Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kīlauea Military Camp

What once began as an idea by Hilo Board of Trade members for a training ground for the National Guard and an Army “vacation and health recruiting station” has become one of Hawaii’s most unique resorts for the military. (KMC)

Let’s look back.

In 1898, Lorrin Thurston owner of Volcano House and head of the Hawai‘i Promotion Committee (forerunner to the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau) worked closely with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company to create an excursion business from Honolulu to his hotel at Kīlauea.

Although he sold his interest in Volcano House to hotelier George Lycurgus (1858–1960) in 1904, Thurston continued to promote Kīlauea and Hawai‘i’s other natural sites.

He helped with the establishment of the Hawaiʻi National Park, an entity to encompass both Kīlauea and Haleakalā.  Hawai‘i’s new National Park, established August 1, 1916, was the thirteenth in the new system and the first in a US territory.  (Chapman)

Besides its volcanic interest, the park is noted for its fine examples of tropical vegetation (some forest species being extremely rare;) its native birdlife which is unique in the entire world; its Polynesian archaeology and history; and its character as an international park.  (Edward G Wingate, Superintendent, 1939)

The history of the Park generally mirrors the history of Kīlauea Military Camp (KMC.)

Interest in Kīlauea as a military training and rest area began in September 1911, when Companies A and F, Twentieth Infantry, arrived. They were followed two years later by one hundred men from Company D, First Infantry, who camped near the Volcano House.  (Nakamura)

Thurston helped negotiate a lease for about 50-acres of land from Bishop Estate; trustees held the lease (they included Ex officio the Commander of the Army Department of Hawaii; Ex officio the Commanding General of the National Guard of Hawaii; Lieut Col John T. Moir, National Guard, Island of Hawaiʻi; GH Vicars of Hilo and LA Thurston of Honolulu and Hilo.)

In the early years, to get there, off-island folks took steamer ships to either Hilo or Punaluʻu (from Hilo they caught a train to Glenwood and walked/rode horses to Volcano; one mile west of the Volcano House; a five-mile railroad took passengers to Pahala and then coaches hauled the visitors to the volcano from the Kaʻū side.) Later, the roads opened.

“Tours of all the islands are arranged.  Connected with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company is the world-famous Volcano House overlooking the everlasting house of fire, as the crater of Halemaʻumaʻu is justly named. “

“A night’s ride from Honolulu and an hour by automobile and you are at the Volcano House in the Hawaii National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi, the only truly historic caravansary of the Hawaiian Islands.”  (The Mid-Pacific, December 1933)

The Camp is located at an elevation of 4,000-feet, directly on the belt road around the island (the road was later relocated mauka of the Camp.)

KMC greeted its first group of US Army Soldiers from Company A, 2nd Infantry, November 6, 1916. Three buildings for dining and recreation were still unfinished, so the visiting Soldiers were expected to provide their own sleeping tents.

A couple weeks later, November 17, KMC was officially opened, and many Soldiers came to this unique site through 1917.

Encouraged by local boosters, including John Giles and Lorrin Thurston, KMC became a mainstay of the volcano park for the next three decades.  (Chapman)

From the latter part of 1916 into early-1917, the newly designated Kīlauea Military Camp witnessed a steady stream of military units.

Then, WWI broke out and virtually all of the troops in Hawai‘i prior to 1917 had transferred to the continental US, many of them then moving on in succeeding months to the trenches of France and Belgium.  (Chapman)

To keep the place going, school summer programs and Boy Scouts stayed at the camp.  Following WWI, the trustees transferred their KSBE lease to the Park Service.  By late-1921, soldiers on recreation leave started to return to the Camp and the facilities started to expand.

The last major addition to KMC was the provision of an airfield; in 1924, the Army built a landing strip just south of Halemaʻumaʻu (known as Sand Spit Horst.)

However, within a few months an explosive eruption at Halemaʻumaʻu threw boulders onto the site.  (Another runway was built closer to the Camp – it was named Boles Field in honor of the Park’s first Superintendent, Thomas R Boles.)

