Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mōkapu Peninsula

“I learnt, that their present king’s name was Taheeterre [Kahekili], and that he was also king of Morotoi [Molokai] and Mowee [Maui]. The old man informed me, that his residence was in a bay [Kāne‘ohe Bay] round the West point, and importuned me very much to carry the ships there, as that place, he said, afforded plenty of fine hogs and vegetables.”

“Indeed, I had some reason to think, that the inhabitants on that part of the island were more numerous than in King George’s Bay [Maunalua Bay], as I observed most of the double canoes came round the West point; but as the people now brought us plenty of water, I determined to keep my present situation, it being in many respects a very eligible one …”

“… for we hitherto had been favoured with a most refreshing sea breeze, which blows over the low land at the head of the bay; and the bay all round has a very beautiful appearance …”

“… the low land and vallies being in a high state of cultivation, and crowded with plantations of taro, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, &c. interspersed with a great number of cocoa-nut trees, which renders the prospect truly delightful. …”

“Potatoes and taro are likewise met with here-in great plenty, but I never observed any bread-fruit, and scarcely any yams; so that there is reason to suppose they are not cultivated by the inhabitants of Woahoo [O‘ahu].” (Capt Nathaiel Portlock, June 1786)

Mōkapu received its basic formation when volcanic eruptions of the southeast end of the Ko‘olau mountain range produced many lava flows and much falling rock. These same eruptions produced secondary tuff cones now known as Diamond Head, Koko Head and Punchbowl. (Steele, MCBH)

 Like Lē‘ahi (Diamond Head), Ulapa‘u tuff is a volcanic rock made up of a mixture of volcanic rock and mineral fragments (they were likely explosive volcanic eruptions).  (SOEST)

“The ahupua‘a of Heeia and its sources of foods such as the sea pond of Heeia, the large mullet of Kalimuloa and Kealohi, the reef of Malauka‘a where octopus were found, the travelling uhu and ohua fishes, and the wooden bowls of Mokapu, belonged to Maui-kiikii (Top-knot Maui).” (Kamakau in Sterling & Summers)

Mōkapu Peninsula encompasses portions He‘eia and Kāne‘ohe – these are extensions of the ahupua‘a across the large basin of Kāne‘ohe Bay.  Mōkapu peninsula is further sub-divided into six sections.

The tip of the left lobe of the peninsula was called Mōkapu and was in the He‘eia section, while Heleloa, Kuwa‘aohe, Ulupa‘u, Halekou-Kaluapuhi, and Nu‘upia, rested in the Kāne‘ohe district. (Sterling & Summers)

“The two divergent lobes of Mo-kapu possess distinctive features. The left lobe … is marked by Hawaii Loa crater, the coral bluffs, lava sheets, Pyramid Rock, and stone ruins.  The right lobe is dominated and terminated by the Ulu-pa‘u crater. This is a broad, shallow, saucer-shaped vent, a truncated hollow cone, very similar in appearance and structure to Le-ahi.” (MacCaughey, 1917)

‘Mōkapu’ is the contraction of ‘Mōku Kapu’ … ‘mōku’ (island) and ‘kapu’ (sacred or restricted),  which means “Sacred or Forbidden Island.”

The sea and bays around Mōkapu were kapu in pre-contact days. The right to fish in the surrounding waters was granted only to the high chiefs and servants of the king. These fishing grounds were called ko‘a.  (Steele, MCBH)

Fishing was confined to certain types of fish native to certain sections of the ocean. Persons were assigned to areas with the task of feeding the fish two or three times a week.  (Steele, MCBH)

Though Mōkapu Peninsula had only limited fresh water, ‘uala (sweet potatoes) and ipu (gourds) were cultivated there. It is also likely that other mulched dryland crops such as kalo (taro), ko (sugar canes), niu (coconuts), ‘ulu (breadfruit), and the pia (arrow root) also grew there.

However, the most important resource of the peninsula were its loko i‘a (fishponds). There were at least five loko i‘a on Mokapu Peninsula, including Ka-lua-puhi (literally: The eel pit), Nu‘u-pia (interpretively: arrow root mound) …

… Hale-kou (interpretively: House surrounded by kou trees), Hele-loa (literally: Distant travel), Muli-wai-‘olena (interpretively: Turmeric [yellowish] estuary), and Pa-‘ohua (literally: Fish fry enclosure). (Maly)

Prior to Polynesian settlement, the ponds were thought to be a shallow open channel between Kāneʻohe and Kailua Bays, making Mōkapu an island, connected to Oʻahu by a thin coastal barrier dune.

