Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Worst Possible Place For A Forced Landing In The Islands

While there is no good place to crash land an airplane, in 1941 the crew of the Army’s B-18 Bolo (serial number 36-446, constructors number 1747) found what was described as the “worst place.”

Prior to September 18, 1947 (the time the US Air Force was formed,) military aviation was conducted by the Army or Navy.

But let’s step back a bit.

In 1935, a design competition and “fly-off” was held to select a replacement for the Martin B-10/12 the standard bomber then in service with the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC.)

Douglas developed the B-18 “Bolo” to replace the Martin B-10; the new model was based on the Douglas DC-2 commercial transport.  The B-18 prototype competed with the Martin 146 (an improved B-10) and the four-engine Boeing 299, forerunner of the B-17 Flying Fortress, at the Air Corps bombing trials at Wright Field in 1935.

Although many Air Corps officers judged the Boeing design superior, the Army General Staff preferred the less costly Bolo; contracts were awarded for 82-planes, the order was increased to 132 by June of 1936.

Although designated a reconnaissance and bomber aircraft, the Douglas B-18 flew other important missions.  Hickam B-18s towed targets for gunnery practice by the coast artillery ground troops.   The targets were attached to steel cables and reeled several hundred feet aft of the aircraft.   (Trojan)

Though equipped with inadequate defensive armament and underpowered, the Bolo remained the Air Corps’ primary bomber into 1941. Thirty-three B-18s were based in Hawaiʻi with the 5th Bombardment Group and 11th Bombardment Group.

One of those Hawaiʻi B-18 Bolos, piloted by Boyd Hubbard Jr, took off from Hickam Field at 7 pm February 25, 1941 for a routine inter-island night instrument-navigation training flight.  Three other B-18s trained with them that night.

Their flight path took them over the Island of Hawaiʻi.  While flying on instruments at 10,000-feet, Hubbard’s B-18 suffered a main bearing failure in the left engine.  Hubbard headed to Suiter Field, the Army’s auxiliary field (it is now known as Upolū Point Airport.)

Although all possible fuel and cargo was jettisoned, the aircraft was too heavily loaded to maintain altitude on one engine.  As the aircraft descended the other engine began sputtering.  The crew believed they were over the ocean at the time in heavy fog during the dark night.

Hubbard made a last split-second correction prior to the crash. As he later described it, the mountain just loomed up before him in the darkness and he just reacted. He pulled back hard on the wheel and the aircraft stalled and belly flopped into the thick underbrush.

The undergrowth was so dense the plane settled into it and did not slide forward very far.  The crew felt the plane hit the tops of some trees and skid for about 75 yards before coming to rest at about the 3500-foot elevation in a gulch on the side of the Kohala mountain.  (Trojan)

Lee Webster, a Flight Engineer on one of the other B-18s in the group, reportedly gave this account of the accident, “I was just becoming accustomed to the eerie feeling of night flying by the time we started our second leg of the triangle toward a point somewhere off the northern tip of the island and to this point radio contact led us to believe we were in good shape.”

“Suddenly that was shattered by a report from one of the other planes having engine problems and then soon after a report of engine failure and that they were losing altitude. We immediately broke off our mission to accompany the disabled aircraft into Hilo airport, but to make matters worse we flew into some very bad weather. After what seemed a short period of time we lost radio contact with them and when attempts to locate the lost plane became futile we returned to Hickam Field.”  (Trojan)

The next morning at dawn a search was launched from Hickam Field using 24 bombers.  The wreck was soon spotted and an airdrop from Army planes provided the downed crew with blankets, food and hot coffee.

At dawn the following day (Thursday, February 27,) a rescue team departed from Suiter Field (Upolū.)  Members of the rescue party included Fred C Koelling (leader,) Ronald May, Leslie Hannah, Melvin Johnson and Hiroshi Nakamura.  (Pacific Wrecks)

They took the Kohala Ditch Trail on horseback for 2 ½-hours, then had to cut a new trail on foot for 8-miles through marshland and heavy brush for another 4-hours before nearing the crash site.

