Oahu | Page 26 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 7, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Something was happening”

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 lasted 110 minutes, from 7:55 am until 9:45 am. Japanese naval forces included 4 heavy aircraft carriers, 2 heavy cruisers, 35 submarines, 2 light cruisers, 9 oilers, 2 battleships and 11 destroyers.

The attacking forces came in two waves, the first consisting of 183 aircraft which included 40 torpedo planes, 49 level bombers, 51 dive bombers and 43 fighters. The second wave included 170 planes, 54 of them level bombers, 80 dive-bombers and 36 fighters. Over 350 Japanese planes were involved in overall attack.

As a result of the December 7, 1941 attack, there were 2,403-people killed and 1,178-wounded. Among the deceased were 2,008-Navy personnel, 109-Marine, 218-Army and 68-civilians. (navy-mil)

For part of the attack, and aftermath, first, let’s look back.

In 1899, Gorokichi Nakasugi, a Japanese shipbuilder, brought a traditional 34-foot Japanese sailing sampan to Hawai‘i; this led to a unique class of vessels and distinctive maritime culture associated with the rise of the commercial fishing industry in Hawai‘i.

(The term ‘Sampan,’ although usually associate with the Japanese in Hawaiʻi, comes from the Chinese language, meaning three (san) boards (ban,) describing a small simple skiff.) (VanTilburg)

Japanese-trained shipwrights adapted the original sampan design to the rough waters of the Hawaiian Islands. The fishermen used traditional live bait, pole-and-line method of fishing and unloaded their catches of aku (bonito, skipjack) and ahi (yellow-fin tuna) at Kewalo Basin.

Local Japanese fishermen opened the commercial tuna industry in Hawaiʻi in conjunction with the innovation of modern packing plants. It was the ability to can tuna for the distant market which really made possible the expansion and modernization of the fishing fleet. The industry benefited American canneries.

Vessels began to change with time, as well. Gasoline engines were fitted into boats beginning in 1905, and more suitable marine diesels by 1927. Shortly thereafter the prominent deckhouse made its appearance. The Sampans became perfectly adapted to the rough waters between the islands. (VanTilburg)

The sampan aku fleet was based at Kewalo Basin by 1930, and the McFarlane Tuna Company (later known as Hawaiian Tuna Packers) built a shipyard there in 1929 and a new tuna cannery at the basin in 1933.

By 1940, there were over 450-sampans in the Territory of Hawaiʻi, making the commercial fishery the Islands’ third largest industry behind sugar and pineapple.

That brings us to December 1941, more specifically, December 4 – four sampans (Kiho Maru, Myojin Maru, Shin-ei Maru and the Sumiyoshi Maru) set out for fishing off Oʻahu’s leeward coast.

Later, on the morning of December 7, the Ward (US Destroyer No. 139,) conducting routine antisubmarine patrols in the Hawaiian area, had the distinction of firing the first American gun in anger during the Pacific war. She searched for a suspected submarine and subsequently fired shots at its conning tower.

(In 2002, the University of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Undersea Research Lab (HURL) team found the submarine about three to four miles off Pearl Harbor and verified it was hit and sunk by the Ward. (Burlingame))

Heading home, the Ward soon spotted a Japanese fishing sampan, one of many that was a familiar sight in the waters in the Hawaiian archipelago (not part of the four noted before.)

A fisherman suddenly started waving a white flag perhaps he had seen the determined depth-charge attacks and thought that the Americans would bomb anything that moved. Ward slowed and closed to investigate and took the small craft in tow to turn her over to the Coast Guard for disposition.

Nearing the harbor entrance around 0800, those on deck heard the sound of gunfire and explosions, as smoke began to boil into the skies over Pearl Harbor. (Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships)

“Something was happening.”

The Ward had returned and witnessed the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

On the morning of December 8, newspapers announced that all unidentiﬁed boats approaching Oʻahu would be ﬁred upon. It was feared that the local ﬁshing ﬂeet, manned predominantly by Japanese might have had rendezvous with Japanese warships. (Roehner)

Then, the fateful day for the four sampans as they were heading home. “All of a sudden, there were four or five Army P40s flying over us. Each picked out a target and attacked.”

