Hawaii | Page 292 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 15, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Buffalo Soldiers

Before the Army’s 25th Infantry Division, stationed at Schofield Barracks on Oʻahu (formed in 1941,) for a while during the time of World War I (1913 – 1918) Hawaiʻi had the Army’s 25th Infantry Regiment.

The Division is known as the “Tropic Lightning;” the Regiment was known as the “Buffalo Soldiers.”

In 1866, Congress created six segregated regiments which were soon consolidated into four black regiments. They were the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry.

“The officers say that the negroes make good soldiers and fight like fiends … the Indians call them ‘buffalo soldiers’ because their woolly heads are so much like the matted cushion that is between the horns of the buffalo.” (Roe, Army Letters from an Officer’s Wife, 1871-1888)

Although African Americans have fought in America’s wars since the Revolution, they weren’t allowed to enlist in the Regular Army until after the Civil War (and, from July 28, 1866 – February 3, 1946, America’s Army was segregated.)

While the Buffalo Soldiers fought in the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars at the turn of the century, they did not see combat in World War I (1914 – 1918.)

At the time, the National Park Service did not exist, however a few National parks had been created: Yellowstone (1872,) Sequoia (1890,) Yosemite (1890,) Mount Rainier (1899,) Crater Lake, 1902,) Wind Cave, (1903,) Mesa Verde (1906,) Glacier (101) and Rocky Mountain (1910.)

Rather than fight, the Buffalo Soldiers and other Army regiments were assigned to duties at some National Parks.

The US Army served as the official administrator of Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks between 1891 and 1913; Buffalo Soldiers, like their white counterparts in US Army regiments, were among the first Park Rangers, and created a model for park management as we know it today. (NPS)

In addition to bringing law and order to the mountain wilderness, their accomplishments included the completion of the first usable road into Giant Forest and the first trail to the top of Mt. Whitney (the tallest peak in the contiguous United States) in Sequoia National Park in 1903 …

… and the building of an arboretum in Yosemite National Park near the south fork of the Merced River in 1904. One scholar considered the latter area to contain the first marked nature trail in the national park system. (NPS)

Starting in 1906, George Lycurgus (operator of the Volcano House) and newspaperman Lorrin Andrews Thurston were working to have the Mauna Loa and Kilauea Volcanoes area made into a National Park. In 1912, geologist Thomas Augustus Jaggar arrived to investigate and joined their effort.

Jaggar had tried to lead several expeditions to the top of Mauna Loa in 1914 but was unsuccessful due to the elevation (13,678 feet) and the harsh conditions: rough lava, violent winds, noxious fumes, shifting weather, extreme temperatures and a lack of shelter, water and food. (Takara)

About 800 Buffalo Soldiers from the 25th Regiment had been assigned to garrison duty in Hawaiʻi at Schofield Barracks. Given their experience in Parks on the continent, some of the soldiers were called upon to assist at the volcanoes on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

In September 1915, Jaggar, Thurston and a US Army representative conducted a survey to determine a route for a trail up Mauna Loa.

The following month, a local paper noted, “Soldiers Building Mountain Trail. Negro soldiers of the Twenty-fifth Infantry to the number of 150 are at work constructing a trail from near the Volcano House to the summit of Mauna Loa. It is estimated that three or four weeks will be devoted to this work. The soldiers are doing the work as a part of their vacation exercises.” (Maui News, October 29, 1915)

The Buffalo Soldiers built the 18-mile trail to the summit of Mauna Loa.

On August 1, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the country’s 13th National Park into existence – Hawaiʻi National Park. At first, the park consisted of only the summits of Kīlauea and Mauna Loa on Hawaiʻi and Haleakalā on Maui.

Eventually, Kilauea Caldera was added to the park, followed by the forests of Mauna Loa, the Kaʻū Desert, the rain forest of Olaʻa and the Kalapana archaeological area of the Puna/Kaʻū Historic District.

The National Park Service, within the federal Department of Interior, was created on August 25, 1916 by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act.

