the sea and precipitous shores. Landings were possible in only two places, at Kalaupapa on the west side and at Kalawao on the east side of the peninsula, weather permitting.

The first shipment of lepers landed at Kalaupapa January 6, 1866, the beginning of segregation and banishment of lepers to the leper settlement.

Receiving and detention centers were established on Oʻahu.  Kalihi Hospital was the first hospital for leprosy patients in Hawaiʻi opening in 1865. Kapiʻolani Home opened in Kalihi Kai in 1891 adjacent to the Kalihi Hospital and Receiving Station; Kalihi Plague Camp (1900-1912) and Meyers Street, Kalihi Uka (1912-1938.)

Two notable people in Hawaiʻi associated with the treatment of patients with leprosy are Father (now Saint) Damien and Mother (now Saint) Marianne.)

Damien (born as Jozef de Veuster,) arrived in Hawaiʻi on March 9, 1864.  He continued his studies here and Bishop Maigret ordained Father Damien at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, on May 21, 1864; in 1873, Maigret assigned him to Molokaʻi.  Damien spent the rest of his life in Hawaiʻi; he died April 15, 1889 (aged 49) at Kalaupapa.

In 1877, Sister Marianne was elected Mother General of the Franciscan congregation and given the title “Mother” as was the custom of the time. In 1883, she received a letter from Father Leonor Fouesnel, a missionary in Hawaiʻi, to come to Hawaiʻi to help “procure the salvation of souls and to promote the glory of God.”

Of the 50 religious communities in the US contacted, only Mother Marianne’s Order of Sisters agreed to come to Hawaiʻi to care for people with leprosy.  The Sisters arrived in Hawaii on November 8, 1883.

In the summer of 1886, the Sisters took care of Damien when he visited Honolulu during his bout with leprosy.  He asked the Sisters to take over for him when he died.  Mother Marianne led the first contingent of Sister-nurses to Kalaupapa, Molokaʻi, where more than a thousand people with leprosy had been exiled.

A third person in Hawaiʻi, Alice Ball, made notable contributions in the treatment of the disease. In the fall of 1914, she entered the College of Hawaiʻi (later called the University of Hawaiʻi) as a graduate student in chemistry.   The significant contribution Ball made to medicine was a successful injectable treatment for those suffering from Hansen’s disease.

Although not a full cure, Ball’s discovery was an extremely effective in relieving some of the symptoms of Hansen’s disease and was a significant victory in the fight against a disease that has plagued nations for thousands of years.

The discovery was coined, at least for the time being, the “Ball Method.”  During the four years between 1919 and 1923, no patients were sent to Kalaupapa – and, for the first time, some Kalaupapa patients were released.

Once known as leprosy, the disease was renamed after Dr. Gerharad Armauer Hansen, a Norwegian physician, when he discovered the causative microorganism in 1873, the same year that Damien volunteered to serve at Kalaupapa.

During the third quarter of the nineteenth century incidence of the disease occurred in more than 1% of the population in Hawai`i. In 1890 Kalawao’s patient population peaked at around 1,100.

By 1900, the number of new patients in the islands began a slow decline, a trend that continued until the 1940s when it was determined that the disease was not spreading in the general population.  (NPS)

About 8,000 people have been exiled there since 1865.  The predominant group of patients were Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian; in addition there were whites, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Filipino and other racial groups that sent to Kalaupapa.  The law remained in effect until 1969, when admissions to Kalaupapa ended.

The image shows a view of Kalaupapa, Kalawao.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ʻAlekoko Fishpond (Menehune Fishpond)

ʻAla ke kai o ka ʻanae.
Fragrant is the soup of a big mullet.
(A prosperous person attracts others. (ʻŌlelo Noʻeau))

‘Anae (ʻamaʻama – mullet) and awa (milk fish) were popular fish raised in Hawaiian walled fishponds.  The cultivation of fish took place in Hawaiian agricultural pondfields, as well as in specialized fresh and brackish water fishponds.

Ponds were built to catch and hold fish; the ponds grew algae that fed the fish.  A natural food chain can be expected to produce a ratio of 10:1 in terms of the conversion of one link by another (10,000-kg of algae make 1,000-kg of tiny crustaceans, which in turn make 100-kg of small fish.  (Kelly)

The Hawaiian walled fishpond stands as a technological achievement unmatched elsewhere in island Oceania.  Hawaiians built rock-walled enclosures to raise fish for their communities and families.  It is believed these were first built around the fifteenth century.  (Kelly)

These fishponds were symbols of chiefly status and power, and usually under the direct control of aliʻi or konohiki. The fish from these ponds often went to feed chiefly households. (Handy)

One significant fishpond on the southeast side of Kauaʻi is known as ʻAlekoko Fishpond (one of the rarest and most significant cultural and archaeological sites on Kauaʻi.)

