Japanese | Page 7 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hole Hole Bushi

“Kane wa kachiken
Washa horehoreyo
Ase to namida no
Tomokasegi”

“My husband cuts the cane stalks
And I trim the leaves
With sweat and tears we both work
For our means.”

Japanese laborers quickly comprised the majority of Hawaiian sugar plantation workers after their large-scale importation as contract workers in 1885. (Oxford Press)

Their folk songs provide good examples of the intersection between local work/life and the global connection which the workers clearly perceived after arriving.

While many are songs of lamentation, others reflect a rapid adaptation to a new society in which other ethnic groups were arranged in untidy hierarchical order–the origins of a unique multicultural social order dominated by an oligarchy of white planters. (Oxford Press)

From 1885-1924, about 200,000 Japanese came to Hawai‘i to work on the sugar plantations. (Kim) By 1900, the Japanese population, about 40% of the total, was the largest ethnic group in Hawai‘i. (Densho)

Many of those Issei women, first generation of Japanese immigrants, came as picture brides and found themselves working long hours in the canefields.

The men cut the cane; the women’s work was to strip the leaves from sugar cane stalks so that it produces more juice while providing fertilizer for the growing plant.

These women sang songs about work and the dilemmas of plantation life. The songs, called Hole Hole Bushi, used old Japanese folk tunes, and mixed Hawaiian and Japanese words for dramatic lyrics. (Kim)

Hole Hole Bushi is a hybrid term that combines the Japanese word for tune (bushi) with a Hawaiian term describing the stripping the leaves off of sugar cane (hole.) Issei women composed and sung a repertoire of these songs, set to familiar Japanese melodies, which expressed their hardships, disappointments, and hopes. (Kim)

Hole Hole Bushi is a folk song which Issei (first-generation Japanese overseas emigrants) who immigrated to Hawai‘i at the end of the 19th century, sang at their work in the sugarcane fields. (Nakahara)

Folk songs are short stories from the souls of common people. Some, like Mexican corridos or Scottish ballads, reworked in the Appalachias, are stories of tragic or heroic episodes. Others, like the African American blues, reach from a difficult present back into slavery and forward into a troubled future. (Oxford Press)

Japanese workers in Hawaii’s plantations created their own versions, in form more like their traditional tanka or haiku poetry.

These Holehole Bushi describe the experiences of one particular group caught in the global movements of capital, empire, and labor during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (Oxford Press)

The name “Hole Hole Bushi,” first appears in Saishin Hawai Annai (The Latest Hawai‘i Guide) by Namitarō Murasaki (1920.) “Hole-hole Bushi” is described as one of Hawai‘i’s specialties to see, as in the following:

“Honolulu is a song-less town. One rarely hears singing except through a phonograph or overhearing a spree coming out of a restaurant. Of course, new popular songs are imported every time Japanese ships come into port. But these songs are sung only at tea houses for the time being, and mostly disappear before they spread outside.”

“Nevertheless, if you go to the countryside, you can still hear the loud singing of a tune saturated with a sorrowful mood. That is “Hole-hole Bushi”—a distinctive feature in Hawai‘i.” (Nakahara)

The lyrics are mostly in Japanese with Hawaiian and English words mixed in, and follow a poetic form with lines of 7+7+7+5 syllables. The texts cover a wide range of topics, from the hardships of field labor and uncertainty in life to the relationships between men and women, name-calling and gossip.

Around 1930, the lives of the Issei improved, and many moved to cities. The Hole Hole Bushi which had been sung in the field disappeared, and, in its place, lively-sounding versions of Hole Hole Bushi were performed in Japanese tea houses.

During the Second World War, the government banned Japanese cultural activities. After the war, however, the great success of the Nisei troops in the fight received admiration. However, Hole Hole Bushi was never performed; for the Issei, Hole Hole Bushi had become an embarrassment. (Nakahara)

Hole Hole Bushi performed by Allison Arakawa at Japanese American National Museum:

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‘Japanese_Laborers_on_Spreckelsville_Plantation’,_oil_on_canvas_painting_by_Joseph_Dwight_Strong,_1885

14-1-14-11 =female worker on Maui 1915-rjb-Kamehameha Schools Archives

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Japanese sugar plantation workers in Hawaii around 1910 (BishopMuseum)

Japanese sugar plantation laborers at Kau, Hawaii Island-(HSA)-PP-46-4-010-1890

December 8, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Fifth Column

There were several types of columns used by the military infantry: marching columns for transiting long distances and columns used on the battlefield. They were not intended as assault formations, except under special circumstances.

