By Curtis Narimatsu
Image courtesy of Chemistry Explained
“Doc” acquired his moniker for selling eyeglasses, after he came to the Big Island in 1913. Doc opened his Hill Optical Co. in the new Young Kwong Hoy bldg. in 1917, where today’s Douglas Yamamoto Jewelers recently were [between the Kress bldg. & Basically Books]. Doc added his jewelry business in 1919, and both his optical and jewelry businesses were among the largest in our Territory. But when GOP Doc was elected to our Territorial House of Representatives in 1928, Doc sold his optical and jewelry businesses to his bookkeeper, Fredrick Koehnen [today's Koehnen Enterprises]. Doc was elected to our Territorial Senate in 1932, and except for his sole defeat at the polls in 1936 when he lost by a mere 14 votes, Doc served continuously in the Territorial Senate 1932-1958, then in our State Senate [Statehood achieved 1959] 1959-1967, where he was senator emeritus for among the longest tenures in Hawai’i politics. Let’s face it, Doc’s 40 years as Territorial solon cemented his slogan that “What helps Doc Hill helps Hawai’i!!” Doc’s punchlist of business accomplishments:
1. 1913 — with no more than the shirt over his back, Doc peddled eyeglasses from his horse & buggy. Doc epitomized Horatio Alger, Doc’s formal schooling ending in elementary school.
2. 1917 –Doc opened his Hill Optical Co. in today’s still existing 1964 Kamehameha Ave. bldg., which went on to be among the largest and most complete optical firms in our Territory. Doc added his high grade jewelry line in 1919.
3. 1925 – Doc started his Hilo Finance & Thrift Co. and his Realty Investment Co. [today's Hilo Shopping Center].
4. 1929 –Doc opened his loan & investment firms at the former site of our Gaiety Theater, naming it the Realty Investment bldg., which still stands as today’s Caravan Town site next to today’s Salvation Army thrift store on Kamehameha Ave.
5. 1929 — Doc’s new loan/investment outfits developed the former Wetmore Estate at Kino’ole & Haili Sts., which was subdivided & sold to the later Elks Club & YWCA. Doc bought out the Stoddard service station & changed the name to Hilo Motors Co. Doc then bought out Hattie Lewis’ estate makai/below the Wetmore Estate on the oceanside of Kino’ole/Haili Sts. & sold a part to the Korean Methodist Church & a part to the Haili Hill Land Co. Doc’s outfits also bought the Harlocker Block/Bldg. at Mamo & Kamehameha Ave. [today's Farmers Market site].
6. 1930 –Doc’s outfits bought the Pacific Soda Works from the E.H. Lyman Estate by today’s Elks Club on Kino’ole St. & established the first Coca Cola franchise on the Big Island. Irony is that Doc later built his megalith Coca Cola Bottling plant in the heart of Shinmachi [only Japan-named town in our Territory which translates to "New Town"] [Shinmachi started in January 1914 when our Little Tokyo fire demolished our Japanese business community where is today's downtown KTA parking
lot complex -- Shinmachi as our viable town ended with the 1946 April Fools Day tsunami which scoured
out Shinmachi, causing the greatest number of deaths at Shinmachi, which was between today's
Kamehameha Statue off Kamehameha Ave. & our Hilo Iron Works bldg. complex by the Wailoa river]
corner Ke’elikolani/Punahoa Sts. just Keaukaha direction of today’s Kamehameha Statue, marked
by apparent rise/heiau which I take to be the rubble of the Coca-Cola Bottling plant 1946-1960 — Doc’s
Coca-Cola plant no sooner was in operation when our deadliest April Fools Day tsunami hit — if not
for Doc’s massive concrete 2 story bldg., 500 more Shinmachi residents would have been killed by the
tsunami had they not climbed up Doc’s stairway to Heaven/2nd floor lofting 40 feet above ground
level. Doc’s nearly half million $ fortress resulted from Doc’s profitable WWII GI Coke thirst.
7. 1932 –Doc’s outfits bought the Beamer Block in Waiakea & remodeled it’s bldgs. & later sold them.
8. 1935 –Doc’s outfits bought White Star Laundry on Kamehameha Ave. where today’s canoe regatta
parking lot is, then built the largest modern laundry plant in our islands which is today’s Western Store
bldg.
9. 1936 — Doc became our Territory’s largest theater owner with Doc’s acquisition of most of our theaters
on our island.
10. 1938–Doc’s outfits bought Standard Drug Co. & Canario Blocks corner Haili St./Kamehameha Ave. & expanded
Standard Drug as among our Territory’s largest pharmacy outfits. Earlier, Doc started the Men’s Shop for men’s clothiers & sold it to John V. Rezentes. Doc also started Doc’s Island Hotel Ltd. & built the Naniloa Hotel on Banyan Drive, which he sold to hotelier Walter D. Child in 1943.
11. 1939 –Doc started Excelsior Dairy pasteurizing plant in Shinmachi by buying a dairy herd in Pi’ihonua
[pasteurizing started in Hilo with Doc Hill].
12. 1940– Doc bought the 1922 Ludwig Block/Crescent City Cracker Co. on Pi’opi’o/Kamehameha Ave. which
eventually became our island’s first shopping center [original Hilo Shopping Ctr. post-1946 tsunami,
located where today's Bayside Chevron is on Kamehameha/Pauahi Sts.]. Doc’s 2nd shopping ctr.
1962 is today’s Hilo Shopping Ctr. [Doc's original shopping ctr. was destroyed by the 1946/1960 tsunamis].
13. 1946– started Flowers of Hawai’i for Vanda orchids, which branched out to anthuriums [finest in the
world] & other plants.
14. 1948 — headed Helco after Kimo Henderson moved to O’ahu, & became director for C. Brewer [broke
Big 5 cabal, being an unschooled Midwest plainsman who married gorgeous nurse Ouida, who posed for
Honolulu Mag in bikini in her 90s, Ouida a centenarian, but Ouida a despot to local non-haoles
via her imperious/haughty manners].
15. 1962 — wrested control of media giants via purchase of Hilo Trib/hui-syndicate purchase of Star-Bulletin/KGMB/KHBC/Hawai’i Publishing Holding Corp. By sheer common sense, Doc was the Great Co-opter
who recognized the growing Asian vote/suffrage & jumped on the opportunity to have what became Asian majority voters go all-out for him with his electoral victories, thence Doc’s longest tenure in Territorial
politics, 4 decades!! Aloha always, — Curt
(Response from Hugh Clark to Curtis Narimatsu regarding Doc Hill)
Doc allegedly jumped ship and hid out with Hawaiians in Honomu for a spell before coming to town to sell eye glasses, The why of the glasses I do not know. He found a ready market in Orieentals with genetic visual defects.
I also know he was a big player for a time in the soft drink market.
As he was dying, he rewrote his will several times to benefit Hilo (UH-H not Manoa), etc, etc, I was a frequent witness and watchd millions come and go from beneficiaries. Why me? I guess because he considered me clean and an unlikely claimant.
I came to enjoy the old man, but there was much I did not know. He was a splendid bizman and a wonderfully colorful legislator who did in the GOP regularly and earned the ILWU’s trust.
I was privileghed to observe his dying wish for Richard Henderson to succeed him. I attended a showdown with ILWU and Burns types at his Wailuku Drive home (again as a witness). He said if Burns did not choose Richard, he would die on the Senate floor. I believed him.
Only wished I had arrived sooner or he had lived longer.
Aloha, Hugh
(Curtis Narimatsu is a lifelong resident of Hilo who writes about the forgotten past such as the old plantation days & untold heroes.)
January 12th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Thank you, gracious editor Tiffany C. Edwards Hunt, for publishing my notes above and for your accompanying cute photo. Doc Hill actually jumped ship to sea and shore here as a fledgling young seaman. Audacity punctuated Doc’s personality. Doc started his concept of a shopping center when he bought the Ludloff bldg./Crescent City Bakery, but his dreams were swept away by the April 1 1946 tsunami. He picked up the pieces [out of Waiolama Canal] and fulfilled his dream of a shopping center in 1952, anchored by Garry Ichino’s Pick N’ Pay store [relocated from across Mo'oheau Park's AmFac warehouse/later called Cow Palace after Frisco's Cow Palace]. Ichino later recalled that Doc’s original shopping center concept was too small in space for Ichino’s expansive supermarket, and Ichino was happy to anchor Doc’s 2nd shopping center in 1962 [today's existent Hilo Shopping Center -- Ichino's Pick N' Pay supermarket taking up the corridor & surrounding spaces of today's Kope Kope coffee shop/Restaurant Miwa/etc.]. Aloha, –Curt
January 12th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Senator Henderson is a fine gentleman. If he was Doc’s protege that should speak volumes to todays Big Island residents. Doc must have had a good eye for ethical quality people.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Not to nit “Pick n Pay’ but you mentioned “Frisco” as in
“of a shopping center in 1952, anchored by Garry Ichino’s Pick N’ Pay store [relocated from across Mo'oheau Park's AmFac warehouse/later called Cow Palace after Frisco's Cow Palace].”
Just cause my grandma said… otherwise I wouldn’t mention it, and it ain’t about Doc, but Curt, my grandma< Native S.F. told me, Those who call San Francisco , "Frisco", should be tied up and boiled in "Crisco."
Other than that concise, informative and very interesting, mahalo
January 13th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Great story! Thank you for writing about Doc.
January 13th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Oops, William H. “Doc” Hill 1890-1970 established his Hill Optical Co. at 164 Kamehameha Ave. [in today's Basically Books bldg.], not at 1964 Kamehameha Ave. [my typo]. Doc’s mega-structure Coca Cola Bottling Co. was on wide-laned Punahoa St. [widened for Doc's Shinmachi businesses], aka Mameya Lane, & legend has it that Doc blitzed out of White Picket Fence [bordello] makai/seaside of today’s Kamehameha Statue, when Quida came a lookin’ — actually, Green Roof adjacent to White Picket Fence & Mango Tree by today’s DLNR Matson containers [by Hilo Iron Works] were other bordellos lining Punahoa St. Aloha, -Curt
January 13th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
quips at start of magnanimous Kevin Steadman’s book
“Gerbil Wheels” — my pick of quotes at outset/start of book — my thoughts here below —-
“Gerbil Wheels” published in October 2009 by Kevin Steadman (born December 7, 1953) denotes running for fun and pleasure, as with a runner’s high, and Kevin’s extraordinary run into life’s unseen horizons reveals secrets about ourselves which only audacious exploration brings. Kevin picked his book title “Gerbil Wheels” from waitress Dawn on the Tustumena ship during Kevin’s week long Alaska fishing trip with his dad. This fishing trip is the backdrop for Kevin’s wondrous reminiscences on his family and on history. Dawn repeated what Dawn’s mother said when Dawn was a child, “If you don’t do anything adventurous, the days, weeks, and months mix together to become years, and it’s like a gerbil’s wheel; you can’t tell one year from the next. But by doing exciting things, you can remember different years and parts of your life. It may not be for everyone, but it makes sense to me.” (page 175 of Gerbil Wheels) The irony of Gerbil Wheels is its contradiction, what Gerbils love is not what we perceive — life almost always is opaque, not crystal clear. As author Kevin Steadman himself intones, “I’ve been a bit evasive in the book. I want the readers to find their own way rather than being led. A few times I’ve been deliberate like when I say that we need to make the time or opportunity to do something otherwise that window may close, or nothing will happen. And when I said this I had to ask myself if I really wanted to declare it–am I violating my own rules? As you asked about the title, Gerbil Wheels, this too, becomes like a toy in the readers minds–they can play with it how they may. I like the title because it is different, unique, universal. I think as one reads the book and then stands back and looks at the bits and pieces they come away with ‘Yeah. Gerbil Wheels. I can deal with that.’ I intentionally left out the passage where it is used on page (175) off the back cover. The readers need to discover it themselves, much like the digging through the Cracker Jacks to get to the prize.”
Kevin and beloved wife Mary Ann’s 19 year old son Quinn died 12 years ago in a car accident, and Kevin recalled
vocalist Rod Stewart’s redux of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” tune, to wit: “And when you finally fly away I’ll be hoping that I served you well….” (pages 164-165) Kevin’s and Mary Ann’s funeral tribute to their oldest son closed with a slide presentation of Quinn’s life, Quinn always smiling, and Kevin evokes, “I like to think Quinn approved of his funeral…. (t)he slide presentation was all that I prayed it would be. It was moving, dynamic, a portrayal of a life, a summation, a gift. It was every feeling I wanted to convey to my son… (t)o me, it was more than just for those in attendance. It was for Quinn.” (page 168)
Just prior to Kevin’s seafaring with his dad, Kevin rolls out Gen. Custer, “Self employed! When a new business is registered and the local municipality mails the license, they should throw in a complementary picture of George Armstrong Custer at the last stand. Health insurance, retirement, paid holidays, or the lack thereof — I was about to take advantage of a perk of my own making. If you don’t create a cadence and keep time with it, what is it I read? ‘Life is life, fun is fun, but when the goldfish dies it gets very quiet.’ With this jaunt to Alaska I was thumping the timpani head.” (pages 5-6)
Kevin extols wife Mary Ann, “Mary Ann is wonderfully frugal. During our first year of marriage, back in college, while she was pregnant with Shanda, she worked at a sewing factory about a mile from the little home we rented, the only time she has worked in our marriage. One morning as she was getting ready to walk to work Mary Ann asked, ‘It is okay if I take the quarter if I bring back fifteen cents?’ Horror stories about the spending habits of some spouses are legend. It gives some thought to the comment, ‘Behind every successful man is a woman that made it necessary.’” (page 10)
Kevin on his parents, “For whatever reason, with all the traveling my folks have done, they never picked up on the idea that you can check in luggage at the curb, thus avoiding lines in the terminal. Dad was particularly surprised. It must be something generational — kids showing their parents how things work. ‘Gol, this is great,’ Dad remarked. ‘I’ve never had anyone take care of me and not have to worry about anything.’” (page 13)
On William Adams Hickman 1816-1883, “In 1871 he (Hickman) dictated a sensational autobiography to anti-Mormon writer James H. Beadle from which the book Brigham’s Destroying Angel was published. In the book Bill details the killing of about fifty Indians and five whites. The publication of his autobiography and his testimony before a grand jury led to the arrest of Brigham Young and other Mormons, whom he accused of masterminding his confessed crimes. In the end, excommunicated from his church with only Bernetta, his first and final wife, along with three of his grown daughters and their husbands and children, William Adams Hickman settled near Lander, Wyoming, to live out his eventful and often tumultuous life in peace. He died on August 21, 1883. His body was buried a day or two later in the Lander City Cemetery, only to be dug up and buried again ‘a half mile up the road from the Allen place’ to satisfy the complaints of the locals.” (pages 21-22) “On the fourth floor of the southwest corner of the Harold B. Lee Library, which is centered like a nucleus in the cell of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, is an office with lettering on the outer glass that reads ‘Charles E. Redd Center of Historical Studies.’ A twenty-three-year-old college junior entered the main level of the library, one floor below, and lunged up the stairs two at a time. Striding through a vacant foyer that led down a hallway to an open office, he encountered an older and scholarly gentleman sitting behind a wooden desk. The scholar had a full head of grey hair, black glasses, and an indistinguishable sport coat and bow tie. Without introduction or pleasantries the student, almost demanding, asked, ‘What do you know about William Adams Hickman?’ Looking up from his papers and without missing a beat, the scholar shot back, ‘He was a cold-blooded, psychopathic killer. Why do you ask?’ ‘He was my great-great-grandfather.’ With a slight awkward hesitation and lowered voice, the historian recanted, ‘I didn’t mean it quite that way.’ For the student (Kevin Steadman), the question had been answered.” (page 18) For Kevin, life is about being open-minded.
January 13th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Kevin Hickman Steadman and his dearest wife Mary Ann are from outside Provo, Utah, and are not to be confused with another couple by nearly the same name from another State. Aloha, –Curt
January 14th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Utterly compassionate/loving Kevin Hickman Steadman’s “Gerbil Wheels” book (Oct. 2009) — quotes at start of book:
On Davy Crockett, “Politics are the real game. Your life, ego, and self-esteem are on four-by-eight foot lawn signs posted around your town. It is standing in front of your friends, family, and critics, being examined, like Legos, to see who you are, how you fit. When the votes are counted and the tally is in, it was nothing more than another numbers game, but you take it personally, very personally. How can you not? Davy Crockett, disenchanted with the voters of Tennessee for not returning him to Congress for a third term, hot-headedly dismissed his constituents: ‘You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas,’ and struck out for Texas to assuage his ego. Yet it was losing his life to Santa Ana’s armies that gave Crockett the fame he couldn’t achieve in his political career.” (page 55)
On Douglas Stringfellow, “In 1952 a thirty year old World War II veteran, Douglas R. Stringfellow, was overwhelmingly elected as a United States Representative to the House of Congress from the First District of Utah. He was a paraplegic, paralyzed from the waist down from injuries sustained by an anti-personnel mine explosion on a military mission in France in 1944. In January of 1954 a surprised and humbled Stringfellow appeared on the nationally televised program, ‘This Is Your Life,’ where he was honored and lauded for his wartime and civic contributions. He was also selected by the National Junior Chamber of Commerce as one of the ten outstanding young men in America in 1953. In June of 1954 he gave the commencement address at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and was asked by Ernest L. Wilkinson, president of BYU, to talk specifically of his wartime exploits. He was assured of renomination by his party to Congress…. The story of Stringfellow’s experiences contained every ingredient for perfect entertainment: Thrills, drama, mystery, suspense, violence, faith, love, and finally, success and happiness. No imaginative scenarist could have topped it, except Doug Stringfellow. Yet it was all a hoax, a lie, a whopper, a real leg extender…. As Representative Stringfellow’s first term in Congress was winding down, his re-election campaign for 1954 was in full swing. Questions of his war record began to surface. Allegations that his covert heroic experiences were false were being whispered, first as gossip, then as accusations declared by the opposing party. War records, particularly sensitive information that would hold the facts, were sealed and could not be accessed. The Defense Department was strangely quiet for fear of offending a Congressman…. Finally, the ‘Army Times,’ an unofficial military journal, published a story alleging that Stringfellow’s military history ‘would not hold water.’ With the immense pressures building and having kept this secret to himself, not even sharing the story with his wife, Shirley, or his father, or even his campaign manager, but knowing the truth, Stringfellow confessed. On Saturday, October 16, 1954, at 5 p.m., local Salt Lake City TV station KSL aired his ten-minute confession, which was picked up by the networks and broadcast sensationally across the nation. With his wife, two little sons, campaign manager, and Senator Watkins off-camera in the studio watching, a tearful and penitent Doug Stringfellow related that when he first began to speak in front of audiences, he was asked for more details about his experiences and soon found himself being introduced as a war hero. ‘Like many other persons suddenly thrust into the limelight, I rather thrived on the adulation and new-found popularity…. I began to embellish my speeches with more picturesque and fanciful incidents. I fell into a trap, which in part had been laid by my own glib tongue. I became a prisoner of my own making. I was never an OSS agent. I never participated in any secret, behind-the-lines mission… I never captured Otto Hahn or any other German physicist… It was all a hoax.’ I don’t know why the life of Douglas R. Stringfellow has such interest to me. Maybe it’s because there is a whopper in all of us, the one that got away…. Once we come in from playing and hose ourselves off, I think we have more in common with each other than we realize. Initially critical of Stringfellow, the more that surfaces about his life, the more I wish that I could have known him. He died in Long Beach, California, in 1966. His marriage to Shirley was strong and happy. This says much about her as well…. A bit more revealing in explaining his imaginative war experience, Stringfellow wrote, ‘There were no past accomplishments for me to think about. I hadn’t graduated from college when Uncle Sam called. I hadn’t been in love except for one or two infatuations long since forgotten. So, when the S mine did explode, my life had ended before it had really begun. Without a past to recall, a future to plan and build for, I fled each night to that world of fantasy where time and space did not exist. I roamed the battlefields of the world, conquering the enemy and restoring peace to a war-torn earth…. Thus, psychologists do not think it so strange that I awoke one morning consciously remembering my dramatic but imaginary part in a war that was all too real.’ In the small cache of documents, speeches and letters I had sniffed out about Doug was a particular letter written to him on Tuesday, October 19, 1954, three days after his public Saturday afternoon TV confession, by Angele de T. Gingras, a newspaper person, I suspect, judging from the prose and format….
‘You see, Mr. Stringfellow, there is something you forget. We all lie. Your lies were just more effective and dramatic and brave, and reached a larger audience than the braggadocio of most. My acquaintance is crowded with people who tell beautiful lies…. I have never met you, Mr. Stringfellow, and I only went through Utah once in an automobile, but I know exactly how that story of your heroism got started. I know it because I know the whole laughing fiction of the tall story of our frontier tradition.’ Doug’s life after his confessions was difficult, obscure, and short. He died in 1966, only twelve years after his confession, living twenty years longer than the doctors forecast. The play of numbers in his life is interesting: Born in 1922, wounded in 1944, died in 1966: Living a half-life of only forty-four years; twenty-two, half again, as a paraplegic
from wounds suffered in action serving his country.” (pages 56, 62, 64-67, 69-72)
January 15th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Hi Curtis,
Thank you for your kind and insightful comments on Gerbil Wheels. You have a great command of the written word, expressing yourself well. I’m sure you keep your readers informed and entertained with your gift of communication and introspection.
Best wishes,
Kevin Steadman
January 15th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Hi Curtis,
Thank you for your interest in Gerbil Wheels. It is an interesting thing to write a book and then give it out to friends and family–you put your life on the line. You hope that everyone who reads the book will like it and you wait anxiously for their feedback. Warmest regards, –Kevin
January 15th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
hpp-
Your comment on “Frisco” is correct. Living in Northern California years ago, all of my friends called San Francisco the “city”, “San Fran” or the “bay area.”
No one ever said Frisco. Ever.
But I enjoyed the story. Keep up the good work, Curtis. Great stories.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Sunday, April 18, 1920, Hilo Tribune article which I dedicate to the new Pepe’ekeo Farmers Market, located on Hwy. 19 Mamalahoa Belt Rd. a quarter mile north of the Post Office off Ka’akepa St. The Pepe’ekeo Farmers Market will open on Thursday, January 21, 2010 (90 yrs. after our Trib article below) 2:00 p.m. till dusk, and again on the following Sunday dawn to 2:00 p.m. For more details, call 315-5536.
“Hawaiian Legend Reveals Battle of Pepehina-Nanahu”
“In the ‘Battle of Pepehina-Nanahu’ the Tribune today presents a Hawaiian legend having to do with ancient times on the island of Hawaii. The following was compiled by Theodore Kelsey of Hilo from information given him by Mr. James A. Iokepa of Hilo — In ancient times it was the custom in Kaupakuea for several families to cook their food together in one imu, or underground oven. During the day, the man in charge of this imu called to the neighbors when it was ready: ‘Come people, our imu is cooked.’ After sunset, however, this method was kapu, or strictly forbidden. No man who valued his life dared to call aloud to another at this hour! No, indeed! He summoned his neighbors by slapping a pa ipu, or gourd calabash.
One evening this sacred rule, most religiously observed for generations immemorial, was violated! ‘Come people, our imu is cooked,’ called a foolish and irreverent man, as though it were daylight!
Not a soul ventured forth! All sat cowering in their houses, filled with fear and horror at this awful sacrilege!
‘HERE WE ARE’ IS CRY
‘Here we are!’ cried myriads of shrill voices on all sides of the imu. Here they were indeed! Thousands of grotesque little creatures surrounded the unfortunate culprit! Here were the Menehunes, the mischievous little brownies of Hawaii, out for a night of revel!
‘And what are you here for?’ asked the offender in a trembling voice.
‘You called us!’ — The accusation rang like a peal of thunder — then profound silence.
What was to be done? Through those menacing hosts, he could not flee! They swarmed about the imu and began to mock their terrified victim! Was it a horrible nightmare? Hardly knowing what he did, he sought relief in action. He tore open the imu, seized the steaming taro, and hurled it with all his might at his tormentors.
MAY HAVE IT ALL
‘If you want the imu you may have us in its wake!’ Alas! The taro was gone! Then he plucked the hot rocks from the floor of the imu and hurled them after the taro. The execution was even more terrible than the fiery vengeance of Pele! Torrents of blood rushed seaward, washing out a large hollow below the imu. Alas! The stones were gone! The foes pressed close upon him! Desperately he snatched the charred wood from the bottom of the imu and continued the slaughter! Alas! The charcoal was gone! What would become of him now? He shuddered at the thought. Determined to save his life as dearly as possible, he stood with clenched fists, awaiting the onslaught.
What?! The Menehunes stood motionless, gazing eastward! It was as though some mighty magician had suddenly transformed them into images of stone! Look! The first faint rays of dawn were stealing forth over the sea! The spell was broken! Away scampered the Menehunes as though awakened from enchantment by the power of some great presence whom they feared. Away they went, nor did they cast a single glance behind them until safe in their woodland retreats.
SAVED BY A HAIR
Saved by a hair-breadth! Utterly exhausted, he fell at the foot of the imu where he had so nearly dug his own grave.
He awoke with a start! The sun was up, and a clamoring crowd was gazing curiously at him. Thanks be to the gods! It was only his wondering neighbors! He sat up and looked dazedly about him. Yes, there was the ruined imu, and below it, the blood-washed valley! It was not a dream! It was all true! Never again would he defy the powers of darkness!
To this day the little valley which was washed out by the blood of the Menehunes is known as Pepehina-Nanahu!”
Descriptively, Pepehina is to kill, and nanahu is to turn to charcoal. The final onslaught by charcoal. Fortitude, resilience, abiding reverence for tradition and custom — such sentiments characterize the legend of the little valley and the stream which runs through it, snuggled beneath the the twin hills of Pepe’ekeo, where lore also has it that this is where Kamapua’a tried to drown Hina, mother of Maui.