Firing pistols into the air to attract the downed fliers’ attention; the air crew responded with a burst of bullets and shot flares into the air; after 12-hours, they reached the downed plane.  (Veronico)

Remarkably, only minor injuries were sustained by Hubbard and the crew (crew members were Co-Pilot 2nd Lt Francis R Thompson; Engineer SSgt Joseph S. Paulhamus; Radioman Pvt William Cohn; Crewman Pvt Fred C Seeger and Crewman Pvt Robert R Stevens.)

Airmen from Hickam later described the site as the “Worst possible place for a forced landing in the Islands.”  (Trojan)

Hubbard continued on with a distinguished career in the Army, retiring as Brigadier General and earning Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster; Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster; Bronze Star Medal and numerous other medals, badges and citations.  (He retired March 1, 1966; he died February 15, 1982.)

The plane sat since on the side of Kohala mountain, just west of Waimanu Valley.  While various internet reports suggest Pacific Aviation Museum acquired the plane and has plans to restore and display it, the Curator of the Museum noted to me that “the plane is not ours”.  It continues to sit on the slopes of Kohala in Hāmākua.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Koholālele Landing

“The slopes of Mauna Kea Volcano steepen near the town of Ookala and the entire coast between Koholalele Landing and Niu Village is lined by steep sea cliffs ranging 50-300 ft high. Only a few foot trails enable access to the shoreline from the headland bluffs above.”

“Periodically the cliffs become saturated with heavy rainfall and may develop landslides. Several streams cut across the Ookala coastal plain creating deep gulches, beautiful waterfalls, and boulder beaches at their terminus. This region receives moderate to high wave energy from north swell and trade wind waves, limiting reef development.” (USGS)

The sugar companies began clearing the fertile lowlands of Koholālele, like much of Hāmākua, in the mid to late-1800s, to make way for the expansion of sugarcane production on the island of Hawai‘i. (Peralto)  (Koholālele (leaping whale) is a land division and landing, Hāmākua and Mauna Kea, and a former steamer landing for sugar plantations.)

“The entire coast line, excepting where the big gulches break through is sheer cliff of varying height up to 400 ft and behind the land, which is cut by frequent gulches, rises with gentle even slope to the mountain: every available bit of land, from the actual cliff edge to the timber line, is cane covered.”

“A fringe of evergreens will be seen along cliff edge in places. These were planted to protect the cane from the NE trade. No off lying dangers were found in the steamer track: they generally pass close in. The landings however should be approached with caution”. (Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1913)

“At one time there were 26 sugar plantations along the [Hamakua Coast]”. (LA Times) “Over the Big Island, with Hawaiian Air Lines – ‘You’re now flying over the Hamakua coast … said our purser. ‘Below us is the most productive soil in the world.  As much as 300,000 pounds of sugar cane have been grown per acre on these plantations.’”

“He could have added that from an 18-mile square area, slightly larger than that of New York City, Hawaii produces over a 1,000,000 tons of sugar, manufactured in the US,’ pointed out my fellow passenger, Roy Leffingwell, of the Hawaii Sugar Plantations association. ‘It’s Hawaii’s main industry ….’” (Burns; Medford Mail Tribune)

Francis (Nelson) Frazier assembled some ‘Notes’ that her father, Richard Nelson, wrote; they were reminiscences of his years at sea and on the inter-island steamers. “The following excerpt describes the method used to transfer cargo and people ashore along the Hamakua Coast, noted for its steep cliffs.”

“I spent three very happy years on the SS Hawaii with Hilo as the home port, learning how to handle the steamers and the wire at the wire landings. Our duty in those years was to act as tenders to the Matson sailing ships.”

“There were two steamers, the Hawaii and the Kaiulani, in this trade, and our work was to tow the sailing ships in and out of Hilo Bay and to place them at their moorings under the direction of the Pilot.”

“We then came alongside the sailing ships and took their cargo on board for the various ‘outside’ plantations and then brought sugar in from those plantations and delivered it to the ships to take to San Francisco.”

“Most of the places we went to had wire landings, but there were a few derrick landings, which were mostly disliked by the Captain and crews of the steamers as they were more dangerous in rough weather than the wire landings, which could be worked in most any kind of weather except when the wind was from the north, when even they were unsafe.”