Just outside Līhuʻe and Nāwiliwili Harbor on the Hulēʻia River, a Scenic Overlook is located just off of Hulemalu Road, about ½-mile from the entrance to the Nāwiliwili small boat harbor.

The fishpond is located in the Hulēʻia National Wildlife Refuge, 238-acres of river valley that is a habitat for thirty-one species of birds, including endangered Hawaiian birds: aeʻo (Hawaiian stilt,) ʻalae keʻokeʻo (Hawaiian coot,) ʻalae ʻula (Hawaiian moorhen,) nēnē (Hawaiian goose) and koloa maoli (Hawaiian duck.)

Although you can see the fishpond and the refuge from the road, the area is not open to the public. Small boats, kayaks, jet skis, windsurfers and water-skiers use the river.

ʻAlekoko Fishpond is located near the mouth of the Hulēʻia River, in the ahupuaʻa of Niumalu; it was formed by walling off a large bend in the river; the stone-faced, dirt wall is over 900-yards long.

The dirt wall is 5-feet above the water level, 4-feet wide on top and the dirt slants out on both sides. The facing wall begins with a single row of stones and then becomes double-thickness as it gets further out into the river and the current.

The stones also become larger until the double layer is 2-feet thick. The stone facing on the outside is five feet high in most places and is quite perpendicular. The stones are very carefully fitted together; the stone facing runs for about two-thirds of the total length of the wall. (NPS)

“That pond, of course, is monumental, monumental stone work.  To me this is the ultimate fishpond.  What makes it kind of special here on Kauaʻi is the way the stones are fitted.” (David Burney, paleoecologist; star-bulletin)

Ancient Hawaiians often used lava rock to build walls, but they typically shaped them to fit together instead of cutting them into blocks.  “Hawaiians didn’t typically cut rock to build something, (as they did at ʻAlekoko).” (Michael Graves, US archaeology professor; star-bulletin)

The pond did not just hold fish.  In the 1800s, two of the three gaps in the levee were filled in and the pond was used by rice farmers.

In the 1940s, after a tidal wave, the wall was repaired by the man who had the lease at the time. He put bags of cement in the weak spots and now longish “rocks” are visible where the bags deteriorated and the cement hardened.

According to legend, Chief ʻAlekoko asked the Menehune to build two ponds – one for him and one for his sister Hāhālua.  (Menehune, while small in size, were the mythical masters of stone work and engineering; they agreed to build the ponds – with one stipulation: neither should look out of their houses on the night of construction.)

Hāhālua, content with the idea of being able to eat fish from her own pond, did not look; however, her brother could not stand the temptation and he peered out.  Immediately, the Menehune stopped work and washed their bleeding hands in the water – hence the name of the pond, ʻAlekoko (bloody ripples.)

Built by the Menehune, it is also known as Menehune Fishpond.

“Today the lush vegetation on the wall and banks of the pond and the calm blue waters of the Hulēʻia River combine to make Menehune Fishpond an impressive sight, an ideal picture of Polynesia.”

“It is an important historical reminder of the past and a contemporary source of pride for the people of Kauaʻi.”  It was added to the National Register in 1973.  (NPS)  (Unfortunately, it has also been overgrown with invasive plants and silt has filled parts of the pond.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Volcanic Glass

Because “obsidian” is a generic term for dark-colored volcanic glass, people sometimes refer to the dense, glassy crust that forms on some Pāhoehoe flows here in Hawaiʻi as obsidian.

Most geologists and archeologists, however, prefer to make a distinction between the thin, glassy rind on an otherwise crystalline lava flow and the glass that erupts as thick flows or domes. We refer to the former as “volcanic glass,” reserving the term obsidian for the latter.

According to the International Association for Obsidian Studies, the sole source of obsidian in the state of Hawaiʻi is Pu`u Wa‘awa‘a, a broad, dome-shaped cone on the north flank of Hualālai Volcano.

