By Curtis Narimatsu
Heroes
From G. Linnaeus Banks, “I live for those who love me, whose hearts are kind and true, for the heaven that smiles above me, and awaits my spirit too. I live to learn their story, who suffered for my sake, to emulate their glory, and follow in their wake — bards, martyrs, sages, patriots, the heroic of all ages, who crowd his’ry’s pages, and Time’s great volume makes. To hold communion with all that is divine, to feel there is a union, ‘twixt nature’s heart and mine.” Koji Ariyoshi (1912-1976) felt that international fascism [Hitler/Tojo] had to be defeated before civil rights in America could be addressed. Thence his advocacy for the Nisei/2nd generation Japanese Americans to serve in the military WWII, unlike the Stateside kotonk no-no boys [no to loyalty questionaire]. Abraham lied about his wife. Moses killed a man. David committed adultery. Peter denied Christ. These were some of the greatest men in the Bible, yet their failures are recorded for all the world to see. Salvation is about being human.
Henry Baldwin (1842-1911) lost his arm in a sugar mill accident. Baldwin became Paul Bunyan by one-upping his workers who feared climbing down the 450-foot sides of Maliko Gulch, the last obstacle to completing the earliest haole sugar plantation irrigation ditch. Baldwin shamed his workers by grabbing a rope and used his legs and remaining arm to shinny to the floor of the chasm, which then inspired the men to push on. Baldwin was a centrist solon who lamented over the forceful takeover of ‘Iolani Palace 1893. Walter Murray Gibson was a Caribbean gunrunner who was excommunicated from the Mormon church for using church funds to take personal possession of half the island of Lana’i in 1864, 3 yrs. after his arrival in the islands. Irony is that Gibson floated idea of Kalakaua as “Emperor of the Pacific” via federation of independent Polynesian island governments, & for this “calabash empire,” his grand plan/”scheme” fell thru via avaricious Thurstonites, who deposed Gibson as Kalakaua’s premier/foreign minister in 1887. Gibson fled for his life & died a year later in 1888 in San Francisco, after which his body was returned to Hawai’i, where his funeral was attended by huge throngs of mourners who supported the Monarchy, though he was labeled enigmatic by others.
Old Soldiers
Bobby Thonn on a quote from the Vietnam War: “If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may not have always. Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own.”
Old soldiers don’t die, they fade away until reprised by necessary inspiration, gang!! This, among other points, heads the fade away query. Love eternally, –Curt
Tribute to Laura Serene
Laura Serene of Honomu (born 1963) is Joan of Arc, fearless in her willingness to have an open mind/soul. Stephen Leacock’s adage also describes Laura’s suffusion of love/heart: “A religious person means one who lives in daily consciousness of the transience of life and the imminence of death. Such feeling carries with it supreme reverence for life.” So true of Laura!! Or, contemporaneously, Kool & the Gang’s “Cherish” — “Cherish every moment given w/time passing by. If you receive your calling before I awaken, could I make it thru the nite? Cherish love as long as we live, love will stand the test of time.” Kierkegaard, Danish theologian, the leap to Faith is quite a marvel!! – Curt
Racism in the military
Gen. Ned Almond had his Black officers enter HQ thru the back door. The 442nd RCT Japanese American soldiers were attached routinely to Almond’s division, being forced into the firing line time after time because racist Almond had no use for Blacks & ruined their morale. 442nd’s accomplishing missions got Almond another star. Jackie Robinson was w/the 761st Tank Destroyers in Texas, but didn’t ship out to Patton.
(Curtis Narimatsu is a lifelong resident of Hilo who writes about the forgotten past such as the old plantation days & untold heroes.)
February 28th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Thank you very much, gracious editor Tiffany C. Edwards Hunt!! Can you imagine, Kona hard scrabble coffee picker peasant/indentured servant Koji Ariyoshi was bankrolled at the Yale of the South, U Georgia, by Big 5/Merchant St. godfather Frank Atherton 1878-1945. Koji [born 1914, my error - my typo] wasn’t able to thank Frank upon returning from military duty WWII because Frank died before Koji returned home. Do you know who got Frank to bankroll Koji? None other than closet radical Hung Wai Ching 1905-2002, who in the 1930s was curious about Mao’s brand of communism. Of course, by the 1950s Hung Wai was dead reckoned set on eradicating communism, which is why Hung Wai wanted to eject Masato Doi from the 442, for Masato being on the same radio talk show as ILWU/Smith Act defendant Jack Hall [Masato had no clue Jack was gonna be on this format -- Masato was 442 president]. Hung Wai probably was upset that Masato did not join up w/Hung Wai’s Joe Farrington GOP [Joe Farrington 1897-1954 was our greatest-ever & most popular GOP; Hung Wai was Statehood Joe's bosom buddy/chief strategist-confidant, heading Joe's kitchen cabinet trinity incl. Mas Marumoto/Kats Kometani, Kats naming all postmasters -- 100th Batt. boys who didn't have formal schooling]. Yes, Hung Wai didn’t tell Frank Atherton about Frank’s money bankrolling Koji Ariyoshi.
Henry Baldwin took issue w/conflagrationist hothead Lorrin Thurston’s takeover of ‘Iolani Palace 1893, but Henry was shouted down by Lorrin’s master race haole ilk — Henry ever the measured moderate!! Henry benefacted Asian kids at Henry’s Maui A & B. A & B, being missionary genesis like Frank Atherton’s C & C among the Big 5 [C. Brewer/Theo. Davies/Am Fac fka Hackfeld], was leader in benevolent paternalism on Maui w/its social service orgs/facilities. Of course, Henry’s son Harry was A-hole, being just that kind of kid [sh_it don't stink]. YMCA/Congregational leader Leigh Hooley revulsed at Harry. Walter Murray Gibson actually was a visionary in setting up Kalakaua as emperor of the Pacific — pan-Pacific & trans-national a la later League of Nations. Which is why ethnic Hawaiians rose up on behalf of Gibson. I tell sage Laura Serene she’s the only one who processes every searing/deep question I ask. I tell Laura she’s a step ahead of me, because she finds her answers in my questions. “Laura, who did you deal with Valentine’s Day?” I asked. “I focused on everyone I loved and love, and I told myself how grateful I am to have had people whom I loved who’ve since passed on, and to have people still alive whom I love. How did you deal with Valentine’s Day, Curtis?” 
Yes, I know Gen. Lucian Truscott gave Gen. Dahlquist hell, for good reason [Dahlquist a fixated medal popper], just as Ned Almond was a racist first, patriot second.
Lucian Truscott
From Wikipedia
Lucian King Truscott, Jr.
January 9, 1895(1895-01-09) – November 12, 1965 (aged 70)
Place of birth Chatfield, Texas
Place of death Alexandria, Virginia
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service 1917 – 1947
Rank General
Unit 2nd Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment
IX Corps
Allied Combined Staff
US Rangers
VI Corps
Commands held 3rd Infantry Division
U.S. VI Corps (Italy, France)
U.S. Fifteenth Army (Oct ‘44)
U.S. Fifth Army (Italy) (Dec ‘44)
U.S. Third Army (Bavaria) (Oct ‘45)
Battles/wars World War II
Dieppe Raid
Operation Torch
Battle of Sicily
Battle of Anzio
Awards Distinguished Service Cross
Army Distinguished Service Medal (2)
Navy Distinguished Service Medal
Legion of Merit
Purple Heart
Other work author; CIA – senior agent Germany, later Deputy Director for Coordination
Lucian King Truscott, Jr. (January 9, 1895 – September 12, 1965) was a U.S. Army General, who successively commanded the 3rd Infantry Division, VI Corps, U.S. Fifteenth Army and U.S. Fifth Army during World War II.
3rd Infantry
Truscott took command of the 3rd Infantry Division in April 1943, and oversaw preparations for the invasion of Sicily, Operation Husky. He was known as a very tough trainer, bringing the 3rd Infantry Division up to a very high standard. He led the division in the assault on Sicily in July 1943. Here his training paid off when the Division covered great distances in the mountainous terrain at high speed. The famous “Truscott trot” was a marching pace of five miles per hour over the first mile, thence four miles per hour, much faster than the usual standard of 2.5 miles per hour. The 3rd Infantry Division was considered by many the best-trained, best-led division in the Seventh Army. In mid-September 1943, nine days after the initial Allied landings, he led the division ashore at Salerno on the Italian mainland, where it fought its way up the peninsula.
VI Corps
In January 1944, the division assaulted Anzio as part of the U.S. VI Corps. Allied forces soon became mired on the beachhead, and Truscott was given command of VI Corps, replacing the initial commander, Lieutenant General John P. Lucas, who had proved to be indecisive during the battle. Truscott was succeeded in command of 3rd Infantry Division by Major General John “Iron Mike” O’Daniel.
Following Anzio, Truscott continued to command VI Corps through the fighting up the Italian boot. However, his command was then withdrawn from the line to prepare for Operation Dragoon, the amphibious assault on southern France. On 15 August 1944, the VI Corps landed in southern France and initially faced relatively little opposition.
The rapid retreat of the German Nineteenth Army resulted in swift gains for the Allied forces and the Dragoon force met up with southern thrusts from Operation Overlord in mid-September, near Dijon.
A planned benefit of Dragoon was the usefulness of the port of Marseille. The rapid Allied advance after Operation Cobra and Dragoon slowed almost to a halt in September 1944 due to a critical lack of supplies, as thousands of tons of supplies were shunted to northwest France to compensate for the inadequacies of port facilities and land transport in northern Europe. Marseille and the southern French railways were brought back into service despite heavy damage to the port of Marseille and its railroad trunk lines. They became a significant supply route for the Allied advance into Germany, providing about a third of the Allied needs.
On 2 September 1944, Truscott was promoted to Lieutenant General.
Truscott’s next command came in December 1944. He was promoted to command of the U.S. Fifth Army in Italy when its commander Lieutenant General Mark Clark was made commander of 15th Army Group. Truscott led the Army through the hard winter of 1944–1945, where many of its formations were in exposed positions in the mountains of Italy. He then led US forces through the final destruction of the German Army in Italy.
Truscott had a very gravelly voice, said to be the result of an accidental ingestion of acid in childhood. He was superstitious about his clothing, and usually wore a leather jacket, “pink” (light khaki) pants and lucky boots in combat. He also wore a white scarf as a trademark, first during the Sicilian campaign.
Truscott once said to his son, “Let me tell you something, and don’t ever forget it. You play games to win, not lose. And you fight wars to win. That’s spelled W-I-N ! And every good player in a game and every good commander in a war…has to have some son of a bitch in him. If he doesn’t, he isn’t a good player or commander….It’s as simple as that. No son of a bitch, no commander.”
Truscott was respected by those who served under him. A medical officer in the Seventh Army related stories he’d heard from the men who served under Truscott earlier. Unlike some commanders, Truscott was not noted for self aggrandizement, nor did he suffer such from his superiors. Others noted he was humbled by the sacrifices those under him had made. Bill Mauldin described the time Truscott gave the address on Memorial Day, May 31, 1945, in the military cemetery at Nettuno, outside Anzio: “He turned his back on the assembled windbags and sparklers and talked to the crosses in the cemetery, quietly, apologizing, and then walked away without looking around.”