“The coast of Hawaii known as the Hamakua Coast was a stretch of about 50 miles running north from Hilo to {Kukuihaele]. The shore was a continuous bluff from 100 to 400 feet above sea level.”

“All the plantations were on the top of the bluff, and the reason for the wire landings was that the shore line was so rough and dangerous for boat work most of the time that some means had to be found to enable the loading to be carried on in all kinds of weather.”

“The idea of loading by wire was imported from the Pacific Coast when lumber from the redwood forests had been shipped that way for many years. As the trade winds blow almost constantly from the east north east all the landings and moorings were laid out so that the steamer would lay head to the wind and sea.”

“There were four (4) mooring buoys with heavy anchors and chains to them at all wire landings, and a small buoy with a light chain only a few feet longer than the depth of water was fastened to the end of the sea wire, which lay on the sea bottom all the time when there was no steamer using it.”

“There was also a permanent wire from the top of the bluff leading down to an anchor not very far from the shore. This wire was used when first getting the hauling rope from shore. A weight was slid down this wire with the end of the hauling rope attached to it.”

“The ship’s boat would go in to this wire and pick up the end of the hauling rope that came down from the top of the bluff. This end they took back to the ship, and this way the connection with the landing was established.”

“In coming to a wire landing, the steamer was taken in between the two head buoys and one or two anchors let go and enough chain payed out to allow the ship to turn around head to the wind, with the small ‘wire buoy’ alongside the off shore side of the ship near the fore hatch.”

“The ship was then approximately in the right position but not yet secured, so the two boats with the stern lines already coiled in them were lowered, and the stern lines (2) run to the buoys and secured there. When all was connected up and ready the work began.”

“If we had cargo, that was first hoisted up out of the hold and landed on deck or on the half of the hatch cover that was always left on for the crew to stand on. “

“After all the cargo was ashore, the process was reversed and the [bagged] sugar was sent down on the carriage and landed on the ship’s hatch and then tumbled down for the rest of the crew to stow away in the hold.” ((Nelson) Frazier)

“There is an excellent landing at Koholalele Landing, small boats lie at the derrick pier and have a lee from the NE trade. This is an excellent place for getting ashore since the inclined c.r. cut offers easy access to top of cliffs. One mooring buoy, red can.”

“There is a rumor that this landing will be abandoned, because the railroad is going to handle all freight. The Hilo Railroad traverses entire sheet.”

“Paauilo is the terminus. there is no present intention of extending it farther, one reason being that the plantations beyond could give no business, having contracts with the Inter Island SS Co for several years ahead.” (Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1913)

The old Koholālele Landing on the Hāmākua was once considered for use as an emergency airplane landing field. This land, owned by the Hāmākua Mill Company, was not particularly good cane land and that Company was agreeable to exchanging it for other territorially-owned property. (Territorial Aviation Commission, March 4, 1931)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hāmākua and Hilo Coast Landings

“The Hawaiian Group consists of five principal islands, viz: Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Molokai and Kauai, upon which the main portion of the inhabitants reside, and where the principal industries are carried on; three minor islands, viz. Lanai, Kahoolawe and Niihau, where the population is very sparse, and three barren rocks, viz. Molokini, Lehua and Kaula.”

“There are three principal ports at which the voyager may land, viz: Honolulu on Oahu, Kahului on Maui, and Hilo on Hawaii. All these have direct communication with San Francisco, but only the first has steam communication. The latter ports can at present be reached by sailing vessels.” (Whitney, Tourist Guide, 1890)

“There is also a fleet of steam and sailing vessels in the InterIsland, South Sea and Pacific Coast trade belonging to Honolulu. The principal local organizations are the Wilder Steamship Company and the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company.” (Whitney, Tourist Guide, 1890)

By the 1930s, “Vessels of three steamship lines make Hilo on the island of Hawaii a regular port of call. The Inter-Island Steam Navigation Go. Operates modern steamers between Honolulu and Hilo twice each week. Certain ships of the Matson Navigation Co., after stopping at Honolulu, continue on to Hilo and furnish a part-daylight trip among the islands. …”

“The vessels of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha South America West Coast Line stop at Hilo 1 day after leaving Honolulu, en route from the Orient to South America via San Francisco, service approximately every 5 weeks.”