The cone consists of layers of gray pumice, some containing blocks of black obsidian, that were deposited during explosive eruptions about 114,000 years ago. (USGS)

Obsidian is dense volcanic glass, usually rhyolitic (the fine-grained equivalent of granite) in composition and black in color. Glass, be it volcanic or manmade, cools quickly from a molten liquid without forming crystals, the building blocks of the minerals that make up most rocks.

In nature, erupting a glass flow requires an unusually viscous magma, one that has both a high silicon dioxide (silica) content and a very low water content. When viscosity is high and heat loss is rapid, crystallization is inhibited.

Crystals impart a regular structure to materials. Without this structure, glass fractures in conchoidal, or smoothly curved, shapes, leaving edges that are sharper than the finest steel blades.

Walking on an obsidian flow can be a nerve-wracking experience-wear gloves! Native Americans, of course, prized obsidian for arrowheads, and obsidian was traded hundreds of miles from its source.

Volcanic glass is rich in iron and magnesium, and tiny crystals of iron oxide give the glass its dark color. Different oxidation states of iron can tint the obsidian red, brown, or green.

Obsidian is commonly banded or streaked, because the high viscosity of molten obsidian prevents impurities or bubbles from easily mixing with the surrounding magma.

Obsidian is short-lived relative to most crystalline rocks. Most obsidian is younger than 20 million years, because any obsidian older than that has devitrified, or changed from glass to crystalline rock. Over eons, the silica molecules within the glass slowly rearrange into organized crystal structures.  (USGS)

Since the raw material is quite small, there is no tradition of formal tool manufacture as in other parts of the world where obsidian is a preferred resource for manufacturing flake blades and a range of bifaces (e.g., arrow and spear points).

Based on retouch, microscopic edge damage, step flake scars, and crushing, most researchers have assumed that small sharp flakes were used for light or fine cutting and scraping tasks.  Some have speculated that volcanic glass flakes may have been used for circumcision.  (Weisler in Liritzis and Stevenson)

Volcanic glass was used by Hawaiians to make cutting tools like knives for butchering birds and other animals as well as for doing fine wood work. (NPS)  They appear to have been used for short periods of time then discarded. (McCoy et al)

Volcanic glass was limited to a few small, informal tools types, typically scrapers or multi-purpose cutting tools. Basaltic volcanic glass, sometimes referred to as tachylite, forms by the rapid cooling of lava, and has few, if any, crystals and no corresponding internal crystal structure. Rarer in Hawai‘i is high silica volcanic glass from trachyte cones.  (Lundblad, et al)

Another form of volcanic glass are thin strands drawn out from molten lava that have long been called Pele’s hair, named for Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes.

Scientists say Pele’s hair is “volcanic glass that has been stretched into thin strands by the physical pulling apart of molten material during eruptions. Most commonly it forms during fire fountain activity.”  (Batiza)

Missionary Titus Coan describes Pele’s Hair: “All at once the scene changes, the central portion begins to swell and rise into a grayish dome, until it bursts like a gigantic bubble, and out rushes a sea of crimson fusion …”

“… which pours down to the surrounding wall with an awful seething and roaring, striking this mural barrier with fury, and with such force that its sanguinary jets are thrown back like a repulsed charge upon a battle-field, or tossed into the air fifty to a hundred feet high, to fall upon the upper rim of the pit in a hail-storm of fire.”

“This makes the filamentous vitrification called ‘Pele’s hair.’”

“The sudden sundering of the fusion into thousands of particles, by the force that thus ejects the igneous masses upward, and their separation when in this fused state, spins out vitreous threads like spun glass.”

“These threads are light, and when taken up by brisk winds, are often kept floating and gyrating in the atmosphere, until they come into a calmer stratum of air …”

“… when they fall over the surrounding regions, sometimes in masses in quiet and sheltered places. They are sometimes carried a hundred miles, as is proved by their dropping on ships at sea.”

“This ‘hair’ takes the color of the lava of which it is formed. Some of it is a dark gray, some auburn, or it may be yellow, or red, or of a brick color.”  (Titus Coan)

A single strand, with a diameter of less than 0.5 mm (~0.02 inch), may be as long as 2 m (~6.5 feet). The strands are formed by the stretching or blowing-out of molten basaltic glass from lava, usually from lava fountains, lava cascades, and vigorous lava flows (for example, as pāhoehoe lava plunges over a small cliff and at the front of an ‘a’a flow.)