The experience of working with the Army did not end with the construction of the Mauna Loa Trail, and Thurston’s energy did not seem to wane. He continued to promote the Kīlauea area to the public and the military who he thought could benefit from, and would be a benefit to Kīlauea. (NPS)

In 1916, Thurston, recognizing the long tradition of soldiers and sailors who had visited the area, proposed the establishment of a military camp at Kīlauea. Thurston promoted his idea and was able to raise enough funds through public subscription for the construction of buildings and other improvements. By the fall of 1916 the first group of soldiers arrived at Kīlauea Military Camp (KMC.) (NPS)

Later, in the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built research offices, hiking trails and laid the foundations for much of the infrastructure and roads within the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes and other parks across the country.

On, July 1, 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Oh, one more thing … another lasting legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers to the National Parks is the Ranger Hat (popularly known as the Smokey the Bear Hat) – with it the Montana Peak (or pinch) at the top of the hat; a recrease of the Stetson hat to better shed water when it rains.

24th U.S. Infantry at drill, Camp Walker, Philippine Islands

25th Infantry Regiment Distinctive Unit Insignia

25th Infantry Regiment enroute to Philippines July 1 1899

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Buffalo Soldiers in Mariposa Grove Yosemite-(NPS)-1905

CCC builds stone walls along Crater Rim Drive-(NPS)-March 1934

Former National Park Service director Mary Bomar with her Ranger Hat

Kilauea Military Camp-(NPS)-1923

Thomas Jaggar (second from left) L2R Norton Twigg-Smith, Thomas Jaggar, Lorrin Thurston, Joe Monez, and Alex Lancaster-(USGS)-1916

Jack_White_(nephew)_as_Smokey-(he_spent_summer_fighting_fires)-with_niece_Molly_White

March 14, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

No Nails, Screws or Bolts

Japanese immigration to Hawaiʻi that began in 1868 marked the beginnings of large-scale settlement and, with it, the establishment of a new religious base.

Shinto is an ancient Japanese religion that evolved out of nature worship, fertility practices, divination, local folklore, notable heroes and shamanism.

Shinto worship natural places like mountains, springs and groves. The Kami are the Shinto deities. Animals are viewed as messengers of the Kami.

In 1882, the Izumo Taishakyo was formally incorporated and recognized by the Japanese government as an independent sect. Since then, the Izumo Taishakyo has been known as a “sectarian” or “religious” Shinto, as opposed to Jinja or Shrine Shinto, which was systematically placed under the management of the Japanese government.

The Rev. Katsuyoshi Miyao was sent by the headquarters in Japan to establish a branch in Hawaiʻi. He arrived in 1906 to offer the first Izumo Taisha service for the pioneer Japanese issei (first generation.) They needed a temple.

Architect Hego Fuchino was retained to design the Izumo Taishakyo Mission for the Hawaiʻi branch. Born (July 15, 1888) and educated in Japan, Hego Fuchino immigrated to Hawaiʻi at age 17 or 18 and worked his way through ʻIolani School and the University of Hawaiʻi.

He worked as a land surveyer and engineer in Honolulu, while he taught himself architecture, and became one of the first Japanese architects in Hawaiʻi. One of his earliest works was the Kuakini Hospital, which he designed in 1919.

He designed numerous churches, shrines and temples; commercial buildings; movie theaters, such as the Haleiwa Theater; residences and apartments; and schools such as the Hawaiian Mission Academy (many of which exist today.) His designs reflect his Japanese heritage.

Fuchino designed a wooden A-frame building, replicating the early Shinto shrine of Izumo Taisha in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. This finely detailed shrine was constructed by Takata, a master builder brought from Japan expressly for this project. Takata used wooden pegs instead of nails in building the shrine. (Hibbard)

It is one of the few Shinto shrines in the US. The temple was a place for worship and community activity they each shared. The shrine was seen as a place to go for healing, meditation and the casting out of devils.

Bishop Shigemaru Miyao, son of the Rev. Katsuyoshi Miyao, succeeded as head of the shrine (from 1935 until 1993.)

During WWII, while Bishop Shigemaru Miyao and his family were interned on the continent, the shrine property became the property of the City and County of Honolulu. (Litigation suggests the mission felt pressured to turn it over to the C&C; the building was moved to Leleo Lane.)

Beginning in 1946, a small building was used as a temporary shrine. In 1953, more than 10,000 signatures petitioning for the return of the Shrine property were presented to the then-Board of Supervisors. Hearings and court actions followed.