The sugar companies began clearing the fertile lowlands of Hāmākua in the mid to late-1800s to make way for the expansion of sugarcane production on the island of Hawai‘i. (Peralto)

“The entire coast line, excepting where the big gulches break through is sheer cliff of varying height up to 400 ft and behind the land, which is cut by frequent gulches, rises with gentle even slope to the mountain: every available bit of land, from the actual cliff edge to the timber line, is cane covered.”

“A fringe of evergreens will be seen along cliff edge in places. These were planted to protect the cane from the NE trade. No off lying dangers were found in the steamer track: they generally pass close in. The landings however should be approached with caution”. (Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1913)

“At one time there were 26 sugar plantations along the [Hamakua Coast]”. (LA Times) “Over the Big Island, with Hawaiian Air Lines – ‘You’re now flying over the Hamakua coast … said our purser. Below us is the most productive soil in the world.  As much as 300,000 pounds of sugar cane have been grown per acre on these plantations.’”

“He could have added that from an 18-mile square area, slightly larger than that of New York City, Hawaii produces over a 1,000,000 tons of sugar, manufactured in the US,’ pointed out my fellow passenger, Roy Leffingwell, of the Hawaii Sugar Plantations association. ‘It’s Hawaii’s main industry ….’” (Burns; Medford Mail Tribune)

In the district of Hāmākua “come sugar plantations, mills and scattered houses. For nearly sixty miles there is one continuous ribbon of cane and a succession of mills until Hilo is reached.”

“The Hilo coast, which commences four miles before reaching Laupahoehoe, is abrupt and pierced by numerous gulches, large and small. There are said to be sixty-two from Laupahoehoe to Hilo. Down each of these winds a stream, ending, in most cases, in a waterfall that leaps into the sea. These slender silver threads seem to be countless.” (Whitney, Tourist Guide, 1890)

“The coast of Hawaii known as the Hamakua Coast was a stretch of about 50 miles running north from Hilo to {Kukuihaele]. The shore was a continuous bluff from 100 to 400 feet above sea level.”

“All the plantations were on the top of the bluff, and the reason for the wire landings was that the shore line was so rough and dangerous for boat work most of the time that some means had to be found to enable the loading to be carried on in all kinds of weather.”

“The idea of loading by wire was imported from the Pacific Coast when lumber from the redwood forests had been shipped that way for many years. As the trade winds blow almost constantly from the east north east all the landings and moorings were laid out so that the steamer would lay head to the wind and sea.”

“In coming to a wire landing, the steamer was taken in between the two head buoys and one or two anchors let go and enough chain payed out to allow the ship to turn around head to the wind, with the small ‘wire buoy’ alongside the off shore side of the ship near the fore hatch.”

“When all was connected up and ready the work began.  If we had cargo, that was first hoisted up out of the hold and landed on deck or on the half of the hatch cover that was always left on for the crew to stand on. “

“After all the cargo was ashore, the process was reversed and the [bagged] sugar was sent down on the carriage and landed on the ship’s hatch and then tumbled down for the rest of the crew to stow away in the hold.  [The Sugar was taken] in from those plantations and delivered it to the ships to take to San Francisco.” ((Nelson) Frazier)

North to south, here are some brief descriptions of the landings where the steamers stop to deliver goods and transport sugar in 1909: Kukuihaele, Honoka‘a; Pa‘auhau; Koholālele; Kuka‘iau; O‘okala (Kaiwiki); Laupāhoehoe; Papa‘aloa; Hakalau; Honomu; Pepe‘ekeo; Pāpa’ikou and Wainaku.

Kukuihaele Landing “Consists of a fifteen-ton derrick at the foot of a bluff, connected with the warehouse at the top of the bluff at about 100 feet elevation, with an inclined cable railway about 200 feet in length. From this warehouse runs an inclined cable railway to the mill. distance of about 2,300 feet, thence to a warehouse on the government road about 6,000 feet distant from landing.”