The war-planes strafed the four fishing boats (Kiho Maru, Myojin Maru, Shin-ei Maru and the Sumiyoshi Maru) about 2-miles off Barber’s Point, about 10-miles west of Pearl Harbor, killing six civilians (nine crewmen survived the mid-morning attack, but most were wounded – most of the crew on the boats were American citizens.)

After the planes attacked, a destroyer arrived on the scene and dispatched launches to tow the sampans, with the dead and wounded, back to Kewalo Basin. They were then taken to a civilian hospital where the wounded were kept under armed guard. (European Stars and Stripes, December 9, 1977)

The dead were brought from the waterfront to Hosoi Funeral Parlor. They were: Ogawa Mataichi, Kaichi Okada, Sutematsu Kida, Kiichi Kida, Kiho Uyehara, Riyozo Okogi. (Scrapbook of Women of WWII Hawaiʻi)

Again on December 12th, sampans were strafed off of both Kailua and Kohala coasts. (VanTilburg)

World War II had the single largest impact on the sampan fishing industry. During the war, the fleet was immediately limited to operating only during certain narrow hours in a few selected near shore areas. This, of course, was devastating to the fishery. By the end of 1942, the annual yield was down by a staggering 99%. (VanTilburg)

In 1967, 26 years after the incident, the widow of the Kiho Maru skipper received $8,000. Another received about $2,500 and proceeds from the sale of fish that was in his boat on the day of the attack. (European Stars and Stripes, December 9, 1977)

December 2, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“East Wind, Rain”

Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese spy, arrived in Honolulu on March 27, 1941, aboard the Japanese liner Nitta Maru. His papers identified him as Tadashi Morimura, the name he was always referred to while in the Islands (and subsequent investigative records.) (He’ll be referred to here by his real name, Yoshikawa.)

Born on March 7, 1914, Yoshikawa had been approached in 1936 to work as a civilian for Japan’s naval intelligence service: “Since I had been studying English, I was assigned to the sections dealing with the British and American navies. I became the Japanese navy’s expert on the American navy.”

“I read everything; diplomatic reports from our attachés, secret reports from our agents around the world. I read military commentators like Hanson Baldwin (New York Times military affairs editor.)” Yoshikawa also studied Jane’s Fighting Ships and memorized the silhouettes of all the American ships, something that would later prove critical. (Savela)

Posing as junior diplomat, Yoshikawa was to keep current on the status of the US fleet and its anchorages, reporting his observations to Tokyo by coded telegraph messages. Thanks to Hawaiʻi’s large Japanese-American population, Yoshikawa easily blended in.

When Kita briefed Yoshikawa, he reminded him, “Don’t make yourself conspicuous; maintain a normal, business-as-usual attitude, keep calm under all circumstances; avoid taking unnecessary risks; stay away from guarded and restricted areas and be aware of the FBI.” (Prange; Savela)

In keeping with his cover, Yoshikawa avoided illegally entering military bases or stealing classified documents. He shunned cameras and notepads, relying instead on memory. He supplemented his observations with items of interest gleaned from daily newspapers.

Yoshikawa familiarized himself with the principal Hawaiian Islands and their military installations, which were concentrated on Oʻahu. He frequently relied on a hired cab driven by John Mikami, a Japanese-Hawaiian who often performed chores for the consulate. (Deac)

Other times, Yoshikawa was chauffeured by Richard Kotoshirodo, a consular clerk. It did not take long for Yoshikawa to scout out the various US Army and Navy bases on central, southern and eastern Oʻahu. Predictably, the focus of his attention was Pearl Harbor, the nearly landlocked US Pacific Fleet anchorage on the south coast of the island.

The assignment fit into a plan outlined in January 1941 by Combined Fleet Commander Isoroku Yamamoto. The plan called for an aerial assault on Hawaiʻi as the opening move of a war between the United States and Japan. Yoshikawa was to become his country’s only military spy in the islands and Yamamoto’s most valuable source of current information on Oʻahu. (Deac)

And with its relatively open landscape, sloping elevations, and limited restrictions on movement, he readily compiled useful intelligence. His encyclopedic knowledge of US ships and his methodical charting of their movements made his reports all the more valuable. His contribution to the Japanese effort was ultimately “an important one.” (Savela)

Yoshikawa did not work alone. Later joining him in espionage was a ‘sleeper agent’ Bernard Otto Julius Kuehn and his family, Nazi spies sent to the Islands by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. (Washington Times)

The Kuehns arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1935, they blended in, and waited; no one seriously suspected that Caucasians would carry on espionage for the Empire of Japan, so Kuehn, his wife Friedel, their daughter and son, Hans Joachim, were virtually inconspicuous as a white family on the windward side.