As part of the original agreement, the Navy built its own rest and recreation camp on a 14-acre parcel adjacent to KMC in 1926. The Navy camp was transferred to KMC’s control in 1935, however, due to a slow resolution of the lease agreement between the Park Service and the Navy.  (KMC)

In 1941 it became an important staging ground for the war. From March to October 1942, KMC became the headquarters for the Twenty-seventh Division of the Army. The troops used the buildings at KMC for quarters and the grounds for training.

The R&R Camp also became an internment camp.  The first detainees arrived in the afternoon of December 7, 1941. Most did not stay at KMC for long, however; within a few months all were transferred to Sand Island on Oʻahu.  (Nakamura)

In June 1942 the Battle of Midway changed the tide of the war, and KMC was again re-activated as a rest and recreation camp, but it also continued to support tactical training of troops. In October 1943, the decision was made to return the Camp to a fully recreational facility.  (Nakamura)

In the postwar period, General Dwight D. Eisenhower stayed for a few days at KMC in 1946.  In 1949, the Army opened KMC to members of all branches of the military.  (Chapman)

On, July 1, 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.  The relationship between the military and Park Service was not always smooth.

Today, Kīlauea Military Camp is open to all active and retired armed forces, Reserve/National Guard, dependents, other uniformed services, and current and retired Department of Defense civilians, including Coast Guard civilians and sponsored guests.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hopu

Hopu, “was born about the year 1795, in Owhyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands.  After my mother had left me, she went and told one of my sisters to take my life away … (however, his) aunt took a blanket with her … (took him in her arms and took him) into her own brother’s house.”  (Hopu)

“Then her brother said unto his wife, this child shall be our son, for his name shall be called Nauhopoouah Hopoo, and we will be his feeders. So they nourished (him)”.  He lived with his uncle until he was four; then returned to his parents until he was eight (later living with his brother.)

“Among the American traders who frequently visit the Sandwich Islands, was Captain Brintnal, of New-Haven, (Conn.) who in 1807, touched and tarried some time at Owhyhee, one of these Islands.”  That year, Hopu and Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia sailed with Captain Brintnall on the ‘Triumph.’

The Triumph set sail for the Pacific Coast of North America to pick up sealers, one of whom, Russell Hubbard, was a Yale student from Connecticut. Six months later the ship returned to Hawaiʻi, then went on to China, and finally New York. During the long voyage Hubbard tutored Henry and Hopu in English, and taught them about the Bible.  (Cook)

The ship returned to America by the way of China, and arrived at New-Haven early in the fall of 1809.  On their arrival on the continent, Hopu was given an additional name Thomas.

“After Hopoo had lived for a season in New-Haven, his disposition seemed inclined rove than to study.  He rejected an invitation of Obookiah to go with him to Andover and be taught.”  (ABCFM)  However, he learned to write and spell some basic words.  He chose the life of a sailor – he served on an American ship in the War of 1812.

After returning from his last voyage, he hired himself out in several families as a servant or coachman.  For about nine months, Hopu settled down with a Grangor family at Whitestown, NY. He lived with various families, until September 1815, when he returned to New-Haven, joined ʻŌpūkahaʻia and resumed his studies, including religious instruction.   (Narrative of Five Youth, 1816)

“In this place I become acquainted with many students belonging to the College. By these pious students I was told more about God than what I had heard before … I could understand or speak, but very little of the English language. Friend Thomas (Hopu) went to school to one of the students in the College before I thought of going to school.”  (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

Hopu and ʻŌpūkahaʻia stayed together in school at Litchfield Farms from the late-1816 until April 1817, when they started their training at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall. Of the four Hawaiian boys who came with the pioneer party, Hopu was best prepared to serve, for he had proved a good scholar, even in theology. (Kelley)

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries set sail on the Thaddeus for the Islands.  These included two Ordained Preachers, Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; a Doctor, Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia; a Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

With the missionaries were four Hawaiian students from the Foreign Mission School, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Prince Humehume (son of Kauaʻi’s King Kaumuali‘i.)  (Unfortunately, ʻŌpūkahaʻia died suddenly of typhus fever in 1818 and did not fulfill his dream of returning to the islands to preach the gospel.)