“Volume of freight is a maximum of 7,000 tons outgoing sugar and about the same quantity of incoming merchandise. Passengers and mail occasionally land here”.  “[F]reight is hauled from the landing on cars by means of cable to the warehouse upon the government road – elevation 800 feet, in three stages, viz …”

“… first, from landing to landing warehouse, transferred upon other cars; second, to mill power house; third, then reattached to three thousand seven hundred feet cable to warehouse; a total distance of about six thousand feet, which necessitates the handling of freight no less than three times.”

Honoka‘a Landing has “a fifteen-ton derrick on a masonry pier on a rock bluff, operated either by steam furnished from boiler at landing, or by compressed air from the mill. An incline cable railway from the derrick to the mill, three-quarters of a mile long, is operated either by steam, or by a ninety horsepower gasoline engine, which also operates the air compressor when the mill is shut down.”

“There is also a further incline cable railway leading up to the Government belt road, at an elevation above 1,000 feet, where the plantation maintains a warehouse and a freight clerk. … There are about 12,000 tons of sugar and a small amount of other freight outgoing annually and about 12,000 tons of incoming merchandise and lumber.”

“There is an average of six steamers per month, all being tramp steamers, but one, which call regularly once a week. These vessels run to and from Honolulu.”

Pa‘auhau Landing has “a twenty-ton derrick for heavy machinery connected with the warehouse on the top of the cliff by an incline cable railway built on very heavy masonry foundation, also a wire rope landing running into another large warehouse on top of the cliff. The wire rope equipment is very heavy and the cable is 700 feet Jong.”

“The plantation railway system runs into and alongside warehouses. There is a roadway leading to the warehouse ; this road is considered private, at least in part, but always open to the public during plantation business hours.”

“Volume of freight 10,500 tons of sugar and some 600 to 3000 bags of coffee outgoing annually-probably about the same amount of incoming freight. …  About 8 to 10 steamers call here every month. This is the only landing in Hamakua district having regular steamer connection with Hilo, the sugar going to Hilo for across ocean shipment.”

Koholālele Landing “is about 2 miles from the plantation headquarters [Hamakua Mill] and about 3 miles from the Paauilo village.  There is a fifteen-ton derrick sixteen feet above sea level operated by steam, also an incline cable railway 800 feet long to the main warehouse, into which the tracks of the plantation railway run.”

“There is a very good anchorage at this landing, protected by a point of rock, and it is said that this landing can be worked when Honokaa, Kukuihaele and Paauhau are impossible.”

“Volume of freight about 10,000 tons of sugar per annum, and very little outgoing freight from outsiders; mostly small packages for which no charge is made. The incoming freight is estimated at 5,000 tons per annum.”

“There is an average of one steamer a week calling here, with no regular dates, most steamers being bound to or from Honolulu and way ports, the sugar going to Honolulu.”

Kuka‘iau Landing “consists of a twenty-ton derrick on a staging 20 feet above water at the foot of the bluff, and an incline cable railway to a second landing 195 feet above the sea. This incline cable railway is on a 52 degree uniform slope, and consists of double tracks with 2 cars or car elevators, the top of which are tracked, connected by cable-one going up while the other goes down; the derrick and cable railway being operated by steam.”

“About 1,500 to 2,000 tons of merchandise, and about 100,000 feet of lumber per year are handled over this landing besides the sugar output of Kukaiau.  This landing is seldom used for mail or passengers …. About three Inter-Island steamers call at this landing each month at irregular intervals, the sugar being shipped to Honolulu.”

O‘okala (Kaiwiki) Landing “is a wire rope landing on top of a bluff about 395 feet above sea, using a wire cable 850 feet long. All heavy freight for Kaiwiki Sugar Company is handled at Laupahoehoe. … The plantation management reports that no outside freight is handled here except for Ookala store, run by a Japanese, and Sam Wo Jam’s store.”

Laupāhoehoe Landing … “Laupahoehoe is a singular place, standing on lava, which has been declared to be the last expiring effort of Maunakea, a strip running right to the sea, down the great rent in the coastline, which forms the Laupahoehoe Valley.”