Pele’s hair is often carried high into the air during fountaining, and wind can blow the glass threads several tens of kilometers from a vent.  (USGS)

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The Big Fence on the Big Island

“Captain George Vancouver brought the first cattle to Hawaii from California in 1793-1794. They were landed and liberated at Kealakekua, South Kona on the Big Island. As with other introduced animals of the same period, a rigid “kapu” was placed on them in order to permit them to multiply.”

“This they did with a vengeance and within a comparatively short span of years they became quite common on all the islands, particularly on Hawaii where they found many hundreds of acres of good pasture lands.”

“Over a period of many years they were slaughtered by men employed for this purpose by the King, principally for their hides, which at one time formed one of the principal articles of export from Hawaii.”

“Experts were employed by the King to go into the mountains to shoot and rope these animals. Only a small amount of the meat was used, some of it being salted and sold to the whaling ships wintered in these water at that time.”

“Many of them were trapped in “pitfalls” similar to the one which David Douglass lost his life on the slopes of Mauna Kea in 1834.” (Bryan, “Wild Cattle in Hawaii” Paradise of the Pacific (1937))

“For the past twenty years the attention of our Government and of this Forestry Bureau has been called to the destruction of our Native forests on Government lands in particular. … It is become a serious problem with us.”

“Large areas of Public Forests are annually destroyed by fire, orginating [sic] in many instances by cattlemen setting fire to the ferns and underbrush to improve their pasture. …  If the cattle are not taken away soon it will be but a short time when this Native forest will be destroyed, and the water supply on the low land diminished.”

“‘[C]attle seem to be the principal enemy of the forests.’  [Sheep also damage the forest habitat]  .By way of countering this threat, [it was] recommended that large parts of the government forest lands …”

“… ‘should be fenced off at once, for the purpose of preserving the living and growing timber and promoting the younger growth of fern and underbrush.’” (Report of the Minister of Interior to the President of the Republic of Hawaii for the Biennium, Ending December 31, 1899; LRB, 1965)

Then came “The Big Fence on the Big Island” … The Territorial Division of Forestry intensified efforts to eradicate feral sheep from the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve in the 1930s after noticing a lack of natural regeneration and damage to māmane trees caused by sheep.

With the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), territorial foresters built a 55-mile fence around Mauna Kea in 20 months. It was 4.5-foot tall galvanized stock wire stretched between large māmane posts. (DLNR)

“On the 29th of January, 1937, the longest fence in the Territory of Hawaii was completed by CCC boys. It is around the entire boundary of the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve – the second largest reserve in the Hawaiian Islands.”

“This project, which is part of the Territorial Division of Forestry’s conservation program, was done under the direction of Project Superintendent W.A. Hartman. …  Much credit is due … to the enrollees who worked under them, for the fine accomplishment.”

“Actual construction work was started in June of 1935. A total of twenty months was required to complete the work on the fence which has a total length, including necessary corrals, of fifty-five and one-half miles. Eighteen thousand five hundred and thirty-six man-days were expended on all work connection with this project.”

“A great deal of preliminary work was required before the actual construction of the fence began. First, it was necessary to build many miles of horse and truck trails and tractor roads.”

“In connection with the fence line alone nearly sixty miles of horse-trails were constructed. This trail was used to pack in the fence wire and other supplies. It was made permanent for future use in fence patrol and wild animal eradication work.”

“Most of the fence work was above the eight thousand foot contour. Camp locations had to be selected, shelters constructed, and water tanks installed. These camps were located as close to the fence lines as possible and placed at intervals around the mountain approximately four miles apart.”

“This made the maximum distance from camp to work about two miles each way. At each camp site it was necessary to construct a corral for the work animals. Practically all feed, and part of the water, for these animals, had to be transported to the camp site.”

“Nine line camps were used. Seven of them had to be constructed in advance. These camps were made on the same plan; one small building with watertanks alongside in which could be stored between six and eight thousand gallons of water. The building was used as a cook-house and store-room. The boys lived in tents.”

“During the winter months it becomes quite cold on Mauna Kea and it was found that seven blankets per boy was not too much cover.”

“Frequently the thermometer registered below freezing and at the Puu Loa Camp last February it was necessary to stop work for three days due to an exceptionally heavy fall of snow which covered the ground in that section and prevented work on the fence line.”