However, every member of the family contributed towards collecting and documenting military activities at Pearl Harbor from 1935 right up to the day the bombs fell from Japanese aircraft.

On December 2, days before the attack, Kuehn provided specific – and highly accurate – details on the fleet in writing. That same day, he gave the consulate the set of signals that could be picked up by nearby Japanese submarines. (FBI)

At midafternoon on December 6, Yoshikawa made his final reconnaissance of Pearl Harbor from the Pearl City pier. Back at the consulate, he coordinated his report with Kita, and then saw that the encoded message was transmitted to Tokyo.

At 1:20 am on December 7, 1941, on the darkened bridge of the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi, Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo was handed the following message:

“Vessels moored in harbor: 9 battleships; 3 class B cruisers; 3 seaplane tenders, 17 destroyers. Entering harbor are 4 class B cruisers; 3 destroyers. All aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers have departed harbor…. No indication of any changes in US Fleet or anything unusual.” (Savela)

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 waves of planes attacked various military installations on Oʻahu.

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.

The Japanese consulate staff locked the consulate doors and began burning all their codebooks and classified material. “Smoke was pouring out of the chimney.” At about 9:30 am, December 7, the consulate staff was arrested and later shipped to Phoenix, Arizona.

By 9:45 am, the Japanese attack on Oʻahu was over.

Japanese Consulate Staff-Honolulu-(NationalArchives)

SPY, WIFE, HERO – TAKEO YOSHIKAWA, HIS WIFE, ETSUKO, AND HIS LIFETIME HERO, ADMIRAL TSOROKU YAMAMOTO, SUPREME COMMANDER AND PLANNER OF THE JAPANESE ATTACK FORCE THAT ATTACKED PEARL HARBOR. EXCLUSIVE PHOTO BY RON LAYTNER FOR EDIT INTERNATIONAL.

SITTING ON HIS HORSE ‘JONNY’ THE LEGENDARY PEARL HARBOR SPY, TAKEO YOSHIKAWA, SAID “I WAS BORN IN THE DAYS OF THE GREAT JAPANESE EMPIRE WHEN THE YAMATO RACE WALKED TALL ACROSS ASIA AND BOYS WERE DESTINED FOR GREATNESS.” EXCLUSIVE PHOTO COPYRIGHT BY RON LAYTNER, EDI INTERNATIONAL.

“IN MY YOUTH I WAS A SAMURAI. I BELIEVED IN WAR AND DEATH IN BATTLE. I SHAPED HISTORY. NOW I AM OLD AND BELIEVE IN PEACE AND LOVE.” TAKO YOSHIKAWA, THE PEARL HARBOR SPY, INTERVIEWED BEFORE HIS DEATH IN 1984. WORLD EXCLUSIVE PHOTOGRAPH COPYRIGHT BY RON LAYTNER AND EDIT INTERNATIONAL.

WATCHING THE NEW JAPAN THROUGH HIS WINDOW, THE OLD SPY SAID: “I AM NOT SORRY ABOUT PEARL HARBOR – ONLY THAT JAPAN HAS NOT HONORED ME. ALL THOSE WHO DIED IN THE ATTACK – ALL THE AMERICANS AND THE FEW JAPANESE TOO – THEY DIED FOR THE GLORY OF HISTORY,” SAID UNREPENTENT JAPANESE SUPER SPY TAKEO YOSHIKAWA, WHO WAS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR PROVIDING JAPANESE FORCES WITH INTELLIGENCE FROM PEARL HARBOR. EXCLUSIVE PHOTO COPYRIGHT BY RON LAYTNER FOR EDIT INTERNATIONAL.

THE MOST EFFECTIVE SPY IN HISTORYM TAJEI ISGUJAWAM DRUBJS TI FIRGET UB NATSYTANA IB SGUBIJY USKABDM “JAPAN NOW THINKS ONLY OF MONEY AND HOW TO WIN NEW MRKETS,” HE SAID SADLY. EXCLUSIVE PHOTO COPYRIGHT BY RON LAYTNER FOR EDIT INTERNATIONAL.