“At Laupahoehoe the landing is very good and the lands rich. Messrs. Lidgate and Campbell have fine cane growing and every prospect of success in their enterprise at this place.” ((1877) Maly)  “There is also an excellent landing at this plantation.” (Bowser, 1880; Maly)  As noted in summaries of the surrounding Landings, Laupāhoehoe was the place of choice for ‘heavy’ freight.

“Laupahoehoe (leaf of lava) is an extensive village situated at the mouth of a deep gulch, on a flat stretch of land. It has the only landing used for passengers on this side of the island, outside of Hilo. … [however,] at times it is impossible to land.” (Kinney (1913))

Papa‘aloa Landing “is a wire rope landing, 182 feet above sea level, using a wire 925 feet long; also an incline cable railway connecting the wire rope landing with the plantation warehouse 330 feet distant and on about 30 feet higher ground. The railway is operated by a water wheel; the wire rope trolleys by steam.”

“There is very little outside business handled at this landing. The owners have no schedule of landing charges, but by special arrangements occasionally handle freight for outsiders …. Heavy pieces of plantation freights are handled through Laupahoehoe. Most steamers are to and from Honolulu where sugar is shipped.”

Hakalau Landing “consists of a wire cable 150 feet above the sea and an incline cable railway about 400 feet long running from wire landing warehouse to another warehouse and power house on public road. A derrick landing at the foot of the bluff is connected with the warehouse at the top of the bluff by a cable railway.”

“Practically nothing is landed here except for the plantation, and plantation employees. … Nearly all steamers touching here are to and from Hilo, to which point the sugar is shipped.”

Honomu Landing “consists of a derrick for handling heavy machinery at the foot of the bluff connected with an incline cable railway; also a wire landing for handling sugar and merchandise.”

“No outside freight is handled at this place, except by special arrangement and this is seldom because of the irregularity of steamer service-the outside freight of the sur rounding country being nearly all hauled overland from Hilo.  About 11,000 tons of plantation freight, incoming 6.700 tons of sugar are passed over this landing per year, nearly all of which goes to or comes from Hilo.”

Pepe‘ekeo Landing “consists of a derrick for heavy machinery and a wire rope for handling plantation sugar and merchandise. About 12,000 tons of plantation freight pass over this landing per year. There is no regular steamer service as the shipping at this place depends on the loading or discharging of vessels lying in Hilo harbor.”

Pāpa’ikou Landing “consists of a derrick at boat landing for handling heavy freight; a wire cable system operated from tower on top of low bluff is used for handling sugar and plantation merchandise: very little outside freight is handled over this landing, and only by special arrangement.”

Wainaku Landing “consists of derrick for handling incoming freight and heavy pieces of outgoing freight, and chute from warehouse to lighter for handling sugar.”

“This landing is a little less than one mile distance from Hilo on the Hilo Bay. All freight to and from this landing, with the exception of occasional cargoes of lumber or heavy machinery by Inter-Island steamers, is handled by lighters from ships lying in Hilo harbor.”

(Most information here related to respective landings comes from a 1910 ‘Report of the Commission Appointed to Investigate Private Wharves and Landings.’)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Jack London and Waipio

In 1906, Jack London announced he was planning a trip on a boat – the Snark – he was to build and do blue-water sailing on a round-the-world cruise.  (The Snark was named after one of Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poems.)

“‘Honolulu first,’ said London yesterday. ‘After that we are not very definite. Everybody’s in good health, the bourgeoise tradesmen have finally freed us, the boat is staunch, the weather fine. What more a man wants I don’t know.’”

“‘Meet me in Paris,’ called Mrs. Jack London back through the megaphone as the boat disappeared. ‘Isn’t it glorious? Good-by, everybody!” [April 23, 1907] Jack and his wife Charmian came to the Islands twice, 1907-09 & 1915-16.

Later, Charmian wrote of Jack London’s impression of the Islands, “Jack, with his unquestionable love of natural beauty,

was ever impressed with man’s lordly harnessing of the outlaw, Nature, leading her by the mouth to perform his work upon earth.”