Kaneohe Ranch began in 1893, when Nannie Rice leased 15,000 acres to JP Mendonca and C Bolte for cattle ranching.  Incorporated as Kaneohe Ranch Company, Ltd. in 1894, the lands were leased and primarily used for raising pineapple, processing sugar, and cattle operations.

In 1905, James Bicknell Castle acquired the cattle ranching interest of Mendonca and Bolte, and in 1907 he purchased large blocks of shares in the cattle operations of the Kaneohe Ranch Company.

In 1917, Harold Kainalu Long Castle, son of James B Castle, purchased the title to 9,500 acres of land from Mrs. Rice, which included the ‘iii of Heleloa. (HABS No. HI-311-L)

The United States’ military presence on the Mōkapu Peninsula area initially began in 1918. It was through President Woodrow Wilson’s Executive Order No. 2900 that the Kuwa‘aohe Military Reservation was established. (HABS No. HI-311-L)

Use and ownership has been shared and alternated between the Army and Navy over the years. Following the Base Realignment and Closure Committee’s decision to close NAS Barbers Point, the Kāne‘ohe base acquired 4 Navy P-3 patrol squadrons and one SH-60 Anti-Submarine squadron in 1999.

Today, there are almost 10,000 active-duty Navy and Marine Corps personnel attached to the base.  The Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i (MCBH) on Mōkapu maintains and operates the airfield and other training facilities in support of the readiness and global projection of DoD and military operating forces. (MCBH)

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Podmore Building

Joseph William Podmore was an English sailor who became a clerk for JT Waterhouse & Co from 1886 to 1900.  He then opened his own firm for insurance, shipping, commission, and as agent of the Anglo-American Crockery & Glass Co. of San Francisco.  He was active as a real estate investor in the early 1900s.

On February 26, 1902, Peter Cushman Jones, Ltd. leased the vacant lot it owned at Merchant and Alakea Streets to Podmore.

The lease was for a period of twenty-five years from April 1, 1902 at $60 per month net rent, with the condition that Podmore “within six months from April 1, 1902 at his own cost and charge, erect and complete a good and substantial building .., and shall lay out and expend therein not less than $7,000.”

The April 17, 1902 Advertiser listed a building permit issued to Lee Wai for a 2-story store at 901 Alakea Street. Apparently, PC Jones, Ltd. lent Podmore part of the money to construct the building, for on June 25, 1902 Podmore mortgaged his lease to PC Jones, Ltd.

It was called the Podmore Building.

It is believed that the building was built for investment, as Podmore was not an occupant. The City Directory of 1903-04 lists merchant tailor Joseph P Rodrigues  as occupying the corner store, with Edward C Rowe, a painter, paperhanger and decorator occupying the mauka office. The upstairs was occupied from 1902-06 by the Mercantile Printing Co, Ltd.

The Podmore Building is a two story cut stone building constructed primarily of Hawaiian blue-gray basalt, measuring 72 feet by 34 feet, with a hip roof, situated at the northeast corner of Merchant and Alakea Streets.

The building is representative of a style of rusticated stone construction utilized for commercial buildings in Hawaii from 1894 to 1907, derived from the Romanesque Style popularized by Henry Hobson Richardson.

The building is characterized by massive, rough-faced stonework, sparse ornamentation, a flat facade divided by symmetrical windows and storefront openings, with arches over the entry doors to the second floor stairway, and a stone railing parapet with peaked capstones at the corners and midpoint of the facades.

The masonry work was typical in Honolulu when Hawaiian basalt was widely used for durable construction, with five quarries in operation on Oʻahu. The stone was finished and dressed by hand at the construction site, with much of the work performed by immigrant Portuguese stonemasons.

The massive stones were lifted into position by block and tackle from wooden hoists and scaffolds. Its use was discontinued due to economic considerations and the tendency of some stones to explode if heated by a fire and then doused with water.

On the curb on Alakea Street, between King and Merchant, in Honolulu, fronting this area is evidence of other aspects of old-Honolulu – remnants of the tethering rings.  (By the 1840s, the use of introduced horses, mules and bullocks for transportation was increasing; circular indentations in curbs adjoining streets show the location of hitching rings used to tether horses outside businesses.)