November 18, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The lighthouse is reached, no drop! the outer buoy, no stop!

This is a story about Joseph Lawrence Van Tassell. But before we get to Van Tassell, let’s look at a predecessor and his attempts at the first successful aeronautical event in Hawaiʻi. At the time, the technology was hot air balloons.

Emil L Melville had advertised a balloon show where he would hang from a trapeze in his 86-foot balloon. For Melville, third time was the charm.

The headline on the first attempt tells the story, “An Immense Audience – No Ascension.” It goes on to note, “The crowd continued to surge into the (Kapiʻolani) Park until about the time set for the ascension when there were from 3,000 to 4,000 persons within the enclosure and perhaps 2,000 more in the surrounding grounds.”

“Promptly at the advertised hour 2 o’clock (March 2, 1889) Prof Melville arose from a nap with which he was refreshing himself in a room near the grand stand and dressed himself in a gay suit of tights.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 5, 1889)

“What the process is actually remains a professional secret … the canvas in a few moments began to flutter and fill then bulge out into something like rotund shape. … Matters were in this struggling stage at 5:45 o’clock … a wreath of smoke curling up from the upper slope of the cloth … Another burst … Many of the helpers ran off panic-stricken … The next scene was a grand and speedy dispersion (of the crowd.”) (Hawaiian Gazette, March 5, 1889)

A week later, the paper noted, “’There could not have been a better day,’ (March 11, 1889) was the universal remark, suggested by the very slight stir in the air and such motion as there was being off the sea. The balloon filled up beautifully – was in fact every moment looking more like an article of that name until it had about three fourths of its capacity-charged with concentrated caloric and smoke.”

“The furnace roars once and again and next thing the aeronaut thunders out ‘All let go!’ … and away the monster creeps laterally … off she goes and then up, only the spectators in the inner rings observing the gallant Professor Melville dragging headforemost to the trapeze – he had no time to fasten on the parachute.”

“Up through the wicked spikes of the young algeroba (kiawe) thicket the aeronaut was dragged … Now the balloon is fast sinking with the man’s weight. It disappears behind the bush and almost immediately soars majestically aloft but there is no man dangling from the trapeze.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 12, 1889)

Finally, on April 6, 1889, “ … Prof Emil Melville with the assistance of sailors from HBMS Cormorant was inflating his balloon, the one used in the two previous attempts to fly skyward. About half-past 2 o’clock … the balloon was up. Sure enough there it was sailing gracefully over the town at an elevation of two or three thousand feet.”

“… a little steady gazing was rewarded by the vision of a streak of red the aeronauts athletic costume … going through movements on the bar which made the balloon sag and sway at intervals.”

“At a point nearly over Palace Square the balloon was noticed to be descending which caused the rush of hundreds to the water front to see the finish of the aerial voyage. … The aeronaut let go when near the surface of the water dropping in about four or five feet depth on the reef inside the breakers off Kakaʻako. His balloon in a few seconds took the water having careened on its side under a gust of wind.” (Hawaiian Gazette, April 9, 1889)

Joseph Lawrence Van Tassell was another balloonist who came to Hawaiʻi.

Some credit him with the first flight in the islands, but it is clear from the above, that Melville made it on his third try (although unceremoniously with a dunking in the water.)

Like Melville, Van Tassell staged a flight from Kapiʻolani Park, collecting admission fees from spectators. On November 2, 1889, “The attendance at Kapiʻolani Park … was not so large as it ought to have been. About five hundred persons were in the enclosure, but there was a much larger number outside. Many people witnessed the ascension from the top of Punchbowl and other commanding positions”.

“… It progressed so rapidly and in such a thorough manner that at four o’clock ‘let go’ was heard and the balloon ascended gracefully into the air. (At the appropriate time,) “the aeronaut partly opened the parachute and a few seconds later parted from the balloon, coming down in a very graceful manner”. (Daily Bulletin, November 4, 1889)

What’s it like? “We go up in a balloon which holds 75,000 cubic feet of gas and lifts 2,800 pounds. … The parachute is fastened to the side of the balloon with a rope. … Underneath the parachute is an ordinary trapeze. When we get ready to jump, we swing out of the balloon throwing one leg out of the trapeze under the parachute.”