February 28th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
From Derek K. Miller:
A big quake that moves laterally (sideways, not up or down) can be way above 7.5 magnitude, but not cause a tsunami—which is why the 1906 San Francisco quake and later smaller ones in southern California, which occur on the lateral-moving San Andreas fault, haven’t created tsunamis.
Risky geology off the Pacific Northwest coast
The Cascadia Subduction Zone forms a trench just offshore from Vancouver Island and the Washington, Oregon, and northern California coasts. The Cascadia Trench or Cascadia Subduction Zone—that’s the region most prone to a strong vertical earthquake, and potentially to generate a tsunami.
More tsunami answers: why not Australia?
Flat maps can be deceiving. If you look at the animation here, which better represents a spherical view of the earth, or this wider view, you can see two things:
1.As I mentioned in an earlier post on my site, tsunamis are not necessarily always circles of waves emanating from a point source; they can be directional. In this case, the main paths of the tsunamis were directly to the west and east of the earthquake, not so much north and south. So the hardest-hit areas were directly west and east, regardless of distance. Northwestern Sumatra and Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, and even Somalia (thousands of kilometres and hours away) got big waves. Bangladesh (which is not only nearby, but very low-lying, and so would seem particularly vulnerable), southern Sumatra, much of Burma, Antarctica, and other areas had much smaller waves and less destruction.
2.Australia is not only southeast of the earthquake, it is somewhat shielded from it by most of the islands of Indonesia, including Sumatra itself.
The combination of the directional tsunamis and the significant shielding meant that—unlike other partially shielded areas (southwestern Sri Lanka and the southwest coast of India, for instance), where the tsunamis were powerful enough to diffract around the coastlines and still cause damage—even the exposed northwest coast of Australia saw only relatively small effects: larger swells and surf, but no tsunami-style run-up and destruction.
How can a tsunami go so far?
Bill Copeland of Binnington Copeland & Associates in South Africa wrote to me to ask about why tsunamis travel so far. I feel a bit out of my league trying to explain wave behaviour to an engineer, but hey, being out of my league never stopped me before, so here we go…
Dear Mr. Miller,
I am a Professional Engineer and am mystified by the fact that the Engineering principal of the inverse law does not appear to apply to Tsunami waves. Whilst I can understand that a big bang under the water will create a large vertical movement of water above it, I fail to understand why the volume of displaced water does not remain constant, and the amplitude of the wave diminish in proportion to the distance it travels (due to the larger circumference or increasing wave front). From reading the reports of the 26th December 2004 tsunami, one can only gain the impression that the wave front hitting the various countries was many thousands of kilometers long, and the volumes of water huge, which appear to have been much greater than the volume which could have been generated by the original earthquake.
Energy, not volume
It’s not as though tsunami waves don’t dissipate like others, it’s just that they contain so much energy that even as they do, they remain powerful enough to destroy and kill. And it does not have to be amplitude that changes; so can period and wavelength, or the number of waves in the train.
Tsunamis are also not so much about volume displacement as about energy transfer. The water shifted above a quake does not move across the ocean, i.e. a log floating at the surface above the epicentre would not have been carried to Thailand or Somalia. So the water that drowned people in Somalia was African water, and that in Thailand was Thai water—just the energy that pushed it came from the Andaman sea floor several hours away.
A tsunami wave train moves as ocean swells do, by raising and lowering the water level as it passes by. In mid-ocean, a tsunami is unnoticeable without a sea-level gauge, since it might take an hour to raise and lower sea level by one metre—and you’d never notice that with all the bigger swells out there. But the energy contained in that slow, slow peak and trough is (as we have all seen) stupendous.
Sound around the world
Think of another, similar event in the same part of the world: the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. Ignore the tsunamis and earthquake damage and focus only on the sound. At the site of the eruption the bang surely would have been deadly on its own, purely from sound pressure, like the shock wave of an atomic bomb. It dissipated rapidly as it spread outward, but even in South Australia it sounded like nearby dynamite being blasted.
More recently, on a Sunday morning in May, 1980, my father rushed downstairs because he thought our water heater had exploded. It turned out that Mount St. Helens, hundreds of kilometres southwest of us in the United States, had erupted that morning, and when the sound reached Vancouver it was still loud enough to seem like an explosion within the house.
Of course, like sound, energy does dissipate as a tsunami moves. The energy expended at and near the site of the quake is much larger than across the ocean, which is why buildings in northwestern Sumatra collapsed, totally aside from the tsunami, but in India and Africa the quake itself only registered on instruments.
Less powerful, but still powerful enough
Tsunamis are remarkably efficient ways of moving energy, but the waves that reached the coast of Africa were not by a long shot as energetic as those that pounded Sumatra and Thailand. They might have been just as high by the time they ran up beaches—that is determined more by the slope of the sea floor than by the strength of the original source of the waves—but they did not travel as far inland in Tanzania as they would have on some theoretically identical beach in Sri Lanka, or in Indonesia. I suspect that the series of waves in the wave train were smaller at farther shores too, and that there were fewer noticeable waves on African shores than Southeast Asian ones.
Down at the bottom, the chart indicates that this quake released the energy of the explosion of several billion tons of TNT. You could probably strew that several billion tons very thin, along all the coastlines affected by the tsunami, and if you detonated it, you’d still kill a lot of people. You could throw most of it away, and strew what was left along those shores, and maybe kill the same number of people.
By the same logic, even a tsunami that is significantly less energetic than when it started can still be damaging, or deadly. If you live 100 metres from the shoreline on a nearly flat piece of land, a wave that reaches 200 metres inland will drown you just as well as one that reaches a full kilometre. If you’re trapped in a hut completely consumed by brown swirling water, whether it’s two metres or ten metres to the surface doesn’t matter. If a tsunami engulfs the tree you’re clinging to for seven minutes, you’re just as dead as if it lasted fifteen—even if only half the volume of water passed through.
By the horrible numbers
And, in the end, the numbers tell the story: nearly 100,000 dead in Indonesia, 50,000 in Sri Lanka, 10,000 in India, 5,000 in Thailand—and 300 in Somalia. It’s an imperfect measure, and gruesome, but (taking into account the directionality of the tsunami, differing coastal population densities, and energy absorbed by intervening land masses and sea floor features) that looks like a clear inverse distance relationship to me.
Worldwide tsunami animation
This has been all over the news already, but the animation from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showing how the Indian Ocean tsunami spread around the whole world (2.8 MB QuickTime) is still worth a link.
Notice how two fronts from the tsunami actually cross and interfere with one another in the southeast Pacific, between Chile and Antarctica.
February 28th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Yeah, today’s Moment Magnitude measurement for an earthquake is much higher than the Richter scale we fuddy-duddies grew up with. So, the 1960 Chile earthquake, largest ever on record in world history, measured 8.9 on the Richter scale, but 9.5 when converted into today’s Moment Magnitude scale. So, yesterday’s miniscule tsunami’s Chile earthquake source measured Moment Magnitude 8.8, but probably would read 8.2 on the Richter scale, still among the largest in history, but nowhere near the energy pulse of the 1960 earthquake.
February 28th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Before our Kaiko’o [means strong sea in Hawaiian] redevelopment project put 26 ft. of earth fill from Puna quarries to mauka/inland of our Waiolama canal after our 1960 tsunami brought in waves 25 ft. high to our current fill slopes, the 1960 tsunami came up to today’s downtown Long’s Drugstore site a mile inland up the original gradual slope from the sea.
Current Chile earthquake ties for fifth most powerful since 1900
February 27, 6:08 PM Natural Disasters Examiner Tony Hake
The earthquake that struck Chile registered as a magnitude 8.8, a massive temblor by any measure. Only five quakes since 1900 have been recorded equal to or as powerful as the one that struck Chile.
Complete earthquake coverage from the Natural Disasters Examiner
Not far from where today’s quake struck, the most powerful quake in history occurred – a 9.5 magnitude quake on May 22, 1960.
Second on the list is the 1964 Alaskan quake 9.2. Striking on March 27, 1964 at 5:36pm local time, the temblor was centered near Prince William Sound. 128 lives were loss and more than $311 million in damage was caused.
The earthquake that caused the infamous Indonesian tsunami on December 26, 2004 ranks as the third most powerful. That 9.1 magnitude quake originated off the west coast of Northern Sumatra and created a tsunami that killed more than 150,000 people and left millions homeless in 11 nations.
A magnitude 9.0 quake occurred on November 4, 1952 in Kamchatka, Russia. The tsunami from that event reached Hawaii and caused nearly $1 million of damage in the state.
Number five on the list centered off the coast of Ecuador on January 31, 1906. That magnitude 8.8 quake generated a tsunami that killed between 500 and 1,500 people. The waves from that event were seen across Central America, Hawaii, San Francisco and Japan.
The U.S. Geological Survey will perform an in depth analysis of this earthquake in Chile to determine its final rating. Assuming it remains as a magnitude 8.8, it will tie with the 1906 Ecuador quake as the fifth strongest since 1900.
A complete list of the most powerful quakes since 1900 from the U.S. Geological Survey follows.
Location Date UTC Magnitude Lat. Long. Reference
1. Chile 1960 05 22 9.5 -38.29 -73.05 Kanamori, 1977
2. Prince William Sound, Alaska 1964 03 28 9.2 61.02 -147.65 Kanamori, 1977
3. Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra 2004 12 26 9.1 3.30 95.78 Park et al., 2005
4. Kamchatka 1952 11 04 9.0 52.76 160.06 Kanamori, 1977
5. Off the Coast of Ecuador 1906 01 31 8.8 1.0 -81.5 Kanamori, 1977
6. Rat Islands, Alaska 1965 02 04 8.7 51.21 178.50 Kanamori, 1977
7. Northern Sumatra, Indonesia 2005 03 28 8.6 2.08 97.01 PDE
8. Assam – Tibet 1950 08 15 8.6 28.5 96.5 Kanamori, 1977
9. Andreanof Islands, Alaska 1957 03 09 8.6 51.56 -175.39 Johnson et al., 1994
10. Southern Sumatra, Indonesia 2007 09 12 8.5 -4.438 101.367 PDE
11. Banda Sea, Indonesia 1938 02 01 8.5 -5.05 131.62 Okal and Reymond, 2003
12. Kamchatka 1923 02 03 8.5 54.0 161.0 Kanamori, 1988
13. Chile-Argentina Border 1922 11 11 8.5 -28.55 -70.50 Kanamori, 1977
14. Kuril Islands 1963 10 13 8.5 44.9 149.6 Kanamori, 1977
February 28th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
My dearest spiritual son Tony Marasia born 1974 asks me, “No interaction?” re: ex-girlfriend who just was in my presence. I tell Tony , “I had forgotten that human life forms exist in this world who emote love and affection, inclusion and support, empathy and comfort, such as you, Son. I now remember quite mirthfully that love is alive and well –I render her irrelevant, Son. I love you, son.” Tony’s reply: “Love prevails… the sun [son]”
Only love endures, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Photo shows Antone (Tony) Aguiar about to be overcome by a tsunami wave. He cut the hauser of the Brigham Victory from the pier, allowing it to escape to safety in the open sea. 1946 tsunami photo incapable of being duplicated here — nonetheless, Tony Aguiar is my alltime hero — hath no greater love than a man who lays down his life for another/others!! Photo is at Pacific Tsunami Museum website. Tony is UH theater legend Jackie Johnson’s vuvu/grandpa.