They reached Hawaii on March 30, 1820. When the boat which they had sent to a landing on the Kohala coast, returned to the vessel, these were the tidings given to the missionaries: “Kamehameha is dead; his son Liholiho is king. The tabus are at an end; the idols are burned; the temples are destroyed.  There has been war. Now there is peace.”  (HEA) They later landed in Kailua-Kona, April 4, 1820.

Hopu and Kanui remained with the Thurstons and Holmans at Kailua to serve as interpreters and aides to the king. Hopu was reunited with his father, who moved his family to Kailua, where Hopu cared for him teaching him to know Jesus and praying with him faithfully. He also served the king’s household and aided Thurston by translating his teachings and preaching.  (Kelley)

Later at Lāhainā, “Hopu, in visiting the back part of Maui with the king, was particularly attracted by one of the daughters of the land.  When he returned to Honolulu, he brought to our cottage the girl of eighteen, wishing to commit her to me for special training.”  (Thurston)

Hopu declared “since the Almighty has excited in my heart such yearnings for her, I think it is his will that I marry her.” Lucy Thurston named her Delia.

“Their marriage (August 11, 1822) was publicly solemnized in the church. The king and principal chiefs were there.  (It was the first Christian marriage in the Islands.)”

“Hopu appeared as usual in his gentlemanly black suit. By his side stood Delia, dressed in a … complete and fashionable dress in white, was added a trimmed straw bonnet. It was the first native woman’s head that had been thus crowned.”  (Thurston)

After helping Bingham in Honolulu for some time, Hopu settled in Kailua where he kept busy teaching, holding Sabbath meetings for the governor, assisting in translating the Bible, and caring for his father (who died after four years at the age of 80. His funeral service was the first missionary one to be held in Hawaiʻi.)  (Kelley)

Throughout those early missionary years in Hawaiʻi, Hopu appears here and there preforming his duties; forcibly delivering a sermon, spreading cheer, comforting and aiding to those suffering.

Chester Lyman, visiting the islands in 1846 found Hopu working in a store in Honolulu. He reports he was over 50 and an interesting man.  He has been a consistent and useful man since he returned and is now one of the deacons of the Kailua Church where he resides.  (Kelley)  The image shows Thomas Hopu.

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by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Atooi

How do you pronounce Atooi … and Kauai?

The legend of Hawai‘i Loa notes his many fishing excursions which would go on for months, sometimes the whole year. On one voyage he found the Islands; he first saw Kauai, but he kept on sailing and found O‘ahu and then the islands of the Maui group.

Then, seeing the mountains of Hawai‘i, he kept on until he reached that island. There he lived and gave the Island his name. The other islands from Maui to Kauai were named for his children and for some who sailed with him: Maui was the eldest, O‘ahu younger and Kauai the youngest. (Kepelino)

Pukui suggests that many important names are so ancient that no translation at all is possible. These include the names of the inhabited Hawaiian Islands (except for Lanaʻi (conquest day.))

Per Pukui, it is impossible to explain the meaning of Kauai, which some have explained as originally Kau-ʻai (food season.) But use of glottal stops seems not to have occurred in the history of the Hawaiian language. Instead, the glottal stop, replacing ‘k’ is one of the most stable of the Hawaiian consonants. (Pukui)

Because Hawaiian was a spoken language, when writing first came with the first Westerners, spelling of words was based on how the writer heard the words. Writers hear words differently, so spelling of the same word was not always the same – each writer wrote what he heard from his perspective.

“To one unacquainted with the language it would be impossible to distinguish the words in a spoken sentence, for in the mouth of a native, a sentence appeared like an ancient Hebrew or Greek manuscript – all one word …. There are … abrupt separations or short and sudden breaks between two vowels in the same word.”

“Those who attempted to write the names of places and persons in the islands, had materially failed, even in the most plain and common. No foreigner or native, at the islands, could illustrate or explain the peculiarities and intricacies of the language … we found the dialect in use by foreigners often materially misled us … it required time to detect and unlearn errors.” (Bingham)

Dr Pila Wilson notes, “(There) is a sort of ‘oral literature’ that traditionally occurs among Hawaiian speakers speaking Hawaiian with other Hawaiian speakers. In this oral literature, a person uses a place name to make a point or connect to some story. In that type of pronunciation, the person changes the conversational pronunciation of the place name to sound like a combination of differently pronounced words similar to the component sounds of the name.”