Reference to a ‘Fifth Column’ dates to the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) and refers to a group or faction of subversive agents (or spys.)

Nationalist General Emilio Mola Vidal coined the term when he told a local journalist that four columns of his soldiers were fighting their way to Madrid, and that a secret ‘Fifth Column’ was intent on undermining the loyalist government from within the capital. The papers reported:

“Out of hiding came a few of the phantom ‘fifth column’ – the fascist auxiliary force dreaded by the loyalists. Scheduled to appear within the city itself and take the defenders from the rear, these rebel sympathizers sniped from rooftops at the government militia.” (North Adams Transcript, November 14, 1936)

The term ‘Fifth Column’ survived that war and has ever since been used to designate secret armies or groups of armed subversives.

Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, that brought the United States into World War II, outraged Americans and sparked a wave of anti-Japanese sentiment across the country.

Many blamed all Japanese for the Pearl Harbor attack, directing their anger and frustration even at Japanese resident aliens and Japanese-Americans who had done nothing that would bring into question their loyalty to the United States. (Weider)

Fear of the ‘Fifth Column” hit home.

The term’s first use in WWII was by Navy Secretary Frank Knox to describe the Japanese in Hawaiʻi, even though his own report proved his charge an unsupported averment. (Tanner)

“I think the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war was done in Hawaiʻi with the exception of Norway.” (Frank Knox, Secretary of Navy)

“It was common wisdom that the Nazi invasions of Norway and western Europe had been aided by agents and sympathizers within the country under attack – the so-called fifth column – and that the same approach should be anticipated from Japan.” (Executive Order 9066, archives-gov)

Wartime hysteria inherently relied on the narrative of widespread Japanese saboteurs, or the fifth-column myth. This myth developed as “fears (were) spawned by … headlines (blaring,) ‘Secretary of Navy Blames Fifth Column for Raid’ and ‘Fifth Column Treachery Told.’” (Tanner)

In February 1942, Mississippi Congressman Rankin told the US House of Representatives:
“I know the Hawaiian Islands. I know the Pacific coast where these Japanese reside. Even though they may be the third or fourth generation of Japanese, we cannot trust them.”

“I know that those areas are teeming with Japanese spies and fifth columnists. … Do not forget that once a Japanese always a Japanese …. (They had) been there for generations were making signs, if you please …”

“… guiding the Japanese planes to the objects of their iniquity in order that they might destroy our naval vessels, murder our soldiers and sailors, and blow to pieces the helpless women and children of Hawaii. (Congressional Record; Everest-Phillips)

“(S)enior Government officials ’ignored’ reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and members of naval intelligence who concluded that nothing beyond careful watching of suspicious people or individual reviews of loyalty was called for.” (NY Times)

A report commissioned by Congress contended that the vast majority of Japanese Americans were loyal but it did nothing to stop the mounting public hysteria and government and military reactionism.

“(Second generation Nisei are) universally estimated from 90 to 98 percent loyal to the United States … The Nisei are pathetically eager to show this loyalty. They are not Japanese in culture. They are foreigners to Japan. … The loyal Nisei hardly knows where to turn.” (Munson Report; UW)

On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which authorized the military to exclude any person from designated military areas.

“I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders … to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded”.

“(A)nd with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military … may impose in his discretion.”

“The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to provide for residents of any such area who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations as may be necessary, in the judgment of the Secretary of War or the said Military Commander, and until other arrangements are made, to accomplish the purpose of this order.” (Executive Order 9066)

Beginning in 1942, more than 120,000-Japanese-Americans, most of them living on the West Coast, were ordered to leave their homes and were transported to relocation centers (camps) for the duration of the war. The internees were stripped of both their possessions and their civil liberties. (Papers of the Wartime Relocation Commission)

After the war, Japanese Americans returned home.

