Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sake

When you drink sake
You feel like the springtime,
And the loud cries
Of impatient creditors
On the outside
Sound in your ears
Like the voices of nightingales
Singing most sweetly.
(Japanese drinking song, Burton Holmes Travelogues, 1870)

Sake is a traditional alcoholic beverage in Japan. It is made through fermentation, like beer and wine.  Sake is made from rice, a staple food in Japan. (NRIB)

It is not exactly known when people began making sake in Japan; however, it is believed an alcoholic beverage made from rice was already made in the Yayoi period (300 BC- 250 AD) when rice cultivation was brought from China to Japan.  (NRIB)

A Dec 18, 1910 article in the San Francisco Call notes, “It is said that 7 per cent of the entire rice crop of Japan goes to the making of this amber fluid, which contains about 13 per cent of alcohol and is characterized by five distinct tastes, according to experts – ‘sweetness, sharpness, sourness, bitterness and astringency.’”

In Hawai‘i, a century after Captain James Cook’s arrival, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.  However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge.  The only answer was imported labor.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

Japanese came to Hawai‘i to work on the sugar plantations between 1885 and 1924, when limits were placed on the numbers permitted entry.

It is not likely anyone then foresaw the impact this would have on the cultural and social structure of the islands. The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures.  Of the nearly 385,000 workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix. 

Most suggest the first Sake brewery outside of Japan was in Hawaii, the Honolulu Japanese Sake Brewery Co. Many people still believe that to be true, but it was likely the fourth sake brewery established in the US.  The Japan Brewing Co was incorporated in Berkeley, California in June 1901. In addition, two other California sake breweries were established in 1903 and 1907. (Auffrey)

However, the Honolulu sake brewery was more successful, more long lasting, and left a much greater legacy than any other of the early Sake breweries in the US. (Auffrey)

“The Honolulu Sake Brewery and Ice Co Ltd, was built in 1908 by Tajiro Sumida and Tomokuni Iwanaga as the Honolulu Japanese Sake Brewery Co, Ltd.”

“‘The reason it was started is because of the early Japanese immigrants who came to Hawaii to work as plantation laborers,’ Emil A Nomura, the brewery’s assistant brewmaster, said the other day.”

“‘You see,’ Nomura said, ‘with the meager wages these workers earned, there was barely enough money left to indulge in the privilege of drinking sake, the Japanese people’s favorite drink. And sake from Japan was expensive, because of import duties and things.’”

“To remedy that drinking man’s urge for his favorite brew, the Sumida-Iwanaga partnership designed the world’s first warm-weather sake brewery.”

“The new brewery differed from any traditional Japanese brewery because it was refrigerated and capable of producing sake all year.  ‘The factory had to be refrigerated because sake has to be made in a cool room (as cool as 43 degrees),’ Shinsaburo S Sumida, the brewery’s present president said recently.”

For a time, it was “The only brewery in the world which makes sake year round.”  “Sumida explained that until the Pauoa brewery was built by his father and Iwanaga, sake had only been made in winter months, usually from the end of October through February, because its fermentation-mold stages of brewing are easily spoiled by heat.”

The Hawai‘i sake brewery faced several other challenges …

Prohibition in 1920s … However, “The booming brewery, however, didn’t let the no-booze era dampen its spirits.  Instead, it froze brewing operations, turned up the brewery’s refrigerators, reopened as an ice factory and skated through the lean Prohibition (and Depression) years.”

“With repeal, in 1934, the ice house thawed itself out, increased its working capital from $150,000 to $250,000 (400 shareholders), imported five sake experts from Japan to supervise the installation of new machinery and went back into the brewing business.”

“With World War II came new problems: a rice shortage which didn’t allow rice to be used as anything but food and a sociological shakeup in Japanese American society.”

“‘It was an order,’ recalls Sumida. ‘We couldn’t use rice for making sake, so at that time we started making shoyu (soy sauce).’  And so the Pauoa brewery-factory shoyued its way through the war, and eventually resumed sake operations in 1948.”  (SB & Adv Jan 17, 1971)  The Honolulu Sake Brewery ceased operations in 1989.