February 28th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Oceanographer George Curtis says that the transition from Richter Scale to Moment Magnitude is inexact, in that Richter Scale doesn’t measure well in the 8 range magnitude. So that conversion tables are not a firmly established science. Meaning that the 1960 Chile earthquake which measured 8.9 Richter scale converted to 9.5 Moment Magnitude is inexact in its measurement, translated meaning that yesterday’s Chilean sourced tsunami based on 8.8 Moment Magnitude was incapable of being precisely predicted for its “wave height.” As George says, better to be safe than sorry, thence our Civil Defense approach [all but George/Walt/another scientist were allowed from outside into the tsunami zone, albeit at Bayshore Towers -- completely safe]. I told George that a great observation post, safe as ever, is the 2nd floor tower/turret at the elevator bank in the Ben Franklin bldg. George says that safe as that post is, Civil Defense won’t hazard a risk to George’s gang and/or to its rescuers. End of story. Mahalo.
February 28th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
George Curtis applauds Gerard Fryer of Pacific Tsunami Ctr. for Gerard’s utter candor/honesty about overpredicting by 50% the “wave height” of yesterday’s tsunami. To answer justified readers’ query on why in heaven’s name is the Pacific Tsunami Ctr. at Ewa beach just 6 lousy ft. above sea level — gang, lousy planning [no foresight]. Nonetheless, as tsunami ctr. scientists reassured me/the world, the tsunami ctr. is buffered by outlying reef shoals which tremendously reduce any tsunami energy pulse. But good point, gang. No foresight from prior authorities. As to why yesterday’s drawdown/rapidly receding water did not result in a tsunami surge, probably the period/time which elapsed between wave pulses was long enough to avert a pile-up/major mass of water.
February 28th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Joe Louis bailed out Jackie Robinson after Jackie refused to ride in the back of the bus in Texas, and was facing a court martial. So Joe went to Texas, & Jackie was on the first train north. Pullman porters distributed the Pittsburgh Courier as fast as any newspaper in America, which is how Joe got the news about Jackie’s situation.
February 28th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Pu’u Kamali’i is the 3rd most mauka hill of the 3 Halai Hills, a favorite resort of children, who coasted down its grassy slopes on holuas/coconut leaf sleds. Kamali’i means children. Pu’u Honu is the middle hill whose crest lies under the junction of Komohana St./Pu’u Honu Way [excavated for earth fill at Waiakea houselots 1939]. Halai is the most seaward/makai hill with a crater in its top. The legend of the 3 sisters accompanies the geology of the 3 hills. Punahoa is named after its maiden, which means companion [companion springs]. Ponahawai is named after its maiden, which means water clearing/circle. This is enduring love — “She shall cover you with her feathers, and under her wings you shall find divine refuge.” Psalm 91:4 Love shall find its way, caressed by an angel. Angel joy a garland, a saint, where springs bathe quietly, gently and quaint. Providence smiles at lovely child Angel/Anela, whose soul embodies what heart is all about — embrace another. “Let all things be done in love.” 1 Cor. 16:14 –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
John Kai Jr. 1878-1962 is Keoki Kai’s great grandpa [handsome Keoki born 1965/'83 Waiakea High grad/UoPacific CA. grad]. John’s paternal grandma [John Sr.'s mom] Lukia Kahilo was among the 1st converts to Catholicism, being baptized in 1841 at age 25. John Jr.’s maternal grandpa was granted land via the Mahele, where Jr.’s home was built [today's senior citizen housing on Haili St. mauka of Haili Church], inasmuch Jr.’s maternal branch was descended from kapu chiefs of Ka’u. John Jr.’s maternal grandpa Tang Hung Sin from southern China was our auspicious sugar master known as Akina, who also owned an acre of prime land NW corner Waianuenue/Kino’ole Sts. Governor John T. Baker’s nephew Adam Baker of movie theater fame married Jr. Kai’s wife Annie’s sister Hannah Akamu, Adam the grandson of British sea captain on one side, & on the other of Pupuhi, a Tahitian Christian who came to Hawai’i w/the Rev. William Ellis in 1823. Of course, Gov. John T. Baker was the man who posed for the statue of King Kamehameha the Great. John Kai Jr.’s wife Annie’s mama A’lai & her 2nd husband Akana housed the father of modern China, Sun Yat Sen, at their home at what is today Haili/Keawe St. junction. Sun Yat Sen would not have overthrown the Manchu Dynasty/imperial despots if not for the financial & manpower support of A’lai/Akana/all of Hawai’i Chinese immigrants/progeny, all of whom were from Sun Yat Sen’s southern China homeland. Sun spent a total of 7 yrs. in Hawai’i!! Perhaps foreordained, that A’lai, daughter of immigrant sugar master Tong Ai Yee, was born in 1856 when a Mauna Loa lava flow nearly overran Hilo, and turned 25 yrs. old when the 1881 lava stopped, its south edge corner Mohouli/Popolo Sts. today, its north edge at Sunrise Ridge above Komohana St. along so-called Kukuau gulch. After all, A’lai & her family prayed for Princess Ke’elikolani to stop the lava flow, which Ke’eli did via 30 red silk scarves/fine brandy along Ponahawai trail. Of Ernie Kai 1905-1990, son of Annie Akamu Kai, grandson of Annie’s mom A’lai, “…For once you have known someone [like Ernie, Acting Gov. WWII era], the years cannot erase the memory of a pleasant word or of a friendly face. For such name stands for one who has touched my life sometime, and in that meeting has become the rhythm of the rhyme…I really feel I’m composed of each remembered name, my life is so much better than it was before you came.” [author unknown] Love endures, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Recognition dedicated to my hanai son/dearest soul Tony [Anthony] Marasia born 1974: I have a wish for you, for joy thruout your life, the joy I know from loving you, such love will never die. Memories of pleasing songs [Oliver Kelly's "Say that you love me forever" -- Honomu's Maize Nihau's brothers accompanied Kelly on this beautiful ballad], of comfort and embrace, you share your heart so openly, and bare your soulful face. Though one can feel that thanks of grace such bothersome routine, the nicest gift which God bestows is sharing love supreme. Eternally yours, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Personification is where the inanimate is given human attribute/anthropomorphic. Lyric in poetry expresses feeling/though. Free verse creative/descriptive, not just rhyme cant. Idyll a short rural scene. Rhyme feminine final unstressed syllable ["longing/yearning"]. Masculine final stressed syllable ["peak/creek"]. Epigram short wit ["melody clings/climbs"]. Elegy — Gray’s “Country Churchyard.” Headstone graced w/verse is ubiquitous imprint/style. Back to Gray, “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, the plowman plods his weary way, dirges due in sad array, through the churchway path we saw him borne, a youth to fortune and to fame unknown, Melancholy marked him for her own, his soul sincere, he gave to misery all he had, a tear, he gained from Heaven a friend.” Maui contempo troubadors Sly Dog great arrangement/style w/song “A World of Love.” Hawaiian language enunciation/phonetics vowel-laden a language of creation [too without the t][Aaaaah][ooooooh]. Not vulgar/lecherous/obscene, but sensual/romantic. Rapture, not profane. Visceral/primal, not salaciously erotic. Glide slide/tremelo-vibrato.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Yes, Laura Serene is the metaphysical event horizon, the ocean’s inexplicable transfixed reckoning. Laura’s audacious vulnerability of irony per Stephen Leacock, to open oneself is to share metaphysical transcendence/love. Back to Patton: “This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit — the bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know anymore about real fighting under fire than they know about f_cking!!” A Black tanker of the 92nd Div. in the book “The Invisible Soldier” said of the 442nd, “The trouble with the little Nisei was in keeping up with them, they moved like greased lightning… then they turned those Germans every way but loose.” Black soldiers said “our enemy was not the Germans, our enemy was our White officer.” Alfred Apaka weighted down himself w/rocks under water to increase his lung capacity to master Ray Kinney’s compositions/open flute [range, esp. falsetto]. Kinney’s wife Iwalani on wall photo at Duke’s in Waikiki, ex-beau the Duke. “Aloha Sunset Land” by Ioane Kawelo a century ago: “I love each rock & rill, I love each veil & hill, Aloha land fair isle so grand. Tho o’er the seas I roam, in dreams I’ll journey home. Aloha sunset land ….” Mele mai, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
From December 7, 1915 Star-Bulletin: Famous Na-Ha Stone was not used as sacrificial altar — authentic account discovered reveals part it played in testing of royal babes — At last something very definite has been learned about the historic Na-ha stone which, at present, is on the property of John Scott [current public library site]. The Rev. Stephen Desha has discovered the old Hawaiian paper that tells the history of the stone and he has given out a short translation of the screed. It is not a written translation, but merely a verbal synopsis of the old and interesting story. The Na-ha stone turns out not to be a sacrificial stone at all. It was used in connection with certain ceremonies connected with the birth of a child of high degree among certain lines of chiefs of old Hawaii. The stone was originally located in the Waialu river, Kauai, and was brought to the island of Hawaii by a high chief, Makaliinuikuakawaiea (k). The stone was landed from a double canoe at Waiakea and from there transported to its present resting place shortly afterwards. The stone was supposedly endowed with great powers and when children of royal blood were delivered it was on the Na-ha stone that the kahuna deposited the newly born infant. Should the infant cry aloud, it was declared to be of the true Na-ha blood. When Kamehameha the Great was 20 years of age, he came from Kohala to Hilo in company with Kalaniwahine, a prophetess, in a canoe. The party landed at Waiakea and were met by Ululani (w), a Hilo chiefess. Ululani inquired as to the cause of the visit of Kamehameha and Kalaniwahine, and the king replied, “I come to visit the Na’ha stone.” The Hilo chiefess immediately retorted, “You are not entitled to visit the stone. You are of another branch and not of the Na-ha!” Kamehameha then declared that he had come to conquer the Na-ha pohaku. His words were, “I came to visit the Na-ha pohaku and try to conquer it. I will succeed in making friends with the Na-ha branch of the alii.” Kamehameha and his companion then went to the Na-ha stone and the king walked around the big rock, patting it and talking to it as if it were alive. “You are not only a stone, but a great mountain,” declared Kamehameha. “It will be very hard for me to move you, but I will try.” Kamehameha then strove with all his might to move the stone but for a time he could not. He strained and pushed until his eyes were bloodshot and his face was crimson but could not budge the big rock. Then the prophetess exclaimed, “E Kalani e, if you succeed in moving Na-ha pohaku, you will move the whole group of islands. If you change the foundations of Na-ha pohaku, you will conquer the whole group. You will prosper, your people will prosper and I too, will benefit.” Kamehameha then grunted and, making one final, great effort, rolled the stone from its resting place. The moving of the stone caused a shock like an earthquake and the land in the vicinity rocked and swayed. From the fact that he had moved the stone came the idea that he could conquer the whole group of Hawaiian Islands. Turning to the people, Kamehameha declared, “I have moved the Na-ha pohaku, and I have changed its foundations. I will conquer the whole group [of islands].” The paper goes on to say that whenever Kamehameha the Great was about to begin a battle he would always refer to the Na-ha stone and would repeat his statement about shifting it. He would, before starting in to fight, exclaim, “I will be victorious today — the gods are with me!” A written translation of the old document now in the possession of Senator Desha will be made at once and the paper will then be turned over to the committee from the Board of Trade which is in charge of the matter.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Maui’s Red Dog’s “World full of love” ["Lovers holding hands, walk in the sand (beach), under the bright, starry moonlight, in a world full of love"] enchanting melody, subdued modulation, so pleasurable!! Tonality/vibrato-tremelo surreal/enthralling. Julia A. Fletcher Carney (1823-1908)–
Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.