“(N)ot a single documented act of espionage, sabotage or fifth column activity was committed by an American citizen of Japanese ancestry or by a resident Japanese alien on the West Coast.” (Wartime Relocation Commission; NY Times)

In the decades following World War II, the internment of Japanese-Americans has generally been acknowledged as a national embarrassment, a shameful episode that stands as a blot on America’s record. (Weider)

In 1952 the McCarran-Walter Immigration and Naturalization Act finally allowed Issei (first generation) naturalization. In 1976, on the thirty-fourth anniversary of Executive Order 9066, President Gerald Ford declared the evacuation a “national mistake.”

And in 1988 HR 442 was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan providing for reparations for surviving internees. Beginning in 1990 $20,000 in redress payments were sent to all eligible Japanese Americans. (UW)

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Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Japan (Dec 8, 1941)-1

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December 7, 2015 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

A Dauntless Collides With a Val

Pilot, Ensign John HL Vogt; Radioman-gunner, Third Class Sidney Pierce
Pilot, Petty Officer 2nd Class Koreyoshi Toyama (Sotoyama); Flier 1st Class Hajime Murao

A pair of enemy planes apparently collided on the morning of December 7, 1941 – reports from the scene at the time suggest they also crashed at the same spot on the ʻEwa Plain.

Let’s look back …

In the early morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese pilots flew toward the island of Oʻahu from six aircraft carriers (the Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku;) two attack waves of planes attacked various military installations on Oʻahu (a third group attacked ʻEwa as part of a rear guard action.)

The prearranged coded signal “East wind, rain,” part of the weather forecast broadcast over Radio Tokyo, alerted Japanese Consul General Nagao Kita in Honolulu, and others, that the attack on Pearl Harbor had begun.

The first wave of 183-planes (43-fighters, 49-high-level bombers, 51-dive bombers and 40-torpedo planes) struck its targets at 7:55 am. The second wave of 167-Japanese planes (35-fighters, 54-horizontal bombers and 78-dive bombers) struck Oʻahu beginning at 8:40 am.

Perhaps twenty American fighter planes managed to get off the ground the morning of December 7, 1941. Most of them were shot down, but their actions accounted for six victories in the one-sided aerial battle. (Castagnaro and Padilla)

The USS Enterprise was at sea during the attack, it was shuttling Army Air Force, as well as Navy planes, from West Coast ports to Pearl Harbor, and to outlying detachments on Wake and Guam further west.

She departed on November 28 carrying Marine pilots and their planes to Wake Island, flying them off on December 2 before turning east to return to Pearl Harbor.

Forced to slow by a storm system, which also sheltered the Japanese Combined Fleet advancing on Oʻahu, Enterprise missed her expected return date to Pearl Harbor: December 6. Instead, she was 150-miles west when the Japanese attacked. (CV6-org)

When approaching the Islands, the Enterprise sent out scout dive bombers, which flew in ahead of the ship; unaware of the attack, they were caught in the initial Japanese attack.

One of those was a ‘Dauntless’ manned by Ensign John HL Vogt (pilot) and Third Class Sidney Pierce (radioman-gunner.) Vogt had become separated from his section leader during the Pearl-bound flight in from the carrier; he may have circled off-shore, and then arrived to encounter the dive bombers near ʻEwa. (Cressmand & Wenger)

The Japanese were flying Aichi D3A (Type 99 Navy Dive Bomber – later referred to as ‘Val’ aircraft.) During the Pearl Harbor attack the Japanese dive bombers flew in units of three who looked out for one another.

The Val was the first Japanese aircraft to bomb American targets in WWII. It was the primary dive bomber in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and participated in almost all actions in the war.

One of those was manned by Petty Officer 2nd Class Koreyoshi Toyama (Sotoyama) (pilot) and Flier 1st Class Hajime Murao. Toyama attacked the USS Pennsylvania in Drydock 1. His bomb missed and hit the dock itself. (Cole)

Other than flying over Pearl Harbor, flying back to their aircraft carrier was the second most difficult part of their mission because the air units had to regroup initially over ʻEwa and then proceed to further geographic points – Barbers Point and Kaʻena Point, before heading out to sea northwest of Oʻahu and finding their respective aircraft carriers approximately 200-miles away. (Bond)

Neither of these planes made it back to their respective ships.