“‘’Do you get the splendid romance of it?’ he would say. ‘Look what these engineers have done – reaching out their hands and gathering and diverting the storm wastage of streams over the edge of this valley thousands of feet here in the clouds. …”

“[O]ne day, riding in a drizzle, Jack and I happened upon the broad, steep trail of the 2500-foot eastern scarp, into Waipio, and mushed through its mud down into a sunnier level, meeting strings of ascending mules laden with garden produce.”

“An old chronicler referred to the condition of the ‘roads’ hereabout as ‘embarrassing.’ Our horses tried very fractiously to refuse the descent.”

“This was one of the prettiest little adventures we two ever had together, dropping into the sequestered vale that opened wondrously as we progressed to the lovely banks of a wooded river that wound to the sea, widening to meet the surf that thundered upon a two-mile shingle.”

“On the banks of the stream we could see wahines at their washing, and hear the ringing sweet voices of children at play-survivors of a once thick population, as evidenced by remains that are to be found of fish-ponds, taro-patches, and the like. Here the last Hawaiian tapa cloth was made.”

“That same chronicler says: ‘There was something about that valley so lovely, so undisturbed … it seemed to belong to another world, or to be a portion of this into which sorrow and death had never entered.’”

“At the head of this great break in the coast nestles the half-deserted, half-ruined village of Waipio, and behind it there wedges into the floor of the valley a tremendous rock bastion veiled in waterfalls to its mid-hidden summit.”

“A second river curved from beyond its feet, and joined the one that flowed into the sea. We rode on across reedy shallows to a pathway once sacred to the sorcerers, kahunas, the which no layman then dared to profane with his step.”

“Only approaching twilight held us back from the beach trail that leads to a clump of tall coconuts, marking the site of a onetime important temple of refuge in this section of Hawaii, Puuhonua, built as long ago as the thirteenth century by a Kauai king.”

“There is reason to believe that there were several lesser temples in the neighborhood. They do say that Kamehameha the Great was born here in Waipio.”

“One would like to think that first seeing the light of day in so superlatively grand and beautiful a vale might make for greatness!”

“That day, moving along the bases of the cloud-shadowed precipices, we planned happily how we should some day come here, restore one of the abandoned cottages and its garden, and live for a while without thought of time.”

“What a place for quietude and work!”

“For once Jack seemed to welcome the idea of such seclusion and repose. Little as he ever inclined toward folding his pinions for long, Hawaii stayed them more than any other land.”

“‘You can’t beat the Ranch in California – it’s a sweet land,’ he would stanchly defend, ‘but I’d like to spend a great deal of my time down here.’”

“We bemoaned the weather that prevented us from climbing the zig-zag stark above our heads into Waimanu.” (London, Our Hawaii)

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Katsu Kobayakawa Goto

“Early on the morning of the 29th the body of K. Goto, a Japanese storekeeper, was found hanging to a telephone post not far from the Honokaa court house between that and the Lyceum, with his arms tied behind him and his legs also tied.  He had been dead several hours.”  (Daily Bulletin, October 30, 1889)

Katsu Kobayakawa was the eldest son of Izaemon Kobayakawa.  Katsu (Jun) was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture in 1862.  He worked as a store clerk in Yokohama, where he became fluent in English by associating with Englishmen and Americans.  (Nakano)

He was anxious to go to Hawaiʻi; but being the first born son, he was expected to take over the family business.  Katsu changed his surname to Goto so he could travel Hawaiʻi to make a better living for himself.

In the Islands, Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.  By 1883, more than 50-plantations were producing sugar on five islands.

A shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge; the answer was imported labor.  The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.)

In March 1881, King Kalākaua visited Japan during which he discussed with Emperor Meiji Hawaiʻi’s desire to encourage Japanese nationals to settle in Hawaiʻi; this improved the relationship of the Hawaiian Kingdom with the Japanese government. (Nordyke/Matsumoto)

The first 944-government-sponsored, Kanyaku Imin, Japanese immigrants to Hawaiʻi arrived in Honolulu aboard the SS City of Tokio on February 8, 1885.  Katsu was on that first boatload of Japanese immigrants, included with 676-men, 158-women and 110-children on the first of 26 shiploads of government contract Japanese immigrants between 1885 and 1894.