(In 1868, horse-drawn carts operated by the Pioneer Omnibus Line went into operation in Honolulu, beginning the first public transit service in the Hawaiian Islands; the first automobile arrived in October 1899 (it was steam-powered,) the first gasoline-powered automobile arrived in the Islands in 1900.)

During 1906-07 Podmore apparently sold his lease back to Jones.  On February 7, 1907 Jones donated the land and building to the Hawaiian Board of Missions for use as a permanent home.  From March 1907 until April 1916 the Hawaiian Board of Missions used the property as their headquarters.

“The Hawaiian Board is the organization which carries on the home missionary work of the Congregational Church throughout the Territory of Hawaiʻi. The full name of this organization is The Board of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association. This Board is the child of the early mission begun in 1820 by the American Board of Foreign Missions; not only the child, but the direct successor and inheritor of that great enterprise.”  (Erdman, The Friend, April 1, 1937)

The property was purchased by Charles M. Cooke, Ltd. in 1913. The Board continued to rent the premises until the completion of the new Mission Memorial Building on Beretania Street in 1916.

In 1924 the property was purchased by the Advertiser Publishing Co. Ltd who owned the adjacent property where the Honolulu Advertiser was published until 1928. (Lots of information here from NPS.)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Pālolo

Waikīkī (“water spurting from many sources”) ahupuaʻa lies between Honolulu (from the west side of Makiki Valley) and Maunalua (the east side of Wailupe) – essentially from Piʻikoi Street to the ʻĀina Haina/Niu Valley boundary.

Three main valleys Makiki, Mānoa, and Pālolo are mauka of Waikīkī and through them their respective streams (and springs in Mānoa (Punahou and Kānewai)) watered the marshland below.

As they entered the flat Waikīkī Plain (and merge and separate,) the names of the streams changed; the Mānoa became the Kālia and the Pālolo became the Pāhoa (they joined near Hamohamo (now an area mauka of the Kapahulu Library.))

While at the upper elevations, the streams have the ahupuaʻa names, at lower elevations, after merging/dividing, they have different names, as they enter the ocean, Pi‘inaio, ‘Āpuakēhau and Kuekaunahi.

The Pi‘inaio (Makiki) entered the sea at Kālia (near what is now Fort DeRussy as a wide delta (kahawai.))  The ‘Āpuakēhau (Mānoa and Kālia,) also called the Muliwai o Kawehewehe (“the stream that opens the way” on some maps,) emptied in the ocean at Helumoa (between the Royal Hawaiian and Moana Hotels.)

The Kuekaunahi (Pālolo) once emptied into the sea at Hamohamo (near the intersection of ‘Ōhua and Kalākaua Avenues.)  The land between these three streams was called Waikolu, meaning “three waters.”

Pālolo valley, within the ahupuaʻa of Waikīkī, has ʻili for kalo (taro loʻi) and forest products that benefitted other portions of the ahupuaʻa (such as ʻĀina Haina, Wailupe, Niu and areas near the beach) – they are essentially ʻili lele (jumping ʻili) that provide these resource lands (wetland for kalo and mauka forest lands) to the other areas of the ahupuaʻa that do not have them.

According to legend, Kākuhihewa, Māʻilikūkahi’s descendent six generations later, encountered the supernatural rooster, “Kaʻauhelemoa” who flew from Pālolo valley and landed at Waikīkī to challenge Kākuhihewa by scratching the ground.  The place was then named “Helumoa” which means “chicken scratch.”

Kākuhihewa felt that the appearance of the supernatural rooster was an omen, so he planted a grove of trees, which later multiplied into an estimated 10,000-coconut trees (this is the area in and around the Sheraton Waikīkī hotel.)

Fast forward a few centuries.

Pālolo Valley was once home to a golf course, rock quarry, two dairies and, during World War II, an airfield.

Pālolo Elementary School first opened its doors in September 1921 under the leadership of Principal William Kekepa. Its first buildings were converted military barracks and the school was next to a golf course.

Opened in 1931, the nine-hole Pālolo course was first one open to the masses (the Islands’ first course, Moanalua Valley course, opened in 1898; Oʻahu Country Club opened in 1906, Waiʻalae in 1928.)  Later, that golf course was turned into a public housing project that is now Pālolo Valley Homes.