A side story on Japan’s sake industry …

The Japanese started producing small glass floats in the early-1900s and the first Asian floats came ashore along the West Coast just before 1920.

These Japanese floats are part of early recycling efforts – initial Japanese floats we made from recycled sake bottles.  Most floats are shades of green because that is the color of glass from these sake bottles (especially after long exposure to sunlight).

To accommodate different fishing styles and nets, the Japanese experimented with many different sizes and shapes of floats, ranging from 2 to 20 inches in diameter. Most were rough spheres, but some were cylindrical or “rolling pin” shaped.

The earliest floats, including most Japanese glass fishing floats, were hand made by a glassblower. Recycled glass, especially old sake bottles, was typically used and air bubbles in the glass are a result of the rapid recycling process.

By 1939, millions of Japanese glass floats were being used; although Japanese glass fishing floats are no longer being manufactured for fishing, there are thousands still floating in the Pacific Ocean.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First Japanese Mormon

Missionary work has been a central concern of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (whose members are commonly known as Latter-day Saints or Mormons – the latter name derives from the Book of Mormon, the Church’s key scriptural text).

The first “foreign” mission attempted was into Ontario, Canada. From 1832 on, individuals or groups of missionaries opened the British Mission, the next foreign mission attempted by the church.

From its small beginnings, the British Mission became the most successful foreign mission of the church in the nineteenth century. As early as 1844, Mormon missionaries were working among the Polynesians in Tahiti and surrounding islands

In the summer of 1850, in California, elder Charles C Rich called together more elders to establish a mission in the Sandwich Islands (Hawai‘i).  They arrived December 12, 1850.  Later, more came.

In 1901, Japan was opened as the twentieth foreign mission, while the older missions continued to grow. (BYU Library) But Japanese joined the Mormon faith well before the formal mission to Japan.

Frequent contacts between the Japanese and the Mormons prior to the opening of the mission in Japan in 1901 are well documented. Following the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, Ogden, Utah, became an important railroad junction, where just about every Japanese traveler stopped on his way to much of the US and Europe. (Takagi)

Some of the Japanese people so contacted affiliated themselves with the Mormons well before 1901; however, Japanese immigrants to Hawai‘i seem to be the first Japanese Mormons.

Several have suggested that Tomizo Katsunuma (1863–1950) and Tokujiro Sato (ca. 1851–1919) were the first Japanese Mormons.

In 1860, King Kamehameha IV met with the first delegation of Japanese people to visit the Hawaiian Islands. During this visit the king proposed a friendship treaty with Japan. This action, along with the rise of the sugar industry and the surrender of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan, led to the first Japanese contract laborers being recruited to come to the Hawaiian Islands.

This unauthorized recruitment and shipment of laborers, known as the gannenmono (“first year men”,) marked the beginning of Japanese labor migration overseas.  (JANM) This predated the government-sponsored Kanyaku Imin, Japanese immigrants arranged following the visit of King Kalakaua to Japan in 1881.

The exact number of people who immigrated in 1868 has varied (about 150 to Hawai‘i); an American businessman, Eugene M Van Reed sent them to work on sugar plantations (and another 40 to Guam).

A reported 51 men remained on O‘ahu, 71 were sent to Maui, 7 to Lanai, and 22 to Kauai (five women and an infant were also aboard). The sugar plantations and different individuals contracted them. (Hughes, Ke Ola) Tokujiro Sato was one of them.  

Tokujiro, also known in Hawaii as Tokujiro Sato, Toko, Toku, or Sasaki, has a claim to being the first Japanese Mormon convert.  E Wesley Smith, President of the Hawaiian Mission noted (in the November 1919 issue of the Improvement Era):

“During my recent visit, through the different conferences on the Islands of Maui and Hawaii, I had the privilege of meeting the first Japanese convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who is now living at Kukuihaele, Hawaii. We held an interesting meeting in his home and spent the night there.”