Katsu fulfilled his 3-year contract commitment, working in the Hāmākua sugarcane fields.  After that, he took over a small, general merchandise store previously run by Bunichiro Onome in Honokaʻa, then the Island’s second largest town.  (Niiya)

He was very successful selling to the Japanese, native Hawaiian and haole population and was soon viewed as leader in the Japanese immigrant community. (Kubota)

On October 28, 1889 Goto was killed.

Four were accused and stood trial: Joseph R Mills, Thomas Steele, William C Blabon and William D Watson.

Steele was Overend’s overseer.  Blabon was teamster for Mills.  Watson was head teamster for Overend and a former employee of Mills.

Deputy Attorney-General Arthur Porter Peterson notes, “The prosecution would show that Goto was not killed while hanging to the telephone pole, but when he was waylaid and dragged from his horse, and was only hung to the post as an act of bravado, within sight and almost within sound of the temple of justice.”  (Daily Bulletin, May 13, 1890)

Some suggest the motive for killing Goto was a fire at the Robert McLain Overend plantation.  Testimony at trial noted, “Mills had told me that Goto had been up to Overend’s camp. Mr. Overend’s cane field was set fire October 19th, a little after 9 o’clock.”

“We had Goto for an interpreter, and he did not act on the square, and a new interpreter was got and he gave matters away. I only heard Mr. Overend say that he would break his damned neck.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, May 20, 1890)

Others note Goto was successful in his store and other store operators were concerned about losing business because of him.  Joseph R Mills operated a store a few yards from Goto’s (Goto was the only Japanese storekeeper in the area.)

The testimony of star witnesses Richmond and Lala, who had both taken part in the incident, yielded the following description of how Goto ultimately died.

“The two of them were summoned separately on the night that Goto was killed. Richmond was summoned by Steele and sent to watch for a Jap who would be leaving the (Japanese) living quarters on horseback”.

“When they got to where Mills and the others were waiting, Mills told him to grab the bridle of the horse that (Goto) would be riding toward them. After Richmond reported that (Goto) was on his way they lay in ambush.”

“Steele and Blabon dragged the man off the horse. … Steele, Blabon, Mills, and Watson carried him to a location away from the road where he was placed face down and his hands and feet bound. … Mills sent Richmond to pick up a rope at the foot of the telephone pole, a rope that, he found, already had a hangman’s knot at one end.”

“When he returned with the rope someone in the group said, ‘My God! He is dead.’ Richmond then bent over and put his hand over the man’s heart but could feel no heartbeat. …”

“The body was then carried over to the telephone pole. Watson threw the rope over the crossbar, Mills put the noose around Goto’s neck, and the body was hauled up and suspended.”  (Kubota)

After deliberating for more than six hours, the jury returned verdicts of manslaughter in the second degree for Steele and Mills, and manslaughter in the third degree for Blabon and Watson.  Judge Albert Francis Judd subsequently sentenced Mills and Steele to nine years imprisonment at hard labor, Blabon to five and Watson to four.

All four were transferred under guard from Hilo jail to Oʻahu Prison immediately after the trial. Steele later escaped and presumably stowed away on a ship bound for Australia; Blabon also escaped and probably stowed away, too.  Mills received a full pardon in 1894.  Watson was the only one to serve out his full sentence.

At the same time of the Goto killing, the Annual Meeting of the Planters’ Labor and Supply Company was being held.  They adopted a resolution against racial prejudice, resolving that they “strongly disapprove of every act and publication intended or calculated to excite any distrust or prejudice in the minds of the native Hawaiians against those of foreign birth or parentage, or to excite feelings of contempt or distrust toward the natives”.  (Daily Bulletin, October 29, 1889)

(Peterson was Attorney-General at the time of the overthrow in 1893. He was arrested and jailed by the Republic of Hawaiʻi in the aftermath of the 1895 Counter-Revolution and then exiled to San Francisco where he died of pneumonia.)

(Peterson had conferred upon him the decoration of the Imperial Order of the Sacred Treasure of Japan for services rendered to the Japanese Government.  (San Francisco Call, March 17, 1895))  (Lots of information here from Kubota.)

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