A May 1941 article in the Honolulu Advertiser titled “Army Maps Areas to Be Evacuated in Event of Emergency” informed civilians that 86,000-persons living in Honolulu resided in danger zones, and that half would have to evacuate in the event of a war.  (Johnson)

The Pālolo evacuation camp, which the Office of Civilian Defense had erected in case of another Japanese attack, was later turned over to the Hawaiʻi Housing Authority (HHA) and converted into wartime public housing for several hundred families.  (HHF)

Additional shelters for evacuees were built in Pālolo; however, they were “held in readiness for evacuees in connection with (another) attack.”  The Pālolo Valley Camp never accommodated Islanders displaced after the initial attack on December 7. A memorandum written in February 1942 confirmed that Pālolo remained unoccupied.

The HHA also developed public housing.  Members of a Congressional subcommittee, which came to investigate Honolulu’s housing situation (in Pālolo and elsewhere) in March 1945, learned of “hot bed apartments” where as many as eighteen men occupied one room in three shifts.

With the conclusion of World War II, the Pālolo School Camp was closed as they were deemed unsatisfactory for occupancy.  The Pālolo Evacuation Camp adjacent to the 362-unit emergency housing project in Pālolo remained in operation.

Pālolo provided post-war housing opportunities; a three-bedroom home in 1950 cost about $11,500.  In 1955, the Pālolo Golf Course was replaced by Jarrett Middle School and the Pālolo Valley District Park.  More housing was also provided.

Jarrett Middle School was established in 1955. The school was named in honor of William Paul Jarrett (1877-1929,) who was a delegate to the US Congress when Hawaiʻi was a Territory. Mr Jarrett gained national and international recognition for his efforts as a humanitarian.

After it closed in 1951, the rock quarry became a 200-home residential subdivision and the airfield was developed into Pālolo Valley Housing.  (Shellabarger)  (Lots of information here from Green and Johnson.)

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French Invasion of Honolulu

In 1846, a treaty had been concluded with France, eliminating the harsh terms of the treaty of 1839. This produced an exceedingly friendly feeling toward France.

However, in 1848, Consul Dudoit retired from the French consulship and William Patrice Dillon was appointed in his place.  Later, things got worse.

The French Invasion of Honolulu (also known as the Sacking of Honolulu, or the Tromelin Affair) was an attack on Honolulu by Louis Tromelin for the persecution of Catholics and repression on French trade.

On August 12, 1849, French admiral Louis Tromelin arrived in Honolulu Harbor on the corvette Gassendi with the frigate La Poursuivante.  Upon arrival, de Tromelin met with French Consul Dillon.

Dillon immediately initiated a systematic and irritating interference in the internal affairs of the Kingdom, arising largely out of personal hostility to RC Wyllie, minister of foreign affairs, picking flaws and making matters of extended diplomatic correspondence over circumstances of trifling importance.

This continued until the French Admiral Tromelin arrived, and after a conference with Dillon the celebrated “ten demands” were formulated and presented to the Hawaiian Government with the commanding request for immediate action.

The ten demands:

  1. The complete and loyal adoption of the treaty of March 26th 1846.
  2. The reduction of the duty on French brandy to fifty per cent ad valorem.
  3. The subjection of Catholic schools to the direction of the chief of the French Mission and to special inspectors not Protestants and a treatment rigorously equal granted to the two worships and to their schools.
  4. The use of the French language in all business intercourse between French citizens and the Hawaiian Government.
  5. The withdrawal of the (alleged) exception by which French whalers which imported wine and spirits were affected and the abrogation of a regulation which obliged vessels laden with liquors to pay the custom house officers placed on board to superintend their loading and unloading.
  6. The return of all duties collected by virtue of the regulation the withdrawal of which was demanded by the fifth article.
  7. The return of a fine of twenty-five dollars paid by the whale ship ‘General Teste’ besides an indemnity of sixty dollars for the time that she was detained in port.
  8. The punishment of certain school boys whose impious conduct (in church) had occasioned complaint.
  9. The removal of the governor of Hawaii for allowing the domicile of a priest to be violated (by police officers who entered it to make an arrest) or the order that the governor make reparation to that missionary.
  10. The payment to a French hotel keeper of the damages committed in his house by sailors from HBM’s (His Britannic Majesty’s) ship ‘Amphitrite.’  (Alexander)

The Hawaiian Government was allowed three days in which to make a satisfactory reply to these demands.  If they were not acceded to, the admiral threatened to cancel the existing treaty, and to “employ the means at his disposal to obtain a complete reparation.”