“Becoming interested in Brother Toko, I learned that he was born in Tokio, Japan, in the year 1849. At the age of seventeen he worked his way to Hawaii, arriving here in 1866. In 1879 he married a Hawaiian by the name of Kalala, and they have happily passed their ruby anniversary. He joined the Church in 1892, and has been and is still a faithful member.”

“He related to me many interesting incidents that took place here many years ago, among which was the Walter Murray Gibson trouble, and how he witnessed Gibson’s unlawful rise to power, and his dishonorable failure. An interesting sketch of the life and adventures of Walter M. Gibson, by Andrew Jenson, Assistant Historian of the Church, is found in Volume 4 of the Improvement Era.”

“Brother Toko is now seventy years of age, hale and hearty, and able to work six days a week raising Kalo (a Hawaiian vegetable used in making poi) for the market. In this way he earns an honest living. He has a large family of bright children.” (Smith, October 22, 1919)

Several have noted that there are some inconsistencies in Smith’s report, including some dating, but it does confirm that in Kukuihaele on the island of Hawaii there was a Japanese man who claimed to have arrived in Hawaii long before the government-supervised program of emigration began in 1885.

It likewise notes that there were Japanese whom a Church leader regarded as belonging to the Church, the man having been baptized before the opening of Mormon missionary work in Japan in 1901.  (Takagi)

Some descendants suggest Tokujiro was a samurai; that is not confirmed.  However, reportedly, he did have a samurai sword that was later presented to his employer, Samuel Parker. The sword apparently hung in the Mana Museum for some years before it was closed. (Hughes, Ke Ola)

Others note, that by the time he left home at the age of sixteen or seventeen, Tokujiro may well have already been an accomplished tatami maker in his own right. Family oral history has it that he was skilled in carpentry and helped build houses in the Waipio Valley on the northeastern coast of the island of Hawaii.

With the enactment in Japan of the Household Register Law in 1871, it may have been around this time that Tokujiro took the surname Sato.

Initially, when he arrived in Hawaii, he chose to be called Toku or Toko. Shortening of Japanese names to adapt to the Hawaiian manner of speech was an extremely common practice in those days. When the time came to pick a surname, he could have easily adopted the name chosen by his family in Tokyo.  (Takagi)

Sometime after arriving on the island of Hawai‘i, Tokujiro married Kalala Keliihananui Kamekona, a Hawaiian with mixed Irish and Chinese lineage. According to family sources, Kalala Keliihananui Kamekona was the daughter of Kamekona (from the Waipio Valley) and Kaiahua (from the neighboring Waimanu Valley).

Tokujiro had become fluent in the Hawaiian language so that sometimes he was asked by a court of law to act as an interpreter.  Such an assignment was not unusual for the gannenmono who stayed in the Hawaiian islands, because, with very few or even no other Japanese around, they had to assimilate into the Hawaiian community.

A story is told of Sentaro Kawashima, a young Japanese immigrant, who was taught by Tokujiro to speak Hawaiian and English, farm taro, and make poi and okolehao (homemade alcoholic spirit).  (Takagi)

The Tokujiro Sato family was far from being the typical Mormon family of contemporary America. Their religious understanding and practice were constrained both by the cultural settings of the day and by the different expectations that the Church had of its members.

The descendants remember Kalala as fond of drinking okolehao and as being “cranky” most of the time, possibly because of her drinking habit.

In his later years, perhaps with the increasing population of Japanese, Tokujiro came to emphasize his Japanese identity. Although he exclusively spoke Hawaiian to his children, he spoke Japanese to some of the grandchildren as they developed proficiency in that language. (Takagi)

Tokujiro died in his home shortly after his meeting with E Wesley Smith in 1919, and after a funeral held presumably at a Latter-day Saint chapel, he was buried in a cemetery located on the Pacific shore. His grave no longer exists because it was washed away in a tidal wave.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Social History of Kona

In 1980, the University of Hawaii conducted an Ethnic Studies Oral History Project that documents a number of individual oral history interviews with people from Kona.  It is a virtual Who’s Who speaking about the old days in Kona.