Unbeknownst nearly to all folks, Theodore Kelsey 1891-1987 helped germinate our Hawaiian Language Arts Program at UH-Hilo, which he graciously credited to his spiritual haumana/ubiquitous icon Edith Kanaka’ole. Kelsey’s ho’ohaumana/prodigy is June Gutmanis 1925-1998, who is my alter ego/mentor. June is noted for her Kahuna La’au Lapa’au & Na Pule Kahiko books, among other works. Bill Westervelt 1849-1939 preceded Kelsey in translation of Hawaiian legends into English. Westervelt is the genesis of our polyglot YMCA here, among other accomplishments [seeded today's East-West Center]. I dedicate this lookback to our cultural antecedents to Guenn Adare, a student of life and history. Love always, –Curt
January 15th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Thank you, “Go Lakers” & “hpp,” for your comments. Much aloha, –Curt
January 16th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
John M. Horner & his famous homing/carrier pigeons [who carried messages from his Papa'aloa abode to his Kuka'iau sugar plantation] overshadow Horner’s greatest feat — Horner planted Guatemalan coffee along his “Gold Coast” [Papa'aloa to Kuka'iau] ‘aina/lands, vastly superior in quality to the existing Brazilian variety in 1895, then called koppe/Hawaiian coffee. Zentaro Inaba [Hollywood starlet Carrie Inaba's great-grandpa] planted Horner’s seedlings in 1897, & Kunigoro Yokoyama did such in 1899, and these are how 1) independent Japanese immigrants became Kona’s mega-coffee growers; and 2) what is known today as “Kona Coffee”/”Kona Gold” is Horner’s famous Guatemalan coffee. My immigrant maternal grandparents picked up on Horner’s Guatemalan coffee, raising such in Honalo, North Kona, and today my oldest aunt, Shizuko Mary Teshima, age 102 [born June 1907], owner of Japanese cuisine restaurant Teshima’s [she married Harry Teshima], still picks this Guatemalan coffee on her 40 acres of coffee-rich ‘aina. “Small world,” because Guenn Adare, student of life and history, is from Guatemala, and often is mistaken for speaking English as her 2nd language, yet English is her primary language. Small world even more, because Guenn’s Hawai’i home is along Horner’s ‘aina where he planted the Guatemalan coffee, and Guenn’s work site in Pu’u'eo is where my dad swam as a child [Pukihae stream]. Beautiful coincidences. Love always, –Curt
January 18th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
From compassionate Kevin Steadman’s amazing “Gerbil Wheels” book:
On motorcycles: “…Charlie more than made up for the penurious wages. Knowing I liked motorcycles and was without wheels, he surprised me one day by saying, ‘you ought to see that motorsickle ol’ Mackay’s got in his shed. It’s a good one.’ I asked him what kind it was, and Charlie didn’t know but prefaced, ‘If it was Mackays, you knew it was a good stick.’ When I first saw Boanerges my mind seized briefly. I didn’t know what to think; it was purely Charlie. It was something Batman would ride. Under a shroud of dust was a deep purple 1956 BMW R50 motorcycle with a customized fairing shaped like a bat with extended wings. Two matching purple fiberglass saddles bags slung low against the back wheel, likely detailed by hippies, dripped of roadster appeal. They were painted white lace and studded with some type of garnet stones that you might find on the breast collar of Silver, Roy Rogers’ horse. Three, four-inch white leather straps spaced evenly in a horizontal row dangled from the sides just to make you look longer. I didn’t know whether to laugh, swear, or run. It wouldn’t be until several years later and many thousands of miles that I would begin to really appreciate Boa for what he was; an incredible creation of post-Reich German workmanship at its finest, all heart, never missing a beat. Late at night I could be stopped at a stop light and have a guy in the car next to me roll down his window, thoughtfully taking in the lines and geodetic engineering, acknowledging a characteristic in Boa I could never know, and silently give me a thumbs up and knowing nod of his head.” (pages 91-93)
January 21st, 2010 at 9:20 pm
From tremendous figure of equanimity –Kevin Hickman Steadman — from his heartstopper “Gerbil Wheels” (Oct. 2009) book –
“‘I was in Wendover, Utah, during the war (WWII).’ (said an older man in 1974) I could sense that he was not interested in what I was selling, but I was curious why he had been in Utah. As we continued the conversation he said he had been doing some training in Wendover with the atomic bomb and would occasionally get to Salt Lake City… I knew Wendover had been an Air Force base and was curious if he had done any flying. (Mormon)Missionaries travel in twos, work in twos, eat in twos, fight in twos, and should never lose sight of the other. I did something I had never done in the previous year-and-a-half — I left my companion, telling him I was going in the store and would be right back… Approaching him (the older man), I said, ‘I don’t mean to follow you around, but I was just wondering if you did any flying during the war.’ He said that he had flown in Europe as a navigator and was with the crew that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I had done a lot of reading before my mission and was very familiar with the incident. ‘You flew with Colonel Paul Tippets on the Enola Gay?’ ‘Tibbets,’ he corrected me. This man was very calm, almost serene. My thoughts were running, yet I had a strong presence of mind. I knew this encounter was chance and that I’d probably never see him again. In high school I had debated the morality of the bomb and had read ‘Hiroshima’ by John Hershey. After my mission I would become familiar with the torpedoing of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, the ship that delivered the bomb Little Boy to Tinian, the island the Enola Gay took off from, and the five days the survivors were in the water before the ship was reported overdue from its port in Guam, and how the sharks, injuries, and elements had pared the crew down from around 900 to 317 before they were rescued. I would shake hands with General Paul Tibbets, Ret., at a trade show twenty-eight years later in Wichita, Kansas, and give him a Hooey Stick imprinted with my company name and show an amused, reticent Tibbets how it worked. ‘What was your position on the airplane?’ I cautiously probed the man… ‘I was the bombadier.’ ‘You pulled the lever, so to speak,’ I said as I motioned with my right arm. ‘Yes.’ My face flushed. I don’t recall any movement or activity in the store, nor sounds — just his eyes on mine. During the fortieth anniversary of the drop in 1985, I would snap off a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, blasting the critics who held lighted candles and chanted slogans in protest of the inhumane, unnecessary, and immoral use of the bomb. Later, I would fly to Tokyo and spend some time with Mr. Itoh, an older business associate, who felt a need to apologize for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. I would intimate that we got our licks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and he would thank me for saving the lives of millions of his countrymen. Quietly, respectfully, I pressed (to the older man in the store), ‘How do you feel about it?’ ‘It was a job that had to be done. I was asked to do it. So I did.’ Feeling a deep reverence for this man and trying to find some closure in one of the most poignant encounters of my life, I offered, ‘I guess you’ve had a lot of things happen since then.’ ‘Yes, some good, some not-so-good.’ I asked him his name, and he said Tom Ferebee. He went on to say that he, Tibbets, and the navigator on the Enola Gay, Captain Theodore Van Kirk, were friends, and the others on the crew had been assigned specifically for the bomb drop. The three of them still stay in touch. He added that he lived in Florida and was just in Atlanta visiting his daughter and granddaughter, who were with him in the store. I shook his hand. Ercanbrack (fellow missionary) didn’t believe me when I told him. Later that rainy afternoon we drove to Emory University in Atlanta, looked up the atomic bomb, and saw a picture of a much younger crew of the Enola Gay. There, grinning back, was Major Thomas Ferebee with black hair and a mustache.” (pages 151-155)
January 21st, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Of divine countenance and repose, here is “Gerbil Wheels” author Kevin Hickman Steadman on his beloved wife Mary Ann: “When our (7) children were younger I marveled at how Mary Ann could lay one of our sick children in bed, in the bassinet or crib, gently covering him or her with a soft blanket and then lay down herself, quickly slipping into uninterrupted sleep though dogs could be barking and wild percussion instrumentals of thunder crashed wildly all around. Yet with the slightest stir from the bassinet, she would bolt wide awake, attending to the needs of this child while I slept ignorantly on, not fully aware of the night’s activity. In later years the roles reversed, with me being the fretting father of teenagers whose curfew had long since elapsed, mentally rehearsing terse speeches of chastisement and conjuring up merciless forms of penance and groundings to be levied the second they tried to slip through the front door, all while Mary Ann slept on.” (page 163)
On oldest son Quinn’s death at age 19 in 1998 from a car accident: “The night of Quinn’s death, and the nights that followed, Mary Ann was again able to find sleep while my mind thrashed like a broken cement mixer, trying to grasp the reality of not having him anymore. With the funeral looming just a few days away, how do you say good-bye to your child, the little boy you watched grow up? How can you go on? How do you pay tribute to that which has given you purpose? We have always taken slide pictures of family activities. One of our family traditions at Christmas is to have the film developed that has been taken during the year and after our annual Christmas Eve shrimp dinner and the unwrapping of our traditional new pajamas, to show the slides on the wall of our living room while snacking on rich eggnog and goodies brought by the neighbors. With nineteen years of pictures of Quinn, I thought of preparing a brief presentation of Quinn at his funeral, beginning with Mary Ann’s pregnancy and ending with the last pictures of him smiling, always smiling, in his black high school graduation cap and red gown …outside on the lawn after his commencement activities. In recent years I have noticed my hearing seems to be off a few decibels (Kevin born Dec. 7 1953), especially when Mary Ann is talking to me. Some of this loss may be due to the years of blasting music from the speakers in the car as I have driven through the desert or elsewhere, windows down, bass notes thumping from the car’s infrastructure, communing with me in the late dark or early morning hours as I wearily traveled home from a trip. The music seldom varies… One song in particular from Rod Stewart’s cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Forever Young’ had moved me deeply one afternoon as I tumbled with the words and melody while driving through cactus and sand, thinking about my kids as the odometer rolled up the miles. The tune bubbled to the surface of my mind quietly in the early hours of the morning after Quinn was killed, like the dollops of oil that ooze upward from the bowels of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, where eleven hundred sailors are entombed. Kam, (my only daughter) Shanda’s husband, also seemed to be having difficulty sleeping the nights following the accident, and together at the kitchen table we sifted through the archives of hundreds of slides of Quinn, selecting about seventy-five that in some way portrayed his life. Some pictures jumped out, like the one of Mary Ann pinning his Arrow of Light badge on his blue Cub Scout shirt as he proudly stood at attention. Another picture: posing in front of the Piper Cherokee 140 on his sixteenth birthday, smiling in the bright sunlight reflecting off the December snow, tight black curls dangling, green parka unzipped to just above his waist for that surprise birthday flight when I got him out of school. Timed with that image was Dylan’s lyric, ‘And when you finally fly away I’ll be hoping that I served you well….’ Other pictures we tussled with: reliving the occasion, what he said, what he was wearing, what had taken place. I didn’t realize at the time, but in compiling this presentation, I was taking the first steps of a long, endless, solitary journey seeking peace, some form of closure, some way of saying good-bye to this oldest son…. I had never attended a Mormon funeral where a slide presentation was shown. No one had to tell me this was off the beaten path, grieving father or not. The slide presentation in the kitchen had come together well, and I felt a sense of peace. This was my last gift to Quinn, a final farewell. The pictures were Quinn and his life. The music was written from a father to his son. It fit. It was good…. Gently, to a grieving father, the bishop said, ‘The chapel is generally not for slide presentations, particularly at a funeral…’ Feeling the Wild Bill in me begin to yawn and stretch, I replied, ‘It would mean a great deal to our family if we could do this, Bishop.’ The next day our bishop kindly called back… if we were certain it would be in good taste, and the music would be appropriate to play in a chapel, we could go ahead. I like to think Quinn approved of his funeral. We kept it all in the family, except for a prayer that was offered by his former scoutmaster and closing remarks customarily spoken by the bishop. The slide presentation was all that I prayed it would be. It was moving, dynamic, a portrayal of a life, a summation, a gift. It was every feeling I wanted to convey to my son. That it may have been inappropriate, I’ll leave to those who know better than I. To me, it was more than just for those in attendance. It was for Quinn.” (pages 163-168)
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Thanks to great history sleuth Guenn Adare, Guenn showed me the old Papa’aloa sugar mill site at the cliffside bluff point about 800 ft. northeast [Hamakua direction] of the old mill store bldg. Here the millhands saw the 1946 tsunami inundate Laupahoehoe Point & carry its victims back out to sea. The “smokestack” with a huge cylindrical gear on top of it is the derrick base for the crane operator, and this base sits on the bank/bench 200 ft. inland above the bluff point area. The cliff knoll still higher in elevation than the derrick bench looks south [Hilo direction] down at the spit of land at sea level which is the old boat landing. Papa’aloa stream cascades as a waterfall nearby. A long-abandoned foot path buttressed by a concrete retaining cliff face wall descends toward the landing site. Breathtaking for the long sheer vertical drop to the sea along most of this cliffside corridor, this bluff in its 4 shelved height levels shows Mother Nature in all her primal power, with the ocean waves banging against the cliff face far below where we stand and gaze in awe. Aloha, –Curt
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Yes, Skill Camp Rd. [old Mamalahoa Hwy] north of the old Papa’aloa mill store had as its residents carpenters/machinists/welders/molders/plumbers/
blacksmiths/etc. It went north & crossed the old HCR railway [today's Belt Rd.] & went parallel to it just mauka of today’s Belt. Rd. [where the overpass is where cops catch speeders], & here was the majestic plantation manager’s multi-acre estate mauka of the old highway. The old highway then went north into a horseshoe turn around the little gulch & emerged where today’s Laupahoehoe transfer station is. Of course, today’s Belt Rd. bridge was constructed years before the actual Belt Rd. was built [to accomodate easier travel along the old Mamalahoa hwy][like how today's Honoli'i Belt. Rd. bridge was built in 1938 to accomodate easier travel along the old Mamalahoa hwy, & later accomodated today's Belt. Rd. in 1951], so that you see the connector road from today’s Belt Rd. bridge on the other side of the gulch by the overpass north to where the school buses park by the Laupahoehoe swimming pool area. Incredibly, erudite/sage Guenn Adare knows every square inch of the old plantation manager’s estate, along with the old Kihalani/Oshiro camp matchbox cottages lined like pearls on a string along the gulch [north-Hamakua direction of today's Belt. Rd. overpass] road which forks mauka of the old Mamalahoa hwy, along with the old mill site ocean cliffside bluffs, in that she does landscaping/property oversight for the owners of both the old plantation manager’s vast estate and the out-of-world experience cliffside bluff expanses [both areas owned by the same owners]. Amazing coincidence/confluence of vocation observation and archaeology finds. Aloha, –Curt
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:24 pm
From sagacious Kevin Hickman Steadman’s extraordinary “Gerbil Wheels” book: “During the Civil War, a letter written by President Abraham Lincoln to the widowed mother of five sons believed to have been killed, Mrs. Lydia Bixby, gained the sympathy of a nation: ‘Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 21, 1864 — Dear Madam, I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of a Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, A. Lincoln.’ Ironically, the War Department had incorrectly informed President Lincoln. Only two of her sons, Charles and Oliver, had died in battle, and Mrs. Bixby was later believed to be a sympathizer with the South. Yet the grief a mother feels knows no uniform, no boundaries, no allegiance. Unfortunately, no mistake was made on the morning of January 11, 1943, when a dark sedan from the War Department stopped in front of the home of Tom and Alleta Sullivan in Waterloo, Iowa, and three men in navy uniforms solemnly got out. Tom, who was preparing to go to work at the railroad yard, invited the men in and knew the message they came to deliver could not be good. ‘Which one?’ he asked. ‘I’m sorry. All five,’ replied Lieutenant Commander Truman Jones. Just a year earlier on January 3, 1942, less than one month after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the five Sullivan brothers — George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, and Albert, with only a seven-year difference from George to Al — proudly strode into the local Navy recruiting station to offer their services to the United States of America. Their decision to serve may have been to avenge the death of a friend who had died on the USS Arizona. At that stage of the war the Navy was eager for recruits and gladly accepted the Sullivans, agreeing with the stipulation made by the brothers: ‘We stick together.’ On Valentine’s Day a month later, the USS Juneau, a light cruiser, was commissioned and the ‘fighting brothers’ were part of the ship’s 698-man complement. On Friday the 13th of November, 1942, the ship was torpedoed and damaged off the shores of Guadalcanal by a Japanese submarine. Limping back for repairs the Juneau was hit again in the ammunition magazines by another submarine. It exploded and sank quickly. While most hands were immediately lost, some one hundred survivors, including George Sullivan, floated in the burning waters, suffering from the elements as well as from thirst, hunger, and shark attacks while calling out for Frank, Joe, Matt, and Al. By the time a belated search was organized, eight days had passed and only ten crew members survived, none of whom were the Sullivan boys. Security measures prohibited the Navy from announcing ships lost in battle to keep valuable information from falling into the hands of the enemy. As the letters from the boys stopped coming, Alleta Sullivan became worried. Rumors in town began to circulate that the Juneau had gone down. With no official word, a very worried Alleta Sullivan wrote two months later in January 1943: ‘Bureau of Naval Personnel — Dear Sirs, I am writing you in regards to a rumor going around that my five sons were killed in action in November. A mother from here came and told me she got a letter from her son and he heard my five sons were killed. It is all over town now, and I am so worried. My five sons joined the Navy together a year ago, Jan. 3, 1942. They are on the Cruiser, U.S.S. JUNEAU. The last I heard from them was Nov. 8th. That is, it was dated Nov. 8th, U.S. Navy. Their names are George T., Francis Henry, Joseph E., Madison A., and Albert L. If it is so, please let me know the truth. I am to christen the U.S.S. TAWASA, Feb. 12th, at Portland, Oregon. If anything has happened to my five sons, I will still christen the ship as it was their wish that I do so. I hated to bother you, but it has worried me so that I wanted to know if it was true. So please tell me. It was hard to give five sons all at once to the Navy, but I am proud of my boys that they can serve and help protect their country… I am so happy the Navy has bestowed the honor on me to christen the U.S.S. TAWASA. My husband and daughter are going to Portland with me. I remain, Sincerely, /s/Mrs. Alleta Sullivan 98 Adams Street Waterloo, Iowa’
Never having given death much thought before Quinn (my oldest son) died, I sort of thought that civilizations must have gotten used to losing citizens and family members during great tragedies. Like Mrs. Bixby’s sons in the Civil War, the lists of casualties were published in the newspapers after the great battles. In the battle of Gettysburg, which lasted just four days, almost eight thousand Confederate and Union soldiers were killed. Surely, the mourning and loss of family members were tempered according to the times and reasons for death. And what about the 1918 influenza, which possibly took up to fifty million souls worldwide, with 675,000 dying in the United States?” (pages 186-191)
January 25th, 2010 at 10:57 am
From loving and beneficent Kevin Hickman Steadman’s remarkably insightful “Gerbil Wheels” book: “A quick glance at (elderly) Elsie’s great-grandparents’ family group sheet (husband Alma & wife Charlotte were married in 1852 & marked 59 years of marriage at their deaths) startled me. I noticed that eight of the sixteen children appeared to have died before the age of eight…Of these eight children, it was just Lullu who may have been stillborn; perhaps she breathed. Five of the eight learned to walk and talk. Martha, who was six, was probably a big help to her mother around the house, especially helping with the toddlers. Looking at the other eight children listed in the family I thought I must be reading this wrong. Two more children died as teenagers: child #8, Willard, died at nineteen, the same age as Quinn (my son) when he was killed. Francis Marian, child #12, a boy, died at fifteen. Turning to Elsie, in almost a daze, I asked, ‘Elsie, is this right? Did only six of the sixteen live to be adults?’ ‘That’s right. Only Grandma and the boys Armond, George, Helaman, and Bill, and then Luella May.’ ‘How did they die?’ ‘There were accidents, sickness, and drownings. It was really hard.’ Unlike Job (Biblical), the roof didn’t fall in and kill their ten children at once. From 1855 to 1880, Alma and Charlotte buried babies, toddlers, and teenagers. Having lost (oldest child) Alma in the cold of December 6, 1855, in Salt Lake City, was it any easier to bury Lullu, who died on July 20, 1880, in Leeds, Utah, twenty-five years later? Did their mourning get easier? Is there a way grieving becomes less painful as more children are buried? Did the children become only names on a family group sheet and faded etched entities on modest horizontal headstones in the old section of the cemeteries, not warranting a large, slick granite monument of a life fully lived? Alma and Charlotte continued on for another thirty years after the death of Lullu, marking fifty-nine years of marriage, yet carrying the memories of the children they outlived.” (pages 193-195)
I, Curt, will never forget utterly beloved/sagacious Mormon missionaries Elder John Andrew born 1942 and his wife Sister Andrew born 1943, who, at their 16-month old daughter Jodi’s funeral, were “consoled” by attendees, “You have (7) other children, do not despair.” Yikes!!
I will never forget “devout” Honoka’a Catholic J. Roy Souza born 1945, who, when remarking on the (killed in action — war) deaths of 2 of his combat brothers-in-arm, spouted, “It was their time to go.” Yikes!!
Never ever diminish death as “it was their time to go.” Never!! God’s Will/Ecclesiastes intone-evoke tribute/praise such as, “He was a good soldier (highest respect in combat parlance),” or “He is our hero, and always will be — I will never forget the example he set — he gave up his life to preserve our freedoms!” But, as is the case with those who talk profusely but don’t think through what they say, these noiseboxes/talking heads will drop a one-liner such as “It was his time (to die)” or “You have many other children, do not despair” in their ignorance/insensitivity/callous lack of empathy-support-caring nature. Sigh… Love everlasting, –Curt
January 25th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
From compassionate and earthy Kevin Hickman Steadman’s “Gerbil Wheels” book: “In the seclusion of my one-person office I work on a spacious heavy wooden desk, but I am confined to a seventeen by twenty-two inch white pad by baubles, gifts, talismans, and reminders of the bigger part of a life lived. The walls market posters, pictures, and quotes, with no thought to organization or decor. “Your taste has always been in your mouth, Kevin” (emphasis added)…. in a nook, perches an old black Panasonic tape-DVD-radio player turned to 100.3 FM, which I click on oldies, elevator music, with a remote. Like the small perpetual water maze endlessly trickling between two plants in a window and a scented candle burning in front of me, the almost inaudible tunes play all day, providing life, movement, and company when I am in my office. I do not hear the music; I cannot tell you what has played. Yet like the exhausted mother with the sick infant, sleeping heavily until the child makes the slightest stir, I hear the first strains of Rod Stewart’s version of “Forever Young,” when it is broadcasted. The first time I heard the song after Quinn’s funeral (my 19-year-old son), I automatically stood at my desk. In the decade since his death I continue to stand when the tune is played. There have been frenetic moments in my office at 3 a.m. running late to the airport for an early flight, trying to leave things in order, and I hear the song on the radio. To stop and let everything go and stand and listen and look at his picture has never been an inconvenience or sacrifice — rather a privilege. Every Monday morning on my way to work when in town, instead of going left at the stop sign, I turn right for several blocks and visit with Quinn. At the time of his death, our city had just opened a new section of the cemetery south of the existing cemetery, and we could choose almost any burial plot. There were fewer than ten headstones; now there are hundreds. Some mornings I’ll leave the Altima idling when I walk to his grave; most mornings I turn off the ignition and stay longer. When the honey locust trees bordering the cemetery were young, I could stand at his headstone and look up southeast at the face of Mr. Loafer and trace the route we hiked when he was fourteen, to the bowl just below the summit where we hunted deer. Now, I have to shift my stance. I don’t think my weekly visits to his grave through the years bestow any special feelings or esteem I have for Quinn that Mary Ann or others do not feel; perhaps it is a weakness in me. Yet it is an easy thing to take the time and feel some closeness with this son. I have ridden Sheeza (my horse)along the Highline Canal Road as it winds its way with the canal overlooking the farm lands and orchards and pulled her up short in the thick oak brush above the cemetery. In the stillness of a bitterly cold December afternoon I sit quietly in the
saddle and look down a steep, rugged hillside softened with deep snow, across a white vacant pasture and watch our neighbor, Karl, walk from his truck over a well-packed path of snow and stand before his wife Bonnie’s grave. Impatiently, Sheeza stomps her front feet and the reins tug in my gloved left hand but we are undetected as steam mystically envelops us. Karl’s coat is open, and I wonder if he is cold. His lips move. What is it that we say, Karl? (emphasis added) Seventy-five yards to the west, and just a little north, is Quinn’s grave. I can see the red kerosene lantern hanging on the shepherd’s crook next to the grey granite headstone. The front of the marker reads “Quinn” in large scripted lettering while above, in smaller script: “forever young….” (end of book) (pages 231-234)
Curt’s note: Thornton Wilder said that the highest tribute to the deceased is not grief but gratitude. Oh so true… love everlasting, just as Eileen Elias Freeman intoned that angels caress the grieving, whispering softly that the beloved departed one is safe in the hands of God. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 9:23 am
John C. Cross born 1956
John born 1956 is former Puna Sugar/HCPC mgmt., whose dad was
Mauna Loa macnut mgmt. John knows the sugar plantations/rr like
the back of his hand. Jim Waugh owns the Papa’ikou mill property &
knows about the Scotch coast Scot mgrs. Ed Olson [self-storage
mogul whom John Cross works for] owns the Papa’ikou Onomea Mill
office bldg./property. John is not related to my forner Honoli’i
neighbor/radio dj Criss Cross. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Memories of an old doctor
I was an ER volunteer 1970. In walks old man Dr. Kasamoto as on-call
ER M.D., dead of nite, to handle a wino who suffered a heart attack.
Doc holds his chin w/his index finger/thumb as he surveys the frantic
efforts to revive this drunkard. I thought to myself, in my own naive
way, “How come this doctor don’t come near the patient?” How wrong
I was. In retrospect, being that I’m almost as old as he was then, Doc
had to keep cool/composed, for clarity/big picture. After all, that’s what
nurses/etc. are for, to allow the Doctor to figure out how to save the
patient. Now as I look back, Doc Kasamoto was cool dude. Yikes! Love, –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 9:26 am
Myth/lore — do you know that John Waihee’s ancestors steeped in mo’olelo?
Kawainui steeped in myth, south of Pepe`ekeo, north of Onomea. John Waihee’s
grandpa was road overseer/Kawainui resident [Hilo side of old Pepe`ekeo School],
& “Lono” & others would come to Waihee’s home on the hill to engage in lore
about Waiale`e the “merman” of Onomea Bay [retrieved bodies like no other]
[from Kalaoa makai], & forebearers/caretakers of the ocean & `aina. Beautiful
parables about ecology/ecosystems/conservation/oceanography. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 9:36 am
Never can predict how a judge will turn out
U.S. Supreme Court justices Earl Warren/William Brennan were conservative
types who flamed fully as liberals on the S.Ct. Here in Hilo atty Lloyd Van
de Car was testy but turned out to be
a most compassionate judge. Judge Tony Bartholomew’s long career
as misdemeanor/traffic court public defender caused criminal defense attys to talk
to themselves that Judge Bartholomew won’t accept the many excuses which
defendants give to get out from being convicted, inasmuch Judge Bartholomew
knows/has seen all the excuses in the world as longtime public defender in
traffic/district court. Former prosecutor Mel Fujino
a district court judge Waimea, but characteristically unabashed
like Glenn Hara used to be as per diem judge/former prosecutor. Ex-prosecutors
like to crack jokes on the bench, but the only one laughing is the
judge-former prosecutor himself, like how scribe Dave Shapiro laughs at his own jokes. Ex-prosecutors like to wield authority/control.-Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Thurston Twigg-Smith
Demagogue Lorrin Andrews Thurston, grandson of Kona immigrant missionaries
Asa/Lucy Thurston 1823, owned the Honolulu Advertiser [called Pacific
Commercial Advertiser]. His son Lorrin P. Thurston of Kailua-Kona lorded
over the imperial Advertiser until calmer/more rational Thurston Twigg-Smith
took over. The Advertiser was sold to Gannett Media in 1993. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Baseball quip
Ka`u boy Charlie En Sue Pung 1880-1944 would’ve been the 1st Chinese
Big League baseballer in the U.S. had the race barrier not existed. His bosom
buddy Barney Joy [Nova Scotia/Haw'n bloodline] would’ve been Hawai`i
Territory’s 1st big leaguer had the race barrier not existed 1907. Pung
named his later swim star son Barney Joy Pung after En Sue’s best
friend Barney Joy. Barney Joy Pung married golf star Jackie Liwai. Yes,
Michelle Wie is better than Jackie Liwai Pung. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Village school vs. magnet school
Ha`aheo Elem. School in Wainaku was idyllic/folksy a la Norman Rockwell
portraits. Everyone was like a family member. The school had a small
enrollment, & everyone loved each other. It was what every fictional
storybook described — shangri-la. But in 1963 my brother/I were forced
by DOE “redistricting” to attend Papa`ikou Kal School, because we lived
on the Papa`ikou side of Honoli`i River [surf spot today]. Kal School was
murder for me, in that I was in Ms. Kurihara’s [later married Hilo Int. sweet
band teacher Stephenson] class, where she ruined classmate
Kenneth Kekela’s self-esteem [Kenneth humpty-dumpty/passive but so
sweet]. I hope that she later regretted her treatment of him.
Man, talk about the track system [college vs. vocational]. Yikes!! –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 9:51 am
When Frank Arakawa 1891-1977 [Stanford grad civil engineer/architect] got
interned WWII, buddaheads were Frank’s kazoku/family nemeses — fellow
buddaheads ignored/isolated the esteemed Arakawas from daily life — incl.
fear that they also would be interned/thrown into concentration camps if
they frolicked w/the Arakawas. This stigma hurt the most, not internment/
other ethnic groups. Frank was Kula Maui born U.S. citizen, not enemy alien,
but because he was the AJA leader who greeted Japan Navy vessels here,
he got interned. So when Frank’s wife found out that she/trainload of kids
could join him, she took her kids to Sand Island O`ahu, where, to Frank’s
astonishment/shock, their whole clan was then shipped out to Jerome
Arkansas, where Frank led the internee council & was ably assisted by Dem Party
germinator Ernie Mitsuo Kuwahara 1899-1982, optometrist who also was
locked up for greeting Japan navy vessels at Kuhio Pier/Hilo Bay. Frank
certainly wanted to be w/his wife/loads of kids, but not to be shipped
out to nowhere land! Frank’s wife, O`ahu native, told her kids, “shima
konjo!!” Ergo, buddaheads here such small-minded islanders, small-thinking
gossipers w/nothing better to do than be idiotic noiseboxes talking small
talk about stupid nonsense ["I saw my friend Shigeo at the tofu shop, &
he squawked about his constipation/stuck ass" -- "Let me tell you about
the stunts & jokes Koshi used to pull on us at work!"]. Shima konjo!
Amazingly, Nisei Frank/Ernie Kuwahara/Sanji Abe/Frank Ishii/Tom Sakakihara
shrugged off their internment as “sh_t happens, brah’!” Shoganai [no can
help -- forgive our captors]. But Issei/immigrant aliens were sore till their
last breath [TR Saiki/Hisato Isemoto]. Irony is that “enemy alien” stamp
never should’ve applied to American-born U.S. citizens, ergo our Nisei
AJAs!! If anyone could’ve erupted in violence, it would’ve been our AJAs/
Nisei. But no, our interned Issei were sore to the bone!! I know why, because
our Issei overcompensated so much to demonstrate their loyalty to America –
TR Saiki/Hisato Isemoto [Isemoto Contracting] led our pre-Pearl Harbor
Patriotic Committee/July 4 parades!! –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 9:52 am
U.S. Supreme Court federalism
John Marshall the greatest [served 1801-1835]. Marbury v. Madison
1803 established judicial review [declared Congressional Act illegal].
Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee 1816 established U.S. S.Ct. review of
State ct. decisions. McCulloch v. Maryland 1819 affirmed the
constitutional doctrine of Congress’ implied powers [necessary
& proper clause Art. I sec. 8 cl. 18].
Fast forward to Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. U.S. 1911
which busted monopolies via Sherman Anti-trust Act [undue
restraint of trade]. Had our U.S. Atty. General been for the
little guy, we would’ve busted down our Big 5 oligarchy/cabal
which controlled every walk of life here, business & otherwise.
Griswold v. Connecticut 1965 ruled that a state law prohibiting
the use/education of contraceptives violated the right of
marital privacy implied in the Bill of Rights. Roe v. Wade 1973
ruled that regulation of abortion could begin no sooner than
about the end of the first trimester, w/increasing regs permissible
in the second & third trimesters. The State’s interest in
protecting the fetus was found to increase w/the fetus’
“capability for meaningful life outside the mother’s womb.”
Rust v. Sullivan 1991 ruled that Congress could prohibit
recipients of family-planning funds from providing/discussing
abortion as a family planning option. This did not violate
the First Amdt. because clinics were still free to provide
such aid as a totally separate endeavor. Planned
Parenthood v. Casey 1992 allayed anti-abortion forces
by allowing 24 hr. wait/required counseling/parental
consent for minors prior to fetal viability.
Cruzan v. Director Missouri Dept. of Health 1990 found that
via clear/convincing evidence of a person’s desire to
refuse med treatment/life support apparatus, the patient’s
wishes must be obeyed.
Nevada Dept. of Human Resources v. Hibbs 2003 ruled
that state gov’ts may be sued by their
employees for failing to honor the federally guaranteed
right to take time off from work for family emergencies.
Georgia v. Ashcroft 2003 ruled that race-sensitive
redistricting could consider more general minority influence
in the political process when drawing particular district
lines rather than addressing only the actual number of
minority voters present.
January 26th, 2010 at 11:19 am
Mo’o ali’i [perpetuation of greatness down thru the generations]
Helen Desha Beamer was taught hula by her mother Isabella Kahili Desha.
Helen enlisted Waiakea Homesteads resident George Luahiwa, Monarchy
chanter/dancer, to aid history’s repertoire. Akoni Mika, Keaukaha kumu
hula, was instrumental in Kekuewa perpetuation of kahiko [Edith K.'s mother
is Mary Kekuewa]. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Stroll down memory lane
Visitor industry’s Slim Holt popularized Kapoho’s Green Lake. Hilo Luso Henry
Gouveia [not Kona educator] tour guide who got Dairy Queen franchise from
visitor tip & became our pioneer franchise owner of drive in eatery. Who said
Portuguese are dummies??!! Practical wisdom, common sense, Gouveia self-
made man. Belle’s fountain moved up from Shinmachi area after tsunamis
& opened at corner Hualalai/Kino’ole Sts. [former Ming's store site]. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Economic legislation & traditional equal protection test
Where no fundamental right [voting/freedom of association] or
suspect criteria [race/national origin] is involved, Courts defer
to economic legislation & the legislative body need not articulate
its reasons for doing so. The traditional equal protection test
applies that justifies disparate treatment. But where fundamental
right or suspect criteria is involved, Courts require that the
disparate treatment/classification are necessary to promote some
compelling governmental interest and must be narrowly drawn to
be the least burdensome alternative possible. What sets apart
the Hawai`i Superferry Supreme Court decision from the traditional
equal protection test is our State Constitution provision on preserving
our natural resources, in that Article XI Section 5 prohibits legislation
which favors a singular beneficiary that undercuts preservation of our
natural resources. Esteemed political scientist Rick Castberg’s comment
on our Supreme Court’s Superferry decision is quoted here. Thank you, –Curt
From Rick Castberg:
Lots of dicta, but bottom line is that the Supreme Court determined Act 2 is a ’special law, violating Art. XI, sec. 5, of
the Hawaii Constitution which states in part “The legislative power over the lands owned or under the control
of the State and its political subdivisions shall be exercised only by general laws….” Act 2 was a special law
because it favored, exclusively, the superferry by referring to “a large capacity ferry vessel,” which the Court
determined created a class of one. Other companies trying to qualify under that definition would not “receive the
same rights and benefits granted to Superferry.” Therefore, Act is a special law which violates the Hawaii
Constitution.
January 26th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Fact is stranger than fiction: Alaska/Hawai`i VP/President of U.S.
Political pontiff Scrub Tanaka 1915-2006 would’ve needed his head examined for
delirium tremens had he lived to see 1958’s 49th State Alaska’s Palin/1959’s 50th
State Hawai`i’s Obama tiff for the 2 highest offices in the Land. These are beyond
what I comprehend even now as we speak. Never mind Palin’s destiny-making
foray [gender/age] on this count — 49th State Alaska has a VP candidate!! Who
is the happiest person up in Providence [not Rhode Island!]?? Indubitably,
Jack Burns 1909-1975. All that Burns lived & died for — to make it possible for
an Obama to ascend to President of the U.S.!! Gang, think big, think really big –
worship the name RUDY PETERSON -Swedish immigrant 1904-2003, forward-
thinking banking brain who put Bank of America on the map, but who had
his holy hand in the making of today’s Hawai`i — Rudy always evoked Hawai`i
as his Golden Years 1955-1961, when Rudy was drawn away from Stateside
wayfinding, to head Bank of Hawai`i atop First Haw’n Bank in size/branches,
like David toppling Goliath. Rudy transformed staid stiff-collar BoH into the
PEOPLE’S BANK a la Hilo’s namesake a century ago [across Lycurgus Bldg. on
Waianuenue Ave.]. Renowned First Haw’n Kanaka Johnny Bellinger has
Rudy’s example to thank for re: Bellinger’s “open-welcome” style to consumer
draws & not just upper crust haole customers. Luso Walt Dods in reality is
a cookie-cutter layout of impoverished immigrant Rudy Peterson. WHY DO
I TALK RUDY RUDY??!! Because Obama has Rudy to thank for in Obama’s
run for President of the U.S. — thank God that Obama’s tutu/grandma [no college
degree!] came when Rudy revolutionized banking to welcome EVERYONE,
incl. wahines!! It was Obama’s tutu who got Obama connected to Punahou
[BoH is Cooke(Castle & Cooke) genesis -- Punahou is Cooke/missionary genesis].