Thus the little minutes,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages
Of eternity.
Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make our earth an Eden,
Like the heaven above.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
HS Booth: Like butterflies & flowers, I come to lay down among the things I love. Resurgent soirees of the soul/innate pleasure center — RM Rilke: Reflect, dear friend, on the world within. It might be recollections of childhood — such innermost place is worth all your love and observation. Don’t try to clarify your feelings to others, don’t be weighed beneath social conventions and overhead forces. The deep Cosmos are here, and stand amid life, vibrant, enriching. Siddartha Gautama [Buddha] renounced his Hindu elitism in which only the chosen few attain transcendence, & he founded an inclusive philosophy, today’s Buddhism, premised on the triology of dharma [infinite wisdom]/sangha [devout confidants]/buddha [mentor]. June Gutmanis’ dharma [spiritually resplendent] is her core being ['uhane/soul, boundless compassion-love for all]. June’s buddha is her auspicious mentor, Ted Kelsey [who helped inspire today's UH Hilo Hawaiian language program]. Don’t ever tell me you’re your own worst critic — what you’re actually demonstrating is how vain/narcissistic/self-inflated you are. Or that you don’t have time for anything — you need to be made to have an appointment for one to see you. Ridiculous. Hilo’s little orphan boy Frank Calvomatta died in the tearful embrace of Catholic Father Louis, & with Frank’s last breath, the mercy of God Almighty was upon him, 1916, Frank’s gravesite by Father Louis at Catholic cemetery behind Hilo Terrace Apts. across DOE annex below Hilo High track. Um sabio espiritual, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
June Gutmanis had great synergy with everyone — symbiosis, really!! Vegas caliche/Korea basalt/Pu’u Wa’a Wa’a tholeiite, June loved rocks, penned book titled “Pohaku [rock],” among her other famous works ["Na Pule Kahiko"]["Kahuna La'au Lapa'au"]. June told me I was her best friend [yeah, right -- she probably told the whole world each one is her best friend!! ]
The Story Tellers: We are the chosen ones.
My feelings are that in each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.
To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called as it were, by our genes.
Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story! So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, “You have a wonderful family, you would be proud of us!” How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.
It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference, and saying I can’t let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it.
It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family.
It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are them and they are us. (For we without them cannot be made perfect.)
So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take their place in the long line of family storytellers.
That, is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and put flesh on the bones.
By: Della M. Cummings Wright – Re-written by her Granddaughter, Della JoAnn McGinnis Johnson – Edited and Reworded By: Tom Dunn
February 28th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
Denise Takashima, our Ragna Rath/Sister Marian Cope incarnate, loves the uncompromising mix of string hums & guitar fret squeaks, old-time purity amid today’s sweetening of edits/dubs. Triste/affanato [wail] of Santana, older echo being George Harrison’s “While my guitar gently weeps.” Slack key guitar isn’t Hawaiian original, but steel guitar is! Frank Sinatra at The Sands Hotel, “Fly Me To The Moon — Fly me to the moon, let me sing among those stars, let me see what spring is like on jupiter and mars. In other words, hold my hand, in other words, baby kissme. Fill my heart with song, let me sign forever more, you are all I long for, all I worship and adore. In other words, please be true. In other words, I love you!” Wow
February 28th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Former Congresswoman Pat Saiki’s dad worked for AmFac’s office bldg. Keaukaha side [makai soccer field]of parking lot which is Keaukaha side also of Mo’oheau park. Al Inoue’s dad Rango is brother of Pat Saiki’s mom. Elizabeth means consecrated to God. Hawea is one of 2 ancient temple drums brought from Tahiti to Hawai’i. Elizabeth Hawea Wa ia ‘u born 1925 Hilo High ‘43 is our legendary songstress of Haili Church Chorale fame [Haili Church Chorale enshrined in Hawea's acolyte Kahauanu Lake's Haw'n Music Hall of Fame]. Hawea is the daughter of mythic icon/elected official Harry Kaina Brown, whose 30 yrs. of tenure as our County auditor are exceeded only by County Attorney Billy Beers thruout the Haw’n Islands. Of course, Hawea’s mom is great educator/1st Hilo High grad Eliza Desha, 1st cousin of renowned operatic composer/kumu hula Helen Desha Beamer. Eliza’s dad is Haili Church’s longest-serving pastor, Rev. Stephen Desha Sr., who was 3/4 haole bloodline but who was our most ardent Hawaiian nationalist. Of course, Eliza’s husband Harry Kaina Brown went to bat for our interned Japanese WWII, & Harry Kaina Brown is our buddahead messiah. Hawea is Columbia U. NYC doctorate in Education, & our esteemed educator. Hawea’s cousin Nona Beamer [whose grandma/tutu is Helen Desha Beamer, who is Hawea's mom's 1st cousin] also is Columbia U alumnus, & grand dame of Kamehameha School Haw’n language/arts program.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Erudite scribe George Will ranks the 3 worst cases in U.S. Supreme Court history — 1) Dred Scott 1857 which concocted a constitutional right, unmentioned in the Document, to own slaves and which started the Civil War — yes, half a million lives lost over the idiocy of so-called intelligent men with black robes; 2) Plessy vs. Ferguson 1896 which ratified racial segregation (euphemism of separate but equal); 3) Korematsu vs. U.S. 1944 which ratified blanket internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry [AJAs or JAs] during wartime. Boumediene vs. Bush 2008 is George’s fine exemplar of the inherent value of checks/balances among the 3 branches of government [legislative/executive/judicial] — that the prisoners at Guantánamo “have the constitutional right to habeas corpus,” enabling them to challenge the basis of their detention, under the terms of the 800-year old “Great Writ” of habeas corpus, which prohibits the suspension of prisoners’ rights to challenge the basis of their detention except in “cases of rebellion or invasion.” Habeas means that the executive branch cannot be the only judge of its own judgment, that it has to release a prisoner or show through due process why the prisoner should be held. Of Guantanamo’s approximately 270 detainees, many are dangerous “enemy combatants,” some may not be, but per Boumediene none will be released by this court decision, which does not even guarantee a right to a hearing. Rather, it guarantees only a right to request a hearing, inasmuch courts retain considerable discretion regarding such requests. Habeas is the great writ of liberty, inasmuch no state power is more fearsome than the power to imprison. Thence, habeas lies at the heart of the age-old struggle to constrain governments, in which our greatest result was our Constitution, which limits Congress’ power to revoke habeas to periods of rebellion or invasion. Thence, Congress exceeded its authority when Congress [via Military Commissions Act 2006] withdrew federal court jurisdiction over detainees’ habeas claims. Marbury vs. Madison 1803 by Chief Justice John Marshall, the greatest jurist in U.S. history, launched and validated judicial supervision of America’s democratic government — Marshall asked, “To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing, if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?” Our greatest AJA scholar, Franklin Odo born 1939 Kaimuki High grad ‘57, currently director of Pacific region section at D.C.’s Smithsoninan Museum, champions overturning of Korematsu case — per Wikipedia, “indeed, Korematsu’s conviction for evading internment was overturned on November 10, 1983, after Korematsu challenged the earlier decision by filing for a writ of coram nobis. In a ruling by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted the writ (that is, it voided Korematsu’s original conviction) because in Korematsu’s original case, the government had knowingly submitted false information to the Supreme Court that had a material impact on the Supreme Court’s decision. The Korematsu decision has not been explicitly overturned. Indeed, the Korematsu ruling is significant both for being the first instance of the Supreme Court applying the strict scrutiny standard to racial discrimination by the government and for being one of only a tiny handful of cases in which the Court held that the government met that standard.”
February 28th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Amy Dunn born 1955 is Emily Dickinson’s hummingbird
w/its unique flight pattern, which Emily calls our route of experience, inexplicable yet profound, with all kinds of paradoxes [love/fear -- joy/sadness]. Daring/bold, boundless zest, love over fear.