Sensing disaster, King Kamehameha III issued orders: “Make no resistance if the French fire on the town, land under arms, or take possession of the Fort; but keep the flag flying ’till the French take it down. … Strict orders to all native inhabitants to offer no insult to any French officer, soldier or sailor, or afford them any pretext whatever for acts of violence.”

On August 25, the demands had not been met.

About noon of the 25th, a firm but courteous reply was sent to the admiral, declaring that the Hawaiian government had faithfully observed the treaty of 1846; that the existing duty on brandy was so far from being “an absolute prohibition” that the importation of French brandy had greatly increased under it …”

“… that rigorous equality in the treatment of different forms of worship was already provided for, but that public schools supported by government funds should not be placed under the direction of any mission, whether Catholic or Protestant; and that the adoption of the French language in business was not required by the treaty or by international law, and was impracticable in the state of the islands.

The Hawaiian government offered to refer any dispute to the mediation of a neutral power, and informed the admiral that no resistance would be made to the force at his disposal, and that in any event the persons and property of French residents would be scrupulously guarded.

After a second warning of the impending invasion, 140-French Marines, two field pieces and scaling ladders were landed by boat, which were met with no opposition and Tromelin’s troops took possession of an empty fort.

The invaders also took possession of the customhouse and other government buildings, and seized the king’s yacht, together with seven merchant vessels in port.

But the Admiral was careful not to lower the Hawaiian flag.

The marines broke the coastal guns, threw kegs of powder into the harbor and destroyed all the other weapons they found (mainly muskets and ammunition).

They raided government buildings and general property in Honolulu, including destruction of furniture, calabashes and ornaments in the governor’s house.  After these raids, the invasion force withdrew to the fort.

On the 30th, the admiral issued a proclamation, declaring that by way of “reprisal” the fort had been dismantled, and the king’s yacht, “Kamehameha III,” confiscated (and then sailed to Tahiti,) but that private property would be restored. He also declared the treaty of 1846 to be annulled, and replaced by the Laplace Convention of 1839. This last act, however, was promptly disavowed by the French Government.

He sailed away with the understanding that the King would send an agent to France to settle the difficulties.

In 1850, the Hawaiian government instructed commissioners JJ Jarves and GP Judd to demand an indemnity of $100,060 on account of the seizure of the Kamehameha and damage wrought by de Tromelin’s forces.

But for the consideration of a loss of face, the indemnity would have been paid. Instead, a compromise was decided upon. To Consul Perrin, successor of Dillon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs wrote:
“There is no need to tell you that indemnities are out of question. The word itself should be avoided: however, the Prince-President … wishes that … in his name, you put in the hands of King Kamehameha a very costly present.”

The present turned out to be an elaborate silverware table service. Today, the heavy, ornate silver service sent to Kamehameha III by Louis Napoleon of France is the formal tableware of the Governor of Hawaiʻi in Washington Place.

The image shows Fort Kekuanohu, Fort Honolulu in a drawing by Emmert in 1853 (this is to show a representation of the fort – this was not drawn during the occupancy by the French.)  (The inspiration and information here is primarily from reports in the Hawaiʻi Journal of History through UH-Mānoa.)

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Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen is the Founding Father of modern China, the Republic of China (Nationalist China) and the forerunner of democratic revolution in the People’s Republic of China.

As part of a philosophy to make China a free, prosperous, and powerful nation Sun Yat-sen adopted “Three Principles of the People:” “Mínzú, Mínquán, Mínshēng“ (People’s Nationalism, People’s Democracy, People’s Livelihood.)

The Qing Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Qing or Great Qing, was the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917.

After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution on October 10, 1911, revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen (November 12, 1866 –March 12, 1925) was elected Provisional President and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China.

Sun Yat-sen was born to an ordinary farmer’s family in Cuiheng Village, Xiangshan, the South China province of Guangdong.

In 1879, then 13 years of age, he journeyed to Hawaiʻi to join his older brother, Sun Mei, a successful rice farmer, rancher and merchant.  He entered ʻIolani at age 14.  (ʻIolani)

In Sun Yat-sen’s four years in Hawai’i (1879-1883), he is said to have attended three Christian educational institutions: ʻIolani College, St Louis College and Oʻahu College (Punahou School.)  Then, he was called Tai Cheong or Tai Chu.