Obama’s tutu wahine is the Canaan to Obama’s diaspora in life. Of course,
pragmatic Peterson got Exec. VP Robert Sasaki to draw Asian-American working-
class & upper crust customers that doubled deposits & tripled earnings via
BoH’s new 22 branches. The grassroot credit card was issued [that improved
everyone's standard of living], & recruiter Walt Dillingham [non-missionary who
dueled in commerce vs. non-missionary Bishop-1st Haw'n psyche] was ecstatic
in building today’s Hawai`i via prodigy/recruitee Rudy Peterson. Dillingham 1875-1963
had so much “making up to do” w/local non-haole residents [Walt vehement anti-
J_p agitator WWI era], & was so gratified that messiah Rudy Peterson came
to fulfill Walt’s making-up to Walt’s non-haole brethren via opening up BoH
to working-class people/grassroot population!! Now you see why Obama/Peterson
are interfaced forever?? Yes, tutu wahine!! One more thing, rather titillating to
men/women who make money their god [yikes!] — every January 2, Rudy would
publish in the newspapers BoH financial statement w/symbol “WE’RE RIGHT
UP THERE!! WE’RE No. 1!!” Point is that anyone who accountanted/bookkept for
BoH must’ve just hated NEW YEAR!! Sleepless nite after close of business Dec.
31!! Yikes. Capitalism/mercantile psyche!! Love everlasting, –still stunned by
Palin/Obama candidacies –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
State 442nd combat team president Willy Okino Thompson born 1924
[my Dad's spiritual baby brother/my Dad Toshi 1913-1998]
Does a grunt/rifleman fairly judge his 36th Division 2 Star General
Dahlquist when the infantryman’s fate hangs in the balance? To
a man, the 442nd RCT despises Dahlquist, dismissing Dahlquist as
reckless/careless/clueless based on Dahlquist’s field behavior-tactics
[most odious being the stranded Lost Battalion, that pushed too far
along & had its supply/essential components cut off]. The 4 COs
most repulsed by Dahlquist are Pence [not judge Pence]/Shingles/
Hanley/Capt. Young Oak Kim. In contrast, 34th Div. Gen. Charles W.
Ryder was cogent/smart. Dahlquist’s aide Wells Lewis [Sinclair's son]
didn’t have to die — Dahlquist exposed Lewis to enemy fire. Churchill
couldn’t stand Gen. Mark Clark, whom Churchill rejected as too cautious/
conservative. But the AJA warriors cherished Clark. What do these
varied views say about the 442/100th? Clark was not reckless like
Dahlquist, nor audacious like Montgomery/Patton. Like Ryder, Clark
was ever the pragmatist/sure-footed one. A soldier’s General a la
Omar Bradley. Breach Vosges by force the mantra, never happened
before. The Nisei soldiers accomplished it. More about them than
about Dahlquist. Yet, Dahlquist got his 4th Star/medal-popper on
the lifeless backs of his 442/100th sacrificial lambs that he put out
to slaughter. And Clark retired less dignified than Dahlquist. Ironic.
Uncle Willy is in no position to explicate on Dahlquist’s failures as
General. But Dahlquist, emblematic of medal-popper smugness/
conceit, has no support up the chain of command thruout the
Nisei RCT [incl. eventual 1st Batt. 100th]. I wish Uncle Willy’s
boys, however few in number today [most died of old age], focus
more on history & less on ceremony/pomp-pageantry, which sicken
me because the 442 RCT gets inordinate publicity vis a vis other
veterans of all other wars. My Dad was 442, so I’m not jealous
of the 442. The problem w/our Sansei/kids of 442 veterans
is the kids’ exaggerated idolatry of their realistically-flawed fathers.
Let’s face it — the post-1920 born plantation Nisei soldiers got
pugnacious/arrogant with their newly-received high school diplomas,
unlike their older pre-1920 born brethren who were accomodationist/
willing subjects of benevolent paternalism of the Big Five oligarchy,
that enslaved these kids [incl. my Dad] to the menial planter
society hegemony by depriving them of schooling beyond the 8th
grade. A Spark Matsunaga born 1916 typifies the non-rebuke
genre, whereas asshole Dan Inouye born 1924 typifies the
repudiatory militant asshole generation that received high school
diplomas. Let’s be realistic, gang. The 442 boys are not God.
They’re flawed, even more so [social climbers/status trippers]
than the rest of us. The glare of publicity. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Ike’s confidant/press secretary James C. Hagerty 1909-1981
What do Harry Truman & President Ike’s key aide James C. Hagerty have in
common? They’re just high school graduates!! Pretty much self-
made men schooled in the hard scrabble of life. Hagerty’s brother
also high-level icon. Jesse Shima 1901-2002 McKinley School product
after Hilo’s Lyman Boarding School [today's Boys/Girls Club site] –
was Hagerty’s confidant & D.C. peer. Truman wanted to retain
FDR’s closest aide Harry Hopkins [WPA genesis/Land-Lease founder/
WWII chief emissary], but Jesse Shima’s mentor Hopkins 1890-1946 died just
after FDR. Yes, Hopkins not grad school diploma like JFK’s god-forsaken
Whiz Kids who thought more [ego/arrogance] of themselves than they
really were. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Welsh lore
Lore is that Welsh didn’t have surnames/last names, but instead were
addressed as Dean, son of Earl. But since land registries required
surnames, Welsh took their dads’ first names as their last names,
w/results such as Dean Earl, meaning that Welsh ended up having
2 first names as their full names. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Venture capitalism
Carlyle Group flubbed when it ventured to fix up ailing land line
Verizon Tel, figuring to sell it for good profit. It’s like buying old
money newspaper publisher — bankruptcy beckons. Helco into
transmission, not generation of electrical power. Which is why
it continues its dirty fuel to make up for its new power plant
costs, but will supplement via alternate fuel sources. Francis
Morgan not venture capitalist like Carlyle, neither was Doc
Buyers, but like Yoshito Takamine/Kohala Task Force, tried
to work the impossible turnaround to revive dying sugar/ag industry.
Gov. Jack Burns had it right [as did Hugh Clark's hero Chuck
Schuster] — N. Kohala is bedroom community for spankling
new Waikoloa resorts — Queen K highway/Akoni Pule highway
the roads to recovery [of our economy], albeit tourism in the
1970s to stave off massive number of unemployed former sugar
laborers. Burns even envisioned a Kona branch of UH, to
make college accessible to so-called rural folks from West
Hawai`i. Of course, when Burns thought aloud about a
Waimea branch of UH, he thought of employing former
sugar workers from the Hamakua/N. Kohala areas in a
burgeoning new industry, higher education. Joke was that
Burns wanted a monument to himself in his back yard [Burns
was going to live out his life in Waimea, but cancer killed
him before it happened]. What do Burns 1909-1975 & his
prodigy Scrub Tanaka 1915-2006 have in common? They
never self-profited from politics. Both men died broke [Burns
used his savings bonds to defray his mortgage; word is that Matsy Takabuki paid it off when Burns died][Scrub often
grumbled about how ordinary folks like Scrub could not keep
up with increased costs of Helco bills/insurance premiums/etc.].
An aside: Scrub worried about what Gov. Burns was going to
do when the abortion bill came before him for signature –
Burns told Scrub, “I not going veto it, I no can let
my religion [Catholicism] interfere with my elected duty — I
just going let it become law without my signature.” –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Luso/Portuguese wellspring: The gift that keeps on giving
Clarence Ching enabled by Luso Catholics [Bishop Alencastre of
Madeira & Wainaku]. Ching 1912-1985 amassed fortune as
land speculator/developer. Never forgot Ching’s Luso wellspring.
Ching’s foundation has bankrolled St. Francis Hospital/St. Louis
school/Chaminade/UH Manoa, & now Punahou. Ching’s foundation
the gift that keeps on giving. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Public Land Trust offshoot of Public Trust doctrine
Dept. of Interior’s Franklin Lane administered our newfound National Park Service in 1916
[President Woodrow Wilson], which became popular [virginal land preservation/
conservation] as a maxim during Teddy Roosevelt’s tenure [build up your lungs by breathing
fresh air -- TR was a sickly child w/bad asthma] a decade before. If you recall, Franklin
Lane spoke to our prospective Honoka`a homesteaders back in 1918.
Ancient Rome’s public trust doctrine enables public use of waterways/shorelines [public
domain unrestricted by private ownership/cartels], antecedent to Bill Richardson’s same
doctrine [the berthed canoe which doesn't wash out to sea in the dead of night shall
define the public's site right over the shoreline][Richardson's nemesis Martin Pence, U.S.
Dist. Ct. jurist, accused Richardson of conjuring up Richardson's own law (vs. Anglo-Saxon
doctrine which sanctifies private ownership/fee simple land rights a la Brit individualist creed),
neither Pence nor Richardson citing ancient Roman law 2 millennia before].
Public Land Trust [or Trust for Public Lands--TPL] facilitates conservation/preservation of
pristine sites a la ancient Rome’s public trust doctrine over waterways/shorelines. Public
Land Trust entails a consortium of interested entities who pool monies to acquire lands
for the public good/benefit in perpetuity. This “hui” concept began taking root 38 yrs.
ago, but its seed was planted in ancient Rome via its public trust doctrine.
Gov. George Ariyoshi 1974-1986 actually galvanized proactive gov’t support for land
conservation a la Teddy Roosevelt/Woodrow Wilson’s Franklin Lane, & George is really
the genesis of what you see today on all islands here [Pupukea/Puna Forest Reserve/
Maui conservation sites/etc.]. George activated the conservation
emphasis w/the State’s acquisition of Waiahole/Wai Kane [displaced farmers] 34 yrs. ago.
All of today’s positive signs [of conservation] point back to prescient George. –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Richard “Nigga” Tong 1912-1987
Miserly CF Tong [Puueo's Ah Ping Store] & son Don strutted
proudly amid their wealth, always covetous of self-glorification.
Like later minus role model Dick Matsuura, these self-inflated
portals aggrandized in illusory/concocted public service [CF's
hoops]. CF’s baby brother Nigga Tong was
the real deal. P&R’s Nigga spent his last penny on enabling
destitute public housing/project kids to experience middle class
comforts [snack shops/restaurants/sports equipment/travel to
Kona/health care/school supplies/etc.]. Nigga died destitute,
but rich in public appreciation. Though Nigga left us a quarter
century ago, we still regale about him today, inasmuch he’ll
always be our number one hero. Now, this is true love!
My ode to Nigga, as I reminisce about his beneficence half
a century ago — Nigga my hero
Nigga’s goodness, brightening God’s sky,
brought enormous comfort & made God cry.
Nigga’s heart, treasured three-fold, by
thy Father, thy Son, & thy Holy Spirit all
told.
Thru endless time, Love shall find its way,
caressed by an angel, our winged Nigga Tong.
Malie, –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Balance — Ty Cobb 1886-1961/Charlie Chaplin 1889-1977
Baseballer Ty “Rex as in monster” Cobb vowed never to live down Ty’s
father’s death at the hands of Ty’s mother [father suspected mother of
adultery; secretly spied on her; she thought he was a burgler-shot him
dead; she was acquitted of murder] when Ty was 19 yrs. old, which is
why Ty was regarded as demented in Ty’s do-and-die baseball attitude
[Ty considered the greatest player of all time]. Whatever Ty
accomplished, he did it in memory of his dad. When Ted Williams hinted
to Ty that Rogers Hornsby was a greater hitter than Ty [Ty's .367 career
batting average is the best-ever], Ty never again spoke to Williams.
Williams’ egomania exceeded Ty’s — Williams refused to be honored in the
same ballpark w/Joe DiMaggio [unimaginable competitive fire]. My cousin
played in the Little League World Series when Cobb died. All I recall of
old old Cobb are photos of a wrinkled/shriveled-up man wrapped in
a blanket ready to die in a wheelchair. “Generational” differences –
paradox is that such recurring images are immortalized — as we all
make the transit from youth to the Reaper.
Charlie Chaplin was our superhuman/greatest comedian/showman. When
his daughter’s boyfriend suggested that Buster Keaton was right up there
w/Chaplin, Chaplin looked down to the floor & slowly gristled, “I was an
artist, and I gave Keaton work!” Driven to the bone. Japanese proverb
–hotoru kasu [let it go]; do ka naru [don't dwell on it]; e guai ni ita ra a
go nei [everything's gonna be all right]. Balance, baby, balance. Love, –Curt
January 26th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
David Peleiholani Kalani — Honomu land baron 1879-1947
Honomu village is 12 miles north of Hilo along the original King Sugar [Cane]
heritage corridor. Its former C. Brewer-owned sugar mill 1880 stopped operations
in 1946 [merged w/Pepe`ekeo Sugar Mill]. King Kalani`opu`u was Kamehameha
the Great’s uncle & war mentor. After Kalani`opu`u died in 1782, Kamehameha
the Great went on to unite the Hawaiian Islands under his singular command.
Kalani`opu`u descendants include Kekulu Peleiholani 1854-1905, mother of David
Peleiholani Kalani Sr. 1879-1947. Both mother/son are buried on Kalani estate
land south of Tanimoto estate [Tanimoto theater chain, not Akaka Noodle
Shop family]. Kalani High School in Wai`alae is not named after Kalani`opu`u, contrary to Wayne Subica’s statement, but after Prince Kuhio.
David Jr. was backyard musician w/pal/legend Gabby Pahinui. David Sr. was Honomu
land baron, being headlined via nobility.
Sam Ho Chee born 1928, whose mother Hattie Kua was hanai’d by David Kalani Sr.,
is unpaid/voluntary caretaker of Kalani Estate in Honomu, that includes lands
along Honomu’s Main St./old Mamalahoa Hwy. [b/n Honomu Shinto church &
Hongwanji Church, old Mormon Church/etc.]. I thank Sam Ho Chee & Shigeyoshi
Katekawa born 1923, great Honomu observers/historians, for their assistance in
gathering info on David Kalani Sr. To me, as casual outside visitor, Honomu is
the Avenue of Churches!! Man alive, one church after another lined up like
pearls on a string — starting from south to north — UCC [mythic samurai
missionary Shiro Sokabe]/Catholic Church/Hongwanji/Odaisan-Shinto/Mormon.
All colors of the Rainbow. Kalani Loop along the Akaka Falls road is named after
David Kalani Sr. Shigeyoshi Katekawa lives/owns property there. Sam Ho
Chee lives on his own fee simple land. Dean/June Hanashiro Edmoundson’s bakery [unbelievably ono
bread products/unique jams] located in the Ishigo Bakery Bldg. is unmatched
in quality/prices ph. 963-5000, email mredsbakery@yahoo.com. Honomu is the
secret waiting to be told!! San Francisco’s counter-culture/D.C.’s Adams-Morgan
corridor/NYC’s Greenwich Village — none can compare to Honomu’s delectables!!
Sam Ho Chee’s Mormon enablers incl. current U.S. Dist. Ct. judge Al Kay’s dad Hal/
former 1st Haw’n Bank’s Jack Hoag/Boy Scout mgr. Reggie Chong/electrician [Wainaku
boy] Ed Paaluhi/etc. Even Dean Edmoundson has his Pentecostal services in his
store!! The Edmoundsons’ Mr. Ed’s Bakery includes scrumptious–out of this world
celestial treats unavailable anywhere else. Famous Honomu natives incl. Dr. Ellsworth
Takata/former State prisons chief George Iranon/attys Roy Kawamoto-Earl
Nakasato/solon Cal Kawamoto/electrical engineer Dave Ishigo/great sportsman
Frank Ishii/1st NFL player Augie Cabrinha/our only native-born NBA star Red
Rocha’s mom, Augie’s older sis/our Big Isle’s only big leaguer Onan Masaoka’s dad
[whose De Sa kin incl. pro baseballers Rich/Joey]/local star pitcher Tom Ishigo. –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Mo`o ali`i [diplomas not the measure of greatness]
Yes, diploma-laden Bill Westervelt [B.A./B.Div./Doctor Divinity Oberlin (honor.)]
our foremost authority of Haw’n folklore into English. Bill’s undiploma’d/unadorned
esteemed peer nonpareil on Haw’n culture/health care/anthropology was intrepid
translator Theodore Kelsey, self-taught man. Both Westervelt/Kelsey immersed
completely via manuahi avocations on Hawaiiana. My kupuna June Gutmanis 1925-
1998 like my Dad & like her kupuna Theodore Kelsey, no college education [my Dad only
completed 8th grade]. But to me Kelsey/Gutmanis/my Dad were steeped in life
learning/self-educated. “Hea” we say,
eh, no tink you betta’ jus’ cause you get diploma. Nonetheless, June Gutmanis was
cantankerous Theodore Kelsey’s devoted protege’ — & Kelsey taught her well,
because non-diploma June is the blockbuster author of integral bks. Na Pule
Kahiko [ancient prayers]/Kahuna La`au Lapa`au [herbal medicine]/Pohaku
[stones], not to mention scribed for Nat’l Geographic/Readers Digest. Born
in Nebraska like cornhusker Swede Steve Christensen, June came up the
hard way, even being WWII pilot. Straight-shooting/plain-speaking [not small
talk] like ‘dem curmudgeon Appalachia hillbillies/Scot-Irish toughies. June Gutmanis
taught me all I know about HUMAN NATURE, a la sensible/pragmatic non-judgmental
Ka`u Mary Pukui & her AJA daughter Patience Namaka Bacon. June spoke
of listening to Kelsey emote about Queen Lili`u’s timeline/life maturation
& how intolerant/grandiose throne-pusher Lili`u blew her own monarchy
right out of the tranquil Pacific Ocean, only to regret her arrogance
after it was too late [post-1893 overthrow].
Clearly, a Disraeli/King Solomon she was not! See, ‘dis not about emperor/
empress worship like ‘da 442 kids/3rd generation-sansei flatulently bespeak
[pilau smell] glorified b.s. of their realistically flawed fathers. Like today’s b.s.
drivel about realistically flawed Lili`u, 442 b.s. just as bad. Kelsey/Gutmanis got
me grounded to reality here. Pono, baby. I love you June, just as you love
Kelsey kupuna up above. Sadly for me, June/my Mom Teruko 1916-1998
died w/n 2 weeks of each other [June fatal heart attack/Mom fatal stroke], &
my Dad Toshi 1913-1998 died just 4 months after them [pancreatic cancer].
Mo`o ali`i — they are my lifeblood throne-bearers in my eyes till this very day.
Love, –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 10:46 am
Western culture — everybody’s equal
Bks. of Daniel/Revelation show the metamorphosis of Christianity.
Just as Old Testament’s David/Noah/Abraham emoted the God
of Love, so did Peter/Paul transition from Old Testament fire/
brimstone to New Testament peace/goodwill to all. Thru
such sequences, we come to know that everybody’s equal before
God. Which is why the hegemonic pharisees persecuted Jesus.
Fast forward to William of Normandy who became King of England
in 1066 A.D., who ruled via feudalism, but such baron knight
crusades bankrupted the monarchy, which resulted in the
Magna Carta in 1215 A.D., that guaranteed the rights of
freemen [but in fact limited the King's power to protect the
rights of barons]. The Anglican Church resulted from Henry
VIII’s repudiation of the Pope’s refusal to allow Henry to
divorce in 1540. Of course, the “divine right of kings”
creed thereafter resulted in the outbreak of England’s
Civil War in 1642 & divine king Charles I’s execution in 1649.
Such liquidation of divinity stemmed from Elizabeth I’s Poor
Law signalling government relief for the destitute in 1601,
also fueling grassroot jury trial redux [intro'd by Normans
in 1066 A.D.][1670 trial of Quakers William Penn/Mead known
as jury foreman Bushell's Case that established independent
jury verdicts unmoved by abusive elitist judges].
Nonetheless, our American Revolution was caused by our
colonial repudiation of Monarchal economic exploitation.
France followed suit in 1789 via incendiary Voltaire/Rousseau
[both of whom died in 1778, right after the American
Revolution]. But Marx’ seeds of communism [public's
ownership of means of production--land/labor/capital--
vs. feudalism's control by landowners; vs. capitalism's
control by investors; vs. socialism's control by
laborers] resulted in 2 epochal genocides unmatched
a century ago — Stalin’s purges/Mao’s “cultural
revolution” — which did nothing but concentrate power
in a supertyrant/despot, destroying each society’s
social progress/aspirations. USSR disintegrated
via economic collapse in 1991, & Red China has
incorporated capitalism to shore up its economy.
Communism as precept never fulfilled itself in reality.
Everybody’s equal via the American Dream, rooted
firmly in antiquity via Scripture. We are reminded
via Matthew/Isaiah, & via Francis of Assisi/Erasmus
of our Social Gospel. Alms-giving/Divine Grace a
la King David/Jerusalem 1000 B.C. –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Terry Shima/discouragement a part of life ["if it ain't about 442, forget it!"]
It’s too bad that Terry Shima chose not to go public w/Terry’s experiences w/Uncle
Jesse Shima. I propagated Terry’s anecdote on Jesse before Terry pulled back on it. So goes the
untold legacy of Jesse Shima. Terry is a Laupahoehoe buddahead who was WWII
conscript/then to Georgetown, & to foreign service. Terry’s 442 “JAVA” story is an
“oracle” all its own, but my focus solely is on Jesse, whose crossroad in history is unmatched.
It’s about the fullness of time. The theme [even if one dabbles in Scripture]
is everybody’s equal, which Jesse’s life personifies. Ted Tsukiyama is the very one who extolled
about the legacy of River St. Church. His dad/okasan attended it, Dan Inouye’s okasan
met Dan’s otosan there, & “the rest is history,” so to speak. My upshot on Ted’s militant
buddaheads [unlike on shin Issei Jesse Shima] is that in being born 1920/thereafter, this
outfit was able to graduate from high school [thanks to DPI egalitarian Oren Long post-
1934], unlike my otosan’s generation [my otosan born 1913/Wainaku mill villager/plantation
kids stopped at the 8th grade]. Ted’s gang’s high school diplomas set that gang on its audacious
run into history [442/GI Bill/Statehood/extraordinary leadership-mentorship]. My heart
rests w/the generation that had it much harder, my otosan’s gang. –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Generational mentors
Beautiful to see recurring theme of positive mentorship from generation
to generation, w/prior generation’s charges/students become great
leaders for the next generation. Mo`o ali`i succession of immense
leadership traits. Kalani o`puu was uncle & military mentor to Kamehameha
the Great. Chun Ah Fong was entrepreneur/mentor to Tong Ai Yee, whose
progeny include Aima Nawahi [Joseph's wife] & swim coach legend Sparky
Kawamoto. Chinatown’s young turks at the turn of the last century were
enabled by YMCA avatar Frank Atherton, then Lloyd R. Killam, just as
YMCA founder J. Ballard Atherton [Frank's dad] worked w/Chun Ah Fong.
Tremendous altruist Bob Dye’s deceased wife was Chun’s progeny. Then
YMCA’s John Young came & got touted as messiah to kids born at turn of last
century like Hung Wai Ching. Chinn Ho actually worshipped Young’s predecessor
Lloyd R. Killam as Ho’s hanai father. Leadership all!! Walt Dillingham was
Matsujiro Otani’s alter ego, as Charley Rice was Charley Ishii’s guru, as Bob
Shivers was Mas Marumoto’s sempai/older role model, as Saburo Hayashi
was Kiyo Okubo’s master, as Jack Hall was Luso George Martin’s idol, as
as Ernest Gomes De Silva was Beans Afook’s “fear of God” lightning rod,
as Stephen Alencastre was Henry Gouveia’s patron saint, as George Martin
is Bobby Command’s quiet hero, as Ted Tsukiyama is Earl Arakaki’s arbitrator
standard bearer, as Horace Mann was Charles Hemenway’s educator symbol,
as John Dewey was Oren Long’s action hero, as Johnny Bellinger was Walt
Dod’s mentor, as Rudy Peterson was Jim Evans’ hero, as Ruddy Tongg was
Hung Wo Ching’s pathfinder, etc. Love, –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Economic class stratification
England’s upstart entrepreneurial Whigs [Scot word for rebel -- livestock
herdsmen] 400 yrs. ago upended Royalty’s Tories [Irish word for robber --
denoting King's Men] — commoner [new urbanized merchants] Whigs
[ergo people's reps Parliament] vs. elitist [inherited riches] Tories [All
the King's Men]. America’s greatest [though idiotic in hindsight] duel
had federalist [perceived as aristocratic a la King of England's concentrated
power] Alex Hamilton killed by states’ righter [Jeffersonian Democrat] Aaron Burr
[teeming masses' rep]. Class stratification projection/symbolism. T. Boone
Pickens born 1928, notorious/ruthless corporate raider/greenmailer [neologism
for greenback/blackmail], incongruously symbolizes the cowpoke who bucks the
system, like how local raider Harry Weinberg [famished backdrop Baltimore
squalor Jewish isolation a la German Catholic Herman Babe Ruth from economic
underclass Baltimore] raided incessantly for immediate gain. Whig [powerless]
vs. Tory [absolute power]. Of course, baseball’s Babe Ruth is Jesus’ silent
disciple who, like unsung St. Andrew, was the strength behind the leader
[Andrew's brother Peter][baseball as America's national pasttime]. Orphan
Babe Ruth never turned his back on his impoverished people, always helping
them [especially youngsters]. Only in death/posthumously did Weinberg
help the teeming masses, not when Weinberg pillaged anew time & again in life.
Dean Acheson 1893-1971 as Tory [Cold War architect a la George Keenan]
actually was villified by maniac Joe McCarthy/Whig, for not coming down
hard enough on Commies/Reds. In reality, if Stalin had not shown Stalin’s
true colors/ravenous takeover of Eastern Europe, Acheson would not have
gone full throttle on containment. Irony is that Acheson clinched LBJ’s
decision to get out of Vietnam 1968, & advised Nixon on detente w/Soviets.
Acheson lifelong Democrat, though perceived as Tory by McCarthyites.
Acheson was Truman’s Sec. of State 1948-1952. Great thinker KL Ching
born 1936, Whig/grassrooter in heart-spirit, out of NYC Union Theological
tradition [anti-Royalist, anti-Monarchal absolute power], correctly says to
me, “I [KL] always am able to stifle my rage at your [Curt] outlandish
assessment of my solid analyses — remember that Jeremiah Wright’s
attendance at an all-White private school subjected Wright even to
worse racism than Obama was subjected to at Punahou.” KL always
the fighter for the powerless, a Whig to the core. I treasure KL’s
Whig bedrock. To me, KL more tower of strength/righteousness
than Tory mentality. Emerson asked imprisoned Thoreau, “Henry,
what are you doing in here?” To which Thoreau laconicly
deadpanned, “Ralph, what are you doing out there?” Love, –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Luke 4:24 hometown crowd
Opposite of what you think. Born in Bethlehem, Jesus was raised in Nazareth
& there he spoke of hope, not doom — “good news to the common soul — release
the oppressed, this year of our Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19 In turn, Jesus got
shouted down, & the mob tried to hurl Jesus off the brow of the hill to the cliff
below. Jesus then lamented that no prophet is accepted in his hometown. Luke
4:24 Earl Finch is the tragic exemplar — Earl befriended the British/AJA infantrymen
who trained at Camp Shelby Miss. Earl’s Hattiesburg citizens railed into him, “Why
do you go overboard to help these guys? They’re not even from our country!!”
Earl responded, “We’re all on the same side. Why shouldn’t I help them?”
Earl was run out of town, an outcast among his own people. Just like Jesus said.
442 John Tsukano 1924-2005 is the bitter pill for his fellow 442 boys — his boys
didn’t know what to make of Tsukano’s mission to chronicle their history. After
all, former swim titlist Tsukano was a promoter/entrepreneur [great friend of Hilo's
Richard Pablo Chinen], & his 442 boys thought he was trying to sell them
something. Why they didn’t get leery about Yempuku if they were leery of
Tsukano is because Yempuku was their sempai/older brother via VVV roots.
Nonetheless, Tsukano’s “Bridge of Love” book is the greatest history of the
AJA soldiers, all at his own expense!! He literally went broke putting it all
together — for his love of his fellow boys. Imagine, Tsukano an outcast in
his own gang!! Luke 4:24 hits me like a boulder, man. Finch/Tsukano,
Luke 4:24 is for you!!! Love everlasting, –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 10:54 am
Korean John Yoo born 1967
Waterboarder John Yoo our modern Mengele. Seoul-born of colonial oppression,
Yoo grew up his early life in Philly [Freedom rings!], but his insatiable thirst for power/
heartless drive make him today’s Mengele — king does no wrong/Nazi — from a young
precocious “genius.” The worst kind — all head, no heart. Recipe for disaster, as you
see w/Guantanamo-Abu Ghraib. –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Rudy Peterson/Hung Wai Ching ["HW"]
Rudy Peterson 1904-2003
Hung Wai Ching 1905-2002
Masaji Marumoto 1906-1995
Hung Wo Ching 1912-1996
Rudy Peterson paved the way for Oriental land developers to finance their projects through the Bank of Hawaii. This was a watershed economic opportunity that paved the way for the Orientals to become major Hawaii tycoons. Unfortunately, the tycoons took all the credit for being brilliant without giving credit to a rare (good luck) opportunity after the war and the generous credit extended by Peterson.
Rudy was a buddy of Hung Wai ["HW"] and was instrumental in enabling HW to create the huge subdivisions in Aiea, Pearl City and Waipahu known as developments of Pacific Land Hui. It helped that HW knew the Amfac people who sold him the land. Pacific Land Hui was a limited partnership headed by HW as general partner and a bunch of AJA contractors who were his “boys” at one time or other as limited partners. All made bundles of money as demand far exceeded supply after the war. The engineers were Sunn Low Tom & Hara; Takushi Okamura was the attorney and the accountant was another Buddahead whose name escapes me (later Coopers Lybrand I think). Oahu Homes was the sales agent and was run by some of HW’s “boys.” No one had to hustle for sales in those days because buyers lined up to purchase the “package deals” which had just emerged in those days as an evolution of subdivided land. The first phase sold for $14,000 for a 3 BR home (no sidewalks and overhead utilities). The second phase sold for $17,000. HW was really riding high in those days.
Masaji Marumoto was on BoH Bd. of Directors, & followed Hung Wo Ching under Peterson. Masaji represented
Chinn Ho w/Wai’anae resort plans [after sugar plantation closed down], which is how H-1 Freeway got thru
via federal funds [Heco plant/etc.]. BoH’s Cooke aristocratic persona was diffused via Peterson’s grassroot
image. BoH’s Link Moore a grassroot acolyte. Luso/Portuguese Joe Pao 1916-1977 w/BoH [great CPA Henry
Alves under Pao]. Pao’s greatest project was utterly creative Enchanted Lakes. –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Emmett Till 1941-1955 irascible free thinker
Chicago’s Till’s mom was Miss. delta native, but Till was born into freedom
& savored it in Chicago. Thence Till’s murder by vicious bigots when teen
Till visited his mom’s family in delta flats. Jackie Robinson LA boy, defied
southern bigots/was court-martialed, but acquitted. Till/Robinson
free men, not servile/obedient “niggers” as southerners demanded they be.
–Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame’s Rich Sakakida
Maui-born, O`ahu-raised Rich Sakakida 1920-1996 is MIS’ greatest hero. Plucked
straight out of McKinley High 1939 by Gen. MacArthur, Rich posthumously was
awarded the Distinguished Service Medal 11 yrs. ago. Rich preceded
the 100th Batt./442 by 3+ yrs. Which is why his story only gathers dust among our
AJA soldiers. Rich’s timeline reads like all adventure epics thrown into one lifetime.
Rich goes undercover for MacArthur, gives up his seat to buddahead civie when
MacArthur orders Rich to evacuate after Fall of Bataan. Rich gets tortured by
infamous Jap Kempei Tai secret police, commandeers prison breakout of 500
PI guerrilla soliders, gets shot & goes into hiding in jungle till rescued by fellow
U.S. soldiers. Suffers incredible war wounds, but goes on to live till 1996.