Yoshio Inaba 1911-2008 was the only AJA who was part of staging maneuvers for the Battle of Midway. Yoshio was among the earliest AJA cabinet appointees in the Territory, & among the 1st AJAs along Merchant St. [engineer & Dickey's outfit]. Roy Kim says that Ehren Watada could not go away quietly [as a resister], because it’s wrong to obey blindly what Watada refused to do [illegal Iraq war]. There’s a difference between following the order of things and doing what’s right. Roy says that there are many ways to Christ but only one way to God.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
For Greek philosophers Plato/Aristotle, glorious virtues start w/courage & end w/wisdom, a la Santini/Zulu/the British square/other renowned warriors. The 1st historian in the Western World, Herodotus, crusaded to “preserve the memory of great and marvelous deeds,” just as successor Thucydides’ mission was to record “important and instructive actions of human beings.” I tip my hat to Brother Keoni/John and Sister Luedeen Andrew for finding the hero/heroine in us all, our very own Herodotus/Thucydides who exemplify Plato/Aristotle’s creeds that glorious virtues start with courage and end with wisdom, and for making us all the happier/wiser/deeper for these values. As Keoni Burgess evokes, in the blockbuster romantic thriller “Shall We Dance?” — the gumshoe private eye says to Susan Sarandon’s character Bev Clark [on tailing Bev's hubby played by Richard Gere] that couples get married for passion — to which Susan Sarandon’s character says, “We need a witness to our lives. There’re billions of people on this planet… I mean, what does one life really mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything — the good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things — all of these, all of the time, every day. You’re saying ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness to life.” Sigh… it could not have been said any deeper than this … with love timelessly, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Free association/stroke of genius/stream of consciousness key Hawaiian ‘olelo/compositions, as classical narratives key Luso works. But the mele/tunes differ except for crescendo/intensity emblematic of Monarchal cadence/stilted piano preface/soaring-majestic anthem, & swooping choral replete thruout. Johnny Almeida/Sonny Cunha/Sonny Chillingworth Luso, & Latin-named are Lena Machado/Vicki Rodrigues. “Strong/silent type” Gary Cooper Luso typify Luso alms/beneficence, not bombast/roister. Humility/quiet strength personify Luso custom/tradition a la great sportsman Al Vierra. My closer to Luso culture: Forever, I visualize & draw near to your authentic beauty & truth. With faith & belief, invoke love immortal! Viver bem/live fully, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Social stratification: Clark Gable/Claudette Colbert’s 1934 “It Happened One Night” about breaking class/status barrier [rich girl trapped/suffocated by her class status falls in love w/crude but liberating commoner] symbolic genesis of Leo DiCaprio’s/Kate Winslet’s “Titanic,” Leo/Kate giving their performances of a lifetime in this unforgettable 1997 film about the power, the unadorned majesty of love. “The Misfits” with Clark Gable/Marilyn Monroe [Gable died shortly after & Gable's widow blamed Monroe] — soft-heart Monroe’s Roslyn asks macho diehard Gable’s Langland, “How do you find your way back in the dark?” Langland summons, “Just head for that big star straight on. The highway’s under it — it’ll take us right home.” Home is in the heart, and highway is in the head.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Gary Cooper’s “High Noon” 1952 best-ever Western. Cooper had just broken up w/flame Patricia Neal. Gaunt/depressed/withdrawn, Cooper became his scripted character, role of a lifetime, age 51. Johnny Depp/Tom Cruise terrific range/edges. Marilyn Monroe vulnerable, her greatest strength, unlike current throb Diane Lane, suffused w/assurance. Oyasu mi nasai [nighty nite], -Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
May 17, 1892 Advertiser article on Wainaku Camp 2 [Nikai camp]: “A mile and a half from Hilo, far above the Wainaku mill, there is to be found, in a green, fern-clad valley with a sparkling stream and a dashing waterfall, a complete Japanese village, with thatched roofs and bamboo walls for its homes. Few strangers know of its existence, but it is to my eye [Thomas L. Gulick] the most picturesque and unique cluster of dwellings in the Hawaiian isles. Many of the doors of the cottages are shaded by luxuriant banana trees, bearing bunches weighing from sixty to seventy pounds. The hamlet is swarming with rosy babes and smiling young mothers. All look healthy, contented, and happy. Mr. Furneaux has some very artistic photographs of this Arcadian village.” Little does the writer know of the abject subjugation of the Japanese immigrants under these conditions. From the Advertiser July 24, 1895: “During Monday afternoon the 15th, the Japanese camp at Wainaku was completely destroyed by fire. The village consisted of fifty or sixty thatched houses fashioned from bamboo and cane leaves which formerly had been often pointed out to tourists as one of the most picturesque sights in Hilo. To rebuild, the new dwellings will be constructed of prosaic northwest lumber.” My Dad’s parents first arrived/immigrated to Nikai camp, which was in the gulch next to today’s Wainaku Camp 2 park grounds, which today is like a Brazilian rain forest/jungle. Nikai camp nestles up to Maile stream [Nikai stream]. –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
Winston Churchill once said there was nothing which concentrated the mind like being shot at and missed. Chaplain Hiro Higuchi 1907-1981, my Dad’s 442 buddy, confided to his wife Hisako the shock of witnessing the carnage of war up-close: “… my nerves are completely shaken. Nothing I can say or write will even describe the horror of war and the intense fear that grips one all the time one is on the front lines. O Lord, when will this horror end? Whenever I pass one of our men so still on the road with his body covered — I think of his family in the islands — all because a couple of madmen [Hitler/Tojo] in the world wanted everything for themselves. A few more weeks of this, and I shall go mad.” Oh so true…. –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
From linguistic expert Dr. Richard E. Wood: “Hawaiian is a member of the Polynesian branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language family, now also called Austronesian. Its members range from Madagascar to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). It is not related to Sanskrit or English. Some pioneering scientific work may have been undertaken on the esthetics of language. It suggests that the majority of human beings find linguistic [esthetic] beauty in languages which have a high ratio of vowels, particularly open vowels and long vowels, to consonants. Such languages include Italian and Hawaiian. For example, meaningful utterances containing only vowels can be constructed in Hawaiian, e.g. eia Iao ‘behold Iao (the Iao needle on Maui).’ Languages with a high proportion of consonants to vowels, or with only consonants and no vowels, have less esthetic appeal for most humans. Examples are Serbian, Croat, Czech, and Sanskrit. A meaningful sentence in Czech containing no vowels is strc prst crz krk, (which means) ’stick a finger through (your) neck.’”
February 28th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Imagine, 500 covers/reduxes of “Fly Me To The Moon,” easy chord progression, one piano key to the next, simple diction ["Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars, let me see what Spring is like on Jupiter and Mars, in other words, hold my hand, in other words, darling kiss me ..."], sigh Easy does it, baby! –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Explanation: You increase your chance of true love finding you by you being loving/kind/empathetic/supportive/caring/generous of yourself. And if true love doesn’t find you in our mortal/sentient lifetimes, certainly true love will reward you in the afterlife, guarantee!!
February 28th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
John Lennon’s “Across the Universe” his favorite composition– serenity/tranquility/inner peace-comfort. Metaphysical, really…. sigh…
Notice how classical operatic melodies spring wondrously even today?? A la Albert Nahale’a “He Punahele No ‘oe.” Divine/ho’ano!!
Oh yes, 1927’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight” a heartthrob melody. To me, Elvis’ best cover/redux of
the Flapper tune. Neil Sedaka born 1939, piano virtuoso, what a presence!!! Unique understates him. Yes, of Jewish heritage, this guy can sing/belt’em w/the best!! Love everlasting, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:24 pm
When I am ignored/forgotten, or when I await a minus/negative communication as one unburdens of me, I repose and take comfort that love lives on in my heart and in the afterlife, and that just the same, romance never dies, now or in the hereafter. Logician Bertrand Russell said that Christianity produced only 2 good things, the calendar & the timing of the lunar eclipse. God was a meaningless word because it had no point of reference. Maybe Jean-Paul Sartre’s chagrin bears repeating — a man dies without water if left bare in the desert, but does it mean that water does not exist? Or, as an astute observer once said, God is an expression of Man’s soul — what God is, man can become. What man is, God once was — the metaphysical over the mortal. As to the lost battalions of life/history, Janet Brown, daughter of San Antonio’s WWII Alamo outfit, our Lost Battalion, sent a card to our 442 boys, our Japanese-American rescuers who suffered 800 casualties to rescue 200 Alamo soldiers, “I have a decades-old message for you — thank you, thank you!! Yes, I shall let my children and grandchildren know that the Army considered AJAs expendable, but I shall also tell them that the ONLY ones who were capable of rescuing my beloved father and his unit was the 442nd samurai outfit. I shall tell them in memory of my father, his buddies-in-arms, AND the 442nd. In peace and serenity, sincerely yours, Janet”
Contemporaneously, Golda Meir 1898-1978 chastened, “When Arab extremists kill our children, I am profoundly saddened. But when these extremists want us to kill their own children as martyrs, whom these grown men hide behind, I am bewildered. I cannot comprehend the extent of such cowardice. I cannot.” Age old maxim — Authoritarian power does not bind nor convert people, but instead mutual respect among neighbors, on our street or among/across national countrymen-women, typifies folks who are not afraid to stand up for their friends/neighbors. In Hawai’i, public education in part fostered by the New England missionary belief
in freedom/opportunity/equality/common purpose enabled down-trodden Asian progeny to ascend up the social ladder a la James Adams’ American Dream 1931 [book "The Epic of America"]. With humble heart [Psalm 91:4/Luke 14:7-11/John 13:12-20/Matthew 18:4], love –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Uniting the 4 fundamental forces of nature [gravity/electromagnetism/strong nuclear force/weak nuclear force], science comes up short — describing an object bigger than the finite universe, or one that doesn’t exist, is impossible. String theory, if true, helps solve the problem by adding 7 hidden dimensions and another for time, plus anti-particles/super particles. String theory cannot be validated, and just is a mathematical abstraction. Proponents, however, see such beauty/symmetry in the equations — as nature so often has revealed in the past — that it would be tragic if some form of string theory was not real, per scholar Tom Ford. Fact or fiction, science or sacred? Does God exist? Faith just fantasy? Love over fear. To see someone larger than Man, a Deity, comforts us. Friedrich Nietzsche closed out his life by saying the same thing, which was lost on later devotees Hitler/Mussolini, who touted Man over the Metaphysical — Man is God.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
My heroine Hawea Waia’u embraces the heartlines of nostalgia and folklore in our tribute to our ancestors, ‘aumakua o ka po, spirits of the distant past, who remain alive so long as their memories are recalled and revered, and the wisdom they’ve shared is passed on from one generation to the next, resurgent and enduring, embodied in each recurring successor, the ancient sages who wait to be recognized within us all, in Jesus’ name, Amena. –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
Classy Greer Garson once said, “The mirror (of life) should be tilted slightly upward toward the cheerful, the tender, the compassionate, the brave, the funny, the encouraging.” In 1997’s Oscar winner “Titanic” movie, Kate Winslet’s character Rose implores portrait sketch artist/vagabond Leonard DiCaprio’s character, “Jack, you see things.” Jack replies, “I liked her sense of humor, even though she lost a leg, and even if she is a lady of the night in her native Paris.” To which smitten Rose challenges this sketch artist, “Immortalize me, Jack!” Love is forever. Romance is not dead. Hard to imagine a marriage, or life, without romance. Rose and Jack have the right sentimental feel. Oyasu mi nasai, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