“The completion of this fence concludes one of the most important conservation projects attempted by the CCC in the Territory of Hawaii. It completely encloses and protects a reserve area containing approximately one hundred thousand acres. “

“The important Wailuku River – which furnishes the water-supply for the City of Hilo – as well as several other large streams that supply water to Hilo and Hamakua Districts, have their source within this area.”

“This reserve has, for many years, been overrun with wild sheep, there being an estimated population of about forty thousand. These animals do much damage and of recent years have effectively prevented any natural reproduction of the predominating tree growth – Mamani.”

“With this new fence completed it is now possible to conduct drives and reduce the number of these animals to a minimum. In a recent drive, held since the fence was completed, over three thousand wild sheep were captured and killed in a single day.”

“After these animals are exterminated we can expect considerable assistance from nature in our reforestation work. On a small scale this fact has already been demonstrated so we fell assured of ultimate success.”

“In some sections, where seed trees are lacking, it will be necessary to assist nature with reforestation; but where seed trees have been left we can expect to see a new generation of plants occur naturally.” (Bryan, “The Big Fence on the Big Island” Paradise of the Pacific  (1937)

The completed fence enabled territorial foresters on horseback to drive sheep and herd them into pens. In one drive near Kemole, they captured and killed over 3,000 sheep in a day.

Territorial foresters removed nearly 47,000 sheep and 2,200 other non-native browsing animals from Mauna Kea during the 1930s and 1940s. It is likely that the Palila would not be here today if not for these efforts due to the highly degraded condition of the forest at the time. (DLNR)

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Waiakea

Every morning and evening
When upward turn we our eyes
High above stands Mauna Kea and
In the distance, the wide Pacific Ocean
Scenery so beautiful, inspiring, and tranquil,
Certainly is the pride of Yashiljima.

Aa the waves of the East and West
Beat upon the shore of our crescent bay,
The moonlight streams through the
shimmering leaves of the Yashi no ki.
This enlightening purity, we are
reminded to etch upon our hearts to keep.

Increasingly learn, let us all of us together,
For Americans of Japanese ancestry by birth we be,
And, as such, fulfill we must a calling of great significance.
Go forth then, and bring good name to
our Yashijima Nihongo Gakkoo.

(English translation of the Waiakea Japanese School alma mater)
(The message was: Learn to take the good of Japan and the good of America and serve your country well.)

“The Waiakea peninsula … was a compact community separated from Hilo by the Wailoa River.” (HTH Mar 7, 1994) “Waiakea town was the original. Everybody was living Waiakea town. From Kamehameha Avenue all the way to Coconut Island. So they used to call [Waiakea] ‘Yashijima.’ ‘Yashi’ is coconut, and ‘jima’ is [island].” (Hayato Okino)

“Many immigrants from Japan settled in Waiakea, making it a thriving community, nearly as popular as downtown Hilo.” (HTH, Feb 24, 1980) “A compact, cohesive and tightly knit community, Waiakea was predominantly Japanese but included other ethnic groups. The men worked primarily as fishermen and stevedores.” (HTH. Mar 31, 1999)

“Life was tough. Families were large and many lived frugally with little to spare. The Waiakea Social Settlement was the only organized social facility for the deprived children.” (HTH. Mar 31, 1999)

“A majority of the men who first settled there were fishermen from Oshima-gun, Yamaguchi-ken. As a result, a thriving fishing industry was started along Wailoa River.” (HTH, May 23, 1986) “And then … they started to move over to the Shinmachi area.” (Hayato Okino)

Between 1913 and 1946, the present green space between Hilo Iron Works towards the old Hilo town was Shinmachi (‘New Town’), a thriving neighborhood of small business owners who established many of Hawai‘i Island mainstays.

These include Hawaii Planing Mill, Atebara Potato Chips, S. Tokunaga Sports, Hilo Transportation, and Hilo Macaroni Factory (makers of the Saloon Pilot Cracker). (Lyman Museum)

“Waiakea was roughly bounded by Lihiwai Street, what is now Banyan Drive and Lanikaula Street. It also encompassed Waiakea Houselots with Manono as the main street and Mililani, Hinano and Laupaku as the side streets.” (HTH Mar 7, 1994)

“Waiakea Social Settlement was ‘Founded January 1, 1903, by the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, as the enlargement of a Sunday-school work already begun ‘to be a home-place for the community …’”

“‘… where all are welcome to partake of rest, social pleasure, mental food and spiritual nourishment; to help the children especially to be happy as well as good.’ Maintained by the Hawaiian Board of Missions and by subscriptions.”