Rich’s superhuman heroics stayed secret until 1978 [Army classified]. He gets
enshrined in MIC HoF in 1988. He’s posthumously awarded DSM in 1998. What
an amazing/death-defying bio. Thru it all, he credited his mother for his stoic
resolve. His dad died when he was 7, leaving his mom to care for her whole
tribe of kids. On the other hand, as we honor Abraham Lincoln on his 200th
birthday anniversary [Hilo's Lincoln Park was created on Lincoln's centennial
1909], Honest Abe lost his mother as a child, revulsed at his tyrannical dad,
which is why Lincoln had affinity for slaves’ plight. –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Fortune or misfortune of circumstance
Gotta reprise Franklin Odo’s blockbuster book “No Sword to Bury,” wherein Herb Isonaga
1921-2009 chafes at Herb’s VVV college peers who inflate their role in forming the eventual
442 RCT. Herb flatly retorts that the VVV was just a gimmick to show our mettle/AJA patriotism
to America, that the boys were in the right place/time aka “fortune of circumstance.” Apt/true.
After appearing before the Sanhedrin, Bible’s Stephen is taken outside & stoned to death. Twist is that
Paul of Tarsus, violent Christian persecutor, approves stoning of Stephen for blasphemy. Yes, this is
the subsequent St. Paul the apostle/ardent defender of the Christian faith. Stephen is my Herb,
who is outnumbered by the monoshiri/talking heads among the infant post-1920 born Varsity Victory
Volunteers AJAs [DPI/DOE chief Oren Long 1934-1946 was our greatest educator/altruist who busted
Big 5 repression of rural kids to stay on plantations by denying them schooling beyond the 8th grade--
Long opened up prep schools in rural hamlets that gave post-1920 born kids audacity/self-confidence
via kids' high school diplomas-- these were the VVVs of Herb's gang -- high-nosed "cream of the crop"
unlike their older, humbler, & wiser pre-1920 born generation of Nisei/AJAs, such as the 100th Batt. boys
born 1918 & earlier, 100th being original 298-299 National Guard conscripts].
Paul of Tarsus typifies the VVV of the educated high-collared Sanhedrin. You know,
life is strange. Ever since our greatest AJA historian Franklin Odo born 1939 published “No Sword to
Bury” [we are Americans, not Japs], nary any 442/VVV commended poor Franklin [they're too much
into their own legend], except Sanhedrin Ted Tsukiyama, who recognizes Odo’s
book as great history. The post-1920 born 442nd boys love themselves too much, & get caught up in
their own press clippings. Franklin, I know their ilk way better than you do. Keep up the faith [history for time
immemorial]. Love, –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Quips
Our English standard schools 1927-1960 & Luso Catholic
schools are AJA’s greatest catalysts to the American Dream.
Ironic, but dual school system’s standard school had majority
AJA/Chinese enrollment into its latter half of existence. Ted
Tsukiyama born 1920 is standard school’s Prince Charming,
just as Kalihi-Palama’s/Hawai`i’s 1st heart bypass surgeon
Dick Mamiya born 1925 is St. Louis High’s & St. Louis MO. U.’s
treasured alumnus.
What distinguishes purist Scrub Tanaka 1915-2006 from Yoichi
Hata’s son Frank? Frank fed off Frank’s Data House
contracts w/State’s George Ariyoshi. Scrub never benefitted materially
from politics. Jack Burns always delegated duties fully, but when
Scrub protested Kaz Abe’s appointment to Supreme Court
[Hilo's Kaz wheeler-dealer/land speculator], Burns told Scrub
that Burns needed Kaz’ expertise as constitutional law guy.
[a joke]
Burns actually rewarded Kaz for being a good Burns team
player. Scrub acceded to Burns’ one/only favor/request.
Militant Isamu Kanekuni born 1921 & his 442 gang were invited
to be American Legion members. When Isamu’s boys saw the
white-haired WWI veterans/old farts, Isamu said, “I not going
stay w/these guys! They old, man!” Isamu roils in laughter
as he himself now is told by radical Jim Albertini, “Isamu, I’ll be
glad that your generation is passing on [dying].” Yikes!!
Jim’s no spring flower [born 1946]. –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Hung Wai Ching despised samurai mystique–beneath HW’s class level
Hung Wai 1905-2002 displaced his own sense of inferiority [not master race-haole]
onto the even-lower class J_ps. Thence his disdain for stoic bushido [way of the
warrior], which he felt was the mantra for despots/thugs to control innocent people.
The paradox is that Hung Wai is our greatest oyabun/warrior of all
[saved our whole Nikkei people from cultural ruin/opened up military to Blacks via
Truman/forced S.Ct. CJ Earl Warren's make-up call Brown v. Bd.of Education 1954/
got Hawai`i Statehood via LBJ/Rayburn (Alamo Lost Battalion)/enabled LBJ's Civil
Rights legacy/facilitated Japan's faith in America/chastened China's Chou En Lai to
acknowledge U.S.' freedoms-liberties-open democracy/etc.]. –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Yuri Kochiyama born 1921/Malcolm X 1925-1965 influenced Ron Fujiyoshi born 1940
Malcolm X/Yuri Mary Kochiyama worked astride each other after Malcolm X & Elijah Muhammad split up. Yuri cradles Malcolm in her
arms after he is mortally wounded [Life Mag]. Yuri’s husband Bill is 442 veteran out of internment camps. Malcolm saw people of color as the world’s majority & went directly into the heart of the urban ghettos to uplift them.
Contrariwise, Martin Luther King focused on narrow civil rights [vs. Malcolm's internationalist human rights] as a minority race struggle
which needed collaboration from middle class Whites/working people. Many Black households have both MX/MLK pix on their living room
walls. Ron favors MX over MLK’s collaborationist bent. Ron was inspired by Union Theol. alumnus Archie Hargraves [Black preacher
who spoke at Church of Crossroads] to go to Chicago Theol. Seminary. Paul Waterhouse at Kalihi Union Church inspired Ron’s dad Donald
1906-2004 to get divinity degree. There dad met mom Lily Satow 1907-2005 [Phi Beta Kappa], whose in-law is Dan Inouye.
Jesse Jackson was Ron’s good friend & a year below Ron at Chicago Theol. Sem. Ron also was inspired by CoCrossroads pastor Delwyn
Raison, who was fired after he gave sanctuary to draft dodgers Vietnam War. Raison ended up a gardener & died recently. Ron also
was inspired by Saul Alinsky, who told Ron’s peer from South Africa, Wandile Ku Se [Miriam Makeba's tribe], “When the boss’ thugs shot at
me, I had to use my six-shooter — you’ll fight for your very life — good luck!” Iao Church’s Mineo Katagiri also inspired Ron to engage in
social works/serving others. Genro/sempai mentorship on Maui — baseballer Iron Maehara’s dad was Ron’s dad Donald’s mentor. Donald in
turn mentored Iron [Iron was homerun hitter Donald's batboy]. Iron’s baby brother Angel [Rusty Blaisdell's chief advisor] in turn mentored Ron.
–Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Buddhist bishop Yemyo Imamura 1867-1932 rebuked Japan’s repression vs. Buddhists
Imperial Japan’s State Shinto [secular emperor as Shinto god]
repressed traditional Buddhism. Thence, our Imamura’s backfire vs. Japan Consulate. Although
Christians [gaijin/hakujin] were more severely punished in Japan, Japan’s Consulate here expediently
worked w/Takie Okumura’s Christians for language schools. –Curt
January 27th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 unique biographer
Johnson is the most-quoted English writer after Shakespeare. High praise,
considering that Shakespeare is the most important
historymaker over the past millennia. Johnson used anecdotes/incidents
selectively ["domestic privacies"]
which revealed true character. I use Johnson’s method to illustrate
character change [such as Hung Wai Ching 1905-2002 going from J_p-beater to J_p-defender]. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:12 am
Lost city of Atlantis –Shinmachi R.I.P. January 21, 1914 to April 1, 1946
2nd generation Shinmachi leaders included the Sekido boys/Beans Iwaoka/
Blackie Watanabe/Ken Nishimoto/Soup Matsuno/King Tut Kohashi/Tommy
Nakashima/Kuma Higashihara. Clearly, Shinmachi’s greatest business
leader was Gunji Kono [Hiroaki's dad]. And Shinmachi’s greatest community
leader who paved the way for fellow 2nd generation leaders above was
Sparky Kawamoto. Credit also to Houselot super athletes Koichi Segawa/
Ironman Morimoto for lending their icon status to build up Shinmachi’s sports. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:16 am
New Media & demise of Old Publishers
Tiffany Edwards Hunt born 1976 & her topic-diverse Big Island Chronicle
lead New Media into the heart of the 21st century, retaining all of
the old gurus/Old Media experts-pundits that inked across hard
newsprint like the Trib/Advertiser/Star-Bulletin/West Hi Today. As Bobby
Command says, Tiffany’s Big Island Chronicle’s greatest strength is
its appeal to opposite sides of the political spectrum, from DU crackpots
to Pentecostal bible-thumpers. Hey, to agree or disagree is not the
point. To be read is the point!! Bobby’s mantra — don’t be ignored,
be read!! –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:18 am
Ben Cayetano’s memoirs
Ben’s greatest strength is that he was not a profligate/wasteful spender
of public monies like Waihee. Ben’s weakness is that he always thought
himself better than he really was. Remember his cha-wung/bowl-shaped
haircut when he entered politics as Jack Burns was dying in 1974? Unlike
Sakada/Pinoy greatest modern hero Ben Menor, our generation’s Ben
Cayetano was as far removed from his Filipino working class constituents
as his current wife Chinese Vicky. Pahoa’s Ben Menor was grassroot to the core,
evidenced by Menor even umpiring youth baseball games. Menor was an
enormous community participant/benefactor, a Filipino version of our
greatest youth enablers Walter Victor Sr./Richard Pablo Chinen. Yes, Menor
was appointed as circuit court judge because his senatorial district was
reapportioned out, leaving him to practice law, which meant him going broke
because he spent his time/money on community enablement. Cayetano is
polar opposite of Ben Menor, Cayetano Ozymandias pharoah a la Harry Kim.
Menor is peasant/fisherman Andrew of Scripture, untold hero. Ben Cayetano
waited until public furor compelled him to get after his earnest chums Dickie
Wong/Henry Peters/Loke Lindsey & Bishop Estate. A knight in shining armor
he is not. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:20 am
JFK’s dad Joe Sr. 1888-1969
Even at age 52, Joe gaffed as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain by
saying that “democracy is finished in England, & it may be here [finished
in U.S.],” & wanted personal audience w/Hitler against FDR’s command.
FDR allowed bootleg Joe [had torrid affairs, incl. sultry Gloria Swanson]
to fall on Joe’s sword/resign in infamy. Go to Britain, & Joe is known as
Jittery Joe [for running quickly to air raid shelter]. Joe was rapacious
anti-Semite/Hitlerite, & backed fellow Irish Joe McCarthy to the end [Joe's
son Rob served on anti-subversive unit until Roy Cohn overpowered
Rob]. Why Joe’s sordid choices? Joe’s grandparents fled to America
amid the Irish famine mid-1840s. Even in Joe’s time half a century
after “Ellis Island,” Boston was terribly sectarian, w/Joe’s Irish Catholics
banished by traditional Yankees/Pilgrims. Thankfully, Harvard’s enlightened
Congregationals countered upper register Yankees by welcoming lower
register/newfound Catholics into elite society, & Joe was among the
downtrodden to gain accession. From there, Joe almost in demented
fashion sought to “conquer the world” by whatever means necessary.
Joe’s inferiority complex impacted on the underclasses below the Irish,
incl. oldtime Negroes & newer immigrants, whom Joe sickenly disdained
as predatory barnacles. Which is why Joe’s progeny sought to rectify
Joe’s cardinal shortcomings on class/ethnic/race issues. Grandchild Caroline
is well aware of Joe’s legacy. Caroline’s make-up call 3rd generation thence 2008. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:21 am
Naniwa theater Waiakea 1922
The Waiakea Theater was built 1915. Stanley Miyamoto took it
over for the Empire theater chain in 1920 & renamed it Naniwa
[ancient name of old Japan capital Osaka -- that means "Look
at this wonder--Osaka bay/hills"] that ran until 1929, after
which it was shuttered until it opened again in 1936. Hilo Trib
1922 article says “the following theaters passed [fire/bldg.]
inspection: Gaiety [torn down 1928 by Doc Hill's Realty Inv.--
Hill's same bldg. as today's Caravan Town store downtown],
Empire [across Palace Theater], Shibata [Shinmachi's Royal
Theater built in 1919--destroyed 1946 tsunami], Naniwa [Waiakea].
Yuraku-Kwan [Mamo] was closed for some changes in the engine
room.” Ta Okamoto aka sumotori Koizumi owned the original Yamato
Za theater 1906 & the original Yuraku-Kwan 1918, but sold the
Yamatoza to Sanji Abe [renamed new Mooheau WWII/old Mooheau
1918 was in Quong Sing Bldg. makai side of Kam Ave. across Haili
St.] –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Ancient mighty port of Naniwa [today's Osaka Japan]
Naniwa literally means “what indeed!!” [a sight to see!!] Naniwa is the
ancient nerve center of commerce in Japan 1,500 yrs. ago, which is today’s
Osaka. It is in Western Japan, meaning Kansai [western part], whereas
today’s Tokyo is in Eastern Japan, meaning Kanto [eastern part]. Naniwa
is the most magical word in Nipponese because it symbolizes great power/
strength, which is why Japan’s Navy that defeated China/Russia a century
ago [that incited Japan's imperialism that resulted in the Pearl Harbor attack]
was led by its battleship Naniwa. Which is why the Naniwa baseball team
here that won the jr. baseball title 1907 had its flag unfurled as Naniwa
1881, when the battleship was conceived [but built in Britain]. Our Nippon
immigrants came from Kansai/Western Japan, thus geographical affinity.
Waiakea/Yashijima Naniwa team 1930s of the Hilo Japanese baseball league
is named after this fairyland word. Interestingly, even today we AJAs have
no clue what the names on our sports uniforms mean. My Wainaku Meisho
team uniform stood for perennial titlists, but to this day I don’t know what
Meisho means, except that Meishoin Church is in Hilo, not Wainaku [had our
Jodo sect church]. If our pidgin definition is the same as the Japan
dictionary version, then meisho means called upon to serve. The 1907
Naniwa baseball squad consisted of later great civic leaders Futoshi Frank
Arakawa pitcher/Hisakichi Hisanaga catcher/TR Saiki-Jack Fujii’s grandpa
Jack-AAA Kenso Nushida’s dad Jiro-Etsu Suyama infielders/Otomatsu Kimura-
Kinji Ise-Ichi Segawa outfielders. Love, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Westernization
Chuukese [fka Truk pre-1990], most populous in Federated States of
Micronesia [over Kosrae/Pohnpei/Yap], are aggressive/Westernized,
having been subjugated to colonialization under Spain/Germany/Japan,
& heavily Americanized post-WWII. You see native colorful long
sarongs that adorn them. You see the women poke ahead of other
garage sale seekers. Totally Westernized, but they are not automatic
American citizens. INS governs them. No, Polynesia/aloha spirit not
Chuukese backdrop per their colonialization. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:26 am
Tribute to wayfinder John Young 1902-1990
Even Buddhist-reared kids came to Scottish John Young’s Nu`uanu Y to
play/have fun/stay out of trouble. Young was Lahaina’s Sheldon Dibble
incarnate. Just as the great Hawaiian scholars learned under Dibble, so did
our Chinese & buddahead leaders train under Young. Young also impacted Japan.
Here is a Nippon’s tribute to Young — “Sensei, it is very difficult for me to face
the reality of bidding farewell to you upon your passing [death]. On a forlorn day
in Occupation Japan, we are at Peace House donated by your good friends the Ted
& Mary Atherton Richards family of Hawaii, awaiting uneasily for our new director.
Here walks in a cheery dandy-looking tall man w/a feather in his hat! It was you!
You were humming & whistling a happy tune! You wore many hats & whistled many
tunes thruout our divine inspiration from you. You are very patient, never gave up
on us, & always encouraged us to be happy. You showed us to love one another, no
matter what the circumstance. You showed us to live!! We were very pleased
that you received the Order of Sacred Treasure from our thankful Government.
May God’s Blessing be upon you, our Oyabun! Sayonara, dearest Sensei.” –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Home sweet home [furusato ni kaide masho]
NYC capitalists wondered why Japan cabal atty. Frank Sogi wanted to come
back to Hawai`i to live out his remaining yrs. [Frank born 1923] Back to the
oldtime folk song Furusato Ni Kaide Masho! Nothing like home. When Isamu
Kanekuni’s son comes back from New Jersey to visit family here, Isamu’s son
eats at Cafe 100. Home sweet home.
Japan provided needed equipment for our Korean War supplies. Thence its
foray into technology. Nobility/gentility are still prized in Japan. Which are
why Masaji Marumoto’s refinement in feudal piety earned him the
distinction as 1st Nisei bd. member in Issei JCC, surpassing non-member
Nisei Wil Tsukiyama/Bob Murakami [older Nisei who came before Marumoto]. -Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Unsung hero Jerry Hirata born 1944
Jerry Hirata’s dad was a commerical fisherman, then worked at AmFac. His mom also
worked, & Jerry grew up along Piopio St. [where Wailoa Visitor Center is today],
grassroot all the way. Jerry is a realtor by vocation but always was an unsung hero,
having managed Jerry Chang’s campaign when Chang was still in Puna. Chang was
good for Puna because Chang worked w/majority leadership solons. You never hear
about Jerry Hirata, because Jerry does not covet the spotlight. But Jerry is selfless
in service to our community a la Linda Smith/Sus Ono, background leaders who
are the strength behind executive decisions. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Gullible young college students/fanaticism
It’s sad that kids eat up the “pacifism” of Jim Albertini/Ron Fujiyoshi, w/out asking
the sensible question, “who ensures the right to pacifism?” Incredulously, same w/
self-determination/Hawaiian Nationalism. Love, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Human nature good & bad
Luso Albert M. Felix saved Jack Burns’ police career when disgruntled peers tried to plant
contraband in Burns’ locker [Burns was a straight cop, not corrupted under Chief
Gabrielson], in retaliation for Burns’ upfront honesty. Felix told Burns about the set-up,
& Burns sank the scheme w/out a word. Long after Burns/Felix left HPD, Burns always
supported GOP Felix after Felix returned to Hilo [& Felix' transfer as circuit judge from
O`ahu to Hilo]. Burns never forgot loyalty/devotion, ergo Al Felix’ fidelity to compadre
Burns. In contrast, moocher radio/newspaper personality Kiyo Okubo struck fear in
Hilo merchants/entrepreneurs like Iwao Kitagawa [Motors] because Kiyo could turn/
backstab anyone via Kiyo’s media mogul ownership/status. Hilo businessmen feared
moocher/extortionate Okubo. Yes, this is how despicably abusive/powerful Okubo was.
Okubo ruled by fear, not trust/respect/compassion. By the time I was approached by
Okubo, Okubo 1905-2001 was a broken-down man in his 70s who always had a crush on my mom.
Okubo’s later wife was local/much younger than him, like my mother. Mom was Okubo’s
high school student/Okubo was her teacher. Mom was class officer/hoops team capt.
[today's Hanato descendants Bobbie Awa/Jessica Hanato/etc. carry on Mom's genesis]/
popular/etc., which Okubo titillated over. Okubo was coveter [of favors/money/easy
thrills/etc.]. Not the rosy picture that naive later beauties like broadcaster Tomoe
Nagahisa Nishi lived thru post-WWII. Yeah, Kiyo Okubo was a user/cheapskate to
the max. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Obama’s strategy [pre-2008 election results]
Yes, Russia’s invasion of ex-USSR Georgia is McCain’s ace in the hole [foreign
policy experience]. McCain doesn’t covet Bush’s endorsement because of
Bush’s unpopular Iraq War. Obama consistently opposed our Iraq policy.
Obama needs to sail right into McCain’s ID w/Bush on Iraq. Yes, McCain
[like Shinseki] opposed inadequate troop levels 130,000, but McCain stuck
w/Bush despite Bush’s lack of a sound game plan post-occupation. Obama’s
opportunity to criticize McCain’s lack of foresight on Iraq. Desert Storm
had half million troops. Bush had personal grudge vs. Saddam for Saddam’s
plan to kill elder dad Bush. Obama needs
to denounce McCain on McCain’s “support for the rich” on corp taxes/
dividend income. Yes, Caspian Sea’s oil pipeline runs thru Georgia, thus
our interest in Georgia. But U.S. “interfered” w/secessionism by helping
Kosovo secede from Serbia. Condy Rice has had no impact on
peacekeeping. Our occupation of Iraq reminds me of Dien Bien Phu when
Giap disassembled his artillery, trekked up the hills, then re-assembled his
artillery. The complacent French never dreamed that NVN would beat the
French. Giap said that it’s folly to fight conventionally vs. U.S./European
powers.
Justice Sandra Day O’Conner retired to be w/her Alzheimer-stricken husband.
Mazie Hirono has no guts, per chauvinist Scrub. Mazie straddled the fence
until it was clear that Obama was the presumptive nominee. Joe Welch was
the David who turned the tables vs. Joe McCarthy. Roy Cohn went on to Lionel
toy train plunder. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Open vs. closed primary election
Hawai`i opened its primary system in 1978 after a 10 yr. try w/the closed primary.
Ed Case’s winning 45% of Dem primary votes vs. Akaka [via alleged crossovers
from GOP/independents] triggered talk of restoring the closed primary ["to avert
letting the other team pick our quarterback"]. Though the closed primary is
favored by the U.S. Supreme Court [freedom of association which protects
political parties], it lowers voter turnout [only 20,000 were Dem cardholders
of our State's 662,000 registered voters up to Obama's Dem win 2008,
w/17,000 more after original vote count], Hawai`i having the lowest turnout.
–Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:36 am
Who owns the former Crown lands? We do, not just Hawaiians
Crown lands belonged to the Monarch, not to ethnic Hawaiians as a racial group.
In 1865 the government took ownership of the crown lands on behalf of the
multiracial group of all Kingdom subjects, while using the revenue to support
the Monarch. Hawaiians as a racial group do not own the former crown lands.
The State of Hawai`i holds the former crown lands in trust for the benefit
of all of Hawai`i people, not just Hawaiians. Jon Van Dyke is ill-informed.
Money buys ignorance, not knowledge, for decadent influence peddler Jon.
Yes, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabi confiscated White farmlands (& executed
the owners). Geez, so much hate in the world today. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:42 am
Yoshio Inaba 1911-2008 exemplifies the American Dream
Holualoa’s Inaba kazoku/family epitomized the American Dream. Fukuoka
free immigrant Zentaro & Hiroshima’s Hatsuyo raised Minoru 1904-2002, esteemed
educator & tremendous community builder, who later served in the
State House of Representatives 1969-1972, & 1975-1980. Nisei
Albert 1902-1977 was a public school principal & a community builder on
Moloka`i for nearly 30 years. Norman majored in business adm/acct
at UH, ‘36 grad, & implored, “The first step to economic security lies in
land ownership. No one can chase you off your land as long
as you keep both feet firmly on the ground. The early Japanese
lagged behind Hawaii`s economy because they had no intention of
settling here and hence made no effort to acquire land.” Needless
to say, Norman [1914-2003] was known as “king of Japanese
developers.” Goro was State Land Use commissioner 1963-1973.
And Yoshio was our County Public Works chief 1953-1963.
Yoshio was among the rarest few AJAs who served in the Army
w/no restriction here immediately after 12/7/41 [engineer].
Yoshio was regarded for his conservation principles as
County engineer here. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:44 am
Kea`au’s Yasuki Arakaki pain in the butt for ILWU
Per George Martin, Yasuki 1917-2005 loved himself too much, & often
was a distraction/not a team player. In contrast, soft-spoken, stoic
Wataru Kawamoto of Mt. View was the consummate team player.
In management negotiations, George’s word was his bond, & his
bond was always secured by his commitment/follow-through. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:44 am
I also read Cayetano’s book.
It was one of the best books I ever read. Reading about how he took care of and moved in his Filipino stepfather (who never realized Ben knew the truth of who his “biological” father was) reminded me of my maternal filipino grandmother (from the same generation) moving in with me and me taking care of her. All of the little habits this old tata had brought back memories of my grandma.
When I was enlightened to this fact in the book, my opinion of Cayetano changed and I was never a fan of beforehand.
But, I don’t think he turned his back on his heritage and upbringing but more moved in a different direction and changed with all of his career responsibilities.
That is one of the reasons he and his first wife ended up separating.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:45 am
1960s hippies should thank their parents for freedom to experiment
Yes, the hippie generation was imperious via unmatched schooling. But
WWII’s “greatest” generation perished in combat to give its children
the freedom to experiment/be fools w/out lethal reprisals. What say
is the hippies’ legacy? The spoiled brat generation. Freedom’s children. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:47 am
Jesus’ momentary self-desolation on the cross was but God’s will to have
Jesus die to save everyone. There was divine method to the madness.
In contrast, Mother Teresa’s self-desolation [unable to speak w/God] was
but mortal reckoning, expected but not divine. In such “weakness” of the
flesh, supporters/faithfuls are crucial to restore confidence/self-esteem.
Yes, honesty/authentication are bottom line necessities, but not divine
vs. Jesus’ lamentation ["Why has thy Father deserted me?"]. Similarly,
Shiro Sokabe/Hung Wai Ching found themselves in unwanted isolation
a la Mother Teresa, just because of their mortal/expected frailties.
There are numerous instances in the Bible where the faithful are unable
to speak w/God. Such self-sadness is overcome via divine purpose –
not to question but to do, so to speak. For to question is to make
man replace God. And as w/institutional Catholicism, to replace
Jesus w/the Roman church. Why should a substitute in turn
replace God’s designated substitute Jesus? Unneeded rollover.
Yes, sin is universal/replete, but to propagate progeny fruit of
the poisonous tree/Adam’s apple, is to miss the point of carrying
out God’s will — to save our souls. Not to dwell on sin. Thence,
ignorance is bliss, at least in moving forward to save souls, not sink
in past sin. To everything there is a season, & a purpose to be.
Whatever God wills. Yes, Norman Vincent Peale’s power of positive
thinking. Dr. Phil’s progenitor. Or, as Nipponese profess, “shikata
ga nai” [accept defeat but be positive]. The Serenity prayer.
Love, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Great altruist Bob Midkiff born 1920 [common saint Frank's son]
Bob was just feted w/tremendous humanitarian award, long overdue/deserved to no end.
Bob’s mom is Ruth Richards Midkiff, whose mom is Big 5 godfather Frank Atherton’s older
sister, whose mom is C&C co-founder Amos Starr Cooke’s daughter. Bob’s uncle is
Atherton Richards, who sent/sponsored Anson Chong to Punahou. Bob’s great grand-uncle
is Charles Montague Cooke, son of Amos Starr Cooke. Charles co-founded Lewers &
Cooke [lumber/bldg. supply]. Bob’s dad Frank Midkiff 1887-1983 came from genesis
of modern service to community [Lions/Rotary/Exchange/Kiwanis/Elks/Chicago's Edgar
Robinson became 1st Boy Scout director/Billy Sunday's Prohibition 1919] Midwest,
Illinois, in 1913, was buddaheads’ greatest supporter, went to bat for us as soon
as he landed, started all-buddahead Co. D Hawai`i National Guard WWI, was biggest
supporter of Takie Okumura’s New Americans Conferences [along w/genesis
& Okumura mentor Frank Atherton & C&C co-founder Samuel N. Castle's son
William Richards Castle 1849-1935 (no relation to Bob Midkiff's Richards ohana),
who bankrolled Doshisha U. Japan & whose son Alfred L. Castle 1884-1972
was an influential asst. secretary of state for Far Eastern Affairs in D.C.].
No denying, Bob’s dad also was huge supporter of Hawaiians, prexy KS
1923-1934, BE trustee 1939-1983 [succeeded grassroots Dick Trent 1917-1939
both died in office]. Bob Midkiff was longtime godfather of trusts/
profit-sharing here, actually started profit-sharing w/Haw’n Trust Co. [mentor
was curmudgeon/fatherly Herb Ware Camp], & later headed parent co. of
American & Bishop Trust Cos. Yes, Midkiff roots are Danish [hard scrabble/
no-nonsense], but have Haw’n blood here. Interestingly, Bob told me to
squash racial praise of him as champion of us buddaheads [Bob always
enabled/supported buddahead orgs/causes] when Bob ran for BOE. Like
Jesus [Samaritans], Bob believes that focus on race/ethnicity fuels strife/
discord w/out primary emphasis on pluralism/diversity. Great lesson. BOJaps stigma.
BTW, both Frank Atherton’s dad Joseph Ballard Atherton 1837-1903 &
W.R. Castle above supported Sun Yat Sen’s democratic revolution in China.
Yes, these are larger than life Bob Midkiff’s roots/backdrops. Bob still is
spry mentally, but he’s on his last legs physically, & his mumbling utterances
are barely discernible anymore. Like HSPA expert/historian Bob Hughes, Midkiff
never will be replaced. Both hombres’ legacies are irreplaceable/irrepressible.
Love always, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:49 am
Buddhist philosophy
Buddhism dismisses the duality of mind/body, Creator/created, asserting that “self” is the problem [personification/
egocentric world view], which results in delusion/suffering. Dismissal of “self” results in compassion/equal footing
[greatest good for others -- utilitarianism]. Thanks, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Scribe John Burnett’s great testimonial to Paul Mark Clark, Shakespeare thespian R.I.P.
Paul was the warm balm to law partner Steve Christensen’s strident stature. Everyone loved
Paul, such a gentle/mild-mannered/tender soul. Paul was heartbroken for many years
after his girlfriend left him, & bravely admitted so. Paul’s life actually reads like a Shakespeare
tragedy, w/lilts-dips thruout. St. Peter has been looking forward to meet Paul, a special
emissary of Truth/Wisdom from our mortal plane. Shakespeare delights in welcoming his
new member up above. As biographer Pete Serafin quoted Shakespeare, Adieu,
& take thy praise w/thee to heaven. Henry IV, Act v, Sc. 4 Love always, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:55 am
No referendum to annexation
The grassroot population did not vote for/against annexation. No, it was not popular
will. Annexation by joint resolution of Congress was used to annex Texas & then
Hawai`i in 1898. The only measure of popular participation is after the fact, when
our territorial solons, including our delegates to Congress, promoted Statehood.
In 1893, ethnic Hawaiians constituted 40% of the population, but their voting age
base was lower, because most Asian immigrants were adults. In Lili`u’s 1893 domain,
75% of ethnic Hawaiians were denied suffrage because of gender/literacy/
property/age requirements. But because of the racial disenfranchisement of Asian
immigrant adults, ethnic Hawaiians still amounted to two-thirds of the electorate for
representatives & one-third for Nobles. Dole’s Republic’s Constitution removed the
express racial exclusion of Asian immigrants from suffrage which Lili`u had forced,
but because Asian immigrants could not be naturalized [such Congressional
prohibition predated annexation, e.g. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882], ethnic
Hawaiians remained the majority of the electorate all the way up thru the
1930s [up to just before WWII]!! Chinese were allowed citizenship in 1943,
Filipinos in 1946, & Japanese in 1952. In 1930 Asians accounted for two-thirds
of the overall population but only one-quarter of adult citizens. % of AJA voters in
relation to overall voting population rose from one-tenth in 1926 to one-quarter in
1936. Thence practical/prescient Joe Farrington’s co-optation of the auspicious/
growing Asian/AJA voting bloc come 1942 [Joe's inaugural election as delegate to
Congress]. But irrefutably, the Trasks/Heens propagated suffrage in martial law
Hawai`i to rid `Iolani Palace & county supervisors of J_ps [like Hilo solons Sanji
Abe/Tommy Sakakihara/Hilo Bd. of Supvsrs.' Frank Ishii]. Yes, the benevolent
Big 5/haole oligarchy [Joe Farrington was Star-Bulletin owner/GOP] were more
sympathetic to us than our favored Hawaiians. Akin to Disraeli’s unison/merger
of England’s upper class w/its lower class vs. the intermediate middle class/populace
power brokers a century before Joe Farrington & indubitable Asian galvanizers
Hung Wai Ching/Shigeo Yoshida, native-born Hawai`i citizens. Yes, our Asian
allies consisted of our haole GOPs. Our tormentors were the anomalous “gang of
one” Democratic Party’s Trask/Hawaiian cronies. Yikes. Opposite of what you
think. Dems as party of the unwashed? No way. My heroes are Big 5 oyabun/GOP
godfather Frank Atherton [1878-1945] & Charles Hemenway 1875-1947 [Ted Tsukiyama's
genro/elder statesman]. Hung Wai Ching/Kats Kometani/Mas Marumoto eventually
became Statehood Joe Farrington’s holy trinity [after Kats/Mas returned from WWII
all-Nisei combat duty/after Hung Wai gloriously stepped down as all-Nisei boys'
messiah/patron saint]/kitchen cabinet. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:56 am
If the Monarchy/Lili`u were restored in 1893
Nationalist Lili`u would’ve counted on European powers to offset the U.S. advantage
[of geographical proximity as opposed to other world powers]. Just as Jack Burns
invoked 70 yrs. later, Lili`u would’ve exhorted her race to defy its inferiority of spirit,
its ideology of defeat/failure. Lili`u’s problem was her pa`akiki utterly stubborn
nature a la today’s imperialist/Prexy George Bush. Thurstonites run her off her throne, so
she decides to avenge herself to her delight by declaring their beheading, which brought
down the house in international circles, w/world press having a field day off her visceral
absurdity. A Disraeli/Gladstone of equanimity she was not. Lili`u eventually learned to be
more collaborative, to use intermediaries to class up to international calibre, & to accept
the inevitability of social/economic change on a global scale [importation of cheap labor/
immigration]. Kamehameha III [Kauikeaouli], longest-reigning monarch, 1825-1854,
was far superior to closed-minded Lili`u, he being magnanimous/prescient in transforming
Kamehameha the Great’s feudal rule into a constitutional monarchy based on ideas of
law and democracy inspired by England and America. His 1840 Constitution which
incorporated the Declaration of Rights invoked the common law maxim that the King
must not be under man but under God and under the law because law makes the
King. As Rex v. Booth [1863, 2 Haw. 616, 630] intoned, Kamehameha III
originally possessed, in his own person, all the attributes of absolute sovereignty.