Let me share with you about cuz Leilani Kauinui of Ha’ena — as Capt. Craig Kamahele pronounced w/Craig’s ‘Opihi Man treasured song, yearning memories of Ha’ena wash over me w/fun! A’ama crabs, pipipi, pulehu, Uncle Kona crunching on the manini from his throw net… aaah, ho’ano/divine!! Uncle Kona’s uwehe/hula knee knock sensuality-humor, Leilani’s expression of songs via the hula, picture of grace, purity personified, fantasia/euphoria. As I reminisce about the past, my ‘olelo goes, “Mauna Kea, like a spired loft convent, devoutly clambers up to the blue of God’s sky, its base garland green, its beauty carved and cradled by the hands of a saint, its weathered abode soft at its peak, rocks contoured by creeks… its forest rim billowed dim and faint, close-clinging streams which tickle below, to reveal the plain of Waiakea… Mauna Kea’s majesty so steeped, her breadth so alluring, angels smile in its forest folds, where springs bathe flora, & birds sing in the tree tops… small hills abound, reach joyfully toward the sky, ravines nestle snugly beneath the grassy slopes, luscious rose apples appear in the thicket of trees, cool gales whisper past green sleeves of bough… gusts of cricket mirth ascend up the slopes… river rocks clatter of ambles, colors alive, thru the valleys they roll… to seashells of Waiakea, echoes of tides, of caressing mists, of currents & fathoms below… these, then, are glimpses of God’s pleasures in Mauna Kea, down the slopes to the sea at Waiakea. And as I kneel below the bough of the tree, as the Angel’s music clings & climbs, such wondrous music of heaven’s chimes.” My history guru June Gutmanis 1925-1998 had her holy trinity to comfort her, consisting of 1) Ellen Howarth’s “Where is the heart that doth not keep, within its inmost core, some fond remembrance hidden deep, of days that are no more? A tress of my loved one’s hair?” 2) Gustav Mahler’s “If you love romance for romance sake, not me, doth love me for your sake, just as I love you!!” 3) 15th century Judaic poem, “…loving you is really living [kererte a ti es bivir en verdad].” I’d add Hastings & Psalm 118:24, “Relish the moment, rejoice!!” Find your events, go to your heart, do the unthinkable — love!! Rarest June rekindled an ancient Nippon proverb, “Rosoku wa mi wo herashite hito wo terasu,” ergo, candles give life/illumination to others, though giving up their very existence. Till time disappears, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
The measure of man (anonymous source): Not what did he gain, but what did he give? Not what was his station in life, but had he a heart, & if so, how did he play his God-given part? Not what was his shrine, nor what was his creed, but had he befriended those in need? And was he ever ready with a word or good cheer, to bring back a smile, to banish a tear? These are the units to measure the worth of a man, regardless of birth.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
From Ann Landers: Are you a class act? Class bespeaks an aristocracy unrelated to ancestors or money. Some extremely wealthy people have no class at all [Frank De Luz], while others who are struggling to make ends meet are loaded with it [high school senior Michael Robinson]. If you don’t have class, no matter what else you have, it won’t make up for it.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Giri ninjo, to serve humanity, Nippon adage unknown to turks Scrub Tanaka 1915-2006/Scrub’s prodigy Isamu Kanekuni born 1921 88 yrs. young. For my mac nuts, I favor original Japanese immigrants here/Issei, who were unable to be U.S. citizens until after 1952, at which point most of them had died, a decade after the formation of the greatest fighting unit in U.S. military history, our 100th/442 all-Nisei [2nd generation Japanese in America] soldiers. Issei pulled our fate out of the maelstrom of settling here [poverty/hardship], & gaijin/haole Jack Burns 1909-1975 became our messiah — kokoro-heart, ganbari-perseverance, chigi-loyalty, gaman-resolute & quiet strength, hokori-pride, meiyo-honor, though Burns 1st was perceived as warui-bad-reviled spy chief [to lock up suspected J_p saboteurs]. Kevin Costner’s “Dances w/Wolves” & Val Kilmer’s “Thunderheart” blockbuster movies symbolically illustrate Burns’ life, & how haole [not Big 5, but grassroot common lot] Burns made it his mission to the death to ensure racial equality/fair play for the Asian immigrants/progeny, the very folks he was assigned to jail in/lock up WWII. Burns in turn grew into our legendary action folk hero, our holy father/consecrated ground. Giri ninjo honto ni, Burns became our modern day Buddha/Jesus. Our Issei immigrants gave us the ability to assimilate/adapt, & Burns carried it thru to the end [of his life]. Yes, Ted Tsukiyama’s/Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest WWII Generation” is popularized, but for my mac nuts, my big heroes are our Issei forebearers. And to bi-racial high school senior Michael Robinson, Mormon prodigy/astounding prophet in the making, mele mai/pololei, — till time disappears, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Asian immigrants were banned from U.S. citizenship [e.g., Chinese Exclusion Act 1882]. Since only citizens can vote, our Asian immigrants could not vote. Yet incredulously, they were conscripted/drafted to fight for a country which denied them the fundamental liberties of citizenship/suffrage. To illustrate the vacuous contrivance of legal edicts, Issei Takao Ozawa, armed w/Cal Berkeley schooling, sought citizenship in 1902/1914, inasmuch the 1790 Naturalization Act did not exclude “Mongolian stock.” But the U.S. Supreme Court reprised racial profiling by interpreting the 1790 Act & 3 later revisions as banning Mongolians by implication. Analog: In 1918 Congress passed special legislation granting citizenship to alien WWI veterans. Hidematsu Toyota was granted citizenship from courageous local federal judge Vaughn, despite protestations from INS Examiner Ragsdale. Judge Vaughn granted citizenship to 400 Issei & 300 other Asians. But the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Vaughn’s ruling & configuratively cancelled Toyama’s citizenship on grounds that the 1918 Act excluded Japanese aliens. Chagrined/chastened by such injustice, patriotic Issei prevailed upon Congress to undo the U.S. Supreme Court folly via the later 1935 Act granting citizenship so long overdue/pronounced/resonant. To me, Vaughn was Paul Bunyan, a folk hero/fabled mythic legend to us all. –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Sun Yat-sen 1866-1925 led the successful revolution against Imperial China, and is known as the father of Modern China in both Beijing and Taipei. He first came to Honolulu in 1879 at age 13 to join an older brother and uncle. He graduated from ‘Iolani School in 1882, then attended O’ahu College [Punahou today]. Sun spent a total of 7 years in Hawai’i, and in 1894 he founded the Hsing Chung Hui [Revive China Society] in Honolulu, and it became a key financial force behind the epochal Revolution in China. Since Sun was from southern China like 90% of all Chinese in Hawai’i/the U.S., the support for him here was overwhelming, backed by most icons both Chinese & haole. In Hilo Steamy Chow’s dad/Tong Ai Yee’s progeny/our movers-shakers all supported Sun. Sun’s democratic/egalitarian vision was fired up after tasting democracy here, from natives like Joseph Nawahi to mythic Americans like Thomas Jefferson/Abe Lincoln. Even Punti-highbrows like the KJ Luke family of Kohala worshipped Sun, who by vocation was a medical doctor. Of course, Sun’s alter ego/brilliant mentor was none other than the Father of P.I. Independence, Dr. Jose Mercado Rizal, medical doctor who was shot by Spain’s firing squad, a martyr to his devotion to freedom from tyranny. Sun revelled in Hawai’i as the melting pot, the greatest exemplar of racial harmony, in the world!! As Sun reminisced in 1910, “This is my Hawaii, where I was brought up and educated, where I came to know what modern civilized governments are like and what they mean.” Pololei, toje, in love’s embrace, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
St. Damien, among the noblest mortals the world has ever seen. Impelled by his love for humanity/life, he forsook the association of mankind and devoted the better part of his life to the outcast lepers, dying among them as a martyr to his devotion to Jesus and the world. Mormon faithful Michael Robinson, biracial & all but 17 yrs. of age, is St. Damien incarnate. This young man blows out me like no other. Incredible balance/composure/unrequited-agape love for all. You shall not believe your eyes/you shall not comprehend your heart — he’ll blow you away too. Michael is a senior at Hilo High & lives a block below at Hilo Terrace Apts. w/his Caucasian Mom, whose family members are icons in Salt Lake Utah. You want to see Jesus? St. Damien? Joseph Smith? George Q. Cannon? Observe Michael, larger than life, total opposite of our purported religious leaders like Wayne Cordeiro/Pope Benedict XVI/etc. Totally opposite. Humility/ascetism personified. In timeless love, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
Rite of passage [learning experience], not martyrdom, for Augie T’s getting a pie in his face — Augie needs to forgive/express empathy for agitator/thug, not become a thug in turn. Love over fear [of failure/rejection/humiliation/loss], baby. I tried expressing this metaphor to Augie’s rep, who exhorted public outrage vs. the assailant, to no avail. Knucklehead mentality — local macho-ness, rep capsules my view as delirium. Stoic resolve the moral masterpiece. Mistreatment a learning experience. Projection/displaced insecurity-inferiority-fear-aggression-accusations are preposterous reactions, yet universally common. Ignorance is the real ascription/byword. Only love endures, always ai/kokoro/aloha, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Federal Constitutional Amendment to recognize Hawaiians as a political entity, not a prohibited racially favored group?? Two-thirds of Congress/three-quarters of the States?? Not likely, per Rick Castberg, who chafes that “the real problem is that neither KS nor OHA addresses the fundamental problem, which is raising the socio-economic status of Hawaiians. KS tends to choose disproportionately from those with Hawaiian blood who are middle-class and above, kids who would do well in any decent public or private high school in this State. As long as efforts are based on race they are bound to fail, both legally and politically.”
February 28th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
It’s said that God gave us memory so that we could have roses in winter. Similary, oppressed peoples long for freedom, as in Red China. If the anachronist communist leaders fail to give the teeming masses gradual reform, the option of rule by terror almost certainly will backfire on these despots and reforms will be forced on these despots, if by way of revolution.
Scholar Rick Castberg born 1941 long ago chagrined that Princess Pauahi’s will is a probate court matter, not a constitutional issue. Had KS [Kamehameha School formerly known as Bishop Estate] correctly adhered to Princess Pauahi’s literal wording/intent [aid to society's underclass, with preference to Hawaiian orphans/displaced kids], instead of playing the race card, there would be no court undercut via Doe vs. KS.
Douglas Freeth 1906-1975 was the father of architects who helped build Honolulu. His dearest wife Evelyn 1904-1988 an altruist social worker who founded Rehab Hospital. Both Doug/Evelyn took my parents under their wings as longtime GOPs. The 1950s were the golden age of GOP, when Statehood Joe Farrington 1897-1954 was our titular head here, w/Ike as President. Of course, clueless Bill Quinn, despite his Harvard Law creds, rode the coattails of GOP prevalence/success w/Quinn becoming our 1st elected Statehood Governor 1959, only to be deposed in 1962 by Quinn’s defeated foe in 1959, Jack Burns 1909-1975. Above the morass of politics, give all praise to St. Andrew’s Church Episcopal priest Rev. Claude Duteil, whose peanut butter ministry was replicated by all other 49 States and Canada. Visionary/Christian Grace/selflessness/Providential mission — a Rev. Duteil understood the power of love and persuasion, and used it wisely in the most beautiful location in the world, Hawai’i.
Nonpareil Kamehameha the Great the template for all leaders. Ancients precede him, such as Liloa/Liloa’s
son ‘Umi. Kalaunui’ohua conquered all but Kaua’i 800
yrs. ago. Educator/historian David Malo from Keauhou-Kona, linguist Mary Kawena Pukui from Ka’u, statesman Joseph Nawahi from Kalapana, Kepelino Keauokala also from here. John Papa I’i/S.N. Haleole/Samuel Kamakau/James Kaulia mentored via Rev. Sheldon Dibble’s Lahainaluna school. Kepelino mentored by Catholic Bishop. Malo/Kamakau rebuked for being Christian extremists, Kepelino advocated military force for Queen Emma’s quest for the throne vs. Kalakaua 1874, foretelling military force vs. Lili’u 1893. Nawahi chided as hot-tempered by political peers.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Anelaikalani Jennings’ vocal is exquisitely haunting/edgy/strong, to me much better than Raiatea Helm’s. Onomatopoeia [words imitate sounds/exhalations -- whoosh of aaaaahhh/ooooohh--sounds of procreation] extraordinary re Hawaiian vowels. Kaona/subtext/sensuality in sound/enunciation affect magically. For now and for always, till time disappears [Ronnie Milsap], love, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Hauntingly mesmerizing Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major
Ostinato’s bass line in Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major refrains us, but the soaring lilt liberates us to eternity in haunting mesmerizing fashion. Imagine, Pachelbel’s Canon was forgotten for centuries before being rediscovered nearly a century ago. Wow!! Amor, –Curt
Pachelbel’s Canon
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Pachelbel’s Canon, also known as Canon in D major (PWC 37, T. 337, PC 358), is the most famous piece of music by German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. It was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a gigue in the same key. Like most other works by Pachelbel and other pre-1700 composers, the Canon remained forgotten for centuries and was rediscovered only in the 20th century. Several decades after it was first published in 1919, the piece became extremely popular, and today it is frequently played at weddings and included on classical music compilations, along with other famous Baroque pieces such as Air on the G String by Johann Sebastian Bach.