His three years at ʻIolani are well authenticated. Whether he ever attended St Louis cannot be substantiated by school records, but such a possibility exists. As for Oʻahu College, there is evidence to support the claim, though the time he spent there is not altogether clear.  (Soong)

“During his years at ʻIolani and Punahou, he was exposed to Western culture, was strongly influenced by it, and in his young mind, the seeds of Western democracy were planted.” (Lum, ʻIolani)  It also “led him to want more western education – more than that required to assist in his brother’s business.”  (Soong)

In 1883, Sun registered in the Punahou Preparatory School, one of the fifty children who studied in the two classrooms upstairs in the school building.  He was listed as Tai Chu, he was one of three Chinese students, the others being Chung Lee and Hong Tong.

Sun was also influenced by the Anglican and Protestant Christian religious teachings he received; he was later baptized.

He came to Hawaiʻi on six different occasions, initially for schooling and to support his brother’s businesses on Maui.  Later, his trips were geared to gain support for revolutionizing China and fundraising for that end.

On his third trip in Hawaiʻi (on November 24, 1894) Sun established the Hsing Chung Hui (Revive China Society,) his first revolutionary society. Among its founders were many Christians, one of them being Chung Kun Ai, his fellow student at ʻIolani (and later founder of City Mill.)

Shortly after, in January 1895, Dr Sun left Hawaiʻi and returned to China to initiate his revolutionary activities in earnest.  The funding of the First Canton Uprising mainly came from the Chinese in Hawaiʻi (that first effort failed.)

On another visit to Hawaiʻi (in 1903,) Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui into Chung Hua Ke Min Jun (The Chinese Revolutionary Army) in Hilo.

In 1905, in Tokyo, Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui and other organizations into a political party called the Tung Meng Hui.
Likewise, the Chinese Revolutionary Army was reorganized and all of its members Tung Meng Hui members.

This party spread all over China and rallied all the revolutionists under its wings.  He then made his last visit to Hawaiʻi to form the Hawaiʻi Chapter of Tung Meng Hui.

From 1894 to 1911, Sun traveled around the globe advocating revolution and soliciting funds for the cause. At first, he concentrated on China, but his continued need for money forced him elsewhere. Southeast Asia, Japan, Hawaii, Canada, the United States, and Europe all became familiar during his endless quest.  (Damon)

The revolutionary movement in China grew stronger and stronger. Tung Meng Hui members staged many armed uprisings, culminating in the October 10, 1911 Wuhan (Wuchang) Uprising which succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu dynasty and established the Republic of China.

That date is now celebrated annually as the Republic of China’s national day, also known as the “Double Ten Day”. On December 29, 1911, Sun Yat-sen was elected president and on January 1, 1912, he was officially inaugurated.  After Sun’s death on March 12, 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT.)

The Republic of China governed mainland China until 1949; in that year, during the Chinese Civil War, the communists captured Beijing and later Nanjing. The communist-party-led People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1, 1949.

Originally based in mainland China, Chiang Kai-shek and a few hundred thousand Republic of China troops and two million refugees, fled from mainland China to Taiwan (formerly known as “Formosa.”)

On December 7, 1949 Chiang proclaimed Taipei, Taiwan, the temporary capital of the Republic of China and it now governs the island of Taiwan.  Sun Yat-sen is one of the few Chinese revolutionary figures revered in both the People’s Republic of China (mainland) and Republic of China (Taiwan.)

Hawaiʻi and its people played an important role in the life of Sun Yat-sen as well as in his revolutionary activities. His first revolutionary organization was formed in Hawaiʻi, it developed into the political party directly responsible for the collapse of the Manchus.

Another Hawaiʻi tie for Sun relates to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that blocked Chinese travel to the US.

In March 1904, while residing in Kula, Maui, Sun Yat-sen obtained a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by the Territory of Hawaiʻi, stating that “he was born in the Hawaiian Islands on the 24th day of November, A.D. 1870.”

He used it to travel to the continent; then, when it was no longer needed, he renounced it.

Sun Yat-sen apparently felt at home in Hawaiʻi.  “This is my Hawai‘i … here I was brought up and educated, and it was here that I came to know what modern, civilized governments are like and what they mean.”  (Sun Yat-sen, 1910)

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