Of his own free will, he granted the Constitution of 1840, as a boon to his
country and to his people, establishing his Government upon a declared plan.
Yes, his Constitution introduced the grassroot glory of representatives chosen by
the people — for the first time ever, the common lot shared in actual political power &
in government – common provision come alive!! Contrast Kamehameha III w/Lili`u –
in January 1893 she triggered chaos/anarchy by forcing her new constitution by royal
fiat, adding fuel to the forces of coup d`etat. Little Caesar Lili`u asserted royal power to
abrogate and grant constitutions/unhinge elementary stability of checks/balances, force
her absolute veto at will, appoint most solons, exercise absolute autocracy over all
subjects of the Kingdom, from peasants/maka`ainana-hoa`aina to cabinet ministers/etc.
She would have disenfranchised many voters by reprising property qualifications on
voting for representatives and by denying suffrage to everyone else. Lili`u’s own
cabinet refused to support her absolute tyranny/iron fist. Thus, Lili`u’s megalomania/
absolute autocracy precipitated today’s cult of inferiority/failure/victimization promoters
[UH-Manoa Haw'n Studies gang/OHA/KS/etc.]. Whoa is me cultists propagandize
exploitation/superiority vs. non-Haw’ns a la slave traders. Are we not common subjects a la
Kamehameha III? Or are we second class people based on our immutable bloodline? Equal/
common provision make no exception based on diverse origin/genesis. The Hawaiian
Nation is not about race. It is about nationhood. Equal subjects/citizens, equal
respect/treatment. Had Lili`u gone on as absolute ruler, her totalitarian fist-choke
would have been ended violently by revolution from everyone but her throneroom
retainers. Yes, everyone. Violence begets violence. Beheading to avenge like Lili`u leads
to anarchy/removal of fundamental respect for social cohesion/governance. Lili`u was
forced to soften her approach to diplomacy by the reality of equal provision/common sense.
Yes, she was not a good ruler/leader. But she is Hawaiian. So what? Nationhood is
about leadership/common provision, not absolute tyranny a la sad exemplar Lili`u. Visualize
this, in light of today’s hewa hatists/fearful avariceists Trasks/Osorio/etc., our 442nd boys
would’ve been guerrilla soldiers taking down `Iolani Palace. Not a pleasant thought. Had
Lili`u been restored.
Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:58 am
And by the way, before I forget, thanks Curtis. I enjoy your writing and insight into issues.
I would love to read your recent posts (seems you might be back in the saddle again writing) but I don’t know if I will have the time today because I have other committments for help to do for friends and want to go pig hunting this afternoon in Kapoho.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Kawainui rr bridge was just mauka of man-made cave/tunnel
From the old Onomea scenic route, when you reach Kawainui wood
bridge by Onomea bay, look mauka where you’ll see the gaping hole
in solid rock. This is the Kawainui diversion tunnel that allowed the
rr to be built on fill over the Kawainui stream just mauka of the tunnel.
If you drive down from mauka, go makai of the Onomea water wheel
[which is on old Onomea camp rd. half mile below the main highway
where belt rd. short/little Kawainui bridge is. This tunnel is a marvel
to behold, blasted thru in 1910. Old Onomea Rd. is past the 9 mile marker
if you’re coming from the Hilo direction, a mile before you reach
Pepe’ekeo. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Water mass kills odor
As wino Gomes told Steamy Chow when Gomes went to retrieve
dead bodies from Wailoa pond post-tsunami of 4/1/46, keep the
body under water until the last minute, to kill the odor. Gomes got
free liquor in return for retrieving dead bodies. Steamy repeated
this rule of thumb at the Tsunami Museum fundraiser. -Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Narcissist Chinese George Baker
Yes, Chinese George descended from the famous John Baker family
[former governor of Hawai`i Island Monarchy era]. Theater mogul
Adam Baker [Gaiety/Palace/etc.] also same ohana/family. Chinese
George owns the properties run by Blane’s Drive-In, on top of the
makai block b/n Keawe St. & Furneaux Lane, among other properties.
George always talks about himself & got Steamy Chow & me so disgusted
that we told George on separate occasions, “A, George, I no mo’ time
to talk story w/you. I gotta’ do something else right now.” I even
told George that if George wants to retain listeners, George should show
respect & bring omiyage/gift w/him for listener. I told George that George’s
self-image of self-made man is illusory — George is a vain/self-absorbed
narcissist, & if George were to tape record himself, he’d know what I’m
talking about. Nonetheless, George didn’t accept what I/Steamy told
George [Steamy told George that Steamy doesn't have time to listen to
George's verbal diary, ergo diarrhea of the mouth]. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Naomi Fukagawa born 1952 Honomu’s forgotten icon
Naomi Fukagawa was from Naomi Hayakawa’s class of destiny, where
Kalaniana`ole school alumni [North Hilo coast] dominated as top 10
scholastic leaders Hilo High 1970. Naomi went on to be M.D. [Northwestern
U. grad]. She is Lincoln Wrecker oyabun/godfather Frank Ishii’s kin. Frank
from Honomu but was great baseballer/sponsor & lived in central Hilo,
working for Helco’s Kimo Henderson. Onomea’s Richard Jitchaku owned
land/investments Ponahawai ahupua`a & also sponsored Lincoln
Wrecker events. Sadly, Naomi Fukagawa’s uncle/dad both apparently
committed suicide [jump off Honomu oceanside cliff/carbon monoxide
car exhaust]. Which is why Naomi never came back here. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Newspaper political leaning
L. Thurston’s Honolulu Advertiser conservative until George Chaplin came on
at Statehood. Twigg-Smith’s uncle/publisher Lorrin P. Thurston was
retrograde, so Twigg wanted to make sure that HA kept up w/the times,
which is why Southern Jew [a scorned people] Chaplin came on board to
free up the right-wing mindset. Media giant Gannett [largest in U.S.
newspaper circulation-- USA Today], for GOP Frank Gannett 1876-1957
Rochester NY, right-leaning, bought Star-Bulletin from Farrington scions 1971
[Wally conservative, Governor 1920-1930, deferred to Merchant St.
godfather Frank Atherton 1878-1945, & prior to Atherton, to Ed Tenney,
both of C & C; Wally's son Joe Farrington 1897-1954 liberal/inclusive--incl.
color-blind editor Riley Allen, who popularized acronym AJA for 100th/VVV/442]
but sold SB 1993 to buy HA [joint operating agmt. prevented sole ownership
of 2 np]. HA centrist, but editorial pages liberal, just like Vancouver B.C. Black
Press SB [bought SB 9 yrs. ago]/Mid-Week. Stephens Media right-wing [Hilo Trib/
Dave Bock][WH Today's Bobby Command liberal--now Mayor Kenoi's EA for WH
district--BC got along well w/retro boss Reed Flickinger, testament to BC's
peace-builder talent/gift]. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Corpulent lefty pitcher Barney Joy 1883-1938
Kanaka Barney Joy 6′0 225 lbs. was 25 yrs. old by the time he & best
friend Charlie En Sue Pung 1880-1944 were recruited to Stateside pro
ball. Pung declined to go because of Pung’s burgeoning family [later swim
star son Barney Joy Pung 1919-1978 married golf legend Jackie Liwai].
Barney Joy’s kids became great athletes, incl. namesake “Jr.” 1907-
2001 who went on to be a multi-sport icon [& for whom Sr. got
homesick & forsook further Stateside play 1907]. Baseball-fever.com
amps the mania surrounding the color line vs. Barney Joy 1907.
Bronze-skinned Joy was thought to be “Malay” & of dark Negro color,
& thus ineligible for big league play. Irony is that Joy is distant cousin
of baseball founder Alex Joy Carwright, who settled in Honolulu & became
fire station boss/library founder. Cartwright in Cooperstown HoFame. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Marion Arakawa born 1922 [Frank's single daughter 1891-1977]
Marion grew up on Keawe St. next to Steamy Chow [born 1922]. Marion
is a great writer who compiled her life story solely for her nieces/nephews/
progeny. Amazing downtown Hilo history thru the eyes of a child. Marion
describes walking thru bushes to get to what she calls black sand lot, where
water pooled into a shallow lake after heavy rains — what is today our
downtown KTA parking lot. I told Marion that black sand lot was the home
of Little Tokyo district a century ago before the whole block burned down
from a fire 1914. She was stunned that her jungle/duck haven once was bustling
Little Tokyo. Marion preserved her famous dad’s letters during internment
WWII. In them he asks Marion’s mom to get the 1916 Washington Birthday
speech that he gave about serving 2 mothers — Lady Mikado/Lady Liberty.
He needed the speech to spring earlier from confinement. Alas, mom didn’t
have it. But 50 yrs. later I bump into this still remarkably attractive-
looking daughter who knew nothing about dad Frank’s enormous symbolism
of Lady Mikado/Lady Liberty. Frank’s speech was quoted verbatim in the
Trib in 1916 [now known as President's Day]. Frank said that no one has
2 birth mothers. Either we are born from Lady Mikado [Japan] or from Lady
Liberty [U.S.]. Frank/Sanji Abe 1895-1982/Ernie Mitsuo Kuwahara 1899-
1982 are AJAs born HERE. We are born from Lady Liberty. Problem is that
Japan exercised citizenship even over those born outside of Japan, thus
ensnaring us w/dual citizenship [jus sanguinis]. Western culture has jus soli,
that we are citizens of our place of birth. No problem w/dual citizenship.
No, Luso query is chosen dual citizenship — Luso/Portuguese National/alien
gets denizen status via approved application w/Haw’n Kingdom. In contrast,
242 Luso became naturalized Haw’n Kingdom citizens [up to overthrow 1893],
thereby ceasing to be citizens of Portugal, as they had chosen to do. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Guadalcanal Army/Marine commander Gen. Alex Patch 1889-1945
Alex wanted to be cavalry like his dad, but cavalry/horses phased out,
so Alex went infantry. Paradox WWII is that Alex commands U.S. ground
forces Guadalcanal 1942, then commands 442 boys 7th Army Southern
France. “Fights the Japs [Alex respected the enemy]/wins w/Japs” –
irony. Alex’ infantry son killed 10/22/44, Alex dies of respiratory failure
yr. later. When John McCain was POW NVN, his CO dad looked afar north
toward the horizon from SVN base, undoubtedly thinking of his son. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Regulatory capture
Buzzword “deregulation” actually promoted by much-maligned Richard
Nixon [Nixon correctly sought to bust essential/utility cartels ergo
RR/transit a la Teddy Roosevelt nearly a century before -- trusts-
buster]. Jimmy Carter’s econ guru Al E. Kahn born 1917 [Cornell prof]
deregulated the airline industry, resulting in lower fares but unsafe air
travel [cut corners--marginal cost debacle]/inconvenient loss of
amenities. FAA is captured by/pawn of its “usual suspects” [airlines].
NTSB the honest consumer advocate. CAB was deregged out of
existence. Lo/behold, today’s Wall St. regulatory capture results in the
greatest crisis since 1929 stock market crash. Kahn wanted to dereg
the monolithic telecom industry [cable/etc.], but lost fans as consumers
felt the downsides of dereg [fragile services/frequent flyer miles worthless
amid replete bankruptcies/etc.]. Of course, Sherman anti-trust act
available to counter oligopoly [cyberspace-Gates/media lockbox-Murdoch].
Our greatest destiny-makers actually arose vs.the RR robber barons/
bank tycoons [like today's Lehman/AIG consorts] a century ago –
“Granger” boys Del Metzger/Oren Long/Martin Pence, & today’s residue
Tom Coffman, among others in Hawai`i. Idol worship of Wall St.
“money is god” tycoons a recipe for disaster, as you see this week.
Stick w/the tried & true [our "Granger" boys]. Recipe for long life/peace
of mind. An aside — McCain’s campaign chief’s firm bleeding dry us
American taxpayers, man, the knife hurts/like Murdoch’s news corp
not paying a penny in corp taxes ["creative offshore tax havens"].
Microsoft predator [Gates] got sued via Sherman anti-trust act but
settled out of court. To blind Obama worshipers, McCain’s fall
is the best thing for you to date, but Obama needs to get real on
ending our self-destructive imperialism around the world — Afghanistan
should be off limits to us, except for destroying terrorist cells! Love,–Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Human migration/social progress
Amazing how quickly humanity developed w/social-technological progress
as homo sapiens migrated out from Africa to other continents just
35,000 yrs. ago. Only in 10,000 B.C. [end of Ice Age] did agricultural
settlements begin, w/Mesopotamia/Sumer being the world’s oldest
civilization 3,500 B.C. First year of the Jewish calendar is 3,760 B.C. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Yashijima [yashi-coconut---jima/island] shin/new issei
Waiakea/Yashijima encompasses customary Coconut Island/Mokuola ["healing island"].
Yashijima’s shin issei surpassed central Hilo’s kyu/earlier issei, especially in commerce.
The twist is that central Hilo’s older businesses ignored Yashijima’s up & comers.
Even among sports buffs, Yashijima’s kids were decried as furyoshonen/outcasts.
Yet Yashijima’s kids went on to become our greatest athletes/teams till this day.
Japan’s Chubu region’s Yamanashi [Carl Okuyama's kazoku/family] & Niigata [Kiyo
Okubo/Rich Imai's kazoku/family] were farming areas, as opposed to Chugoku region’s
Yamaguchi/Hiroshima, which were townships/urban. Which is why Kiyo preferred the
company of the Okuyamas, not the city folks [Matsuno/Kitagawa/Taniguchi].
Geography dictates relationships, both in Japan/here in Hawai`i. So when Hilo’s
repressed Uchinanchu/Okinawan Shokan Shimabukuro [Jesse Shima] 1901-2002
centenarian/shin issei hitches ride cross sea/country to D.C. & becomes the
greatest Nikkei/Japanese descendant in America [restored Japan's trust in U.S.
post-WWII reconstruction/retained Okinawa sovereignty instead of being U.S.
commonwealth], Jesse’s exemplar [Uchinanchu "to bat," over crusty high-nosed
Naichi/mainland Japan] demonstrates the settler/American dream mentality of
our shin issei, vs. older kyu issei [who later resigned to live in America,
lamentingly]. Pi`ihonua native son/retired Air Force AWAC Col. Henry
Shimabukuro, phone 969-2032, lives in deceased mama’s home — is Jesse’s nephew. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Gov. Lingle the GOP demoralizer
Karen Awana [Bob's kin] was shunned out of her GOP by Gov. Lingle. Incredulous!
Heartless opportunist Mike Gabbard’s only loyalty is to his own egomania. Gov.
Lingle’s divisive/autocratic rule [nepotism/favoritism] resulted in GOP confab/
convention delegates reduced to half of past grassroot attendance/fete
[1,000 down to 500]. Lingle’s sneaky partisan prop for Fred Blas [via Dylan
Nonaka's unthinking hatchet job] resulted in GOP stalwart Brian Jordan’s [born 1955]
[delivered unmatched 24 delegates to GOP convention -- defectors from Dem &
Green Parties] disgustedly quitting GOP & joining Dem Party. Lingle’s
despotic rule rears itself again & again. Indisputably, Lingle’s tragic GOP legacy
forbodes failure for GOP candidates. Lingle elevates herself at expense of party
faithfuls [incl. Brian's lifelong GOP wife Kim Jordan, who signed up as Dem]
& alienates heartland strength [incredibly charismatic acolytes/devotees Merle
Nishimura Lam/gorgeous Lorraine Shin/Jane Tatibouet/Barbara Marumoto/etc.].
Unreal! Green Party’s environmentalist Rene Siracusa’s [Sicilian born 1938] template
is Margaret Mead, who implored, “Never doubt that a group can change this world
for the better, which has in fact changed for the better.” Dem defector Rene’s
cherished slogan should cause pause for retrogade Lingle. So sad, backslide so
far down from the glory days of egalitarian/grassroot GOP Statehood Joe Farrington
1897-1954. If Joe had not died of a sudden massive heart attack at his peak, there
would not have been the Dem Party “Revolution” of 1954 [5 months after Joe's death].
Love, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:12 am
E guai ni ita ra a go nei [everything will be allright]
Hope, as when Dan Inouye’s parents built up their River St. Christian chapel. Why do you
think Inouye has a foul mouth? Because he’s a pious carpenter’s/deacon’s son. Yes, Dan’s otosan
studied under Lyman at Hilo’s Boarding School, & met Maui native okasan to build up chapel.
Comfort, as when Ted Tsukiyama’s parents worshipped Christ at Inouyes’ chapel. Love, as to
why Dan Inouye can ignore Ted, because Dan knows that no matter what, these 2 mavericks
always shall be wed by family roots/backdrops. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Mikado Motherland or Lady Liberty?
After the 1908 Gentleman’s Agreement b/n Japan/U.S., Japan stayed out of
U.S. Nikkei affairs, which is why Japan ambassadors told Issei to be loyal
Americans, even though Nikkei were still Japan citizens under Japan’s laws
[jus sanguinis which claims citizenship of children born of Nippon parentage
on foreign soil]. Thus began earnest Americanization, in which Issei
stressed loyalty to the country of their birth to their Nisei children [U.S. --
jus soli]. Hitler used California’s exclusion laws vs. J_ps as justification for
his pogrom [ethnic cleansing] vs. Jews. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Who were really backward, buddaheads or kotonks?
The kanyaku imin [contract laborers 1885 & ensuing yrs.] were simple farmers
who intended to make money here & return to Japan in 3 yrs. They were not
settlers/pioneers, but sojourners/migratory folks. When the few Issei/immigrants
afforded to go back to Japan, they found that Japan’s rigid class system
thwarted upward mobility for these ancestral farm-folk. Which is why our Issei
bedded down for good here. Yet Japan’s feudal remnants surfaced here. Which
is why Masaji Marumoto was the 1st Nisei to ascend in the Issei JCC –because
Masaji learned feudal piety/custom by living w/Kawahara baron [daimyo Takei
kin--Hiroshima who yoshii'd into Kawahara kazuko/family here], despite earlier
heavie attorneys Wil Tsukiyama/Mas’ senior partner Bob Murakami being
available but not chosen by their Issei genro/old farts, Wil/Bob being totally
Americanized.
Kotonks/Mainland-Stateside Nikkei endured harsher social pressure, engulfed
by majority Whites. Buddaheads here were the majority race, despite our
lowest social/class standing. We rose up the vacant middle class plane,
whilst kotonks stayed flattened as agrarian farmers/ghetto dwellers. Kotonks
sailed back to Japan if they could afford the trip home. But kotonks who
stayed put became totally Americanized, despite their Nippon purity of
language/vocab/customs. Which is why Masaoka’s baby brother Joe Grant
Masaoka crudely addressed interviewee Marumoto as “Mas.” Marumoto
must’ve seethed w/disgust at Joe’s tactless manner [in Nippon chivalry].
Yes, Mazie Hirono’s shin [new] Issei banana complex [yellow on outside,
white on inside] re: her illiterate language barrier [she didn't know what
yamato damashii means]. Nisei Dan Inouye has the same barrier — he
doesn’t know Nippon vocab, despite his proselytizing to the contrary.
Bananas a la Joe Grant Masaoka [& Mike]. BTW, though Mike Masaoka
ignored Hawai`i’s Issei [naturalization 1952/Statehood quest from 1900-
1959][probably got ass-kicked by buddahead primos-ilk of superhuman
Pablo Chinen], Masaoka was decent at the lowest root/buck pvt. bottom
[ruffian Isamu Kanekuni] & at the intellectually elite top [w/visionary
Joe Itagaki]. Do you know that Masaoka wrote his autobio,
“They call me Moses Masaoka” –? A shrinking violet he was not!!
Remember the oldtime song Furusato [home, sweet home]??
Who were really backward, buddaheads or kotonks?? Ha!!
Ad nauseam debate!! We buddaheads talk pidgin Nipponese,
unlike our pureblood kotonks. But Marumoto knew daimyo
etiquette vs. Joe Grant Masaoka’s ignorance. Love, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:15 am
Union Theological Seminary — Nu`uanu Community Church
Hung Wai Ching 1905-2002 is the incredible product of Union
Theo. Sem./Nu`uanu Comm. Church. Union’s great theologians
influenced Hung Wai [Martin Buber 1878-1965/Harry Fosdick
1878-1969/Paul Tillich 1886-1965]. As Scripps exclaimed
of GI Joe Ernie Pyle’s writing style, “a Mark Twain
quality which knocked my eye out,” Hung Wai’s existential
theism is its own folksy/rustic creation — “When I fail,
what positive/plus can I learn from it?” “Tennyson,
better to have loved & lost [or tried & failed],
than never to have loved [or tried] at all.” “Life
sucks at times, but what can I do to make it worthwhile?”
One may argue that Pyle, who had bouts of depression,
had a death wish [he died in combat from head wound
from machine gun fire -- Pyle buried at Punchbowl].
But Hung Wai had no death wish — Hung Wai inspired
life’s robustness in others, subconsciously to make
up for thugging out vs. Japs in his shanty Emmaville.
Yes, he lamented about not being able to talk to God,
but this is a human condition, which in its deepest throe
simply points out that God talks w/everyone, even if you
don’t think so. God speaks thru interpreters [hobo/thief/
tycoon/Hollywood/egotists/abusers/users/etc.]. So
when Pastor Roy Kim revulsed at seeing hobos hobble
down the aisle to be saved, God was telling Roy to love
one, love all, even the unclean/unwashed/unhealthy.
This is God talking –straight to your heart. So when
I glanced at a former flame who rejected me, I felt
at peace — that I gave love my all. I never wished
for her to be miserable today, but if she is via her visible
discomfort at seeing me [I ignored her], that’s her problem,
not mine.. Guys, chalk one up for manhood. Ha! Yes, Hung
Wai Ching is my avatar. Love, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:16 am
No crossover support via Gov. Lingle’s wins
Imagine, reduction of GOP House solons by two-thirds from before 2002
to now. No crossover support via Gov. Lingle’s wins. Similar thing
happened in President Nixon’s annihilation of McGovern 1972. As pundits
say, “gotta’ support party candidates, not just the titular head.” -Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:18 am
Hawai`i Catholic Diocese Bishop Larry Silva born 1947
I was at Hilo’s McDonald’s
fast food joint to chomp w/”termite” Luso gang
[everybody goes home at 8 pm], inasmuch common saint Bill Araujo
wanted to give me chocolate candy from Walmart for me to take home.
I see a bald-headed haole in full-on black [pants/shirt] go to
the bathroom, then up to the counter to order his food. Why is he
wearing all-black in the dark of nite? He solitarily sits at a
single table & we all catch his collar — John Aguiar exclaims, “It’s
Bishop Silva!” [Larry Silva] Man, talk about grassroots!! He looks
so alone so I go over to him & congratulate him on being our 2nd Luso
bishop [after the great Stephen Alencastre 1876-1940/bishop 1926-
1940]. Larry asks if he may join us — I say sure, why not?!!
Our termites stop chomping & turn into winged angels. You could hear
a pin drop as this holy man walks to our “nest.” Man, down-to-earth/
fan-friendly! No one had the courage to talk regular in front of Bishop
Silva, so I asked him, “What is your mission?” Bishop Silva readily replied,
“To bring to everyone our God. People of all races, of all colors,
everyone is included. We have a Spanish mass going on right now at St.
Joseph Church. Everyone.” Very empathic, very focused. Bishop
Alencastre emphasized Catholic education. Bishop Silva emphasizes
inclusion, racially/economically. Stephen Alencastre was the first
bishop to include in his episcopal crest the pulo’ulo’u [kapu sticks]/
colors of the Hawaiian flag/Father Damien’s hat. Bishop Larry Silva
also has Saint Damien’s hat in Larry’s crest. Stephen Alencastre
was born in Porto Santo Madeira [where Christopher Columbus' wife's
family is from, a canoe's berth from our Souza ancestral village of Fayal],
& emigrated to my ancient Wainaku in 1882 at 6 yrs. of age.
St. Francis Hospital & St. Louis College resulted from Bishop Alencastre.
The Catholic Church saw immense/wondrous
growth/expansion via his leadership. Bishop Alencastre, being local
“Pocho,” was very comfortable/easygoing/relaxed among local Luso here.
In contrast, Larry Silva moved to San Leandro [Luso "nest" outside
Oakland where our Souza emigrates live] at age 1 from Hawai`i, & moved
back here when he was ordained as bishop here. Bishop Silva is not
“Pocho” local, but he tries to assimilate/be just another guy among us.
Credit him for his adaptability. But mark my word, this self-effacing
man is steel-honed/goal-oriented. I studied him eyeball to eyeball
last nite.
Sabens, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:20 am
ILWU clout 1967
Stanley Hara’s ILWU endorsement [via alter ego Kazuhisa Abe's Pepe`ekeo
plantation roots] catapulted him to the State Senate to replace Circuit Court
appointee Nel Doi. Burns bowed to ILWU “filial piety” in appointing Hara over
Burns protege Serizawa [who disclaims coveting
it]. Obviously Kaz Abe’s reward via
being a Burns team player [stepping aside for Lt. Gov. 1966 in favor of Kenny
Brown/not running via reapportionment].
Remember when 442 WIA Hoxie Nagami used to be wheelchaired around Hilo
by MoH Yukio Okutsu/Wataru Kohashi/Sadao Nishida/etc.? Man, oh man,
Wataru was the guy who endeared the public to Hoxie’s wheelies thru town for Hoxie to
partake in social exposure. Imagine, Wataru gave up his DSC [upgraded to MoH]
to 1st 442 KIA Kiyo Muranaga of California. Because MoH Okutsu was a Kaua`i boy,
Wataru would’ve been our only Big Islander MoH. Imagine, 2 MoH wheelers for Hoxie!!
Incredible!! Love, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Wayfinder Claus Spreckels 1828-1908 the Sugar King 1876-1886
Claus Spreckels’ engineering & technological innovations revolutionized the sugar
industry, & in 1881 he galvanized tourism via his Oceanic Steamship Co. from
Frisco [the NYC of the West Coast, LA being a cowpoke basin w/only 10,000
residents]. But Spreckels feuded w/Kalakaua over Kalakaua’s debts owed to
Spreckels & Kalakaua’s defiant nature vs. German Spreckels’ “Herr von Boss/
Imperial Saccharinity” arrogance, & Spreckels left Hawai`i in 1886. Spreckels’
California sugar refinery was bypassed by our Big 5 to break up Spreckels’
stranglehold over the world’s sugar trade, & in 1905 the Big 5’s Co-op/
C & H Refinery triggered the decline for Spreckels. But Spreckels was so
dominant in other commercial sectors both before & after his Hawai`i
sojourn that our Big 5 was but a germless mosquito bite for Commodore Claus.
Do you know that Masayuki Tokioka [founder Island Ins./Nat'l Mortgage which
jumpstarted our AJA middle class via business/home ownership] twined his
commercial ropes by managing Honoka`a Coffee Co./Mill in 1928? Yes, w/
a Harvard MBA, this Shin [new/recent] Issei [immigrant] started at the
pastoral/rural wind-swept plain of my wife’s roots/Hamakua, overseeing
80 fulltime workers, the 1st buddahead in a role reversal [vs. Luso luna/
Jap vassals]. Masayuki learned the value of cross-cultural respect amid
his Honoka`a labor-mgmt. antiquity/old-style trust-relations, the 1889
Honoka`a Goto lynching reverberating still in 1928 [till this day, Goto's
descendant Vern Yamanaka of auspicious Yamanaka Enterprises/Realty
Inc. is sore still about racial frenzy vs. J_p Goto nearly 120 yrs. ago].
Do you know that the Dao/Taoist “Wong Leung Do” Society [Taoism
emerged simultaneously w/Confucianism] was the more visible
element in our Hilo Chinese coterie a century ago? Its hdqtr. stood
on Kam Ave. next to what we know as Dr. Akira Yamanoha’s [later
Sun Sun Lau Restaurant] hospital. Dao was associated w/Punti
[urbanites along Kam Ave.]. Confucian Ling Hing Society was across
Hilo Hongwanji on Kilauea Ave., associated w/Hakka [pastoral/sojourners].
A similar social class construct appeared in Frisco. As erudite KingLit
Ching says, Frisco’s “pecking order” consisted of merchants closest to
Canton commerce at the top/who controlled high end trading/non-
connected tradesmen made up the 2nd tier/toisan laborers were at
the bottom.
Do you know that Dem Katsuro Miho 1912-1995 was a big fan/protege
of Maui forebearer Takaichi Miyamoto 1897-1981? And also admired Woodrow
Wilsonian internationalist [martial law-buster] J. Garner Anthony [2 yrs.
younger than Miho's alter ego Miyamoto]?! Because Miho moved to O`ahu,
Miho saw Miyamoto’s conversion into senile Kanaka Johnny Wilson’s [1871-
1956] rasputin/autocrat, something which Ola`a Rich Imai [born 1910 still
razor sharp] never saw in the 1930 jesus/nurturant messiah version of
Miyamoto during Miyamoto’s sojourns to Hilo to jump-start our new Dem
Party. Miho’s beautiful reminiscence of Kanaka Johnny Wilson foretells
the odyssey of Jack Burns 1909-1975. Broke-ass Wilson, like broke-ass
Burns 30 yrs. later, always wore a worn-out faded suit w/frayed threads
a-bare!! Badge of honor/[vow of poverty not required for sainthood,
however -- emulate C & C's George P. Castle 1851-1932, who purchased
the land for Rev. Takie Okumura's Christian church]. As Miho lovingly
says, no “ho`okano” [natty/dapper] luxury for Johnny Wilson, just
rank/file hoi polloi [Greek for the teeming masses].
And about Tokioka’s messiah Okumura 1865-1951, church members
objected to Okumura’s Japan castle exemplar for the 1932 Makiki
Christian Church [across McKinley High on Pensacola St.], to which
inescapably resolute Okumura said [w/imprimatur-backing of
Okumura's protege Tokioka] “The Lord is my rock, my high tower.”
Proverbs 18:10. Same adage which has carried my gaman/nintai
noble cousin Naomi Narimatsu Lum Ho [endured insufferable
obstacles in life] born 1943 all thruout her valorous life. Reprise
also Matthew 16:18-19 inner solitude “On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand!” Words/experiences to live by!