History of composition and publication
Although Pachelbel was renowned in his lifetime for his chamber works (contemporary sources praise his serenades and sonatas), most of them were lost. Only Musikalische Ergötzung, a collection of partitas published during Pachelbel’s lifetime, is known, and a few isolated pieces in manuscripts. Canon and Gigue in D major is one of such pieces. A single manuscript copy of it survives, Mus.MS 16481 in the Berlin State Library, which contains two more chamber suites; another copy, previously kept in Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, is now lost. The circumstances of the piece’s composition are wholly unknown. One writer hypothesized that the Canon may have been composed for Johann Christoph Bach’s wedding, on 23 October 1694, which Pachelbel attended. The music for the occasion was provided by Johann Ambrosius Bach, Pachelbel, and other friends and family members. Johann Christoph Bach was a former pupil of Pachelbel’s, and Johann Sebastian Bach’s oldest brother.
The Canon (without the accompanying gigue) was first published in 1919 by scholar Gustav Beckmann, who included the score in his article on Pachelbel’s chamber music. His research was inspired and supported by renowned early music scholar and editor Max Seiffert, who in 1925 published his arrangement of Canon and Gigue in his Organum series. However, that edition contained numerous articulation marks and dynamics not found in the original score; furthermore, Seiffert provided tempi which he considered right for the piece, but which were not supported by later research. The Canon was first recorded in 1940 by Arthur Fiedler, and the first famous recording[citation needed] of the piece was made by the Jean-François Paillard chamber orchestra.
Over the years, the Canon has been arranged numerous times for a wide variety of ensembles. A non-original viola pizzicato part is also commonly added (in a string orchestra or quartet setting) when a harpsichord or organ player is not used to improvise harmonies over the bass line. The Canon’s chord progression proved to be immensely influential; it was used in countless pop and rock songs.
The Canon enjoyed a surge in popularity after it appeared in the movie Ordinary People; it is said to have become the most popular piece of classical music, however briefly. Since then, it has appeared in numerous settings and arrangements, including with lyrics.
Analysis
Pachelbel’s Canon is a complex work which merges several distinct forms of music. The canon is a polyphonic form in which several voices play the same music, only enter one by one, each after a delay. In Pachelbel’s piece, there are three voices engaged in canon (see Example 1), but there is also a fourth voice, the basso continuo, which plays an independent part.
Example 1. The first 9 measures of the Canon in D. The violins play a three-voice canon over the ground bass which provides the harmonic structure. Colors highlight the individual canonic entries.
The bass voice keeps repeating the same two-bar line throughout the piece. In musicology, this is commonly referred to as ostinato, or ground bass (see Example 2). The chords suggested by this bass are:
Example 2. Ground bass of Pachelbel’s Canon.
1. D major (tonic),
2. A major (dominant),
3. B minor (tonic relative or submediant—the relative minor tonic),
4. F-sharp minor (dominant parallel or mediant—the relative minor dominant),
5. G major (subdominant),
6. D major (tonic),
7. G major (subdominant), and
8. A major (dominant)
This sequence, “I V vi iii IV I IV V” (see scale degree), and similar sequences appear elsewhere in classical music. Handel used it for the main theme and all variations thereof throughout the second movement of his Organ Concerto No. 11 in G minor, HWV 310. Mozart employed it both for a passage in Die Zauberflöte (1791), at the moment where the three boys first appear and in the last movement of his Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488 (1786). He may have learned the sequence from Haydn, who had used it in the minuet of his string quartet Opus 50 No. 2, composed in 1785. Neither Handel’s, nor Haydn’s, nor Mozart’s passage is an exact harmonic match to Pachelbel’s, the latter two both deviating in the last bar, and may in fact have arisen more prosaically from one of the more obvious harmonizations of a descending major scale. This sequence is known as a plagal sequence.
In Germany, Italy, and France of the 17th century, some pieces built on ground bass were called chaconnes or passacaglias; such ground-bass works would most frequently incorporate some form of variation in the upper voices. In Pachelbel’s piece this happens in violin lines. There are 12 variations in all, each four bars long. They are described by scholar Kathryn J. Welter thus:
1. quarter notes
2. eighth notes
3. sixteenth notes
4. leaping quarter notes, rest
5. 32nd-note pattern on scalar melody
6. staccato, eighth notes and rests
7. 16th-note extensions of melody with upper neighbor notes
8. repetitive sixteenth note patterns
9. dotted rhythms
10. dotted rhythms and 16th-note patterns on upper neighbor tones
11. syncopated quarter and eighth notes rhythm
12. eighth-note octave leaps
And so Pachelbel’s Canon merges a strict polyphonic form (the canon), and a variation form (the chaconne, which itself is a mixture of ground bass composition and variations). In this regard it is similar to the 13th century round Sumer Is Icumen In. Pachelbel’s skill in constructing such complex polyphony and yet making the complexity practically undetectable by unaided ear has been noted by scholars.[
The convention in the Baroque era would have been to play a piece of this type in the moderate to fast tempo. It became fashionable in the 20th and 21st centuries to play the work at a very slow tempo, often as slow as 40 bpm, although faster renditions are occasionally heard.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Military buzzword CYA [cover your ass/every man for himself] — In April 1972 Gen. John Lavelle was ousted as Vietnam Air Force commander for trumped-up
false charge of unauthorized air strikes in N. Vietnam, even though Defense Sec./VP-vetted Mel Laird told Lavelle in person in 1971 that the rules of engagement require aggressive attack vs. SAM sites [that could shoot down our jets/air support]. Laird commented 3 yrs. ago over AIR FORCE mag’s 2006 discovery of Nixon audio tapes that authorized protective reaction to take out anti-aircraft sites [that could be activated under tech canopy to shoot down U.S. fly-by missions]. Laird hypocritically had condemned Lavelle during Lavelle’s ouster 1972
for unauthorized air strike. Yet Laird commented 3 yrs. ago that “new orders permitted hitting anti-
aircraft installations & other dangerous targets if spotted on their missions, whether they were
activated or not.” JCS chief Thomas Moorer while in Vietnam even personally approved Lavelle’s
request Nov. 8, 1971 to attack MIG airfield at Dong Hoi. Despite such support, Lavelle was
disgraced & demoted in rank from 4 star to 2 star, unprecedented. Thence, though 38 yrs. too late, Mel Laird’s confession 3 yrs. ago fully vindicates Lavelle . All Lavelle wanted to do was protect his men/squadron fighters. Destroying SAM missiles was necessary to prevent our aircraft from being destroyed/our men from being killed. Lavelle’s personal friend/subordinate Col. Henry Shimabukuro born 1931 is driven to vindicate Lavelle/restore
honor to Lavelle’s name/family. AIR FORCE mag published great revelations in the past
4 yrs. about Gen. Lavelle’s crucifixion. CYA caused a grave wrong to Lavelle. From Nixon on down to Saigon command, everyone covered up so as not to jeopardize Paris Peace talks. “Stir the waters” Biblical but necessary to vindicate an innocent victim, Lavelle. Essentially, God’s covenant w/Abraham 2000 B.C. entailed God’s promise — “I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who curse you.” God’s Chosen Ones incl. Lavelle, who died in 1979 [at age 62, born 1916] fatal heart attack, no doubt triggered by his disgraced status. Kudos to crusader Henry Shimabukuro for restoring
honor to Lavelle. –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
Yes, Toisan along Pearl River typecast laborers in San Francisco. Canton business entrepreneurs here. Follow the money [Hong Kong materialism] typecast outlying rural residents migrate to become cooks in Hong Kong. Nearly all Chinese in the U.S. are descended from Guangdong [including Canton] genesis. –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Yes, Joe Itagaki 1906-1963 was Mike Masaoka’s 1915-1991 best friend in the 442, Masaoka getting Itagaki a Bronze Star. Itagaki did not have a hobbled walk, Sam Oka did. Itagaki an amazing cook — made stuffed celery for 442 boys, something unknown to the boys. Made pickled audurbs from watermelon rinds. –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Okay, Akira Hamamoto apparently was rejected by Shizue Kobatake as suitor, she latching on to Herb Isonaga, her eventual hubby, all set up by matchmaker Hung Wai Ching 1905-2002!!
Yes, Consa Daog also told me about “The Cottage” behind the Volcano Arena off Kumu St. The Cottage allegedly might not have been Hisa’s operation.
Honoli’i bridges — the 1892 wagon steel bridge across the mouth of Honoli’i stream was the largest of its kind in the Haw’n Islands. The 1911 vehicle bridge across upstream Honoli’i was the largest of its kind in the Haw’n Islands. The 1938 current Belt Rd. bridge was the largest of its kind in the Haw’n Islands until today’s Hakalau bridge was built.
Old Hilo firehouse — yes, our old 1895 firehouse was located on King [ergo Kalakaua] St., then 1910 switched over to the next block across our old territorial courthouse [where today's reflecting pool is at Kalakaua Park], the new site w/old firehouse situated
where today’s downtown 1st Haw’n Bank branch is. Of
course, today’s central fire station 1938 replaced the firehouse where today’s downtown 1st Haw’n Bank is.
Japanese yoshi [husband takes wife's last name -- servile to wife] — Tsutae Murashige of Kawailani/Kino`ole St. Homestead married genesis
Isojiro Kitagawa’s daughter, & took her last name because Iso had no sons [Tsutae not Pancho Murashige's family]. Tsutae’s son Iwao married
out of race [German gal] & Tsutae/wife got upset w/Iwao [Iwao's wife a grumbler]. Nonetheless, Iwao
took over Kitagawa Motors because Tsutae not flesh/blood. Eddie Fukuda of Kawailani service station lived across Tsutae. Eddie sponsored Jack Matsui’s sports. Matsui tried to get Eddie Fukuda [no relation to P&R Bob Fukuda] enshrined in Matsui’s sports HoF, but Eddie refused. Eddie’s parents used to fill gas for cars frenetically, while young Eddie would practice Eddie’s golf swing in full view of the customers at the parents’ service station.
Minoru Shinoda 1915-2006 — Minoru’s dad Yoshio was Hilo Dokuritsu/Independent Japanese School principal, mom Ima embroidery expert. Yoshio interned WWII, but because Minoru was provost martial interpreter, Yoshio was released [to Yoshio's dismay, inasmuch Yoshio's peers continued to be locked up for war's duration -- Yoshio didn't want special treatment]. Wakabayashi was martial law investigator/informant who continuously harassed Frank Arakawa’s wife/kids for the one yr. they continued to live in Hilo while Frank was interned at Sand Island. Frank’s daughters Marion/Eva Arakawa [born 1922/1924] still bristle at the mention of his name, & revulsed at his coming into their Haili St. home all the time to snoop around. Behemoth Frank 5′9″ would’ve punched out this snitch if he had his druthers. Frank a great baseball pitcher a century ago [1st Hilo High grad class 1909], catcher was Kazuma Hisanaga’s dad Hisakichi [Sam Boyd's oyabun/godfather right here in Hilo along Mameya-pleasure lane-Punahoa St.]. Boy, you mention
Wakabayashi/Kiyo Okubo/Minoru Shinoda to internee progeny, you get the baleful stare/glare — if looks could kill, these “FBI” snitches would be pushing up
daisies. BTW, Okubo/Shinoda were later given highest accolades by Japan, so these hombres played it both ways, w/us on the hot seat. Shinoda is UH Nippon studies pundit/icon. Yikes! –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Similar names — Galen Weaver was the longtime Church of the Crossroads pastor who came here in 1924 on the same boat w/Scot John Young. Galen Fisher was the great internationalist/historian 1920s. Gerald
Fisher of the Wilcox family Galen Fisher’s son & was the great altruist who helped us buddaheads amid the hysteria of WWII.