“Maintains daily dispensary; Sunday school; ‘friendly talks’ on Sunday evenings; sewing school; music and culture classes; girls’ weaving class; women’s class (industrial and devotional); prayer meeting; reading room; socials; drills; visits; collecting savings; annual concert.” (Handbook of Settlements, 1911)

“The finishing touches are being put on the two new buildings of the Waiakea Social Settlement located on the corner of Kamehameha Ave. and Kilohana Street. These larger facilities will make possible an expansion of the services to the whole of the neighborhood. ‘It’s the place of the people,’ said a scout, referring to the Settlement.”

“The new facilities are making possible activities which heretofore were closed to them. A complete stage with make-up rooms will permit all sorts of performance for story acting to big time plays not to mention community meetings of all kinds.”

“The standard size gymnasium and showers will offer athletic facilities for boys’ and girls’ groups with a variety of sports from basketball to shuffleboard and games.”

“The new clinic and meeting rooms will make possible the improved services of cooperating agencies of the Board of Health, religious education, the University Extension Bureau, Baby Conference, Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts and Hilo Recreation Committee.” (HTH, Feb 1, 1939)

“Yashijima Nihongo-Gakkoo [Waiakea Japanese School] had its beginnings in 1904 in a Christian Mission in Waiakea Town, the Waiakea Social Settlement of later years.” (HTH, July 27, 1980)

The lyrics as the beginning of this summary are the alma mater for the Waiakea Japanese School. “The song had been very dear to the students. It had etched into their hearts and minds the destiny and the responsibilities of the Americans of Japanese Ancestry.”

“Singing it not only brought back fond as well as humorous memories of learning the Japanese language but also of the many activities which helped to mold their lives in preparation for the future.” (HTH, July 27, 1980)

The Waiakea Social Settlement which stood in the area just behind where the clock stands today was the hub of activities for the children of Waiakea. (Historical Marker Database)

“The village had two theaters, restaurants, general merchandise stores, grocery stores, meat markets, drug stores, coffee shop, barbershops, billiard parlor, poi factory, kamaboko factories, a transportation company, railroad depot and terminal with a tum-table in the middle of the Wailoa River …”

“… fish markets, sampans, garages, and Waiakea Kai School on Kilohana Street facing the Japanese school located on Kainehe Street. There was also Coconut Island and the landscaped park now called Liliuokalani Park, dry docks for sampans, and homes.” (HTH, July 27, 1980)

“Waiakea Social Settlement is a social work agency. By that definition its responsibility is to help people adjust to where they are or to be efficient as citizens. It is a group agency and thus helps people by the use of groups rather than as individuals As people came through the doors, there were achievements and failures.” (HTH, Apr 23, 1949)

Waiakea Social Settlement “Was a good place for a number of children that couldn’t make the – that the Boy Scouts couldn’t take in. They’ve become much broader lately.”

“You had to be a good boy to get into the Boy Scouts and there were too many youngsters that weren’t interested in being good boys – you know, parents were at fault – but the Waiakea Settlement would try to work with them.”

“I thought it was a splendid thing. Or anything like that, you know. I wish there had been something that could have taken in more girls than the YW did. You know, girls down at Keaukaha [Hawaiian homestead area in Hilo, Hawaii] and along in there that needed that kind of help. I think they’re getting more help now.” (Lorna Hooleia Jarrett Desha)

In 1958, the Waiakea Social Settlement board of trustees approved the settlement consolidation with the Hawaii County YMCA. The two agencies had been working together on a cooperative program for two years. (HTH, Oct 2, 1958)

Waiakea Social Settlement’s Clock was dedicated in 1939, in memory of Mrs CS Richardson; it adjoined the Settlement building. The clock was significantly damaged in the 1960 tsunami. It was refurbished and re-erected on this original concrete stand by the Waiakea Pirates Athletic Club in May, 1984.

The clock is significant to the people that grew up in the community. The time is stopped at 1:04 am when the clock itself was destroyed by the 3rd and largest wave. (Tsunami Museum) Today it serves as a symbol of the strength, courage. and resilience of the residents of Waiakea. (Historical Marker Database)

Waiakea Town, Yashijima, was never rebuilt after the 1960 tsunami. The golf course and park that you see today was once filled with homes, businesses and schools, all of which provided the backbone for a local economy of fishing, stevedoring, sugar, railroading and service industries. (Historical Marker Database)

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