In 1962, the court finally ordered the return of the shrine property to the shrine organization. Fund-raising continued from 1962 until 1968.

The dilapidated shrine was moved to its present site in 1966. It was modified to conform to modern building codes, following plans by Robert Katsuyoshi. It was rededicated in 1968 at the present location.

In 1985, the Hiroshima Prefectural Government (a sister city with Honolulu) presented a replica of the Hiroshima Peace bell as a gift to the people of Hawaiʻi, in recognition of their long-standing and strong relationship; it was dedicated at placed at Izumo Taishakyo Mission in 1990.

A visit to the shrine begins by passing under the torii (gate). There are many symbolic steps which follow.

The washing of hands with running water at the basin represents a spiritual cleansing of oneself. The decoration of bamboo and pine represents the resilience and evergreen freshness welcoming the new year.

The shimenawa (straw rope) hung at the entrance to the Shrine was woven by the elder people of Shimane, Japan, and was displayed at the Honolulu Academy of Arts 1994 exhibition, “Traditional Japanese New Years.”

While the head is bowed before the offering box, the priest’s assistant waves the wooden wand (gohei) with paper streamers over the head of the worshipper. The wand and white paper and the waving represent purification and blessing.

The worshipper next approaches the booth where a communion of sake (rice wine) is served and ofuda (amulet for the protection of individuals) are obtained.

The image shows the Izumo Taishakyo Mission on College Walk on Nuʻuanu Stream. Lots of information here from Honolulu Advertiser “Where We Worship.”

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Izumo_Taisha_Mission-ornamentation-roof-LOC-1966

Shinto shrine of Izumo Taisha in Shimane Prefecture, Japan

March 13, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Black George’

The history of the Black presence in Hawaiʻi goes back to the sailors; Blacks were crewmembers of Captain Cook’s second and third Pacific voyages.

There is a “high likelihood” for the presence of Blacks on many of the early ships that crossed the Pacific. Free and unfree Blacks had been serving onboard these ships in a variety of capacities.

Between about 1820 and 1880 hundreds of whaling ships annually pulled into (primarily) Honolulu and Lāhainā, and a significant number of Blacks stayed behind in the islands and became permanent residents where they worked as cooks, barbers, tailors, sailors on interisland vessels and members of musical groups.

Work on sugar plantations was considered too close to slavery that Blacks were not considered for contract labor by the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Later, however, a significant influx of Blacks to Hawaiʻi involved the migration of the first Portuguese and Puerto Rican contract laborers to work on the sugar plantations (a significant portion of these were of African ancestry.)

One of the earliest blacks in Honolulu, who first arrived in Hawaii in 1810 was Anthony Allen, from Schenectady, New York. He was keeper of a saloon, boarding house and practiced medicine (he may have been Waikīkī’s first hotel operator on his land near the intersection of King and Punahou.)

Another of the early African Americans to Hawaiʻi was George Washington Hyatt.

He was known as “Black George.”

Born in 1815 in Petersburg, Virginia, Hyatt was a former slave who had escaped and made his way to Hawaiʻi. He had been a member of the original King’s Band under Oliver (the original leader of the King’s Band, also an African-American,) playing both the flute and the clarinet.

Four Blacks formed a royal brass band for Kamehameha in 1834, and Hyatt, organized a larger band in 1845.

Not only did Hyatt play in the band, in 1845 he became the Bandmaster.

A “contract” dated May 26, 1845 states: Know all men by these presents, that we the undersigned do agree to appoint and we do hereby appoint George Hyatt to be leader of the Band, and Charles Johnson to be Captain. …

For our services we are each to be paid not to exceed $3 for a whole day, $2 for half a day and $1 for anytime less than half a day. (Bandy)

Hyatt remained in Honolulu following his three-year tenure as Bandmaster and lived in Hawai’i for the final 40 years of his life until his death at Queen’s Hospital on March 13, 1870 at the age of 65. (Bandy)

He was known to many within local society: “Everybody knew him as ‘Black George’ twenty years ago, and he was a general favorite, not only because he played on the flute and clarinet at social gatherings, but because of his amiability.” (Bandy)

Royal Hawaiian Band on the steps of Iolani Palace with Henry Berger, 1916

March 12, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Krakatau

Krakatau (Krakatoa) was a small island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. In April 1883, signs of unusual volcanic activity were observed; then a series of volcanic explosions started about mid-day, with the main eruption (and island destruction) occurring about 10 am local time August 27.