Aside, also Tammy Faye Bakker’s crucible [revered by "feminists"
who stood w/Tammy Faye's unconquerable nature/Faith]. Love, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Franklin Odo is our crown jewel of history
Franklin Odo’s & Sinoto’s 1985 “A Pictorial History of the Japanese in Hawaii 1885-1924″
is the crown jewel on our immigrant experience. Yes, Franklin Odo is our living treasure,
no question about it. The only chap who openly/
demonstrably expresses kansha to oyabun Franklin is VVV guru Ted Tsukiyama. For
all of Ted’s shortcomings [one track mind about VVV's over-cooked place in history/
wrongly resents Big 5 -- wrongly lumps J. Garner Anthony w/Big 5], the one sure thing Ted is correct about is Ted’s assessment of Franklin
as a global thinker, that Franklin sees the big picture. The only thing that Franklin does not
see is the Hyde nature of our all-Nisei boys — that some of our boys love
themselves too much. I gotta’
thank Joe Itagaki/Jack Mizuha, who wrote home about our new
social order [AJA power/social change]. Contrary to Tsukiyama’s bias for Democrats
[post-1920 born AJA militants like Dan Inouye], Itagaki/Mizuha/Hemenway were dyed-
in-the-wool GOPs!!
McKinley High School: Philanthropist/Shin Issei Masayuki Tokioka 1897-1998 [died
at age 101][immigrated to Hawai`i in 1909] graduated from McKinley High 1921;
1st Nikkei w/Harvard MBA 1925. Tokioka’s oyabun/alter ego is none other than
Makiki Christian pastor Takie Okumura 1865-1951, whose son did not go to
McKinley, but to Punahou as its 1st Nikkei [sponsored/paid for by missionary
descendant Frank Atherton 1878-1945]. Tokioka learned well under the
auspices of incomparable Rev. Okumura. Tokioka never took for granted
living in America — he was naturalized in 1953, a year after Issei were
allowed to apply for U.S. citizenship. Whilst earlier his auspicious guru Rev. Okumura
met personally w/WWII martial law governor Delos Emmons after Pearl Harbor
& was assured that Hawai`i’s 150,000 buddaheads were not going to be
interned en masse. In his last tribute to Tokioka’s “founder” Rev. Okumura, Tokioka
spearheaded the renovation of his former digs/Makiki Christian Church in 1989.
And so weaves the common thread of “okage sama de” [because of/thanks
to you/spiritual forebearer]. When you look at Tokioka, or for that matter
his sensei Okumura, you’re looking at current guru Franklin Odo, or for that
matter, Odo’s protege/understudy Bobby Command. Okage sama de/
kuni no tame/giri ninjo/sonkei mukashi no — ai/kokoro, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:25 am
From: KingLit Ching [Curt's note: Hung Wai Ching's 73 yr. old son]
Subject: Franklin Odo
Hey guys,
I suddenly realize that Franklin Odo is a Hawaii Treasure. We have a Kaimuki boy educated at UH with advanced degrees from Ivy League schools. Franklin has stature in the International museum community. What is more prestigious than the Smithsonian Institute? “If one does not write history, someone else will write it.” I have some insights into Franklin’s book “No Sword To Bury” which I will share with you later. Without this book, the VVVs would be misunderstood and forgotten. Few, if any, understand this. Franklin states that Ted Tsukiyama’s view of the role of the VVVs in establishing the 442nd was NOT the prevalent VVV view (so Curtis has a great insight). Franklin’s book has ensured the VVVs’ place in history that very few appreciate! Dad Hung Wai bullied Franklin into writing the book — thank God or no book would have been written!!
Networking with Kotonks is important to develop a full view of all that has happened to AJAs. My hope is this insight along with Franklin’s efforts to dispel the “Minority myth” impacts National Policy. America is a great Nation yet all the naysayers predict our downfall. Our strength as a nation is based on idealistic concepts with our eclectic immigration properly promoted and advanced. The AJA experience during WWII is a landmark in American history and in the history of the world (as long as it is accurately recorded). –KL
January 28th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Goto’s lynching in Honoka’a happened in 1889, 120 yrs. ago. My Spreckels article above at 10:22 a.m. a few minutes ago was written 2 yrs. ago. Rich Imai 1910-2009 didn’t make it to centenarian status. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:43 am
Thank you, “Go Lakers,” for your thoughtful reply. If I may indulge, George Keoki Kai comes from great lineage [John Kai Sr. & Jr. were our commercial and cultural wayfinders a century ago & before][Keoki's dad George "Peewee" Kai is among our greatest-ever coaches/sports analysts/a born psychologist, but Peewee died in middle age from illness][Peewee's dad George was our beloved Labor Dept. honcho-altruist-egalitarian]/etc. The honors/tributes are endless. I hope that Keoki gets his day in court over his nightclub matter. Love always, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Dean & June Edmoundson both born 1946
Couple Dean/June (Hanashiro) [half 4th generation yonsei/3rd g. sansei][Okinawan
Honomu native] took over Honomu’s Ishigo Bakery, both retired teachers California.
Dean Assembly of God bible study leader. Dean also house painter. Scot-Irish Dean
Oklahoma boy till age 6 yrs., says that Obama preaches false religion [pro-choice/
pro-gay civil union], whereas Sarah Palin demonstrates her faith [anti-abortion/
anti-gay civil union]. Dean lumps Obama w/false Christians Clinton/Kerry [not because
Catholic]. Like pre-Abraham Tower of Babel-Genesis, Dean says that Obama is false
Christian who worships himself, not Jesus. Very impassioned critique of Obama. Which
poses the question, “if Dean never would vote for Obama, why did McCain have to pick
Palin?” Because McCain buckled under to GOP right wing forces, which then triggers
Dean to vote GOP because of Palin. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Culture gap [Issei immigrants/post-1920 born Nisei 2nd generation]
Tokuyoshi Awamura 1898-1984 [Maggie Inouye's dad]
Isamu Kanekuni born 1921, mind sharp as razor, defends Dan
Inouye vs. Issei custom/Dan’s father-in-law, that Dan is reformer
[though now Dan is self-described "bagman of the Pacific"], not
punk-ass rebel as I describe Dan. That Dan would’ve been abler
w/Japan if Dan were fluent in Japanese language [which Dan is
not]. That Dan’s father-in-law accepted via kodomo no tame ni
that Issei immigrants wanted their Nisei children to be fully
assimilated/accepted by White society/Americanized. So no
problem that Dan doesn’t know any Japanese word/custom.
Banana [yellow outside/white inside] suits fine our Issei immigrants,
per Isamu. “Boys in da hood” — impetuous post-1920 born Nisei
typified by Isamu/his 442 compadre Dan Inouye. I kawai-sona/feel
for Dan’s father-in-law. Dan/Isamu such a-holes. Yikes!! Love, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:54 am
Yashijima [Waiakea Peninsula] shin issei [new immigrants]
Carl Okuyama’s immigrant ancestors were shin issei, not earlier sojourners
who looked to return to Japan w/Hawai`i-earned wealth. The earlier
plantation immigrants eventually settled down to agrarian/rural country
living. But Yashijima ’s shin issei were altogether different/entrepreneurs –
Yamaguchi ken Kitagawa/Matsuno/Nagahisa, & Hiroshima ken Taniguchi.
Which is why today’s largest businesses are of shin issei origins, centered
around Yashijima, incl. Carl’s Sure Save Supermarket. Not the euphemism
that earlier immigrants got a head start up the social/economic ladder,
leaving shin issei behind. No, different mentality/psyche/switchback.
Earlier folks hedonists, later folks confucians. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Subject: promo film for Red China tourism to Hawaii [Sandalwood Mountain]
From: arnoldyee038@gmail.com
I must validate Mr. Liu’s comments about an American Chinese girl losing her citizenship if she married a Chinese citizen. This is very true, the Cable Act of 1924 removed U.S. Citizenship from girls marrying Chinese from overseas. I can personally attest to this fact because my mother who was a third generation born American lost her citizenship in 1926 when she married my dad. This was not really discovered until my dad tried to get his social security and the Cable Act reared its ugly head around our family. [Curt's aunt Masako Kiyojima 1907-1990
lost her U.S. citizenship when she married alien Hatsuyoshi Kiyojima 1899-1978; she then had to get naturalized after 1952 Japanese allowance act][Laura Yuen Chock's mother lost her U.S. citizenship when she married alien
Mun Hon Yuen; she then had to get naturalized after 1943 Chinese allowance act]
It was a very dark time for many young Chinese-American girls because there were not too many Chinese-American men available for them to marry and marrying outside the Chinese race was unheard of in the 1920s.
Just a little known fact that I had to live through that was not very pleasing to me as a fourth generation American born Chinese.
I hope this sheds a little light on the discrimination we Chinese-Americans faced in the years from early 1850 to the late 1950s. I personally faced much discrimination even in the 1960s.
Just some history to clear up O`ahu’s Edwin Liu’s remarks.
Arnold Yee
VP Operations
A2Media [producers of Sandalwood Mountain film; Greg Andermann chief executive]
From: Curt Narimatsu
Daniel Kwok’s calm composure is Jesus incarnate –suffuses serenity/rustic solitude.
Amazing man to observe/evaluate. I’m glad that “Uncle Hiram” our beloved spoke his
heart — Hiram is the most misunderstood solon — he always advocated inclusion for
everyone. Ironically, Hiram’s “Beretania St.” church was the “conservative” touchstone
to the Chinese experience. But today’s “Nu`uanu” church [the "liberal" counterpart]
has wary members [vs. Hiram's gang] who inherit the “conservative”
mantle. Scotman John Young 1902-1990 had the greatest influence on fledgling
Hung Wai Ching the brute [Hung Wai evolved from Emmaville tenement gang
leader to Hawaii's greatest modern wayfinder/positive role model]. Beautiful!
Thanks again, Dr. Daniel Kwok [UH professor emeritus history born 1932], for
getting Hung Wai the UH honorary doctorate. Again, Hung Wai Ching 1905-2002
is Hawai`i’s greatest modern historymaker [Kamehameha the Great is our ancient
forebearer][Hung Wai genesis of 100th Batt. as infantry unit/VVV/442 RCT--broke
open racial inclusion in military--Truman---spurred Ike's civil rights imperative--
heaved Earl Warren's make-up call Brown v. Bd. of Education--Warren saddened
over "Jap" internment WWII---proved U.S.' assimilation/American Dream to Chou
En Lai---bridged Japan-U.S. relations/etc.]. Mahalo, –Curt
> From: klching [born 1936; Hung Wai's son]
> Subject: Chinese Migration to Hawaii
> Mert,
>
> I am looking forward to seeing the DVD when it becomes available. As you
> know, my interest in the immigrant Chinese experience in the US has been
> piqued more since I read about the Japanese immigrant experience, and then
> did a little research on San Francisco Chinatown, LA Chinatown, the gold
> rush, and the building of the transcontinental railroad.
>
> Of course you and I have dabbled in the history of overseas Chinese. I have
> done some brief interviews with my Father’s sister and Mother’s sister and
> the stories about each side of the family are fascinating. I also have a
> little background about my aunt Bessie Loo’s husband’s family who founded
> the SF Chinatown telephone exchange and the very special circumstances that
> enabled his family to do so. They were the first Chinese to live in Palo
> Alto. Ron Quon’s parents were the first to live in Beverly Hills.
>
> I am curious about the historical quality of the work of Andermann. To do
> the right job requires lots of research and a historian’s perspective. The
> piece about the Punaluu Chings done separately was interesting too.
> [Curt's note: the Andermann film was top plate; thankfully, man of
> practical wisdom Daniel W.Y. Kwok was the featured entree]
>
> Curtis Narimatsu is also following the Hawaii Chinese experience closely.
> Curtis always manages to dig up significant pieces of history never
> publicized previously. He understands Hawaii history in a larger context
> which then expands the role of individual contributions, some who are
> obscure until he discovers them. You would be amazed at what Curtis knows
> about Hawaii Chinese. You would be shocked too! –KingLit [Hung Wai's 73
> year old son -- now lives in Santa Monica]
>
>
> —–Original Message—–
> From: Mert Lau
> Subject: Chinese Migration to Hawaii
>
> To: Our Friends with Hawaii Connections,
>
> The attached article is about a documentary on Chinese migration to
> Hawaii, which we found to be quite interesting. Unfortunately, it is being
> shown only on Hawaii TV, and not available on the mainland, thus far.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Punahoa St. named after spring water/ahupua’a Punahoa I/II
Punahoa St. that Laura Yuen Chock born 1927 remembers as Hisakichi
Hisanaga’s 1890-1978 Mameya [beans/sex] Lane is b/n Mamo/Ponahawai
Sts. Punahoa starts on the north end from Furneaux Lane & runs south to
Ponahawai St., which is where the Waiolama swamps were before land
reclamation 1917-1923. Punahoa from Furneaux Lane to Ponahawai St.
had stream water w/goldfish, fed by springs. Punahoa then continues
from Kumu St. all the way to Emma St. by Hilo Iron Works. Where today’s
Kamehameha Statue is was the Punahoa brothel district pre-1946 tsunami,
w/White Picket Fence at the southeast end of today’s wide lane Punahoa
St. in front of the Kam Statue, & Green Roof adjacent to White Picket
Fence. Mango Tree brothel was on the same side of Punahoa St. as
today’s Kam Statue, but was situated further south toward the DLNR
fish tanks by Hilo Iron Works. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Social class difference
Bobby Fujimoto born 1927 HPM Bldg. Supply/Glenn Oda SK Oda contractor/
Iwao Kitagawa of Kitagawa Motors/Rich Nakamura [whose dad Masa was
genesis Isojiro Kitagawa's right hand man at Kitagawa Motors] were our
buddahead elite who acted the part [better than teeming masses], whereas
Hiroaki Kono/Susumu Hata [Y.Hata wholesaler] were earthier, in Hiroaki’s
case because Hiroaki’s dad Gunji & Gunji’s Hilo Transportation freight service
were wiped off the face of Shinmachi by the 4/1/46 tsunami [Gunji died],
in Susumu’s case because Susumu wholesaled Primo beer, meaning that
Susumu interacted w/the working class folks all the time. –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Back to Larry Mehau born 1929
Earl Nakasato born 1942 asks what about Larry Mehau & Yoshito Takamine’s
so-called friendship? Nothing more than political expediency. Yoshito a bull
like Mehau, different spheres [Yoshito unionism-politics/Mehau security guard
services-alleged underworld contacts]. Marriage of convenience, smelting of
mountainous egos. Actually a passable fit/match, so to speak. Look at Ariyoshi’s
foes, none fit the bill for the ravenous [for retention of powers] ILWU. Naturally,
Mehau’s support of Ariyoshi merged w/ILWU’s endorsement of Ariyoshi. Remember
that Ariyoshi’s utter insecurity [inferiority complex -- a J_p is a J_p, no matter
how you cut it] resulted in Ariyoshi waiting interminably for Mehau to show up
at Hilo Airport lounge for strategy go [incl. Haw'n protestors at airport], &
Ariyoshi actually carried Mehau’s bags on the golf course. Yikes!! Chief
executive behavior?! No, only Ariyoshi’s behavior. Yoshito Takamine did
world of good/wonders for Yoshito’s voters. Larry did world of good for Larry
& whoever could benefit Larry. Night/day in impact/legacies. Love, –Curt
January 28th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Profiteers
Today’s “money is god” profiteers [subprime mortgages] are reminiscent
of older generation pillagers like T. Boone Pickens/Harry Weinberg [corporate
raiders] & frumpy John D. MacArthur [Florida real estate speculator/Chicago
insurance mogul], all of whom didn’t want IRS raiding their fortunes, so they
posthumously endowed foundations [that immortalized their names]. Even at
KTA, Mountain Apple brand is but another name for spiked fist, where imaginative
individual makers of food products are not identified except under the KTA Mountain
Apple brand. For absolutely delicious products by entrepreneurs like Mr. Ed’s
Bakery of Honomu [Dean Edmoundson], subsuming invisibly under KTA’s Mountain
Apple brand do nothing but promote KTA. Such superior products like Mr. Ed’s
cookies/pastries/fruit preserves are better off being sold by Dean Edmoundson
himself. Impelled by the spiked fist of capitalism. –Curt
January 29th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
What is true love? True love is one’s fulfilling mission to make your loved one happy. How do you find true love? You don’t. True love finds you. How do you deal with loss of true love? Find a sympathetic ear/person for you to express your loss/pain, find positive meaning/healing out of this loss/pain, and be a positive influence to others. Steven Kalas’ columns evoke the heartstopper marvel of love and loss. Love eternally, –Curt
Jun. 28, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
HUMAN MATTERS: Thoughtful encounter leads to musings about love
STEVEN KALAS
Human Matters
I hear her shout the man’s name, and I look up from my convenience store gasoline pump to see a young woman running down the sidewalk toward the bus stop, clutching a paper bag. The man looks up and grins a million dollar smile, shaking his head the way you do when you realize a foolish oversight.
He motions to the driver to wait. The woman closes the distance and hands him the bag. They embrace. Kiss. He whops her on the butt as she turns, and he steps onto the bus. The door closes. She waves, and retraces her steps in the direction whence she came.
Methinks somebody forgot his lunch. But he won’t be condemned to eating fat, salt and preservatives from a vending machine today, because this woman caught the mistake and ran to him.
I tell myself this young couple doesn’t have a working car between them. Indeed, the woman is walking back toward a neighborhood of economically depressed apartments. I imagine they are only rich in love.
It’s an amazing thing when somebody loves you. That is, if you will allow yourself to be amazed. I mean, on the one hand, it’s such an ordinary part of the human experience. And the ordinariness of it sometimes keeps us from noticing it. Being astonished by it.
It seems to me that if someone is in love with you, that fact should regularly wallop you. Give you pause. Nail your feet to the floor. Fill you with wonder and gratitude. Which in turn will make it less likely that you will ever take that love for granted. Ever become blasé. Ever become entitled.
People who live consciously are quite clear that quality love relationships don’t fall daily out of trees. Love isn’t earned or deserved. And while this or that attribute might have initially attracted your lover — hair, eyes, gait, carriage, physique, political views, humor, etc. — in the end the gift of love is so much more than a mere reaction to attributes.
I’m saying that if your lover can provide perfunctory answers x, y and z to the question “Why do you love me?” then I would wonder about said love. Because love is a happening. Not an equation. The correct answer is a provocative smile, shrug of the shoulders and “I just do.”
I’m reminded of the fictional college professor Dr. Harry Wolper, played by Peter O’Toole in the 1985 movie “Creator.” His student assistant, Boris, is sweet on a girl. Boris asks the eccentric Dr. Wolper how he would know if he were in love. I paraphrase the professor’s response: “Well, you can always apply the Wolper Love Formula, whereby you calculate the number of times each day you think about her. Then you compare that number to the number of times each day you think about yourself. If the first number is greater than the second, there’s an excellent chance that you’re in love.”
Which, in turn, reminds me of my all-time favorite definition of love. Favorite because of its purity. Simplicity. It was penned by Richard Bach in the book “Illusions”: “Love is a wish for someone’s happiness.”
Yet, I feel the need to tinker with Bach’s definition. I would say it’s more than a wish. It’s a wish, yes, but also the evident and consistent willingness to participate toward the end of your beloved’s happiness. You’re willing to work for it. You’re intentional. You make someone else’s deepest happiness the source of your deepest happiness. Yes, sometimes bringing happiness to your mate is a spontaneous, easy joy. Other times you make sacrifices.
You run like the wind, for example — hair askew, without makeup or decorum — to your neighborhood bus stop, clutching a lunch bag and shouting your beloved’s name.
Steven Kalas is a behavioral health consultant and counselor at Clear View Counseling Wellness Center in Las Vegas and the author of “Human Matters: Wise and Witty Counsel on Relationships, Parenting, Grief and Doing the Right Thing” (Stephens Press). His columns appear on Sundays. Contact him at skalas@reviewjournal.com.
Nov. 08, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
HUMAN MATTERS: Life’s journey includes pain of suffering
STEVEN KALAS
Human Matters
Suffering is a profound mystery. If you ever meet anyone who can explain it to you, all neat and tidy, run away. Especially if they are trying to sell you CDs and a workbook in an infomercial.
Authentic spirituality doesn’t explain suffering. It courageously acknowledges it. “Life is suffering,” said the Buddha (The Four Noble Truths). “Pick up your cross and follow me,” said Jesus. “If I make my bed in hell, thou art there,” said the Hebrew psalmist. And once acknowledged, serious religious practice proceeds to encounter suffering in a way that leads to hope and meaning.
The Romans gave us two words for suffering: patior, which means “to endure, to allow,” and suffero, or “to bear up.” The Greeks gave us pascho, or “to experience.” It intrigues me that none of these three words bespeak of pain, per se. All three words have in common an intention and willingness to be radically open and present to life as life is — joyous or sorrowful, delightful or painful.
Yet, most of us commonly associate the word “suffering” with something unpleasant, painful or even agonizing.
The central thing we suffer is not physical or emotional pain, but loss. In the midst of illness, tragedy, death — in the midst of life! — meaning is threatened, along with our sense of hope, safety and security. Our belief in a well-ordered and benevolent universe is challenged by deadly weather, accidents, evil and DNA molecules run amok. Saints and scoundrels alike experience absurd, chaotic, inexplicable suffering.
We don’t get to choose whether we suffer, or always what we must suffer. But, thankfully, we do have some freedom to choose how we suffer, and to what end.
Ego suffering refers to the pain and problems resulting from the ego’s refusal to acknowledge pain and problems. We cannot encounter suffering creatively, precisely because the ego will not encounter suffering at all. Oh, the ego will bemoan it. Wail and dramatize. But not encounter.
Indeed, most of what we call suffering comes into our lives as a consequence of our refusal to suffer. We suffer estrangement and isolation because we refuse to suffer the joys and the pains of intimacy. We suffer addictions to avoid suffering the pain within our souls. We suffer depression because we cannot suffer our anger or grief. We suffer guilt because we will not suffer the humility of asking for and accepting forgiveness.
We suffer because we refuse to suffer.
Transformative suffering refers to a conscious encounter with pain powered by the hope of emerging meaning and human transformation. It must be emphasized that the difference between ego suffering and transformative suffering is not found in the suffering itself, but in our relationship to the suffering. In how we suffer. In and of itself, pain is neither a moral good nor moral evil. That we are in pain does not necessarily indicate anything about us. At all. What we do with and in our pain: This may point to character.
Do you have some suffering to do? Here are a few things to remember:
Let the mystery of suffering be the mystery.
Our temptation is to reduce the suffering to something less chaotic and more intellectually manageable. “There must be a reason,” we protest. And so we construct reasons. Often the reasons make us even more miserable.
Share the suffering.
The opportunity to tell the story of our suffering to a compassionate and skillful listener is helpful beyond measure. Simply in the telling and retelling, we begin to shift perspective, to put a healing distance between us and the pain.
Turn to the wisdom of symbol and ritual.
Medals of honor, funerals, statues and monuments, ritual mourning, legacy, keepsakes — we are symbolic creatures, and our symbols help us to embrace and transcend our suffering.
Discover redemptive mission.
Many people discover meaning in suffering as they work to redeem their suffering in service to the world. And so the alcoholic becomes an AA sponsor. The mother whose child is killed by a drunken driver becomes an activist with Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The mercenary becomes a naturalist. The victim of child abuse becomes a marriage and family counselor. And so it goes.
Turn suffering to witness.
Sometimes we suffer as a testimony against injustice. We decide to suffer as a way of absorbing the cost of hatred and bearing witness against the insanity of revenge. Or sometimes we willingly suffer for the sake of endurance alone. That is, as a witness to the goodness of life.
Steven Kalas is a behavioral health consultant and counselor at Clear View Counseling Wellness Center in Las Vegas. His columns appear on Sundays. Contact him at skalas@reviewjournal.com.
January 29th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Register of the
LAUPAHOEHOE SUGAR COMPANY
Papaaloa, Hawaii
1883-1954
Accession: 84-09
55 cu. ft.
March 1988
Processed by
Deborah A. Saito
Susan M. Campbell
LAUPAHOEHOE SUGAR COMPANY HISTORY
Laupahoehoe Sugar Company was located at Laupahoehoe on the Hamakua Coast of the island of Hawaii. The coastline, from Hilo Bay to Niulii, is bordered by sea cliffs and cut by steep gulches. The plantation fields extended approximately 10 miles along the coast and rose to 1850 feet above sea level. Ending in high sea cliffs, 22 gulches divided the company land.
In 1880, Theophilus H. Davies and William Lidgate formed a partnership and established the Laupahoehoe Sugar Company. The new plantation employed 70 men, 50 mules and 70 oxen. Mr. J.M. Lydgate became Laupahoehoe’s first manager and Theo. H. Davies & Co. served as its agency. At the time of this writing, the relationship between William Lidgate and J.M. Lydgate is not clear.
Honolulu Iron Works was chosen to manufacture a 15-ton mill, which was erected in 1881 at the shoreline site near a high bluff two miles south of Laupahoehoe. Cane was flumed down the bluff to the mill from fields as far as four miles away. An excellent landing for interisland ships was one of the advantages of the site.
In 1882, a severe storm badly damaged the new mill, causing part of the bluff to fall into the factory. The mill was repaired and sugar continued to be manufactured there until 1890.
The Laupahoehoe Sugar Company was incorporated in 1883 and in the following year the Kaiwilahilahi Sugar Company joined with Laupahoehoe. The records indicate that at least two mills were operating at Laupahoehoe Sugar Company during the 1880s, one of which was the Kaiwilahilahi mill and the other was the Laupahoehoe mill. Mr. Lydgate had a third mill built for the Company, this one at Papaaloa. The records are not clear as to exactly when this mill was erected, though the mid-1880s seem likely. Both the Laupahoehoe mill and the Kaiwilahilahi mill closed in 1890 and all Laupahoehoe Sugar Company cane was ground at the Papaaloa mill.
Laupahoehoe Sugar boasted a unique transportation system to supply the factory with cane. A steam hoist lifted cane-loaded cars up 1100 feet by cable at Maulu Gulch. At the top, the cane was dumped into flumes and traveled to the mill about a mile distant.
In 1909, an area of 360 acres was set aside for homesteads and in 1914 another 950 acres were so designated under the Homestead Act. The homesteaders grew cane under contract which they sol to Laupahoehoe Sugar. The Company purchased cane from adherent planters holding various kinds of contracts. Some planters were independent, some were homesteaders and some were members of contract gangs.
By 1920, about half the original cane land was planted and harvested by homesteaders and the other half was cultivated by Laupahoehoe Sugar Company. In 1918, the annual yield was 12000 tons of sugar.
The plantation was noted for having model plantation camps. The camp houses were surrounded by garden space, and playgrounds and concrete bathhouses were provided. In 1918, 12 plantation camps housed the 900 laborers employed by Laupahoehoe Sugar.
Because of the extensive gulches in the plantation fields, flumes were used instead of railways to transport the harvested cane to the mill. In 1922, a new high life pump was installed to move two million gallons of water a day out of Kaawalii Gulch up to the head of the main flume at the 750-foot level. The main flume carried 30 tons of cane per hour to the mill. Laupahoehoe Sugar was the first plantation in Hawaii to lift water for fluming as high as 750 feet.
Contour plowing and planting were used to prevent erosion on the uneven terrain and, while he was manager, Mr. Lydgate introduced the practice of planting his fallow fields to blue lupine for erosion control and to plow under as green manure.
In 1937, there were about 6400 acres of cane land at Laupahoehoe Sugar Company, some being cultivated by homesteaders and planters and some by the Company. A total of 881 people worked at Laupahoehoe, 60% of who came from the Philippines. American citizens comprised 25% of the Company employees and 75% were citizens of other countries.
A plantation hospital was completed in 1937, giving plantation workers the latest in medical care. Continuing to improve living condition on the plantation, large expenditures were also made in 1938. Water was piped to every dwelling, villages were modernized, clubhouses, parks, the gymnasium and community halls were remodeled or built for the benefit of the laborers. In 1941, the plantation office was air-conditioned and new homes of the bungalow type were built.
In 1943, the historic Maulu Gulch hoist was destroyed when the brake on a loaded can car snapped and the car crashed down the 1100-foot incline.
Laupahoehoe Sugar Company aided the war effort and the U.S. armed forces by providing men for guard duty and to drive trucks. Housing and recreational facilities were leased to the Army for the duration of the war.
The managers of Laupahoehoe Sugar Company during the time covered by this brief history include:
J. M. Lydgate, 1880-1888,
Colin McLennan, 1889-1914,
Robert A. Hutchison, 1915-1944
Andrew Walker, 1944-
January 29th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
From Steelgrass.org:
Emily and Will Lydgate, owners of Steelgrass Farm, are the great-grandchildren of John Mortimer Lydgate, founder of the family’s Kauai branch, who arrived in Hawaii as a small boy in the 1860’s. Living first in Laupahoehoe on the Big Island, where he learned to speak fluent Hawaiian, John Mortimer, or JM as he is remembered, was more interested in education and the world of ideas than in acquiring property or making money in the sugar industry. As a teenager he was employed by the physician and botanist William Hillebrand to assist him on his expeditions into Hawaii’s forests to collect local plants, few of which had been systematically catalogued or given Western scientific names. These expeditions resulted in the publication in 1887 of Hillebrand’s The Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, the first and still a standard reference work on Hawaiian plants. The book begins with a dedicatory note to JM, and to this day, there are over a dozen native Hawaiian plants, many of them rare and endangered, whose botanical names include the term lydgatei, in recognition of the boy who was the first to bring them to the attention of the scientific community.
JM’s interest in education led him to spend as much time as he could going to school, first at Oahu College in Honolulu, since renamed Punahou School, then the Universities of Toronto, Heldelberg, and Edinburgh, from which he earned his M.A., and later Yale Divinity School. At Punahou, JM became a favorite student of William Dewitt Alexander, who was later appointed the school’s Headmaster, and eventually became Surveyor-General of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Alexander taught the young man surveying, and while JM was still in his late teens, he got the job to lay out the road from Hilo to the town of Volcano on the Big Island, a route that everyone headed that way still drives today.
Following his Divinity School experience, JM was ordained as a Minister in the Congregational Church, and by the beginning of 1896 was ready to take up his first church post, serving a congregation in a small coastal town in the state of Washington. Just before that, however, he went on a long-planned trip to Hawaii to visit his mother, then still living at Laupahoehoe on the Big Island. After the visit, JM returned by steamer from Hilo to Honolulu, only to find that the boat that would carry him back to the Mainland was unexpectedly delayed, and would not sail for another week. This allowed time for what JM thought would be a quick side trip to Kauai to visit old friends from his Punahou days.
One of those friends was Dr. Jared Smith, at the time the sole Western-educated doctor on the entire Island. Smith was concerned about the long-unmet need for a minister who could serve both Kauai’s Hawaiian people and its newly-arrived English-speaking residents. Ordained ministers fluent in the Hawaiian language who also possessed extensive first-hand experience of the islands and their peoples were an extremely rare commodity, and Dr. Smith seized the opportunity to present JM with a simple but compelling argument: there are many candidates who can minister to the fine people of the state of Washington, he said, but you are the only one with what it takes to serve here on Kauai.
Family lore doesn’t record how JM extricated himself from his obligations in Washington, but we know he did, because church records indicate that he gave his first sermon on Kauai on the first Sunday in May 1896. According to Bill “Peacher” Lydgate, JM’s youngest son and Emily and Will’s Grandfather, JM would conduct the service for the English-speaking congregation at the church in Lihue in the morning. Then Peacher and his three older brothers would hitch up the horse cart and drive Father from Lihue to Koloa, where he preached an afternoon sermon in Hawaiian. Occasionally after the service, while JM socialized with his parishioners, there was time for the Minister’s four boys to ride the horse cart down the dirt roads to a great bodysurfing spot at Poipu, now called Brennecke’s, which was then a broad sandy beach with an excellent left.