It was funded, in part, by the Hawaii Committee for the Humanities (HCH) – I served on the Board of the HCH when this project was proposed and approved.  A two-volume set of books titled “A Social History of Kona” was a result of this project.

“In the late 19th century, Kona gained a reputation as a ‘haven’ for immigrants who broke their labor contracts with the islands’ sugar plantations. Many came to grow, pick, or mill coffee in the area’s rocky farmlands.”

“These early immigrants and others who later joined them helped Kona acquire distinction as the only area in the United States to grow coffee commercially for over 100 years.”

Based on selected oral history transcripts, community meeting discussions, and informal conversations with Kona residents, humanities Scholar, Stephen Boggs, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, prepared a preliminary discussion on values relating to common themes that were identified in the interviews of the Japanese immigrants.

These give you a sense of who these people are. These themes included independence and advancement, tenure and obligation, landownership, economic insecurity, hard work, family responsibility, cooperation between households, isolation and entertainment, and the preservation of ethnic customs.

Independence and Advancement

“The value accorded to independence is clearly indicated in discussions of reasons for migrating to Kona and in comparisons of the meaning of work on coffee farms and plantations.”

“‘Coffee meant freedom’  compared with work on the plantations. Compulsion and demeaning treatment were frequently mentioned as aspects of plantation work.”

“Such are the memories that the first generation frequently passed on to the second.  Compared to this, Kona had the reputation among the first generation as a ‘place, independent, peaceful’ where ‘everyone looked forward to coming.’”

“Work for one’s own benefit made it possible to advance. … Thus, children were encouraged to study as well as work after school, it was said, ‘so they would amount to something.’ The eldest often stayed home to work on the farm so that a younger sibling (usually a brother) could go further in school.”

“Parents encouraged their children to leave farming for higher education, even though they might need them on their farms.  All of this testifies to the importance attached to education, which was assumed to lead to advancement.”

“There is no doubt that advancement was a key value, and even a conscious one, for those who came to Kona.”

Tenure and Obligation

“Advancement was not easy. All that the first generation had when they arrived in Kona was their labor and ingenuity. They had no knowledge of the crops that they would grow, or the growing conditions of Kona.”

“In order to gain access to the necessary land and credit for crop and living expenses, they had to become indebted to merchants, brokers, or other businessmen who bought their crop of coffee.”

“The feeling of obligation to creditors did not depend upon any external sanctions. Instead it was a matter of loyalty: a borrower would be loyal to a creditor above and beyond any contractual obligation.”

There was “the ‘debt adjustment’ of the 1930s. This was a significant historical event in Kona. According to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of dollars which were owed by farmers and could not be repaid because of a long period of low coffee prices worldwide, were forgiven.”

“People in 1980-81 recalled that Amfac was the major benefactor, releasing a million dollars of indebtedness. One can well imagine the relief which this would give to people … In fact people said that the debt reduction probably saved the coffee industry. That was almost the same as saying that it saved the people of Kona, given their strong identification with coffee.”

“The credit system had a beneficial aspect in normal times, as well as creating a burden of obligation. Thus, a farmer could rely upon a creditor when money was needed, unlike those who paid cash only. The credit system thus provided some reassurance.”

Landownership

“Leasing of land was a source of insecurity, although not the most important one. To overcome it people strove to buy land wherever possible. Landownership was thus a value. Even though leases were typically renewed, lease rents could go up, or ownership of the land could change, making continued leasing impossible.”

“Discussing landownership, people added that leasing did not allow you to realize the value of improvements if the lease were terminated. For such reasons, then, people sought to own land.”

Insecurity a Basic Condition

“Plantation workers in Hawaii were largely shielded by their employers from the consequences of fluctuations in prices for sugar and pineapple. They were rarely laid off even during long periods of low prices.”

“But Kona coffee farmers were not protected in this way. World coffee prices often fluctuated severely, with low prices prevailing for a long time. There was no way to avoid the resulting insecurity on the farms.”