“Different people produce different oral literature pronunciations and different interpretations of oral literature pronunciations. The same person can also come up with different pronunciations and interpretations depending on the point that they are trying to make using the place name. Two people can engage in playful banter creating different forms of this sort of ‘oral literature.’” (Wilson)

However, “there is no way that the pronunciation of certain rare words and proper names in old documents can be guessed accurately. The pronunciation of a number of these terms has become lost forever because of the deficiencies of the old twelve-letter alphabet.” (Wilson)

“The letter’ ‘k’ has some variety in its pronunciation. The people of the Island of Hawaii formerly had a sound now represented by the letter k which sound was a guttural, or rather perhaps, the sound was formed at the root of the tongue. The people of Kauai, on the other hand, had a sound of the same signification, but pronounced it near the tip of the tongue resembles the sound of ‘t.’” (Andrews, 1854)

Given that, can we decipher from some early writing how Kauai was pronounced (based on what the writers heard and wrote (in their context and perspective?))

Cook’s Journal, the first writing of the Hawaiian words, generally notes the Island of Kauai as ‘Atooi;’ however, the journal notes the islands “are called by the natives (in reference to Kauai;) Atooi, Atowi, or Towi, and sometimes Kowi.”

This leads us to the long (and ongoing) discussion of how to pronounce (and write) the name of the northern-most Island of the main Hawaiian Islands.

If ‘Atooi’ is the correct expression of the name of the Island, how do you pronounce ‘Atooi?’

It might be helpful to answer that if we look to how Cook spelled the other Island names: Oreehoua (Lehua,) Tahoora (Kaʻula,) Oneeheow (Niʻihau,) Atooi (Kauai,) Woahoo (Oʻahu,) Morotoi or Morokoi (Molokai,) Mowee (Maui) and Owhyhee (Hawaiʻi.)

Given how Cook spelled other Island names, it appears the Island name of ‘Atooi’ (Kauai) sounded like ‘ahh too eye.’ (Jacintho)

However, some suggest the island name ended with the ‘ee’ sound. Wilson notes, “In normal conversation in Hawaiian, I have never heard any first language speaker of Hawaiian pronounce the word other than what would be represented in contemporary Hawaiian writing as ‘Kauaʻi’. That is, there was always an ʻokina before the last ‘i’ and no where else. “

However, it seems logical that if Cook heard the Kauai Island name ending with the ‘ee’ sound, he would likely have used the double ‘e’ in spelling its name, just as he did with Oneeheow (Niʻihau,) Mowee (Maui) and Owhyhee (Hawaiʻi.)

Vancouver used a similar, though different spelling to Kauai – Attowai. He notes, “I was induced to give up the idea of obtaining a supply (of water) by their means (from folks on Oʻahu,) and to proceed immediately to Attowai; where I was assured we should have that necessary article completely within our own reach and power.” (Vancouver, 1792)

Likewise, Hiram Bingham notes the Island name in his explanation of his understanding of the Hawaiian language and notes the “Old” way to spell the name as “Attooi;” his suggested “Corrected in English” for the name as “Cowʻ-eyeʻ” and the “New” spelling as “Kauʻ aiʻ”.

“Atooi in Cook’s Voyages, Atowai in Vancouver’s, and Atoui in one of his contemporaries, is also a compound of two words”. (Ellis, 1831) Proper names, although often composed of more than one word, are treated as single units.

‘O, and sometimes ʻA, beginning a word are markers to note proper name subjects (persons, places or certain special things.) They are vocatives (addressing the person or place you are talking about or to) – i.e. Atooi means ‘this is (or, ‘it is’) Tooi’ – so it is a proper word and the Island name is ‘Tooi.’ (Johnson)

Here are some other early writings that note the various spelling of the Island of Kauai. You will note the similarity of the ‘eye’ sound of the final syllable in the Island’s name.