One report notes Vogt entered a low altitude dogfight with at least two Japanese planes. He trailed one as best it could until the Japanese plane pulled up sharply and stalled, causing the two to collide in an explosion that brought both plans down. (AECOM)

This was confirmed by Lieutenant Colonel Larkin who saw an American plane and a Japanese plane collide in mid-air a short distance away from the ʻEwa Field. In all probability, Larkin saw the Dauntless collide with a Val. (marines-mil) (Other reports note each was separately shot down.)

The American crew bailed out, but were too low an altitude; both were found dead in the trees when their chutes failed to deploy. Neither of the Japanese crewmen escaped their Val when it crashed. (Cressmand & Wenger)

According to several reports, the two planes ended up in the same spot, at what is today the vicinity of the Hoakalei Golf Course club house. (Bond)

“Investigation disclosed two of our fliers, Ensign JHB Vogt, USNR, and Pierce Sidney, RM 3c, both of the USS Enterprise, were casualties. Two Japanese pilots, both badly burned, were also in the wreck.” (Milz)

Toyama’s two wingmen flew over the crash site, possibly trying to determine if either of the Japanese crew had somehow made it out of the burning crash. They then made a strafing pass before flying away. (Lots of information here from Bond)

The image shows the crash site on the ʻEwa Plain (note the two Japanese support planes circling the site.) (Photographed by Staff Sergeant Lee Embree from a US Army 38th Reconnaissance Squadron B-17E that arrived over Oahu during the Japanese attack. (navy-mil, notation by Bond)

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Dauntless flies over Enterprise-Dec1942

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September 8, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiian, American missionary, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean & Filipino

Hawaiʻi is the world’s most-isolated, populated-place; the Islands are about: 2,500-miles from the US mainland, Samoa & Alaska; 4,000-miles from Tokyo, New Zealand & Guam, and 5,000-miles from Australia, the Philippines & Korea.

Using stratigraphic archaeology and refinements in radiocarbon dating, studies suggest it was about 900-1000 AD that “Polynesian explorers first made their remarkable voyage from central Eastern Polynesia Islands, across the doldrums and into the North Pacific, to discover Hawai‘i.” (Kirch)

Then, in the dawn hours of January 18, 1778, on his third expedition, British explorer Captain James Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)

At the time of Cook’s arrival, the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four chiefdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

Four decades later, inspired by ʻŌpūkahaʻia, a Hawaiian who wanted to spread the word of Christianity back home in Hawaiʻi, on October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of missionaries, from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) from the northeast United States, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.)

Then, something more significant in defining the social make-up of Hawaiʻi took place.

Sugar changed the social fabric of Hawai‘i. Hawai‘i continues to be one of the most culturally-diverse and racially-integrated places on the planet.

The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started at Kōloa on Kaua‘i in 1835. It was to change the face of Hawai‘i forever, launching an entire economy, lifestyle and practice of monocropping that lasted for well over a century.

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.

What encouraged the development of plantations in Hawaiʻi? For one, the gold rush and settlement of California opened a lucrative market. Likewise, the Civil War virtually shut down Louisiana sugar production during the 1860s, enabling Hawai‘i to compete with elevated prices for sugar.

In addition, the Treaty of Reciprocity-1875 between the US and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market. Through the treaty, the US gained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into US markets.

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.

Several waves of workforce immigration took place (including others:)
• Chinese 1852
• Portuguese 1877
• Japanese 1885
• Koreans 1902
• Filipinos 1905

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.

The Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens is a peaceful place to experience various cultural buildings; it was created as tribute and a memorial to Maui’s multi-cultural diversity.

Started in 1952, the park contains several monuments and replica buildings commemorating the Hawaiian, American missionary, Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Filipino cultures that make up a significant part of Hawaiʻi’s cultural mix.

Attractions include an early-Hawaiian hale (house), a New England-style missionary home, a Portuguese-style villa with gardens, native huts from the Philippines, Japanese gardens with stone pagodas and a Chinese pavilion with a statue of revolutionary hero Sun Yat-sen (who briefly lived on Maui.)

It is situated near the entrance to ʻIao Valley in the West Maui Mountain, just above Wailuku. It is open daily from 7 am to 7 pm; admission is free.

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