“Insecurity was therefore a fundamental condition affecting the development of values in Kona. On the one hand, insecurity heightened the burden of obligation incurred by debt, since even in a good harvest a price drop could make it impossible to repay debts.

“On the other hand, anxiety bred of insecurity caused people to rely even more strongly upon such values as hard work, family responsibility, and cooperation between households, which enabled them to survive. Conversely, however, as security was achieved, support for these values was undercut.”

“When coffee price dropped people took other jobs and planted other crops for income, as well as growing their own food. But income from other crops could not be realized when the entire Kona economy was depressed”.

“Others left Kona to enter other kinds of work. During a three-four year period, when coffee prices were consistently depressed, approximately 80 percent of Kona’s young people and some 54 families abandoned coffee farms in Kona.”

“One can well imagine the insecurity involved in such an exodus, which was faced by those who remained as well as those who left.”

Hard Work

“The first generation and their children worked hard in order to allay the insecurity just described. If their labor and ingenuity were all that they possessed, they made the most of both. Because of reliance upon hard work, it became a value for both generations.”

“We were consistently told in conversations about the old days how hard and long everyone worked. Especially by children describing their parents’ lives. Stories were told: of clearing land and bringing down soil from the forest by hand for planting; of days that began before dawn and lasted until the wee hours of the following day.”

“In those days plantation workers put in ten hours in the fields and twelve in the mills. … During harvests, everyone worked, even the children, partly because their labor was needed, partly in order to teach them to work.”

“People recalled picking as children both before and after school, sometimes as much as two bags. After harvest there was more pruning, cleaning the ground of weeds, and planting subsistence gardens.”

“We were surprised that there were relatively few memories of relaxation during the long season between harvests. The impression given was that people worked all the time, except for holidays and weddings, when there was also work of a different kind, as well as relaxation.”

Family Responsibility

“Working for the family was one of the most cherished values that we encountered. As one person volunteered in one of our earliest meetings, “despite the hardship, coffee was good because the family had to work together, it kept unity in the family, instead of each going their separate ways.’”

“The sense of responsibility was another value that was strengthened by insecurity. Like hard work it provided reassurance, but in a more direct, psychological way.”

“Mention has already been made of children staying back from further schooling in order to send a younger one to school. One result of hard work and family responsibility was that workers from Kona gained a reputation elsewhere for loyalty and good work.”

“Girls especially felt the burden of family responsibility. They more than boys were held back from school to learn to sew and help on the farm. Consequently, fewer girls than boys in the second generation went to high school, some being educated at the Buddhist missions instead.”

Cooperation Between Households

“People knew that they could expect help from one another when problems or difficulties occurred, which was also a strong psychological reassurance.”

“Reliance upon the kumiai [Japanese community groups] when demands exceeded what one family could do led naturally into reliance upon the kumiai for go-betweens to settle disputes.  Members of the kumiai provided other services as well, including repairing machinery, helping to start a balky engine, etc.”

“Mention was made earlier of ingenuity. Many examples of this were shown us and described in conversations. Machinery of all kinds was invented and manufactured on the spot from local materials, a treasure of ‘appropriate technology’ exists in Kona. Such improvements were shared.”

“This was the “Spirit of Kona” fostered by the kumiai. … Given the experience described it was natural for Kona’s Japanese to band together to meet other needs as well.”

“Because of the frequent recourse to kumiai (the term is applied to members as well as the organization) and the principle of mutual help on which it was based, there is little wonder that kumiai was identified with ‘the spirit of Kona’s past.’”

“People also referred to it as ‘the center of the neighborhood’ and used it ‘to get messages through’ when households were widely dispersed and means of transportation and communication difficult or nonexistent.”

“These were not the only organizations promoting the value of cooperation among Kona’s first two generations. Informants and group discussions alike insisted upon the importance of tanomoshi, a form of rotating credit association.”

“Funds of the tanomoshi were crucial before credit unions developed to provide money for emergencies, purchase of land or leases, housing, and other large expenditures.”