SS Hill, in writing ‘Travels in the Sandwich and Society Islands’ in 1856 notes another spelling (but a similar sound) of the Island name – ‘Kawai.’ “The most remarkable of the islands, and those which we shall visit, are Waohoo or Oahu, Owyhee or Hawaii, and Mowhee or Maui. The next in importance is Kawai.”

Others note Atooi, but also associate ‘Kawai’ as the name for the Island (these primarily come from associated writing during the Cook voyages.)

“The entire group consists of eight inhabited islands … the large island of Hawaii (formerly written ‘Owhyhee’) … The other chief islands are Woahu, or Oʻahu, on which is situated the town of Honolulu …; Maui, where is the town and port of Lahaina; Kawai (or Atooi), the most northerly; Molokai; Lanai; Nihau; and Kahoolawe.” (Angas, Polynesia, A Popular Description, 1866)

Low in ‘Captain Cook’s Three Voyages Round the World,’ 1880; references in ‘The Third and Last Voyage of Captain Cook,’ 1886; and Denton in “The Far West Coast,’ 1924 used a similar “Kawai or Atooi.”

Another spelling for the Island is found on some older maps (1850s.) Samuel Augustus Mitchell and Sarah S Cornell noted on several maps the Island name as ‘Kauhai.’

What seems to also be consistent is the lack of a glottal stop in the last syllable in most of these writings – this is represented by an ʻokina (what Bingham referred to as a “short and sudden break between two vowels”.) Many suggest the Island’s name should not have an ʻokina. (Jacintho)

Later, lifelong resident and writer of the Island’s history, Frederick B Wichman (including ‘Ancient Place-names and Their Stories’) describes how he heard the Island’s name growing up there.

“As a child I frequently heard the name pronounced to rhyme with ‘cow eye’ and sometimes pronounced in three soft syllables ‘kau a i,’ but never with the explosive glotteral heard today that makes Kauai rhyme with Hawaiʻi.” (Wichman)

I suspect the Kauai – Kauaʻi discussion will continue.

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Wainiha Taro Farmer_Kawai-Wehrheim
Wainiha Taro Farmer_Kawai-Wehrheim
Captain Cook’s last voyage-the map of Hawaii from Cook’s posthumous 'A voyage to the Pacific Ocean' (London, 1784)
Captain Cook’s last voyage-the map of Hawaii from Cook’s posthumous ‘A voyage to the Pacific Ocean’ (London, 1784)
Pacific_Ocean_Including_Oceania-Samuel_Augustus_Mitchell-1853-portion-noting-'Kauhai'
Pacific_Ocean_Including_Oceania-Samuel_Augustus_Mitchell-1853-portion-noting-‘Kauhai’
Oceania-Sarah_S_Cornell-1864-portion-noting-'Kauhai'
Oceania-Sarah_S_Cornell-1864-portion-noting-‘Kauhai’
Pacific_Ocean-Samuel_Augustus_Mitchell-1857-portion-noting-'Kauhai'
Pacific_Ocean-Samuel_Augustus_Mitchell-1857-portion-noting-‘Kauhai’

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Howard Midkiff Sr

John Howard Midkiff, son of James Jesse and Bertha (Wilson) Midkiff, was born January 16, 1893, in Stonington, Christian County, Illinois.  His mother died when he was only 3-½ years old. His father was a Baptist preacher, who never made more than $62 a month and raised the 5 boys and 2 girls himself and sent every one through college.

In the summers between 7th grade and high school, John worked on a farm in the corn belt on the mainland. They got up at 3:30 am to milk cows, feed pigs and harness horses; then worked in the fields from daylight to sunset; came back and fed the livestock again. (UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“I came out here [to Hawai‘i] during the Food Administration.  I was at the First Officer’s Training School in the first World War. And I was taken out of there and sent over here. They had the Food Administration, really, it’s mostly food production. In case we should be shut off from the Mainland. On the island of Hawaii [in West Hawaii].” (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

Then, “John H Midkiff, former county food agent in West Hawaii, is now assistant professor of agriculture at the College of Hawaii [forerunner to University of Hawai‘i], devoting part of his time to instruction and lectures and hog raising, at a part of his time, also, to experimental and investigation work.” (HTH, May 21, 1919)

After that, “John H Midkiff now with Koloa Plantation, Kauai, was selected late yesterday afternoon by the trustees of Kamehameha Schools as principal of the Kamehameha School for Boys.”