“Then we cut it loose at the same instant pulling a cord that collapses the balloon. We fall the first two hundred feet with terrible rapidity and then comes the most dangerous part of the jump, next to landing, for in falling the two hundred feet the parachute opens and it brings up with a jerk that almost hurls you off the bar.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 26, 1889)

Then, a fateful event.

Van Tassell promised a special show to honor King Kalākaua on his 53rd birthday; he had no trouble selling tickets. He promised to ascend from the crater Punchbowl then parachute to a landing in the palace grounds. (hawaii-gov)

“The inflation commenced about 2 o’clock and the big bag was quickly filled. … At 2:19 pm the aeronaut declared himself ready and with a pleasant wave of the hand to a few friends he straddled the iron bar of the parachute and grasping the ropes gave the order ‘let go’ and started on his ride”.

“The point of starting was so well sheltered from the brisk trade wind that was blowing that the balloon had an excellent opportunity to rise upward which it did to a height estimated at between five and six thousand feet. “

“The balloon now caught the force of the trade wind and commenced to set slowly towards the south-west, passing over the Palace at which point it had been arranged by the aeronaut he would cut loose and begin his descent.”

“Slowly the balloon passed to a wind directly over the corner of Richard and King streets where it was discernable, now at 2:22 o’clock after being up three minutes, that Professor Joe had at last cut loose.”

“The parachute however instead of coming, as was hoped, directly earthwards seemed on the contrary to have been caught by the trade wind and lifted upward, and also drifted rapidly towards the sea.”

“And now commenced a race between the balloon and parachute to seaward, the parachute with its living freight for the first few minutes appearing to be equal in height with the balloon.”

“The lighthouse is reached, no drop! the outer buoy, no stop! On goes the parachute, on goes the balloon. Now appears the danger, there is no provision for assistance, the parachute is now two miles from shore and still receding. At last he drops …”

“From 3 o’clock until 5:30 search, diligent and careful was made, the sail-boats cruising in different courses, Minister Thurston in the “Hawaii” going well in shore and the tug making circles that covered all probable points.”

“No trace of man or parachute could be found ….” (The balloon was later recovered,) “Prof. Joseph Lawrence Van Tassell had made his last leap, had jumped into eternity and had added his name to the list of those daring spirits of his profession who had joined the great majority.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 19, 1889)

On November 18, 1889, Van Tassell became Hawaiʻi’s first air fatality. The image shows an advertisement for the November 2, 1889 ascent and jump from a balloon.

November 16, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kolekole

From Kūkaniloko (royal birth stones near Wahiawa,) the winter solstice (December 21) occurs when the sun is aligned with Kolekole.

The Waiʻanae ahupuaʻa has an un-typical shape – it has two parts: Waiʻanae Kai, on its western side, runs from the ocean to the Waiʻanae Mountains (like a typical ahupuaʻa;) however, Waiʻanae Uka continues across Oʻahu’s central plain and extends up into the Koʻolau Mountains.

Kolekole Pass forms a low crossing point through the Waiʻanae Mountains. A prehistoric trail crossed Kolekole pass linking Waiʻanae Uka with Waiʻanae Kai.

As a result, the trail was of strategic importance. Kolekole Pass is not far from the base of Mount Kaʻala, the highest summit on O‘ahu, an important place in Hawaiian religion, ceremony, legend and perhaps celestial observations.

When Kahekili was reigning as king of Maui, and Kahahana was king of Oʻahu, it was during this period that Kahahawai, with a number of warriors, came to make war on Oʻahu (Kahahawai was a strategist for Kahekili.)

A decisive battle in the war between Kahekili and Kahahana, fought in the Waiʻanae mountain range, took place near Kolekole Pass.

“Kahahawai told them to prepare torches. When these were ready they went one evening to the top of a hill which was near to the rendezvous of the enemies where they lighted their torches.” (Fornander)

“After the torches were lit they moved away to a cliff called Kolekole and hid themselves there, leaving their torches burning at the former place until they died out. The enemies thought that Kahahawai and his men had gone off to sleep. They therefore made a raid … But Kahahawai and his men arose and destroyed all the people who were asleep on the hills and the mountains of Kaʻala. Thus the enemies were annihilated, none escaping.” (Fornander)

Therefore, the conquest of Oʻahu by Kahekili was complete through the bravery and great ingenuity of Kahahawai in devising means for the destruction of the enemy. Oʻahu remained until the reign of Kalanikūpule, Kahekili’s son – until Oʻahu was conquered by Kamehameha in 1795.