Isolation and Entertainment

“Some values had their principal basis in circumstances other than insecurity. One such value was coming together for social celebrations and entertainment.”

“The relative isolation no doubt contributed to the emphasis placed by our informants upon the importance of the rare occasions on which people congregated. Every Community Meeting insisted on including this in their history.”

“People also recalled benches in front of stores, on which people could rest to visit on infrequent visits to the store, now sadly out of style. They also remembered the popularity of Japanese movies and the fact that singing was part of almost every get-together.”

Japanese Customs

“Many practices were brought by the first generation from Japan that undoubtedly functioned to provide continuity and identity. …  These practices represented values in themselves.”

“Ties with the Government of Japan were systematically maintained until World War II broke them. Overseas Japanese were registered by a census – the Jinko-chosa. Children and marriages were also registered in simplified form in the koseki (family household register) so as to maintain Japanese citizenship.”

“There was a celebration for the Emperor’s birthday – Tenchosetsu, when a considerable collection was taken up, as on other occasions, such as military victories. When merchant marine ships from Japan paid courtesy calls at Kailua, young people in a group would go down and perform on the porch of the old Amfac Building”.

“The Nisei did not carry on these practices as the first generation did. Indeed, the transition to American ceremonies started with the latter. … With the outbreak of war all external symbols of Japanese tradition had to be disposed of Kona was occupied by American troops, and relations with them were tense.”

Conclusions: The Significance of Kona

“To Japanese Kona meant coffee farming.  It was obvious from the first that people spoke of coffee when they thought of the first generation. The term ‘coffee pioneers’ describes them.”

“This focus upon coffee almost excludes reference to Kona as a land, a place, in the interviews and discussions. It is not that Kona Japanese do not appreciate the beauty of Kona or feel a bond with the place. At least one informant spoke of Kona as ‘an ideal place to retire’ and predicted that many who left would return.”

“But they speak of Kona as a place rarely, while they speak of coffee in every other utterance. Why is this? The answer tells

us much about the meaning of coffee, and hence of Kona, to the Japanese.”

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sometaro Shiba

With annexation having formalized Hawai‘i’s position as an American outpost and cementing the oligarchy’s control, it would seem that labor-management conflicts in the new Territory inevitably would be decided in favor of all-powerful management.  (Chapin)

Establishment papers prior to 1909 downplayed or ignored labor disputes.  No paper recorded the first plantation strike at Kòloa onKauai in 1841 when Hawaiian workers disputed how they were paid – twelve-and-a-half cents per day in scrip redeemable only at the company store.  The strike was quickly settled in favor of management.  (Chapin)

After 1900, “labor actions” increased dramatically – a total of thirty-nine on plantations and another twenty-five allied strikes in longshore and urban organizations between June 1900 and the end of1905.  (Chapin)

A powerful establishment press was in place on the four major islands to present only one side of the events to the public: the Hilo Tribune Herald, the Maui News, and the Garden Island on Kauai, plus a host on O‘ahu. (Chapin)

In 1902, Sometaro Shiba began The Garden Island newspaper in 2 separate editions, English and Japanese. In 1904, these became separate papers, the Japanese titled Kauai Shinpo (Shinpo implied progress or progressive; it could also mean new report.)  (Nakamura)

Shiba was born on the island of Shikoku, Japan in 1870 and was educated at Aoyama Gakuin, an American Methodist college in Tokyo, where he excelled in English language.

He came to Hawai‘i in 1891 and turned his bilingual talent to profit as a sales clerk at the Lihue Plantation Store. After 10-years with the plantation, he became an interpreter and translator at the Lihue Courthouse.  (Soboleski) Then, he started his papers.

In 1903, prominent Kauai citizens Mason Fay Prosser, Edward DeLacy, Johan Ludvig V. Hjorth, and Frank Crawford formed a corporation to purchase the Garden Island.  Shiba sold his newspapers, but continued as publisher and editor.  (UH Manoa Library)

The Garden Island was published weekly from 1902 to 1964, then switched to twice a week from 1964 to 1976, when it was published three times a week. Presently it appears daily.