“Midkiff is well known in the islands and his combination of thorough vocational training with experience in Hawaiian industries was a strong factor … in his selection for Kamehameha.” (SB, Aug 7, 1923)

John’s brother, Frank Elbert Midkiff, was president of Kamehameha Schools [1923 – 1934] and a trustee of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate [1939-1983]. (KSBE)  “I was principal of the (Kamehameha) school [1923-1924] and I decided the school life simply wasn’t for me.”

“I just naturally preferred the agricultural work. Before that time, I had taught botany, genetics, agriculture at the University and I had been principal of the Kamehameha Boys’ School for one year. But my heart was always on the plantations.”  (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“And then, Mr. Frank Atherton who was a head of Castle and Cook at that time knew that I had been offered a job as Division Supervisor at Pioneer on Maui.”

“And he said, ‘Well, why don’t you go out and try our plantations on this island?’ I went to Ewa first and told them very frankly that I was shooting for the assistant manager’s job. If there was a chance to work up to that, fine. Otherwise I didn’t want to go there.  And he simply laughed at me. He said, ‘You better go someplace else.’”

“So, then, I went over to Waialua. Buck Thompson was the manager. I frankly told him the same thing. He said well, if I proved that I could handle it, someday I might get it. It took me eight years to get it”.  (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“[A]ny plantation work I’ve ever seen in Hawaii is a picnic and always was, compared to the farm days back in Illinois. We had short seasons and we had to work every daylight hour.”

“We got up long before daylight, did all our chores around the farm, had breakfast, and then went to the fields. Took our lunch with us and stayed there till dark”. (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“[I]n the plantations of course, we had a number of different communities. They pretty well segregated according to their racial background. Japanese lived in certain village, Chinese in others, and the Portuguese’d live mostly in one place although they were scattered all over, too.”

“We had what was known as the haole camp.  That was the supervisors mostly, too. They were a little better class of houses. Well, considerably better class of houses than the ordinary workmen had.”

“At the time I first went to Waialua, very few of the workers’ houses had any running water or toilets in them. …  before I left, I saw that every one of them did have.” (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“One of the first regulations I sent out to the supervisors when I was appointed manager was that there was to be absolutely no abuse of any kind of any laborer. No verbal or other abuse. They certainly should never touch em.”

“And first, a good many of them’d said, ‘Well, how are you gonna run a gang, if you can’t cuss em out?’  I said, ‘Well, lead them.’ We had really good labor relations. We paid 10 cents an hour more than any plantation in Hawaii. And had the lowest labor cost in Hawaii. Cause we could get good men who were willing to work.”

“During the War, to encourage turnout, because the government wanted all the sugar it could get and we lost many of our men to the services, I gave a $25 bond every month to a person who had a perfect turnout or within one day of it. Well, no other plantation did that.”

“But then when they finally got union contract, that was frozen into my contract. Not the bond, but the 10 cents an hour extra. Which suited me fine because I could always get almost anybody I wanted.”

“We were not unionized until after every other plantation had been. Maybe I was wrong, but I thought I could have kept them out as long as I was manager if I wanted to.”

“But then I knew everybody’d be concentrating on us all the time, the whole ILWU would be. So finally I decided, oh heck, better let them get in so I can see what they’re doing and work things out.”  (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“Under his management, Waialua was among the first plantations to introduce training programs, improved community facilities and a funded pension plan. He emphasized the importance of the work done by his employees and the contributions they made to the company’s success.”

“His work in the fields brought him close to the men in the sugar industry and helped him understand their problems.  When the opportunity came, he used his position to help to make life better for his employees.”

“Few men hold as distinguished a place in Hawaii’s industrial and community life because few men possess John Midkiff’s understanding that good human relations are essential to any success.” (SB, Jan 5, 1951)

“My brother Frank and I started the Waialua Community Association.  It was his idea. I got the plantation to donate land, the building and that was the start of that movement all over Hawaii. There are many of them now where you could get together. Everyone in the whole community, plantation or non-plantation, was invited and included in.”