Near Kolekole Pass is the Kolekole Stone, which is described as a “sacrificial stone,” but the story that victims were decapitated over this stone may be a fairly recent rendition. Older stories suggest the stone represents the Guardian of the Pass, a woman named Kolekole.

Reportedly, Kolekole was a place where students practiced lua fighting. Students practiced their techniques on “passing victims” on the “plains of Leilehua.” Lua was an “art” that involved dangerous hand-to-hand fighting in which the fighters broke bones, dislocated bones at the joints, and inflicted severe pain by pressing on nerve centers.

This form of fighting involved a number of skills: “first, how to grasp with the hands, second, how to prod with a kauila cane; third, how to whirl the club called the pikoi or ikoi that had one end … tied with a rope of olona fibers.” (Na Oihana Lua Kaula 1865 – Army)

In the late-1800s, James I Dowsett had ranching interests on lands now occupied by Fort Shafter, Schofield Barracks and Wheeler Army Airfield; portions of the latter two were part of his extensive Leilehua Ranch. Cattle from George Galbraith’s Mikilua Ranch in Lualualei Valley on the Waiʻanae coast may have been herded across Kolekole Pass to pasture on Leilehua Ranch plateau lands.

With later US military use in Waiʻanae and Central Oʻahu, passage through Kolekole Pass provided a convenient short cut across the Waiʻanae Mountains between Schofield Barracks and Lualualei Naval Magazine. The Army’s 3rd Engineers corps constructed vehicular passage in 1937.

Kolekole Pass, is located at the northern corner of the Lualualei Valley and connects the Waianae coast with Waianae Uka (the present Schofield Barracks.)

On the morning of December 7, 1941, six Japanese carriers transported torpedo planes, dive bombers and fighters to a point about 220 miles north of Oʻahu. Launching the aircraft in two waves, the attackers achieved total surprise and wreaked havoc.

Contrary to general belief, the attacking aircraft did not come through Kolekole Pass west of Wheeler but flew straight down the island. Most of the attacking planes approached Pearl Harbor from the south. Some came from the north over the Koʻolau Range, where they had been hidden en route by large cumulus clouds. (hawaii-gov)

In 1997, a 35-year-old, 35-ton white steel cross at Kolekole Pass was ordered dismantled by the Army – threatened with lawsuit, they chose removal, rather than fighting a separation of church and state claim.

The first cross at the pass was put up in the 1920s; later, a metal one was erected in 1962. It was later replaced with an 80-foot flagpole that flew an American flag.

November 5, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kahana

Forever I shall sing the praises
Of Kahana’s beauty unsurpassed
The fragrance of beauteous mountains
By the zephyrs to thee is wafted
(Written for Mary Foster and her country home at Kahana)

The island of Oʻahu is divided into 6 moku (districts), consisting of: ‘Ewa, Kona, Koʻolauloa, Koʻolaupoko, Waialua and Waiʻanae. These moku were further divided into 86 ahupua‘a (land divisions within the moku.)

Kahana (Lit., the work, cutting or turning point;) approximately 5,250-acres, is one of the 32 ahupua‘a that make up the moku of Koʻolauloa on the windward and north shore side of the island. It extends from the top of the Koʻolau mountain (at approximate the 2,700-foot elevation) down to the ocean.

The ahupuaʻa of Kahana, like all land in Hawai`i prior to the Great Māhele of 1848, belonged to the King. It is estimated that a population of 600 – 1,000 people lived here at the time of the arrival of Captain Cook (1778,) and about 200 at the time of the Māhele.

Much of the lower marshland surrounding the river was planted with taro; the higher dryland area leading to the ridges on both sides of the river was planted with trees, sugar cane, banana and sweet potato. Groves of bamboo, ti leaves, kukui and hala trees at various locations indicate significant areas of ancient dwelling places. (Kaʻanaʻana)

Ane Keohokālole, mother of King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani received the bulk of the ahupuaʻa of Kahana at the Māhele; several kuleana awards to makaʻāinana (commoners) were scattered in the valley, as well as land for a school and roads.