JM’s interest in the literary and other non-material aspects of existence led him to change the spelling of his last name from Lidgate, as it was written on his birth certificate, to Lydgate, in honor of a family ancestor, the Fifteenth-Century English poet John Lydgate. This change also served to distinguish JM from his siblings, who retained the original Lidgate spelling, and who went on to acquire considerable wealth through the sugar industry. As a further distinguishing characteristic, JM renounced his original citizenship, and had himself made a naturalized subject of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Perhaps most significant of all, throughout his life JM elected never to purchase real estate, believing that he could not serve his community to the fullest if he were in thrall to the self-interest of active membership in the landowner class. As a result, when he died at the age of 68 in 1922, he left neither money nor property, and his widow, Helen Elwell Lydgate, was obliged to move away from Kauai to live with her grown sons and their families on the Mainland.
What JM did leave, however, was a lasting legacy of community building and stewardship of the ‘aina. He was a founder and an early supporter of the YMCA, the Garden Island Newspaper, the Kauai Historical Society and the Public Library. Although it took many years, before the end of his life he fulfilled one of the first goals he set for his ministry when he moved to Kauai: to visit every dwelling, and to get to know every single family, on the entire island. As a small-town minister, and one of the very few Kauai residents not of Hawaiian blood who was completely fluent in the Hawaiian language, JM’s was an important voice for inclusion and tolerance, as well as for the protection and preservation of Hawaiian lands and culture. Continuing his surveying work, JM laid out a number of critical routes on Kauai, including the Wainiha Power Line on the North Shore, but his survey discoveries in the area of the Wailua River in Kapa’a were his most significant.
JM was the first in the English-speaking community to recognize and map the chain of heiau, ancient Hawaiian temples, that stretches inland from the Wailua river’s mouth. Beginning with a sanctuary or “City of Refuge” adjacent to the beach, this progression of linked sacred areas culminates in Hikini A Ka La, at the summit of the hill across from Opaeka’a Falls, one of the most culturally significant sites in the entire Hawaiian Islands. JM’s dedication to preserving these sites placed him at odds with his neighbors in Kauai’s influential sugar industry, however: in that era, few recent arrivals viewed Hawaiian culture as a thing of value. Despite the fact that they were sacred to the Hawaiian people, the only valuable thing most people saw in heiau was a large quantity of stone, ideal for cane field irrigation ditches, that was free for the taking. Best of all, the stone was conveniently piled right next to the road.
In retrospect it seems remarkable that through the moral force of his presence, JM was able to influence enough people, inside church and out, to prevent wholesale destruction of these sites. Nonetheless he succeeded, and in the 1930’s the Territory of Hawaii dedicated a large area of land at the mouth of the Wailua River as Lydgate Park, in grateful recognition for JM’s work to preserve and honor Hawaiian culture, as well as to enrich the lives of all Kauaians.
January 29th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
William Lydgate was the father of JM Lydgate. In 1876 William Lydgate and Thomas Campbell partnered to have Lydgate plant the cane and Campbell build the mill at Laupahoehoe Point, with money loaned by Theo. H. Davies. Davies became the principal owner by 1882. –Curt
January 29th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Chun Afong 1825-1906 acquired Ka’upakuea Plantation of l,500 acres from Theo Metcalf in 1859. In 1879 he acquired Makahanaloa Plantation of 7,600 acres. By 1882 he combined these two plantations into Pepe’ekeo Sugar Mill & Plantation Co.
Register of the
HILO COAST PROCESSING COMPANY
(PEPEEKEO SUGAR COMPANY)
Pepeekeo, Hawaii
1889-1946
Accession: 84-04
11.5 cubic feet
February 1990
Processed by
Susan M. Campbell
Patricia M. Ogburn
PEPEEKEO SUGAR COMPANY HISTORY
Pepeekeo Sugar Company, located on the windward side of the island of Hawaii between Onomea and Honomu, held the majority of its land in fee simple. The plantation occupied approximately four miles along the ocean cliffs and extended from three to 18 miles mauka to 1600 feet in elevation on the slopes of Mauna Kea.
The company, called the Metcalf Plantation, was started at Kaupakuea in 1857 by Theophilus Metcalf and the first crop was harvested in 1859. Mr. Metcalf’s was the first factory in Hawaii to use the vacuum pan in 1863.
In 1874, after Mr. Metcalf’s death, the plantation was purchased by Messrs. Afong and Achuck and the name changed to Pepeekeo Sugar Company. By 1881 the crop was estimated at 1800 tons and the factory was constructed of corrugated iron buildings with machinery manufactured by Honolulu Iron Works.
In 1882, Mr. Akana became the plantation manager and Mr. C. Afong was the company owner as well as the agent. 1886 saw a new mill from Honolulu Iron Works in place and in 1888, Mr. Wong Tuck became the new manager.
Mr. H. Deacon and Mr. Alexander Young, manager of Honolulu Iron Works, purchased Pepeekeo Sugar in 1889. The Company was incorporated on October 14, 1889, with Mr. Deacon as manager and H. Hackfeld & Co. as agents. T.H. Davies & Co. served as agents from 1892 to 1904, when C. Brewer & Co. purchased control from Mr. Young, who used the funds to build the Alexander Young Hotel on Bishop Street in Honolulu.
By 1910 the annual yield was 8,000 tons processed by a 9-roller mill with a capacity to grind 60 tons of cane per day. The warehouse could store 24,000 bags of sugar, which were loaded onto interisland steamers by steel cables from the sea cliff. Plantation fields were connected by good dirt roads and the harvested cane was delivered to the mill by railroad cars and 15 miles of stationary flumes.
There were 700 employees at Pepeekeo Sugar, all of whom worked on the day labor system, there being no contract laborers at the plantation. By 1914, homesteaders were using 625 acres to grow cane that was processed at the company mill.
Manager James Webster had become noted for his farming methods; in 1904 he initiated plowing under cane trash for fertilizer instead of burning it off. The improvement in soil prompted HSPA to take up the method and expand it to other plantations. Another innovation, made during mill improvements, was to place the grinding machinery some 60 feet below the boiling house. This facilitated the delivery of cane by flume and the flume water was used extensively in the mill. The Gartley clarification system, developed by Brewer engineer A.A. Gartley, was also an innovation at Pepeekeo Sugar.
By 1923 Mr. Webster’s good farming practices had increased the yield from 3.1 tons to 4.6 tons per acre in 15 years. Most of the cane of the plantation was Yellow Caledonia and Pepeekeo Sugar kept some ratoon crops for as long as 12 to 18 years. The soil was improved annually with 50,000 tons of Waianae coral sand as well as bone meal and guano. Eucalyptus trees were planted as windbreaks, protecting the fields near the ohia forests.
Water sources at Waiaama Stream and Kauku Hill provided clear water form natural filter beds for all plantation uses including turning a water wheel to generate power. Cultivation inventions included the Webster’s careful farming dictated deep plowing at 18-20 inches, which improved the soil each year. The manager continued to live in the old Afong residence just above the mill.
In 1930, machinery was installed to dry, sift, and sack bagasse from the mill to be used for livestock feed. The product was sold in Los Angeles through Grace Brothers in Honolulu.
Because the land was bumpy with many winding gulches, road improvement was ongoing, using a rock crusher brought from Scotland in the 1890s. There were 120 mules and 25 horses used on the plantation in 1932, providing transport for the fields split by ridges and gulches. Tractors with caterpillar tracks were used for plowing and trucks now hauled mud press, stable manure, and lime to the fields. 20 miles of permanent flumes brought cane to the mill.
At age 80, after 32 years at Pepeekeo manager, Mr. Webster retired in 1936 and Mr. Andrew T. Spalding, manager at Honomu Sugar, succeeded as manager of Pepeekeo on January 1, 1937.
In 1941, harvested cane was trucked to the mill for the first time, due to a shortage of water for fluming. Though water shortages continued for the next two years, a record crop was produced in 1944.
March 1946 saw Hanomu Sugar Co. merged with Pepeekeo and Mr. A. Douglas Ednie became manager of the combined plantations. M r. Ednie had a difficult year, however, as Pepeekeo Sugar showed a loss of $141,430, the first loss in 10 years. An industry-wide strike, higher labor costs, unfavorable weather, and the April tidal wave that destroyed the railroad and terminals in Hilo added to the problems of 1946.
In 1947, the Pepeekeo mill was shut down for extensive modernization to accommodate the addition of the cane from the Honomu fields. Reconstruction of over $2,000,000 required an agency overdraft and a loan from Bank of Hawaii in 1948.
In the early 1950s a number of lots and houses on the plantation were sold to residents, as was the Honomu company store. Due to the increase in mechanical harvesting, the labor force of 460 was reduced to 400 in 1956. The late 1950s brought numerous union slowdowns, walkouts, and shutdowns to Pepeekeo.
Mr. Ednie retired as manager in 1960, replace by Mr. L.S. McLane from Hilo Sugar Co. The merger of Pepeekeo and Hakalau sugar companies was affected in 1963, with Mr. Herbert M. Gomez becoming manager of the combined company. 1963 was also the year in which the Hilo office of C. Brewer & Co. instituted a computer system to service plantation automotive equipment.
In 1971 Wainaku, Hakalau, Pepeekeo, and Papaikou sugar companies were consolidated in a processing cooperative that also included independent cane growers. Two years later, Pepeekeo Sugar merged with Mauna Kea Sugar to form Mauna Kea Sugar Co., Inc., the state’s fourth largest sugar company with 18,000 acres of cane. The mills at Wainaku and Hakalau were closed as the Pepeekeo mill was modernized to double its capacity by 1974.
MANAGERS
Theophilus Metcalf 1857 – 1874
Mr. Akana 1882 – ?
Wong Tuck 1888 – 1889
H. Deacon 1889 – 1904
James Webster 1904 – 1937
Andrew Spalding 1937 – 1941
A. Douglas Ednie 1941 – 1960
L. S. McLane 1960 – 1963
Herbert M. Gomez 1963
January 30th, 2010 at 11:37 am
I dedicate Prayer under a Pepper Tree to Brother John & Sister Luedeen Andrew, born 1942/1943 respectively [Brother John is the great-great-grandson of Mormon pioneer/destiny-maker George Q. Cannon 1827-1901; Sister Luedeen is the descendant of the first latter day saint martyr]. Heartstopper confluence, that Abbie Kailimai 95 yrs. old razor sharp lass [pioneer Hawaiian Mormon Samuel Kailimai's granddaughter, & seer son of Samuel --David Keola Kailimai's niece], & our utterly beloved Andrew missionaries worship here in Honomu, Hawai’i as Mormon Church members. Abbie’s Honomu estate devolves from her father’s purchase of his sister’s kids’ shares [famous sugar master Kinney's estate]. Love eternally, –Curt
After traveling to Hawaii, Elders McKay and Cannon inspected the Church school at Laie and then visited the other islands. Elder Cannon particularly requested they visit Pulehu on Maui where his father, George Q. Cannon, had baptized the first Hawaiian in July 1851. Thirty-four years later, President McKay recalled the events of their visit to Maui.
“So we came up here, and this is where I was [pointing to a spot where a pepper tree had been], and as we looked at an old frame house that stood there then, he said, ‘That is probably the old chapel.’ It seemed to me it was over in the distance. Nothing else was here. We said ‘Well, probably that is the place. We are probably standing on the spot upon which your father, George Q. Cannon, and Judge Napela addressed those people.’ We became very much impressed with the surroundings, association, and spiritual significance of the occasion; as we had also been with the manifestations we had had on our trip to the Orient and thus far in Hawaii. I said, ‘I think we should have a word of prayer.’ . . .
“I offered the prayer. We all had our eyes closed, and it was a very inspirational gathering. As we started to walk away at the conclusion of the prayer, Brother Keola Kailimai took Brother E. Wesley Smith to the side and very earnestly began talking to him in Hawaiian. As we walked along, the rest of us dropped back. They continued walking, and Brother Kailimai very seriously told in Hawaiian what he had seen during the prayer. They stopped right over there [pointing a short distance away] and Brother E. Wesley Smith said, ‘Brother McKay, do you know what Brother Kailimai has told me?’ I answered, ‘No.’ ‘Brother Kailimai said that while you were praying, and we all had our eyes closed, he saw two men who he thought were Hugh J. Cannon and E. Wesley Smith step out of line in front of us and shake hands with someone, and he wondered why Brother Cannon and Brother Smith were shaking hands while we were praying. He opened his eyes and there stood those two men still in line, with their eyes closed just as they had been. He quickly closed his eyes because he knew he had seen a vision.’
“Now Brother Hugh J. Cannon greatly resembled Brother George Q. Cannon, his father. I spoke during the trip of his resemblance. Of course, E. Wesley Smith has the Smith attribute just as President Joseph Fielding Smith has it. Naturally, Brother Keola Kailimai would think that these two men were there. I said, ‘I think it was George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith, two former missionaries to Hawaii, whom that spiritual-minded man saw.’
“We walked a few steps farther and I said, ‘Brother Kailimai, I do not understand the significance of your vision, but I do know that the veil between us and those former missionaries was very thin.’ Brother Hugh J. Cannon who was by my side, with tears rolling down his cheeks, said ‘ Brother McKay, there was no veil. ’” 10
10. David O. McKay, Cherished Experiences. Rev. and enl. Compiled by Clare Middlemiss (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976), pp. 115–16.
Prayer under a Pepper Tree: Sixteen Accounts of a Spiritual Manifestation
By Lavina Fielding Anderson
Records reveal vivid information from personal points of view, about a spiritual experience shared by five in Hawaii in 1921.
In 1920-21, David O. McKay, then a forty-seven-year-old Apostle, toured the worldwide missions of the Church, beginning with Japan and Korea. He dedicated the land of China for the preaching of the gospel, visited Hawaii, returned briefly to Salt Lake City for the funeral of President Anthon H. Lund, and then continued through the South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Europe. He was accompanied on this arduous year-long tour by Hugh J. Cannon, president of Liberty Stake in Salt Lake City and a member of the Deseret Union Sunday School General Board, of which President McKay was general superintendent.
Among the many spiritual manifestations that occurred during this world tour came a remarkable event during the thirty-six hours they spent on Maui. President McKay and Brother Cannon docked at Maui at 4:30 A.M. February 9, 1921, held a meeting at mission headquarters in the morning, and held another for members in the evening; during the afternoon they visited the sites where Hugh J. Cannon’s father, George Q. Cannon, had met Jonatana H. Napela, resulting in the first baptism in Maul and the organization of the first branch of the Church in Hawaii, and where George Q. Cannon had also received intense spiritual manifestations. Accompanying the party were E. Wesley Smith, Hawaiian Mission president and a son of Joseph F. Smith, who had also served as a Hawaiian missionary; Samuel Harris Hurst, Jr., a missionary of mature years from Idaho who was then president of the Central Maul Conference; and David Keola Kailimai, a Hawaiian missionary, also of mature years, who owned the little Ford in which the party traveled.
Hugh J. Cannon was greatly touched by visiting the sites associated with his father, and on the grounds of the little chapel at Pulehu, President McKay felt inspired to offer a prayer of thanksgiving. During that prayer, all five men were deeply stirred spiritually, and Brother Kailimai, speaking in Hawaiian to President Smith, said he had seen a vision. President McKay, after President Smith translated Brother Kailimai’s words, did not interpret the vision but confirmed its divine origins by affirming that “the veil was very thin.” Hugh J. Cannon, who had been most profoundly affected during the experience, testified that, at least for him, there had been no veil.
What was the manifestation called forth by the combination of faith and filial love of these five Church leaders? How did the five experience it and how did they describe it, both then and later? What message does it have about the nature of spiritual experience for readers who learn of it through the more distant witness of the written record?
Thanks largely to the kindness of many members of the families involved, I have found sixteen separate accounts of this event, all but four of them unpublished. This essay examines these accounts in chronological order and in the context of the participants’ lives, as an exploration of the dynamics of memory, faith, love, and spirituality.
Samuel Harris Hurst’s Account
Of the five participants, only David Kailimai, the man who saw the vision, left no personal account, either at the time or later. Abigail Kahanu Kailimai Kailimai, who is both David’s niece and his daughter-in-law, does not recall an earlier oral version or, in fact, ever hearing this experience from Elder Kailimai. However, Samuel Harris Hurst, Jr., kept a daily diary and recorded the event within hours of its occurrence. Elder Hurst was then thirty-six, a native of Cache Valley, and a widower. His wife had died a lingering death from heart disease shortly before, leaving him with a ten-year-old daughter, Inez. He had had grave doubts about serving a mission under such circumstances but had accepted the calling, at least partly because of his child’s faith, even though he had to sell his farm to pay his expenses. His diary and his autobiography, written in 1958, breathe a solid, simple faithfulness that is very moving. He confesses that being called to Hawaii was “quite a test to my faith.” His patriarchal blessing had told him he would “go to the land of my forefathers,” which did not seem to be possible. He thought he would be too old to learn Hawaiian fluently and adds with humility, “I had desires to be a good speaker, and I could not see any development for me if simple natives were to be my audience.” He wrestled with his doubts about whether his call had been inspired “all the way to Hawaii.” But when he saw Wesley Smith, the mission president, waiting for him on the dock, he recognized him as the man with whom he had labored as a missionary in a dream seen two years earlier. This dream had occurred a year before Smith had been called as mission president. “With this,” recorded Elder Hurst, “I knew that some power other than that of man was having something to do with it.” Elder Hurst also knew that he would be assigned to some island other than Oahu before President Smith made the assignments.
Elder Hurst’s diary for February 8, 1921, records the prayer under the pepper tree in simple prose but eloquent detail:
Elder McKay, Pros. Smith and Cannon Elder Keola and myself drove . . . out to Pulehu where Pres. Geo. Q. Cannon had his wonderful experience in the conversion of so many of the natives and the first to join the church. As we sat in the little Ford in front of the meeting house there, Pres. Smith related to us the story of how Pres. Cannon in 1850 or 51 had delivered his wonderful discourse in a little church which then stood on the ground we were then on. At this meeting he appeared to be standing in the air with a hallow of light around his head. At the same time all but three of the over hundred persons there present were transfigured before him. Bro. Hugh J. Cannon being a son of Pres. Cannon was very deeply effected [sic] more so than any one I have ever saw before. We then alighted from the car and walked around the grounds. At the rear of the old church on the grounds now in the shade of an old tree, Elder McKay said: “Brethren I feel impressed that we should render our thanks to the Lord for the labors of this great man and his co-laborer Pres. Joseph F. Smith whose sons arc represented here today.” At this we bowed in humble reverence in prayer to God and then I listened to one of the grandest prayers it has ever been my privilege to listen to. At its close Elder Keola testified he saw a hand and arm extended to me in an attitude of shaking hands. In speaking of this later Bro. McKay said “Bro. Keola, I do not know the significance of the hand you saw, but I know this that the veil between us and the other world was very thin.” Bro. Cannon then said
Pulehu Chapel, Maui, Hawaii. In 1921, under the pepper tree seen on the right, Apostle David O. McKay offered a prayer of thanksgiving on behalf of himself and his companions, Hugh J. Cannon, E. Wesley Smith, Samuel Harris Hurst, Jr., and David Keola Kailimai. During the prayer, the party received a spiritual manifestation that moved them profoundly. Courtesy of BYU-Hawaii Archives.
“There was no veil at all” at which the apostle cast a penetrating look at him for he as well as we seemed to be in doubt as to whether Bro. Cannon had beheld a vision or not but no more was said at that time. In closing his remarks in a general meeting held at Wailuku tonight Elder McKay made mention of this again and with tears in the eyes of both men he turned to Bro. Cannon and staping [sic] on the shoulder said, “My Brother, you have been closer to your Father today than you have ever been before.”
Because Elder Hurst spoke Hawaiian, he probably heard Elder Kailimai’s testimony to President Smith as it was uttered. Neither here, on the very day that the event occurred, nor later, did Elder Hurst speculate on the possible meaning of this experience. He simply recorded Elder Kailimai’s words, President McKay’s response, and the powerful emotional and physical effect the manifestation had on Brother Cannon, along with Brother Cannon’s testimony of the temporary parting of the veil that separated him from his deceased father. Two of Elder Hurst’s daughters confirm that he did not interpret the story in telling it to them in later years. One of the daughters, Cleo Hurst Bailey, comments, “I have some personal feelings about it. All of those particular people–especially Hugh J. Cannon, E. Wesley Smith, and my father–had ancestors who took part in opening the islands to missionary work. I think all of those ancestors were there, and they knew it. It was a personal occasion, a quiet way of confirming that it was appropriate that my father be there.”
The ancestor of Elder Hurst who had assisted in nineteenth-century missionary efforts was his grandfather, Frederick William Hurst, whose diary includes moving accounts of visions, inspirational dreams, and answered prayers. He had been born on the Isle of Jersey; his family then emigrated to New Zealand, and as a young man in the goldfields of Australia, he joined the Church with his younger brother, Charles Clement Hurst. As a result, his angry mother disowned him and marked his name out of the family Bible. On April 27, 1855, he and his brother emigrated with seventy-two Saints aboard the Tarquinia. The ship was leaking so badly by the time they reached Honolulu that, after repairs and an attempt to continue, they returned to Honolulu where the ship was eventually condemned. Fred W. contributed all of his savings–a thousand dollars in nuggets sewn into his clothing–to send the other members, mostly families, on to California. He accepted a mission call from President Silas Smith and almost immediately went to Molokai, where he served from August 1855 to October 1856. Gifted with an irrepressible cheerfulness, he learned Hawaiian quickly and met poverty undaunted. Often he walked barefoot. For a long period of time, food was very scanty. On February 8, 1856, he recorded thankfully, “We had three meals today for the first time for I will not venture to say how long. We fasted about three days this week.”
After his mission, Fred Hurst worked his passage to northern California, where he voluntarily served another mission. When he was forty-two and living in Cache Valley with his wife and seven children, he was called to serve another mission, this time in New Zealand. He responded promptly though his eight-year-old daughter died three days before he left and his wife had six-month-old twins to care for in addition to five older children. In 1892-93, he worked as a painter on the Salt Lake Temple; he also served for many years as stake Sunday School superintendent in Cache Stake and served two stake missions. Throughout many years of poverty, sacrifice, and sorrow, he maintained a merry heart and strong faith. This was the man whose grandson joined in a prayer of thanksgiving with the sons of George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith under the pepper tree at Pulehu and to whose grandson Elder Kailimai saw extended a hand and arm in the “attitude of shaking hands.”
David O. McKay’s Early Accounts
The next account is President McKay’s detailed journal of his world tour, which remains unpublished except in excerpts. It is the most comprehensive source of the thirty-six hours the men spent on Maul. The mission history, although it records the young apostle’s visit, does not mention the incident at Pulehu. President McKay describes their visit to the George Q. Cannon sites, then gives this account of the prayer under the pepper tree:
It seemed to me . . . that we were treading on sacred ground; for surely the Lord was the close companion and guide of that intrepid and faithful missionary [George Q. Cannon].
We offered a united prayer on the ground, during which Bro. Keola seemed to see two men shaking hands. He thought Hugh J. was shaking hands with Elder Hurst, and was surprised when he opened his eyes to see Brother Cannon standing with bowed head and closed eyes! I do not
cKay party, February 1921, Maui, Hawaii. (vid O. McKay probably used the notebook seen in his hand for jotting down details of his journey. Pictured are Samuel Harris Hurst (on the left and wearing glasses), Elder McKay (in the center), David Keola Kailimai (behind and to the right of Elder McKay), E. Wesley Smith (with bow tie), and Hugh J. Cannon (wearing a Panama hat with a light band). Courtesy of Cleo Hurst Bailey, who owns the original, and the Church Archives, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The 10 Mormon missionaries who opened up the “Sandwich Islands” included George Quayle Cannon, a former editor of the Deseret News.
Cannon — along with President Hiram Clark and Elders Henry Bigler, Hiram Blackwell, John Dixon, William Farrer, James Hawkins, James Keeler, Thomas Morris and Thomas Whittle — arrived in Oahu on Dec. 12, 1850. Cannon was 22.
The next day, they climbed a hill that overlooked Honolulu, where they constructed a stone altar and dedicated the land.
The work was challenging. The Hawaiian governor refused to let them meet freely, and Protestant ministers preached loudly against the “Mormon sinners.”
Cannon and the others were often ill and homesick. They ran out of money. The language barrier was frustrating.
But citing inspiration to do so, he focused his energy on the native islanders rather than the few white men and slowly made progress.
His journal entries — excerpted in Davis Bitton’s biography of Cannon — reflect his great love for the people.
When five of his disheartened companions decided to leave, he said, “This left me in this situation either to stay here and be blessed or to go home under condemnation.”
He was determined to see to the Lord’s work.
Story continues below
“In fact, every time I had prayed to the Lord that there might be a good work done here, I had felt my bosom warm and felt the spirit continually whispering to me if I should persevere, I should be blest.”
When he could no longer pay the $10 demanded to rent a house, a woman by the name of Nalimanui offered him her hut and later her mat and blanket when he fell ill crossing the sea to Oahu.
Determined to get out among the people, Cannon visited Maui on foot, with the natives often carrying him on their backs across the island streams.
One day, crossing a swollen stream, he fell in the water, and a hospitable native and chief, Judge Jonathana Napela, took him in. Napela told him he’d had a vision of a minister of the gospel coming his way. He told Cannon, “My house, land and horses are all yours” and later painstakingly helped Cannon translate the Book of Mormon to Ka Buke a Moramona.
Elders Cannon and Keeler organized the first branch at Kealahou, the Pulehu Branch, in August 1851, in Kula on the island of Maui.
William Kauaiwiulaokalani Wallace III, a former director of BYU-Hawaii Hawaiian Studies, called Cannon one of the “great pioneer people” who brought light and truth to the islands.
Roy G. Bauer, director of the Hilo institute of religion, relates a story told by Abbie Kailimai’s father-in-law, who was with President David O. McKay in 1921 giving a prayer of thanksgiving in Pulehu.
“(President) McKay said, ‘I feel certain that President George Q. Cannon and President Joseph F. Smith are near, for the veil is very thin.’” His son Hugh J. Cannon said in a choked voice, “There is no veil.”
After leaving the islands, Cannon started a weekly newspaper in San Francisco — The Western Standard — that served as a forum for defending the church. Later, he worked for the Deseret News and was editor from 1867 to 1874. Before serving in the islands, he worked for the Times and Seasons in Nauvoo, Ill.
At age 33, Cannon became an apostle. He served as a counselor to Presidents Brigham Young, John Taylor, Lorenzo Snow and Wilford Woodruff. He died on April 13, 1901.
January 30th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
GEORGE Q. CANNON: HOW THE FOUNDING OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION
AND THE ACHIEVEMENT OF UTAH STATEHOOD HELPED
THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW WORLD RELIGION
Mark W. Cannon
February 28, 2002
This is a “big picture” approach to some key historic developments that contributed to the restored Church subsequently rising “out of obscurity.”, and to George Q. Cannon’s role in those developments,.
The following themes will be explored:
1) Despite historic reviling of the Mormons, the LDS Church is being recognized as a “new world religion”.
2) How did George Q. Cannon’s Hawaiian Mission help lay the base for the remarkable world expansion of the Church?
3) Might Utah statehood have never come about?
4) How was attaining Utah statehood, partially through George Q. Cannon’s strategic leadership, critical to building a new world religion?
5) What other of his qualities helped build foundations for the emergence of the international Church?
6) Concluding summary.
1) Despite historic reviling of the restored Church, it is increasingly recognized as a “new world religion”.
As prophesied, the restored Church is coming “out of obscurity”, and moving toward being taught to every nation, kindred, tongue and people.
A leading religious sociologist, Rodney Stark, inaugurated a national conference of religious researchers with the startling declaration that they had the unique opportunity to see the emergence of the first new world religion since Mohammed rode out into the desert some 1600 years ago.
Renowned Yale literature professor Harold Bloom calls himself agnostic, yet he declared in his book, The American Religion: “I…do not find it possible to doubt that Joseph Smith was an authentic prophet. Where in all of American history can we find his match?”
Bloom asserts: “Mormonism…may prove decisive for this nation, and for more than this nation alone. He writes: “No other American religious movement is so ambitious, and no rival even remotely approaches the spiritual audacity that drives endlessly toward accomplishing a titanic design.” He projects hundreds of millions of Mormons in the new century.
Another evidence of the Church coming “out of obscurity” is Joel Kotkin’s book on Tribes. As ethnic ties have emerged as powerful in the global economy, he focuses on five major tribes: the Jews, the British, the Japanese, the Chinese and the Indians. These groups have in common a sense of mutual dependence, emphasis on family structure, a global network based on tribal trust that allows the group to function collectively, a passion for technology and a belief in scientific progress.
Kotkin sees “Mormon models of thrift, sobriety and family values as more effective than traditional faiths” for upward mobile people in developing countries.
Assuming Mormons maintain coherence and growth, they “could conceivably emerge as the next great global tribe, fulfilling as they believe, the prophecies of ancient and modern prophets.”
It is monumentally important that the Mormons would become the first multi-ethnic tribe – the first group that could bring vast numbers of ethnically diverse peoples into harmonious living with common constructive values.
One more indication of the emergence of the Church occurred when I was at a seminar with Peter Drucker at Harvard in 1989. This institutional analyst, with gigantic stature, said: “The Mormons are the only Utopia that ever worked”.
Shifting to the mass media, the full color cover Sesquicentennial feature in Time concluded: “The Church represents a combination of virtues that may make it the religion of America’s future.”
That all this emerged from a youth with little formal education (which astounds Harold Bloom) one and three quarters centuries ago is miraculous. We can ask what laid the basis to produce this miracle.
2) How did George Q. Cannon’s Hawaiian Mission help lay the base for the remarkable world expansion of the Church?
George Q. Cannon’s Hawaiian Mission was in some ways comparable to Peter’s history-changing vision that the Gospel was to go beyond the House of Israel to all people. Though five other missionaries quit because Caucasians rejected the message, it was revealed to Elder Cannon that he should bring the Gospel to the Hawaiians. He was a major force in some 4,000 baptisms, translating the Book of Mormon and making sure that Hawaiians held the Priesthood and became effective Church leaders.
How was the successful Hawaiian mission a launching pad for the international Church? First, together with Tahitians, Hawaiians were the first large group of non-Caucasians to come into the Church, thereby implanting in the minds and hearts of Church members — early in their history — that the Gospel was for distant and different people who responded to the spirit.
Second, the Hawaiian experience, which shaped George Q. Cannon’s life, embedded in him the deep conviction that all human beings are God’s children and must have our love and sympathetic understanding.
One historic incident displayed George Q. Cannon’s instantaneous loving outreach.
Elders William Hansen and Harvey Carlisle started proselyting in Lillington, North Carolina in 1897. They were arrested, imprisoned, and denied food and water unless they denounced their religion. They refused and were told they would die. Later, a group came to their cell, led by a tall, well-educated Black man, Postmaster Williams. He asked: “Do you know a man in Utah by the name of George Q. Cannon?” The elders responded that they did and that Mr. Cannon was a member of the First Presidency of the Church. “With that the colored man turned to the city officials and said, ‘Turn these men loose!’” He then took the Elders to dinner and told them this story:
Several years ago, while I was walking in the Nation’s “Capitol a door was opened very suddenly which knocked my silk hat off my head and it fell to the floor. A gentleman picked up my hat, took his handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the dust off, and in a very polite manner handed me my hat. I said to this gentleman, ‘May I ask your name, and where you are from, and who taught you such manners as to stoop and pick up a colored man’s hat?’
The man informed me that his name was George Q. Cannon, that he was there representing…Utah, and that the Church of which he was a member taught…that we should respect all men, no matter what color or creed…, as we are all children of God”. Mr. Williams promised to return the favor to other Mormons if the opportunity arose.
According to Asian scholar and former Korean Temple President, Spencer Palmer, George Q. Cannon was decades ahead of his time in the breadth of his vision of a world wide Church for all people.