“In fact, I always refused to take any office in it, or to be on any board of directors in it because I thought it or to be too overpowering for the plantation manager. If he said something when you’re furnishing the payroll for a big part of the community, people might be inclined to give it too much weight. So I never was.”  (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“The broad aim of this Waialua association is the desire to improve the social and economic life of the people of Waialua and the feeling that with cooperative effort … rural life can be made as attractive as urban life. … The district is agricultural, characteristic of the territory at large; it has adequate soils and water; and it has an industrious and ambitious population.”

“Through the cooperation of all Waialua people, the Waialua district may become a model for Hawaii and an example for other sections of the United States as well – in showing what a rural community can do in the way of social and economic betterment when it sets about to do it.” (SB, Feb 15, 1935)

“John was very concerned to keep competent employees on the plantation. So [he and his brother] organized the first rural community association in Hawai’i at Waialua and then the second one along the Windward O‘ahu Coast, (Ko‘olau Poko, Ko‘olau Loa).” (Robert Midkiff Oral History)

John H Midkiff Sr began working for the Waialua Agricultural Co. in 1924 as a supervisor. He was manager from 1932 to 1951 and retired because of bad health.  He died on May 28, 1984 (at the age of 91).

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Kalihi

“Kalihi used to have a – you won’t believe this – but sort of a country club atmosphere because homes weren’t all crowded the way they are now. There were open spaces. When you flushed your bathroom toilet, you didn’t have to worry about your neighbor hearing it.”

“You could raise your voice a little bit and nobody was close enough to hear you. Everybody knew who everybody else was. Of course, that’s all gone. There’s no empty space in Kalihi anymore, except a few parks maybe, school grounds.”

“Used to be vegetable gardens, flower gardens, taro patches, grazing land, chicken farms. Not anymore. Even the hillsides are covered now with homes.”

“But it used to be a quiet, really quiet, open area. You could walk to any place you wanted to go. No place was too far to walk, that is, within Kalihi. But today, well, it’s just grown, that’s all.” (Adolph ‘Duffie’ [rhymes with ‘Goofy’] Mendonca, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

Kalihi, a multi-ethnic working-class district located west of downtown Honolulu, has a long history as a home of island immigrants. In the early years of this century, Kalihi, then a residential district of middle- and upper-class Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians, attracted Chinese and Portuguese residents.

As Japanese, Puerto Rican, and other sugar workers left the plantations, many of them settled in Kalihi. In the decades following, Filipinos, Samoans, Koreans, and Southeast Asians joined them. (UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

In the 1910s, “both School Street and Houghtailing Road were dirt roads. School Street extended (Ewa only) as far as Kalihi Street, and Kalihi Street went up into Kalihi Valley. In the Waikiki direction – this was before McInerny Tract was subdivided – there (were) a (few) scattered houses.”

“The first (sizable improvement) was the insane asylum (on the present site of) the Hawaii Housing [Authority]. And beyond that were, on both sides, taro patches until one got near Liliha Street. Liliha Street was quite urbanized, as (was) School Street beyond (Liliha and toward Nuuanu Street).”

“When (I was) a youngster, my mother had to prepare food on wood stoves and (I) had to chop (kiawe) firewood (and thence there was) the gradual changeover to kerosene stove and kerosene lamps.”

“When I was born and for many years, we had no electricity, no drinking water. But with McInerny Tract (being opened up), water (mains) came in, sewers came in, electric system came in. More than that, (now) look at what you can enjoy—TV”.  (Arthur Akinaka (born in 1909), UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“In those days, the principal school was Kalihi-Waena, which was right across the street from Fernandez Park. And that went to eighth grade. See, we just had that grade and then high school. It was later on that they broke it down to intermediate and junior high school, and high school.”

“So, it was customary, not only in Kalihi but in lot of areas of Hawaii, where after the eighth grade the boys went to work. Lot of the boys didn’t start school until they were eight, nine years old. Then eight years in grade school would make ‘em sixteen, seventeen years old by the time they came out.”

“So they were expected to go to work and help the families. And of course, a lot of them didn’t have any desire to continue their education.”