Keohokālole received 5,050-acres, and the kuleana awards totaled less than 200-acres (the kuleana lands included the house lots and taro loʻi of the makaʻāinana.) The remainder of the ahupuaʻa included undeveloped uplands.

In 1856, Keohokālole and her husband Kapaʻakea created an asset pool, a type of trust. As trustee, Keohokālole later sold Kahana (May 1857) to AhSing (also known as Apakana,) a Chinese merchant. (LRB)

These lands later passed through the hands of a few other Chinese merchants before being bought by a land hui composed of Hawaiian members of the Church of Jesus Chris Latter Day Saints, called the Ka Hui Kuʻai i ka ʻĀina ʻo Kahana in 1874. The hui had 95 members; most members getting one share, and a few receiving multiple shares. (LRB)

The hui movement was not isolated to Kahana, it was throughout the Islands. They were formed as an attempt to retain or reestablish part of the old system that predated private ownership granted through the Māhele. (Stauffer)

Here, each shareholder had his or her own house lot and taro loʻi, but all had an undivided interest in the pasture and uplands, and in the freshwater rights, ocean fishing rights and Huilua fishpond.

Each member was allowed an equal share in the akule that were caught, and could have up to six animals running freely on the land (additional animals would be paid at a quarter per year.) (LRB)

When the call came in the late-1880s for Mormons to gather at Salt Lake City, many from Kahana wanted to leave for Utah with other Hawaiian Mormons; at least a third of the founders of the Hawaiian Mormon Iosepa (Joseph) Colony in Utah were from Kahana. (Stauffer)

Then, Mary Foster (daughter of James Robinson and wife of Thomas Foster – an initial organizer of the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, that later became Hawaiian Airlines) became involved in purchasing interests in land in Kahana.

This was the beginning a “bitter economic and legal struggle” with Kāneʻohe Ranch for control of the valley. An out of court settlement was reached in 1901 in which Mary Foster bought out the Ranch’s interest, giving her a controlling interest in Kahana.

With added acquisitions, by 1920, she eventually owned 97% of the valley. Mrs. Foster died in 1930, and Kahana passed to her estate and was held in trust for her heirs.

When World War II broke out, the military moved the Japanese families out, and in 1942 the US Army Corps of Engineers erected a jungle warfare training center in the valley.

In 1955, the Robinson Agency, acting as the agent for the Foster Estate, contracted with a planner for feasibility studies on Kahana. The report recommended making an authentic South Sea island resort village – an inn with 20 rooms, creating a small lake in the valley, and a nine-hole golf course. Nothing happened as a result of this plan.

A study on usage of the valley as a public park was done, but no action was taken. Also in 1962, a private foundation presented a plan to create a scientific botanical garden.

In 1965, John J. Hulten (real estate appraiser and State Senator) prepared a report for DLNR noting that Kahana was ideally suited to be a regional park, offering seashore water sports, mountain camping, and salt and freshwater fishing, and a tropical botanical garden. “Properly developed it will be a major attraction with 1,000,000 visits annually.”

The “proper development” he had in mind included 600 “developable acres” for camping, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, and swimming, and foresaw over 1,000 camping sites plus cabins, restaurant, and shops.

He said that a hotel and other commercial buildings could be developed, and wanted the creation of a 50 acre lake. All of this development would be assisted by a botanical garden and a mauka road from Likelike Highway to Kahana.

In 1965, the State condemned the property for park purposes with a $5,000,000 price, paid in five annual installments (which included some federal funds.) By 1969, the State owned Kahana free and clear.

A 1987 law authorized DLNR to issue long term residential leases to individuals who had been living on the lands and provided authorization for a residential subdivision in Kahana Valley. In 1993, the Department entered into 65 year leases covering 31 residential properties – in lieu of rent payments, the lessees are required to contribute at least twenty-five hours of service each month.

A later law (2008) created the Living Park Planning Council, placed within the DLNR for administrative purposes. The purpose of the Council was to create a master plan and advise the Department of matters pertaining to the park.

Kahana Valley State Park was renamed the Ahupuaʻa ʻo Kahana State Park in November 2000. Kahana is the second-largest state park in the state park system (Na Pali Coast State Park is larger, at 6,175 acres.)