The final explosion was audible nearly 2,000-miles away and it produced an infrasonic pressure pulse that was recorded by barographs around the world.

The northern two-thirds of the island collapsed beneath the sea, generating a series of devastating pyroclastic flows and immense tsunamis that ravaged adjacent coastlines.

So that’s in Indonesia, how does that relate to Hawaiʻi?

Rev. Sereno Bishop, a missionary in Hawaiʻi, was the first to provide detailed observations of a phenomenon not previously reported – he noted his observation on September 5, 1883.

“Permit me to call special attention to the very peculiar corona or halo extending from 20° to 30° from the sun, which has been visible every day with us, and all day, of whitish haze with pinkish tint, shading oft’ into lilac or purple against the blue. I have seen no notice of this corona observed elsewhere. It is hardly a conspicuous object.” (Sereno Bishop)

“The long continuance and extending diffusion of this haze or dry fog seems to justify expectation that it may become visible around the globe, and give ample opportunity for investigation.” (Sereno Bishop)

“Although not seen in San Francisco until November 23, it was brilliant in Santa Barbara on October 14. A rapid upper current seems to have borne it in a belt within the tropics in a very few days, leaving a slow diffusion to extend it to the temperate zone. Australia is perhaps an example of this.” (Sereno Bishop)

The whole world was agog with wonder and inquiry as to the cause of the phenomena. There were the usual suggestions of the approaching end of the world and endless speculations, but no theory which would hold water …

… until from far Hawaii, over the signature of Sereno E. Bishop, appeared an article, illustrated with drawings demonstrating the argument, propounding an explanation which was eventually unanimously accepted by the scientific world as correct. (Biography of Sereno E. Bishop)

Sereno Bishop was born at Kaʻawaloa on February 7, 1827; he was son of Rev. Artemas and Elizabeth Bishop (part of the 2nd Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi (1823) and first stationed at Kailua, on the Big Island.) His mother died at Kailua, the first death in the mission.

Sent to the continent at age 12 for education (he graduated from Amherst College in 1846 and Auburn Theological Seminary in 1851,) he married Cornelia A Session in 1852 and accepted a position of Seaman’s Chaplin in Lāhainā – he returned to Hawaiʻi in 1853.

After 10-years in Lāhainā, he moved to Hāna and later returned to Lāhainā and served from 1865 to 1877 as principal of Lahainaluna. From there, he moved to Honolulu and became editor of “The Friend,” where he lived until his death, March 23, 1909.

But, back to the halo …

“Gigantic as were these effects, they were surpassed in strangeness and extent, by those conspicuous effects which were left upon the earth’s atmosphere causing remarkable sunset and sunrise glows which have set the world wondering.”

It is now known that this halo is caused by diffraction of sunlight around the very small spherical sulphuric acid droplets.

Since this event, it has generally been known as “Bishop’s Ring,” in honor of its first discoverer. It is typically observed after large volcanic eruptions.

But the importance of Bishop’s observations was not just related to rings around the sun; his observations suggested the existence of the ‘Jet Stream’ (this used to be referred to as the ‘Krakatoa Easterlies.’)

“It now seems probable that the enormous projections of gaseous and other matter from Krakatoa (Krakatau) have been borne by the upper currents and diffused throughout a belt of half the earth’s circumference, and not improbably, as careful observation may yet establish, even entirely around the globe.” (Sereno Bishop)

“This almost incredible statement implies a terrific undulation of the atmosphere, such as could only be produced by a vast and continuous jet of gas projected upwards beyond the limits of the atmosphere, and driving the air in vast waves in every direction.”

“So abnormal and gigantic a force may well have propagated not only its tidal waves as it did across the Pacific, but it may also have transmitted its portentous and lurid vapours to belt the globe with flaming skies.” (Sereno Bishop)

In 1896 his alma mater, Amherst College, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, in recognition of his literary and scientific attainments.