“But it seemed like in our area, we had a higher percentage of boys that continued high school and college. Why? I don’t want to be so bold as to say we may have had a better educated group of parents or parents who were more educationally inclined, who wanted their children.”

“Because if you go back before my time, lot of the old-timers that lived in the Kalihi area were prominent in the old kingdom days. They were prominent people…. I’d read where they used to work for the kingdom or the territory.”

“It was apparently a good area, good residential area, in the old days because of its closeness to downtown, for one reason.”

For those going to high school, many went “to McKinley or St. Louis. We also had a couple of other high schools. Punahou, of course. Then we had Kamehameha. And we had what we called HMA – Honolulu Military Academy.”

“Most of the students that went to those schools were from the Fourth District. See, Oahu used to be Fourth District and Fifth District. Everything Ewa of Nuuanu was Fifth District.”

“Everything on the Kaimuki side is Fourth District. The wealthier people generally, of course, lived in the Fourth District. Most of the children that went to Punahou or HMA came from up that way.”

“There’s nothing wrong with the beauty of Kalihi Valley and the Kalihi area. It’s close to the ocean. Fishing, crabbing. So it was logical. Lot of our residential areas that you see today are that way because they ran out of space in the more city areas, closer to the city.”

“The transportation was a big item. Not many people had cars. So they had to live near their place of employment. A lot of them walked to work.” (Adolph ‘Duffie’ Mendonca, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“Well, it was sensible, wasn’t it? And as they earned money and they started new families, they started to move away, yeah? I remember very well as a youngster, very, very few people lived east of the Kahala Mall area.”

“The streetcar line ended at Koko Head Avenue, right across from the theater – used to be Kaimuki Theater which has been torn down. That was the end of the line. The line went from there to Fort Shafter, the beginning of Moanalua. Then there was a line from up Liliha Street that went to Waikiki.”

There was a “constantly changing composition of the residents. The old-timers either relocate or leave this good earth. And mostly because they better, sometimes, their economic status.”

“The other thing is living here in the substandard lot sizes and deteriorating neighborhood. “No one individual can do very much towards modernizing, but ends up just perpetuating what is handed down.” (Arthur Akinaka, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

By the late 1950s, Kalihi Shopping Center came up, and by the early 1960s, Kamehameha Shopping Center came up.  (UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“People moved because Kalihi Kai became industrialized and got noisy, plus the property became very much in demand. I guess some people sold and moved to a better residential district.”  (Thelma Yoshiko Izumi, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“I think, maybe when a guy reaches the top and he looks back, and he begins to wonder, what is important in life, was it worth all the effort and time?”

“When you get old, you get near the end of the line, and pretty soon you’re going to be forgotten. And you wonder whether all the things you did, which seemed very important and necessary at the time you did it, just how important was it?”

“And the fact that since most of our people are not rich people, if you associate with the more unfortunate people, you appreciate what they’re going through. Their life compared to somebody who’s inherited a lot or blessed with more brains or better opportunities, or married the right girl, had the right parents.”

“It’s something that makes you feel like somebody coming out of Kalihi that gets up there is worth his salt more than somebody who’s born with a silver spoon. At least that guy worked for what he got. He doesn’t feel that anything was handed to him.”

“How could somebody born with a silver spoon feel that way if he’s never been down on the bottom?  How do you know how high a mountain is unless you’ve been down in the bottom of the valley, eh? So, it affects your outlook, I think.”

“I never thought the area I lived in was the bottom. I never did feel that. I never did feel that Kalihi was the bottom of anything, really. I always thought that Kakaako was more down the bottom because that was a built-up area. And you had more of the closeness of homes, and stores. You know, more populated.”

“Kalihi is a big area. From the mountain to the ocean. Plenty room. And we had good climate, good atmosphere out there. Things grew well. Generally green. People took care of their yards, planted nice plants and trees. In many respects, it’s beautiful.”

“I’ve never understood why – maybe a little corner or spot within the area wasn’t too good, but majority, the largest part of Kalihi was a very nice place. Very nice.  I’m sorry that it’s inherited such a bad carryover. I don’ t think it deserved it.” (Adolph ‘Duffie’ Mendonca, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

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