In 1907, he left Kauai and bought the Hawaii Shinpo, a daily Japanese language paper. (Soboleski)  It became one of the major Japanese-language newspapers in Hawai‘i. (Nakamura)

Shiba’s paper was among the few Japanese language papers to support management during labor strife in 1909, the 1920s, and 1930s. (Nakamura)

In 1909, Japanese workers initiated a strike on the island of O‘ahu which “in every respect … was the most important labor conflict that had ever occurred in Hawaii up to that date.”

It marked a fundamental shift from previous labor movements in its character and impact, as it extended far beyond the plantations to involve the planter elite, high-ranking government authorities, and influential leaders within the Japanese community.

Unlike previous strikes, this particular work stoppage was the result of nearly eight months of deliberations, meetings, and discussions by Japanese plantation workers on the issue of their salaries and their need to increase them.

The Nippu Jiji, with a circulation of 1,000, along with the Maui Shimbun (Wailuku, Maui), the Shokumin Shinbun (Hilo, Hawai‘i), the Kona Echo (Hōlualoa, Hawai‘i), and the Oahu Jiho (Waipahu, O‘ahu), advocated for higher wages.

They were considered “radicals” for their support of decisive and immediate action and for maintaining that the grievances of the Japanese plantation laborers – which included low wages, poor housing, unsanitary conditions, and other discriminatory treatment – could only be remedied by means of collective bargaining.

In contrast, the “conservatives,” which included the Hawaii Shinpo (Honolulu, Hawai‘i), Hawaiian-Japanese Daily Chronicle (Honolulu, Hawai‘i), Kauai Shinpo, Hilo Shinpo, Kainan Shinpo (Hilo, Hawai‘i), and Maui Hochi, supported a more judicious and cautious approach when dealing with the planters. (Nakamura)

Ultimately, the planters broke the strike but made a number of concessions to laborers, including higher wages, better housing facilities, and improved sanitation conditions.

The Nippu Jiji asserted that editor Shiba of the Hawaii Shinpo and his faction “care nothing for the laborers in general” and should be “prepared to die an honorable death.” (Nakamura)

It led to an attempted murder of Shiba, who was branded as a “traitor” for his close relationship with the powerful sugar planters and collusion with planter interests during this labor conflict.

On August 3, 1909, Tomekichi Mori, a member of the Higher Wage Association, brutally attacked and stabbed editor Shiba in the neck with a pocketknife.

Mori allegedly stated, “I punished Sheba because he is a traitor to the Japanese people … I’m glad I did it … and I’m only sorry I didn’t do a better job of it. I have punished Sheba, and now I’m ready to pay for it.”

The attack made front-page headlines in most of the major newspapers in Honolulu, and the Pacific Commercial Advertiser portrayed the attack as an example of “what the Nippu Jiji has been preaching for months – that Sheba is a traitor to, and an enemy of, his own race and should be punished, exterminated, put out of the way.”  (Nakamura)

Thereafter, Shiba became increasingly concerned about the threat of violence to himself. He not only requested police protection but also applied for a $10,000 life insurance policy, which the planters  funded.

Eventually, Shiba returned to Japan in 1917. He died at the age of eighty at his country home in Ibara prefecture. (Sometaro Shiba’s name is spelled a number of different ways within various accounts. His name is properly spelled “Shiba.”)  (Nakamura)

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Shingon Shu Hawaiʻi

Born, reborn and born again,
The beginnings of their births they do not know.
Dying, dying and dying once again,
The end of their deaths they do not know.
(Odaishisama)

The founder of the Shingon Buddhism sect in Japan, Kūkai (more commonly known as Kōbō Daishi or Odaishisama) lived between the years 774 to 835. In Japanese folklore, he has been given mystical powers, ability to create wells and springs for areas stricken by drought, abilities to heal the sick and raise the dead.

Born to an aristocratic family, Kūkai was well educated and charismatic, always able to gain the confidence of the people around him. While travelling to China, Kukai discovered Shingon esotericism and brought this back to Japan.