Elder Cannon’s understanding that God loves and is involved with the entire human race is evidenced by his comments on the universality of revelation:
“…there is no…[one] upon the face of the earth who has not the right and who has not obtained…revelations from God …. Plato, Socrates, Confucius…received important truths from Him…
George Q. believed that “Mahomet…was a man raised up by the Almighty and inspired to a certain extent by Him…. [Mahomet] attacked idolatry and restored the great and crowning idea that there is but one God.”
“God has given great light and knowledge…to Luther and Calvin…and John Wesley…. But this is the superiority that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ possesses. Its great Teacher is the Redeemer of the world.”
This remarkable breadth of George Q.’s vision of God’s involvement with every race and tribe influenced Church members because of President Cannon’s high level of service. He was a counselor to Brigham Young, and the First Counselor to Presidents John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff and Lorenzo Snow. Orson Whitney in his History of Utah concluded that “no man in Utah after the passing of Brigham Young wielded with all classes so great an influence as President George Q. Cannon.”
The third implication of the Hawaiian Mission was to create an LDS bastion in the heart of the Pacific. Diverse Asians came to Hawaii and some, or their descendants, joined the Church. The first Temple outside the continental U.S. made all ordinances available to people of the Pacific. When Asian missions were opened after World War II, Hawaii provided missionaries who could understand the cultures of Asian countries, and sometimes their languages. BYU Hawaii provided educational opportunities for Pacific Basin peoples to grow spiritually together, marry and build families within the Church, and create lasting friendship networks.
3) Why might Utah statehood never have come about?
Many people today cannot imagine the intensity of political animosity toward the Mormons in the later decades of the 1800s. A few facts show what a steep uphill battle it was to win statehood.
o In 1862, the Morrill Act provided a $500 fine and up to five years in prison for any married person in U.S. territory that married another person. It also prohibited the Church from owning more than $50,000 worth of property.
o Fearing that Church property would be taken, Brigham Young transferred much of it to his estate. Such writers as Irving Stone in Men to Match My Mountains imply that by leaving an estate of some $3 million, Brigham had exploited the Saints that he led. However, George Q. Cannon was the Chief Executor of Brigham’s estate and suffered prison for three weeks rather than give up control over the estate, thereby protecting what belonged to the Church. Less than a tenth went to Brigham’s numerous heirs.
o The propaganda war against the Mormons portrayed the Church as an “imperium in imperio….as un-American in character; un-American in membership; insubordinate to the authority of the United States Government; flagrant in violating the anti-polygamy law.”
The intensity of the war against the Mormons was shown by use of such epithets as “inoculation of evil”, “poison”, “leprosy”, “pollution”, “stain”, “blot”, “virus”, and “cancer”. The Mormon “impurity” had to be “obliterated”, “extirpated”, “destroyed”, “blotted out”, “crushed” or “blown out of existence”.
o The crusade against the Mormons drew such large crowds that former U.S. Vice President Schuyler Colfax (a beneficiary of the Credit Mobilier scandal) could denounce the Mormons to an audience of 50,000 people.
o Elections of Mormons to be Territorial Delegate were frequently contested in Congress by the loser, beginning in 1867 when William McGroarty with 105 votes contested the election of William Hooper with 15,074 votes.
o George Q. Cannon was elected to Congress in 1872. He and his Congressional friends derailed most anti-Mormon legislation. However, the Poland Bill, after being stripped of its worst features by Senator Aaron Sargeant of California, was enacted in 1874. It largely turned the Utah courts over to non-Mormons.
o Although Mormons contended that the Biblical practice of polygamy was allowed under Constitutional freedom of religion, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1879 decided the contrary. Chief Justice Waite paid little homage to religious action — as against opinion — that violated law, and paid no attention to the way polygamy was actually practiced and its positive eugenic results.
o The Supreme Court decision encouraged anti-Mormon crusaders, which led to passage of the Edmunds Act of 1882, a powerful blow against the Saints. This act:
-punished Mormon cohabitation;
-excluded believers in polygamy from juries;
-disqualified polygamists and cohabitors from voting or holding public office;
-controlled Utah elections.
-Congressional hypocrisy and intent to punish Mormons alone was displayed when Senator Morgan (D-Alabama) moved to apply the cohabitation penalties in the territories against concubines as well as against Mormon plural wives. The amendment was rejected by forty-four votes to only seven in favor.
o After passage of the Edmunds Act, the House of Representatives denied George Q. Cannon his seat. The vote fell short of two thirds, which would have been required if the House had treated a Delegate as they would have treated a Member.
o The Church leaders became moving targets of the Judicial Crusade, operating from an underground of secret locations. President John Taylor, for example, died in an obscure home in Kaysville in 1887.
o Rewards were offered for the capture of Church leaders and several went to prison, including George Q. Cannon, where he wrote Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet.
o In 1887, the Edmunds-Tucker Act was passed. In a nation that exalts the right of private corporations, the L.D.S. Church was disincorporated. In a country that exalts the right of private property, all but $50,000 of Church property was to be escheated and used for schools. In a nation that exalts the right of citizens to vote, voting was denied to those who would not sign an anti-polygamy test oath. Gentiles soon took over the Ogden and Salt Lake City governments.
o The Territory of Idaho enacted a law that denied the vote to all Mormons by a test oath that the prospective voter was not a member of any organization teaching its devotees to commit bigamy or polygamy.
o Even worse, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Idaho statute in Davis v. Beason on February 3, 1890. Chief Justice Warren Burger once told me that Davis v. Beason, more than any other case that he had ever read, reflected the personal views and prejudices of the Justices, rather than careful constitutional reasoning.
4) How was attaining Utah statehood, partially through George Q. Cannon’s strategic leadership, critical to the foundation of building a new world religion?
Had a reconciliation not been worked out, the Church could have been in extremely dire straights. Statehood for Utah might have been indefinitely lost. Utah could have become a permanent territory and might have been treated somewhat like an Indian Reservation, but under the tight control of politically appointed carpetbaggers. Utah also could have been carved up and given to other states, so that no state had a majority LDS population.
Although polygamy was far from the most causal issue producing the anti-Mormon crusade, it was the most highly visible, and non-Mormon leaders made clear there would never be statehood and the crusade would continue until the polygamy issue was resolved. George Q. Cannon, First Counselor to President Wilford Woodruff discussed these issues frequently with him. President Woodruff, a particularly spiritual Prophet, pondered, prayed and waited for inspiration of the Lord, which came on September 20, 1890.
This led to President Woodruff’s “Official Declaration” to abide by the law forbidding plural marriages. In supporting the Manifesto at the Church Conference, George Q. Cannon explained that it had come from God because it had become necessary to yield to the demands of the country in order to save the people. George Q. pointed to scripture that if every effort were made to carry out a commandment and it was still impossible to adhere to it, the person receiving the commandment would be absolved of responsibility.
The issuance of the Manifesto alone was insufficient to obtain Utah Statehood. This was suggested in 1887 — the sixth statehood convention produced a proposed State Constitution stating that “bigamy and polygamy being considered incompatible with a republican form of government, each of them is hereby forbidden and declared a misdemeanor.” Nevertheless, that failed to produce statehood.
George Q. Cannon, sometimes referred to as “The Mormon Premier” or “The Mormon Richelieu” was the chief strategist and negotiator, for such matters as dividing Church members into political parties, persuading national political leaders that they should not offend the quarter of a million Mormons who could influence many intermountain area elections, persuading skeptical political leaders that the Church would not function as a theocracy, and negotiating with former Congressional friends such as Secretary of State James G. Blaine, a leading Republican. Decades of effort for statehood led to successful culmination in 1896. Elder B.F. Cummings described Elder Cannon as “the greatest master of practical statecraft the Church had produced.”
It would be hard to exaggerate how important Utah statehood, to which President Cannon contributed significantly, was to the growth of the Church and its ultimate emergence as a new world religion. Let us explore some of the ways this was the case.
o Back to the mission of the Church. The Church was able to refocus energy on religious objectives. For example, more than twice as many missionaries, 11,503, were set apart in the quarter century after statehood as during the quarter century preceding, 5,089.
o The lepers became leaders. With statehood, the outcast Mormons elected Members of the House and Senate, without trying to monopolize those positions. Although the election of an Apostle, Reed Smoot, to the U.S. Senate in 1902 was controversial, his emergence into a powerful and respected Senate leader, as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and his political leadership for 30 years, symbolized the transition of Mormons from pariahs to an unusual, but still acceptable, part of America.
o Smoot diligently helped many hundreds of talented Mormons obtain government positions in Washington, who, without his presence, might not have made it because of the stigma on Mormons in that era. Because Smoot’s young people performed well, he was sometimes asked to supply more of those bright young people. Many went on to influential positions in government, such as Edgar Brossard, who was appointed to the Federal Tariff Commission by five Presidents from 1925 to 1959, and long served as its chairman. Similarly, Rosel Hyde came to Washington to attend George Washington Law School at night and work for the government during the day. He served on the Federal Communications Commission from 1946 to 1969, much of that time as its chairman.
Others went on to influential positions in business. For example, Smoot’s last secretary, Isaac “Ike” Stewart, became Vice President of Union Carbide and President of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Stan McAllister, became Vice President of Lord and Taylor in New York, and helped the Church in that area.
Smoot helped an active Church member, William M. Jardine, become the first Mormon appointed to a cabinet position as Secretary of Agriculture in 1925. He subsequently became President of Kansas State University. Hal G. Smith of the New York Times, who covered Washington for nearly 40 years, attributed Smoot’s success in placing people not to a machine or any nefarious activity, but to his long service, party position, and the generally superior quality of the people he recommended.
Smoot’s demonstration that Mormons were acceptable parts of the government probably helped lay the base for the first Mormon appointed to a subcabinet position, even though that person was a Democrat and had run against Smoot for the Senate. This was James D. Moyle who became Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in 1917. This may also have resulted partially from the fact that Moyle’s boss, Secretary of the Treasury William McAdoo, while a law student, had been required to defend the Mormons in a successful debate. He had obtained ideas and information from Territorial Delegate George Q. Cannon and became friendly toward the Mormons while developing his case.
Incidentally, Smoot was at least equally encouraging to non-Mormons in helping them find jobs in the Capital. For example, Smoot persuaded President Harding to appoint former U.S. Senator from Utah George Sutherland, a non-Mormon graduate of BYU, to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Other Mormon Senators from Utah have followed Smoot’s model. For example, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch was one of the highest Senators in placing appointees in the Reagan Administration.
The tradition of Mormons coming to Washington and often staying there, that resulted from statehood, has led to the greater Washington, D.C. area having 19 stakes. This is one of the largest concentrations of Mormons east of Utah. Mormons are in the three branches of government, law firms and associations that influence government, and think tanks that study government policies.
o Smoot focused his indefatigable energy primarily on his political role. However, when the Church needed help he gave it. For example, after World War I, Great Britain and European countries excluded Mormon missionaries, by refusing them visas. In 1919, George Albert Smith, wrote from England that the Church was being almost smothered by persecution, and the exclusion of missionaries. He questioned whether the Church could survive in Europe. Senator Smoot enlisted the U.S. Secretary of State, and they both sent many cables pressing for the granting of visas to missionaries. He also met with the British and other European ambassadors. Agreements resulted, but were only partially kept. So, in 1923 Smoot toured England, France, Germany and Scandinavia. He met with media baron Lord Beaverbrook and was pleased with published interviews in major newspapers in London and the continent. He was featured as the powerful Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He met with the highest officials of each country where he pressed for consistent granting of visas. That ended the problems.
Since then, there have been many meetings with Utah Senators and other LDS public officials and foreign ambassadors to get or to keep missionaries in foreign countries. Examples of the results include Communist Hungary’s acceptance of missionaries, the early recognition of the Church in the Soviet Union and allowing missionaries to function in Russia after a new law that could have been interpreted to exclude them (a commitment encouraged by a visit of Senator Robert Bennett to Moscow, with the approval of the U.S. State Department) and allowing missionaries into Ghana after they had been prohibited. Sometimes non-Mormon leaders have been enlisted to help.
Most Islamic countries do not permit religious missionaries. However, Mormons have developed good relations with many Islamic officials by coordinating efforts to protect traditional family values from groups pressuring the United Nations in other directions. In addition, Islamic leaders have expressed appreciation at dinners for BYU’s long term Islamic Translation Series which translate into English, for the first time, respected Islamic Texts. The first presentation to Islamic leaders from Washington embassies and, in New York, United Nations representatives was Al-Ghazali’s The Incoherence of the Philosophers. Former Utah State Senate President Karl Snow handled liaison with U.N. Representatives in New York.
Beverly Campbell and Ann Santini have been liaison to ambassadors, and have brought several dozen ambassadors and high embassy officials to such events as: the annual BYU Management Society Dinner in Washington, D.C.; the annual Festival of Lights where in 1998 the Chinese Ambassador turned on more than 300,000 Christmas lights at the Temple Visitors Center and made especially positive comments about the Mormons; the annual Western Family Picnic at the Marriott Ranch in Hume, Virginia which is a virtually unique diplomatic event since ambassadors bring their families and which was attended by representatives of 53 countries with 28 ambassadors on September 25, 1999; and a presentation by the Polynesian Cultural Center on the Maryland estate of Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon which attracted 14 Pacific Basin Ambassadors the evening of June 8, 1999.
Smoot also took Church leaders such as Presidents Joseph F. Smith and Heber J. Grant to meet with Presidents of the United States at the White House, as well as introduced them to cabinet members to keep friendly relationships and encourage communication. Senator Smoot helped arrange Presidential visits. He persuaded William Howard Taft to visit Utah twice and to meet with Church leaders. Taft was the first President of the United States to speak in the Tabernacle. President Warren G. Harding and Woodrow Wilson also spoke in the Tabernacle.
During the revolution in Mexico, Smoot got protective aid to the Mormon colonies.
Elder Smoot held Church in his home on Sundays, until the 1920’s, when he helped negotiate the land for a highly visible Mormon chapel, with a gold-covered statue of Moroni on top located on 16th street, north of the White House.
o Ask yourself the question: Is it likely that there would have been even one Mormon U.S. Senator in Washington had the Church remained in New York, Ohio, Missouri or Illinois and been a small minority population? Winning the Utah statehood battle enabled 11 LDS Senators to be elected from Utah, and an additional 6 have been elected largely from neighboring states. The persecution of the Mormons, though deplorable, moved the Saints to a desolate area in which they could be a majority in what ultimately became a state — which provided the opportunity to build extraordinary political leverage. This history could not easily have been more brilliantly planned to achieve the end goal of building a strong Washington base that helped bring status and positive visibility to the Church as well as the ability to plead effectively with foreign governments to allow missionaries freedom to proselyte.
My close observation of the Mormon political community since the 1950’s indicates that Utah’s statehood not only produced Mormon Senators, but they became role models for many young Mormons who entered politics in States outside of Utah. Also, Mormon Senators made it acceptable in many people’s minds for Mormons to hold high elective positions. This led to the election of active LDS Senators Harry Reid from Nevada (currently Senate Majority Whip), Gordon Smith from Oregon, and Michael Crapo of Idaho, and previously, Paula Hawkins from Florida. Incidentally, she was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate who was neither the wife nor the daughter of a politician. There was also a near miss by Dick Swett in New Hampshire. It led to there being 11 current LDS Members of the House of Representatives, including Delegate Eni Faleomavaega of American Samoa, and George Q. Cannon’s great grandson, Christopher B. Cannon from Utah.
o The fact that an Apostle served in the Senate for thirty years set a precedent that facilitated the naming of a later Apostle, Ezra Taft Benson, as Secretary of Agriculture for eight years. He accomplished the seemingly impossible — moving much of American agriculture from regimentation toward free markets.
o Utah Statehood has also led to there being over 200 LDS staff members in the Congress. This makes at least a modest contribution to Congressional defense of legitimate LDS needs. For example, when religious extremists in Israel were threatening to stop the development of the strikingly beautiful BYU Center in Jerusalem, Congressman Tom Lantos was persuaded by LDS Congressman Wayne Owens to be a leader in a drive that obtained some 200 signatures of House Members on a petition that helped make sure that the BYU center was allowed to be completed and to function. Senator Orrin Hatch and his assistant, Frank Madsen, led the fight in the Senate. For Congressman Lantos, a Jewish Democratic Congressman from California, this fit his ideological commitments to freedom of the mind, and the free exchange of ideas. However, it did not hurt that his wife was a convert to the Church and his Administrative Assistant, BYU alumnus Robert King, is LDS.
5) How else did George Q. Cannon help build the foundation for the emergence of the international Church.
We will mention a few of the other ways that George Q. Cannon contributed to foundations for future Church growth.
First, he articulated positions of the Church eloquently and persuasively in speeches and writings. As Editor of the Deseret News, he converted it into a daily newspaper. He wrote over 1000 editorials for the Juvenile Instructor which he founded and edited for 35 years. He wrote many hundreds of editorials in the Western Standard, Millennial Star and Deseret News. More than 300 of his discourses were printed. President Gordon B. Hinckley has said “I don’t know of a man, really, who had a better understanding of the doctrine, of the government, of the principles of the Church than did George Q. Cannon. Among the three or four books outside the Standard Works to which I turn most frequently, is the volume Gospel Truth containing the statements of George Q. Cannon.”
Second, he made friends for the Church wherever he went. It was after interviewing him and seeing the boatload of British Mormons that he was supervising that Charles Dickens called the Mormons, much to his surprise, “the pick and flower of England.”
Third, with little formal schooling, he became highly educated through relentless reading and he strongly encouraged education among the Saints to build their knowledge and skills. He promoted the creation of centers of education. He offered the dedicatory prayer for the Brigham Young Academy lower campus education building (1892) whose facade is now preserved while the inside has been made into an ultra-modern library, which exhibits his photo, bio and dedicatory prayer. He was chairman of its Board of Trustees from 1897 until he died in 1901. He strongly supported education for both sexes and initiated and edited the Juvenile Instructor, the first children’s magazine in the Intermountain West (1866). He helped organize and was the first General Superintendent of the Sunday School Union of the Church (1867). President Heber J. Grant wrote “there has been no other man in Utah who has shown such marked ability in so many different ways as has he…the broad educational views held by President Cannon entitle him to be ranked as one of the foremost men from an educational standpoint that Utah has ever produced.” The Church’s promotion of education and science that George Q. Cannon’s activities represented contributed to Utah regularly producing more scientists and Ph.D.s than any other state in relation to population.
Fourth, he married talented wives and replenished the earth with descendants who served missions and tried to represent the Gospel in their professions. Those helped into the Church by the descendants of George Q. and of his brothers and sisters, and the chains of people that those new members helped convert may well exceed a quarter of a million people. Probably the closest single parallel in subsequent Church history to the massive baptisms performed in Hawaii by Elder Cannon and his associates was done by his grandson Ted Cannon and Rendall Mabey, who baptized about 1,700 people in opening up the West African Mission in the 1970s. A great grandson of George Q. Cannon played a role in the baptism of a Nigerian pastor who aspires to bring his congregations of thousands into the Church.
President Gordon Hinckley said: “Perhaps no man in the history of the Church has produced a family such as the descendants of George Q. Cannon. They have been Church leaders, yes, but there have been Cannons who have served with distinction in almost every walk of life…. They have made a tremendous contribution to the Church, and to the society in which they have been a part.”
5) Concluding Summary.
In conclusion, the Mormons have gone through a remarkable transformation from being viewed predominantly as a strange, tiny, authoritarian, narrowminded group to becoming increasingly recognized by intellectual observers as an unusual, tightly organized, significant, dynamic world religion, which helps resolve many human problems.
Two important factors that helped make this transformation possible are the early successful Hawaiian Mission and the achievement of statehood for Utah.
George Q. Cannon’s successful Hawaiian mission, with Hawaiians being ordained to the Priesthood and becoming spiritual leaders led to feelings of community and brotherhood by the Utah Saints with people from very different racial and cultural backgrounds, This helped Mormons sustain future expansion of the Church into other racial and cultural groups. It also embedded in George Q. the conviction that all of God’s children are important, can and do receive revelation and should be reached by the Gospel. Not only was he universally minded, but his strong leadership and speaking and writing responsibilities educated Church members with his universal emphases. Furthermore, the successful Hawaiian Mission created a stronghold that helped expand the Church into Asian countries after World War II.
Another major rocket launcher for the emergence of a new world religion was winning, with George Q. Cannon’s strategic leadership, the seemingly impossible battle for Utah statehood. This had a cascading effect. Statehood itself produced some degree of acceptability. The election of Mormon Senators and Representatives shifted Mormons from being excluded to entering into positions of policy and political influence, brought further acceptance of Church members, and helped many other LDS gain positions in Washington that ultimately led to their obtaining political and economic leadership.
These role models stimulated many other Mormons to enter politics and seek and sometimes obtain positions of influence, and helped attract a very large LDS population, many of whom are influential, in or near the nation’s capitol. All of this has led to the election of five current Mormon Senators and 12 previous ones, as well as 11 current Mormon members of the House of Representatives and 46 previous ones. This strong Mormon presence, much of which would never have existed without winning the battle of statehood for Utah, facilitated positive and effective communication with foreign ambassadors and leaders which helps keep the missionaries in most countries in the world and helps protect against persecution of members in most countries where they live. This is important for the future since efforts are growing in many countries to restrict the rights of non-traditional churches.
This strong Mormon presence in the most powerful capital in the world also promotes a flow of cosmopolitan perceptions and information back to Salt Lake City. These influential Washington based Mormons also facilitate positive communications and images in the national and foreign media, and create connections with many powerful decision makers. One thing that facilitates Mormon influence is that unlike many interest groups, Mormons are not soliciting Federal subsidies, but are seeking the freedom to worship and share their views in the market place of ideas — both of which are central to the American constitutional ethos. All of these factors have been important to the emergence of the new world religion.
Many millions of people have been killed by ethnic hatreds and wars. Thus, the LDS emergence as a well-functioning multi-ethnic religion (though not without adjustment problems) with a dwindling proportion of Caucasian members, is noteworthy. If it continues to succeed in the challenge of harmonizing such diverse cultures as it continues to grow, other institutions may wish to examine that model.
ENDNOTES
. Mark Cannon received his Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University where he wrote a prize winning dissertation on “The Mormon Issue in Congress 1872-1882: Drawing on the Experience of Territorial Delegate George Q. Cannon”. He has served as Staff Director, Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution; Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice of the United States; Director, Institute of Public Administration, New York; Chairman, BYU Department of Political Science; Legislative Assistant to Senator Wallace Bennett; Administrative Assistant to Congressman Henry Aldous Dixon. He was also a founding owner of Geneva Steel.
. Doctrine and Covenants 1:30.
. Keynote address to the joint convention of the Religious Research Association and Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, in Salt Lake City, October 27, 1989.
. “The prophet Joseph has proved again that economic and social forces do not determine human destiny.” The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation, (Simon and Schuster, 1992), p.95.
. Ibid. p. 97.
6. Ibid. p.94. More recently, Bloom observed — in the early pages where it was most likely to be read: “Perhaps…in the twenty-first century, when Mormonism has become the dominant religion of at least the American West, those who come after us will experience a….shock when they encounter the daring of the authentic American prophet Joseph Smith in his definitive visions, The Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants.” Harold Bloom, The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages, (Harcourt Brace, 1994), p. 6. In his new book on Angels, Bloom attributes much of the contemporary popular interest in Angels to the impact of the Angel Moroni on American thinking. He prefers Joseph Smith’s concept that Angels can only help us with things that we cannot do for ourselves. He again broadly praises Joseph Smith. Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams and Resurrection, (Riverhead Books, 1997), p.224.
.Joel Kotkin, Tribes: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy (New York: Random House, 1993), p. 248
. Ibid, p. 249.
9. As just one example, many Blacks have joined the Church in the Menlo Park Stake. One Black convert, Aaron Johnson, who teaches the High Priests in his ward, has said that the LDS Church has less race prejudice than any other organization he has ever observed. He believes the only way racial reconciliation will come is through the Church. The Stake has taken on the commitment of making sure that no student in the Stake is deprived of higher education or training because of financial need. Based on Gospel values, LDS businessmen created and funded Beechwood, an elementary school for underprivileged students. The school requires parents to take a parenting class and work regularly with their children. Despite alarmingly low high school graduation rates in the area, the first class to have completed preschool through the eighth grade are now high school graduates, and almost all of the Beechwood alumni will graduate from high school. Many will go on to higher education. One present and one recent Bishop in this Stake are married to Asians. Stanford Ward operates a thriving tutoring program where Stanford students interact with Samoan children twice a week. Interviews with Mary Finlayson, September 8, 1997 and September 21, 1999, and Stake President Boyd Smith, November 1 and 3, 1997, and Aaron Johnson, November 3, 1997.
. This statement was confirmed and its publication was approved in exchange of correspondence between Mark W. Cannon and Peter Drucker, May 18, 1989 and July 5, 1989.
. David Van Biema, “Mormons, Inc.” Time, August 4, 1997, pp. 50-57.
. Even such noted historians as Morison and Commager, in a history text used until after World War II, dismissed Mormons as having remained near to the low “cultural level from which they were recruited” and as being “barren in the arts” and “too autocratic for wholesome civic life.” Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager, The Growth of the American Republic, 2 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1937), 1:473. The historic outpour of anti-Mormon writing prevented even many historians who thought themselves objective from seeing Mormonism realistically until recent decades. Describing anti-Mormon’s statements about the Mormons, Hubert Howe Bancroft noted that in all his historical writing, he had never encountered such a “mass of mendacity”. He generally attributed accuracy to what Mormons wrote. History of Utah 1540 to 1887, (San Francisco, The History Company, 1890), preface.
. Joel G. Hancock, Strengthened by the Storm: The coming of the Mormons to Harkers Island, N.C., 1897 – 1909. pp. 29-31.
. Interview, September 20, 1997.
. Jerreld L. Newquist, ed. Gospel Truth: Discourses and Writings of George Q. Cannon. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1987, p.238, citing Journal of Discourses 21, 74-77.
. Gospel Truth, p.242, citing Journal of Discourses, 24:371.
. Gospel Truth, p. 241, citing Journal of Discourses, 12:30.
. (Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons Company Publishers, 1904), VI, 663.
. See Leonard J. Arrington, “Settlement of the Brigham Young Estate, 1877-79,” Pacific History Review, 21:1-20, February, 1952.
. Mark W. Cannon, “The Mormon Issue In Congress 1872 -1882: Drawing On The Experience Of Territorial Delegate George Q. Cannon”, Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 1960, p. 176.
. Ibid, p.217.
. Reynolds v. United States, 98 U. S. 166 (1878).
. U. S. Statutes at Large, 47th Congress, 1881-83, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1883), p. 31.
. Congressional Record, 47th Congress, First Session, February 15, 1882, p. 1215.
25. President Cannon agreed to turn himself in and go to prison in exchange for President Grover Cleveland appointing moderate judges.
. (Deseret Book Company, 1986.) President Ezra Taft Benson told me that he liked this biography so much that he asked Deseret Book to republish it. (July, 1985)
. 133 U. S. 333 (1890).
. Doctrine and Covenants, p. 291-93.
. Edward Leo Lyman, Political Deliverance: The Mormon Quest for Utah Statehood, (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986), p. 49 and forward.
. John M. Coyner, (ed.) Handbook on Mormonism, (Salt Lake City: Handbook Publishing Co., 1882), p.47, reprinting C. C. Goodwin, “The Mormon Situation”, Harper’s, LXIII, (October, 1881), 756-63.
. Arthur S. Street, “The Mormon Richelieu”, Ainslee’s Magazine, IV (January, 1990), pp. 699-706.
. Leo Lyman points out that after losing his seat in Congress, George Q. Cannon “did, however, remain a frequent visitor at the nation’s capital. Besides assisting his replacement, John T. Caine, a monogamist Mormon, he would still directly manage several of the steps toward eventual statehood.” Op. Cit., pp. 23, 30. Lyman describes Cannon as a “great statesman”. p. 282.
. The Contributor, 16:118-132.
. This takes the 25 years prior to the enabling act for statehood of 1894, compared to the 25 years after statehood in 1896. Church Almanac 1997-98, p. 532.
. In the early period Utah elected non-Mormons Tom Kearns and George Sutherland to the U.S. Senate, and elected one of America’s first Jewish Governors, Simon Bamberger.
. M.R. Merrill, Reed Smoot: Utah Politician, (Utah State Agricultural College, Monograph Series, April, 1953), p. 53.
. Mark W. Cannon, The Innovative Heritage of Mormonism, Co.mmissioner’s Lecture Series, Church Education System, Brigham Young University Press, 1974, p. 9.
. Smoot was accused by some Mormons of giving a majority of jobs to Gentiles even though they were only about one third of the Utah population. Ibid. p. 15.
. Interviews with Harvard Heath, Curator of the Utah and American West Archives, BYU, who researched these actions of Senator Smoot, September 17 and October 2, 1997.
. After Smoot’s wife died, he married, in 1930, Alice Taylor Sheets, the widowed mother of J. Willard Marriott’s wife. This did not damage the remarkable growth of the Marriott Hot Shoppes. For rich information on Smoot, see Milton R. Merrill, Reed Smoot: Apostle in Politics, (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1990).
41. See comprehensive study of “Mormons in Congress, 1851-2000” by Robert R. King and Kay Atkinson King in Journal of Mormon History, Fall 2000.
42. Mark W. Cannon, “New George Q. Cannon Building at BYU”, 1958, p. 4.
. Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, Address at funeral service of Adrian W. Cannon, June 11, 1991.
. Charles Dickens, The Uncommercial Traveler, (Boston: Dana Estes and Company, 1964), p.303.
. Fund raising has been led by former BYU engineering Dean Doug Smoot, who is, appropriately, the great grandson of A. O. Smoot, who funded the Brigham Young Academy in its early years.
46. The Young Women’s Journal, 12:243-5.
47. This was shown by nine studies over more than half a century that are summarized in Mark W. Cannon, “Latter-day Saints and Science” Meridian Magazine (online) 5/19/2002.
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48.Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, Address at funeral service of Adrian W. Cannon, June 11, 1991. President Hinckley also made similar comments at the unveiling of the statue of George Q. Cannon and Napela in front of the George Q. Cannon Activities Center at BYU Hawaii October 10, 1997: “George Q. Cannon has for a long time been one of my favorites among the stalwart brethren of the Church…. He served as counselor to four presidents of the Church. His published teachings are a literal gold mine of the doctrine of this Church. He had remarkable capacity for saying things in a way that made them very easy to understand. His testimony was strong and secure…. He communed with the Lord Jesus Christ, and it had a wonderful pattern upon his life…I’ve said it as a non-Cannon, that I think perhaps the George Q. Cannon family has produced more men and women of talents and ability and capacity than any other family in the Church. They have literally produced generals, ambassadors, architects, lawyers, doctors, merchants…. I have admired them for a long long time and the tremendous contribution which they made to the Church and significantly most of them have kept the faith and made a great contribution to this Church and moved this work forward in the world. Thanks to the Cannon family.”
January 30th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Keoki Kai born 1965/St. Joseph High grad 1983, has the most incredible/remarkable genealogy. Immigrant Tang Hungsin married a Kanealoha, and John Kai Sr. was their son. John Kai Sr. was our earliest native-born Chinese-Hawaiian entrepreneur/philanthropist, & brought religious lantern slide shows to churches in Kalapana 130 yrs. ago. His son John Kai Jr. 1878-1962 was the Walter Dod of the Hawaiian Islands a century ago, marrying original sugar master Tong Ai Yee’s progeny Annie Akamu, & rearing sons who went on to unparalleled schooling for their era [alltime solon Ernie & community leader John were Yale grads/Keoki's beloved tutu-vuvu George was our mythic labor hearings officer out of Whittier & President Nixon's classmate-friend]. George’s son PeeWee was our greatest sports analyst/coach, but died young from illness. PeeWee and son Keoki both coached together. Extraordinary lineage, baby. Keoki’s greatest strengths are 1) Keoki’s brilliant knowledge of Hawai’i family & business relationships; 2) Keoki’s fearlessness in the face of crushing opposition [taking on nepotism/cronyism/racism in government services-employment]. Love always, –Curt