He convinced the Japanese Emperor to provide land for a temple complex on Mount Kōya, now the world headquarters of the Kōyasan Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism.

Odaishisama’s Shingon Esoteric view of life is based on the idea of the how things originate with the Six Great-Elements of earth, water, fire, wind, space and consciousness (all of the Six Great-Elements are expressed in the single sanskrit letter “A;” the Shingon view of life lies in the realization that there is no beginning or end to the world of the Buddha.  (shingon-org)

Kūkai was a calligrapher; among the many achievements attributed to him is the invention of the kana, the syllabic Japanese script with which, in combination with Chinese characters (kanji,) the Japanese language is written today.

Having predicted his death the year before, Kūkai died on April 23, 835; it is believed that he remains in spirit.  He was given the name Kōbō Daishi after his death (Odaishisama) and is remembered as a saint, scholar, savior and spiritual healer.

The Issei (first generation) Japanese immigrants that came to Hawaiʻi immigrated to the Islands from 1885 to 1924.  Like the other ethnic immigrant groups, the Issei worked on sugar and pineapple plantations.  The term Issei came into common use and represented the idea of a new beginning and belonging.  When they came, they believed Odaishisama crossed the ocean with them.

On leaving Japan, the young Shingon followers received small portrait scrolls of Odaishisama from their elderly parents, who with tears in their eyes surely told them, “When you go to Hawaii there will be times of hardship and suffering, and also times when you will become sick. At those times, ask Odaishisama for help. Do not forget to say “Namu Daishi Henjo Kongo” (the mantra of Kōbō Daishi, “Homage to the Great Master, the Vajra of all-pervading spiritual radiance”) (NPS)

Shingon Shu Hawaiʻi (Hawai‘i Shingon Mission) was founded March 15, 1915 in Honolulu.  The first temple was built on the site in 1918, completed by Nakagawa Katsutaro, a master builder of Japanese-style temples. In 1929, Hego Fuchino renovated the temple along the lines of the Japanese Design Style.

The temple is a congregational Buddhist school, interested in studying and sharing the faith of Shingon esoteric Buddhism; the temple follows the original tenets established by Kobo Daishi who brought the teachings of esoteric Buddhism to Japan from China in 806 AD.  (ShingunShuHawaii)

The Hawaiʻi Shingon Mission (Shingon Shu Hawaiʻi) is one of seven missions remaining of this type of Japanese Design Style of architecture in Hawaiʻi. As the mother church for the Shingon sect in Hawaii, the Hawaiʻi Shingon Mission on Sheridan Street in Honolulu is one of the most elaborately decorated Buddhist temples in Hawaiʻi.

Although it was altered in 1978 and a major addition was built in 1992, the roof and its original carvings form the framework of its character and the interior furnishings brought from Japan maintain a major part of its significance. The most visible portion of the Hawaii Shingon Mission is its irimoya or steeply sloped-hipped gable roof with elaborate carvings adorning each gable end.

Termed “Japanese Design Style” by Lorraine Minatoishi Palumbo in her dissertation on Japanese temple architecture in Hawaiʻi, it is representative of a time period in Hawaiʻi when the Japanese, proud of their heritage, wanted the familiarity of home.

While this style lasted only 22 years before the Japanese took a decided lean towards a Western influence, the results of this strong connection to a style in Japan makes these buildings stand out in Hawaiʻi.

At the very top of the roof is a depiction of the tomoe, which suggests the yin-yang symbol of China, but represents the circle of life in Japan.

The karahafu-kohai or cusped gable entrance roof with a carving of the Hozo, a phoenix on top of the cusp and within the eyebrow, mark a well-defined entry. The phoenix is widely considered to represent the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. There is also a dragon, representing wisdom, good fortune and power, resting in the clouds.

Culturally, the social history of the Japanese is intertwined in the Buddhist philosophy (which originated in northern India by Prince Siddhartha Gautama, known as Buddha, in 528 BC.) (Lots of information here from NPS.)

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