Burns hatchetman Dan Aoki/dockworker Jack Kawano –
Do you know that Burns hatchetman Dan Aoki was born in Kealakekua Kona 1918 & moved to Maui in 1926 [father was congregational minister]? He was among the pre-WWII UH neighbor island students who were inspired by Nu`uanu Apt./dorm landlord Takaichi Miyamoto [most powerful AJA via leadership helm w/ubiquitous mayor/Dem Party boss Kanaka Johnny Wilson]. Short of money at UH, Aoki worked the docks w/fellow Mauian Tadao Beppu & Honoka`a boxer James Koba [baseball pitcher Yuki Maeno's uncle], who was killed in the Pearl Harbor attack. At the docks Aoki was inspired by former ‘Ophikao boy Jack Kawano to organize laborers. But WWII broke out & Aoki/Beppu enlisted w/the 442nd. Kawano was the antecedent strident Dem before fellow Keau’au boy Yasuki Arakaki. Kawano was stigmatized by Jack Hall for refusing to endorse Hall’s bipartisan solon slate, incl. ILWU endorsement of many GOPs such as Statehood Joe Farrington over Jack Burns. Which is why courageous Kawano was marginalized into obscurity by Hall after losing to Hall as regional director. “Take no prisoners” Hall incensed Kawano so
much that Kawano made a big mistake by retaliating vs. Hall by spilling the beans on Hall’s communist ties [Kawano was a Communist Party member from 1937-1949] which resulted in the Hawai`i Seven Smith Act redbaiting convictions. Chuck Mau’s support of Kawano also caused Mau’s demise. BTW, Hall’s wife is fellow Kea’au native Yoshiko Ogawa [cop Jerry's sister]. Do you know who loaned my idol
Henry Oshiro the 45 calibre sidearm for Henry to defend himself from Fascists while on R&R? Eventual Burns cellman [Burns civil defense office at city hall nicknamed the "cell"][closest confidants] Shigeto Kanemoto, Lt. 442nd.
Altruistic orgs — believe it or not, Chicago/Midwest stand among the 10 most influential metro sites in the world [founded in 1833 as boat transport Great Lakes to Mississippi, then as rail hub to Western frontier -- drew European/Irish immigrants -- labor issues/urban blight (Haymarket Riot 1886) -- green park system/sewer system/skyscraper/meat packer dominance are focal points]. And out of this social roil emerged our most energetic/altruistic orgs 1905-1915 — Rotary [so-called elite membership -- professionals]; Lions [grassroots membership]; Exchange [grassroots];
4-H [head/heart/hands/health]; Kiwanis; Arbor Society; etc. Rotary focuses on Easter Seal/disabled children; Lions on Helen Keller’s blindness prevention; Exchange on child abuse prevention; Kiwanis on youth leadership/etc. Shriners are masons which predate the Midwest orgs
by 50 yrs. out of NYC. Thence, Shriners/Kapi`olani Children’s Hospital [ergo, Builders, not
treaters such as Easter Seal]. Inimitable sportsman/entrepreneur Alex Hume Ford started our Lions Club here & among its earliest members was great educator Ernest B. De Silva. Bill Lyman [Rufus'
progeny] is Alex Ford incarnate. Community-oriented Frank Lafita is Exchange Club here/Rick Castberg is Rotarian. Paul Mannen & Harvey Hoffman are transplanted Stateside Lions here — loving/caring/compassionate folks all!! Super humanitarians/peacemakers!
Sheriff’s posse/home rule — Territorial Hawai`i had no elected governor, no choice over judicial/high level appointments, and its only elected official on a national level had no vote in Congress. We were politically impotent. One of our few home rule politicos was our elected sheriff [police chief], the
most powerful official next to the mayor/county chairman. Ex-baseball star Pat Gleason
was an O`ahu sheriff icon after WWI, & Hilo’s ubiquitous Ernie Kai [Lt. Gov./"Territorial Secretary"
appointed by the President/Wash. D.C.] first got his feet wet in politics by soldiering for Gleason.
Of course, Dem Kai blames Jack Burns for scuttling Kai’s expected appointment as Territorial Gov.
in 1951. Burns replaced Kai’s nomination w/Dem Oren Long’s name at the Interior Dept. in D.C.
Nonetheless, Kai barely lost to Bill Richardson for elected Lt. Gov. in the 1962 Dem primary race, losing by less than a thousand votes. Kai never forgave Burns for sabotaging Kai’s 1951 Gov. appointment [because Kai didn't promise patronage choices for Burns]. On the Big Island, auspicious Sam Pua, George Desha, & Henry Martin were nearly as powerful as the mayor/county chairman. Of course, cronyism ran rampant, off the books [beat/street cops were forced to co-signloans for superiors] & on [the hardest campaign workers got choice jobs/slots].
Which is why the elected sheriff office was abolished in favor of a police commission in 1943
[Martin out/Maui haole straight arrow George Larsen in].
Among our various islanders stand 2 of our greatest apostles, Richard Pablo Chinen & Walter
Victor, Sr. Pablo was a decorated WWII war hero [standard bearer in the greatest book
written on the all-Nisei AJA WWII "samurai warriors" by John Tsukano, Bridge of Love], on everyone’s toplist of our best-ever boxers [fluid/elastic a la Willie Pep & Ali], & a magnificent community builder a la Palama’s James & Ragna Rath & Mabel Smyth formerly of our island of Hawai`i. Walter Victor, decorated police inspector, was always broke because he spent every penny on our tenement kids to keep them out of harm’s way. Hilo’s Lanakila
Housing “project” along with Mamo, Kumu, & Piopio St. “outfalls” became positive learning centers/sanctuaries because of our male analog of Mother Teresa, our beneficent Walter C. K. Victor, Sr.
Among our greatest benefactors/sponsors is ex-trackster great Dickie Furtado, a compassionate
& generous philanthropist. Amazing legends all!! Amor, –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Take advice from the labor movement — ethnicity divides us — ook at our immense labor struggles — ethnic strikes divide us, a la the Japanese 1909 strike, the 1920 & 1924 Filipino strikes. Advocacy directed at economic conditions without reference to
ethnicity is what impelled the forward movement of the ILWU behind seasoned warriors Louis Goldblatt/Harry Bridges/Jack Hall [though Bridges repulsed vs. Hall's egomania]. This remains a
portention of failure to come for sovereignty promoters Osorio/Trask/ill wind Kekuni Blaisdell via
the guise of so-called ethnic separatism.
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.
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 10+ 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.
Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 unique biographer — Johnson is the most-quoted English writer after Shakespeare. Highest 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 going from Jap-beater to Jap-lover]. Johnson also is known for his aphorisms.
Like Johnson, Henry Adams 1838-1919 revealed authentic character, not fluff pieces. Adams influenced modernist Art Schlesinger Jr. 1917-2007,
as did Tocqueville 1805-1859. William James 1842-1910 [pragmatist] & David Hume 1711-1776 [utilitarian who also influenced William James]
also influenced Schlesinger.
Tom Coffman’s sempai/mentor is Kaua`i boy Herman Doi — No question, Tom Coffman’s biggest hero/mentor is former ombudsman Herman Doi [Kaua`i no relation
to Honoka`a school's Masato/Nelson Doi --not related to each other either]. Heco boss Leslie Hicks WWII era born 1894 Missouri was a huge grassroots supporter of AJA causes/patriotism WWII. Christian missionary son Dan Aoki roomed w/Kaua`i’s Spark Matsunaga at Makiki Christian Church dorm/Rev. Takie Okumura. Aoki did not follow fellow Maui boy Takaichi Miyamoto to root for kanaka O`ahu mayor Johnny Wilson, but Aoki instead worked for Jack Burns post-WWII Dems. Unlike landlord/dorm owner Okumura, Aoki was militant & wanted to upend what Aoki saw as haole hegemony/haves vs. have-nots. If anything, Aoki was a 20 yrs. later version of what Miyamoto
was to Johnny Wilson.
Representative democracy vs. participatory democracy 1. 3/31/07 Star-Bulletin editorial emphasizes Hawai`i’s electoral college advantage — small
States have greater say as opposed to popular [citizens' votes] elections, twice as much.
Such weighted formula are premised on levelling the playing field between the haves
[traditional urban hubs] & the have-nots [rural regions]. Thence the notions of
representative [electoral college] democracy vs. participatory [direct citizen vote]
democracy.
2. Which bring us to current GOP vs. Dem Party thinking. GOP started as the party of
anti-slavery’s Abraham Lincoln, which caused post-Civil War Southern solons to turn
Dem. Thence the Southern Bloc of the Dem Party, which caused huge rifts
between liberal Northern Dems vs. the right-wing Southern Bloc. Today’s Southern Bloc ID — the Dems switched party labels to GOP over a
decade ago in conformity w/current GOP conservative bent — and lost in the recent changeover to Dem majority Congress, after previous 12 yrs. of GOP rule. The South shall rise again now hinges on GOP fate.
Mt. Rushmore [ends justify the means]
1. President Clinton’s perjury charge was too grave for purely private behavior [fellatio].
2. President Bush is not delusional to believe his own lie [WMDs in Iraq]. He took us
to war. Impeachable offense.
3. LBJ’s lie [Ho Chi Minh's patrol boat attack on U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin] to take
us to war — impeachable offense.
4. Yet, rushing to judgment often causes more harm than good. FDR lied about his
congestive heart failure — to prevent Hitler from getting the mental edge. Thomas
Jefferson lied about his Presidential authority to purchase Louisiana [which doubled our
Nation's geographical size as a virtual freebie from then-myasmic France -- why do you
think the French resent us? They supported our 1776 Colonial Revolution.]. He had no
legal power to purchase Louisiana. And
President Nixon lied about the Communist threat while in China, of all places! As “Honest
Abe” Lincoln bellowed, “If my esteemed opponent, candidate Stephen Douglas, says I am
two-faced, do you think I’d wear this one??!!”
5. Yes, the end result is what the long sweep of history judges by. Never mind that Tough
Teddy Roosevelt was last century’s ruthless imperialist/colonialist — Roughrider Teddy
advanced freedom, he kept our Nation safe, he saved the world [from despotism/tyranny].
Why, he even busted our domestic cartels/trusts, emoting that inherited wealth is
anathema to our frontier spirit [Teddy was an ill child & ostracized by his aristocratic peers,
& he lost his biggest hero -- his Dad -- while still young]. Never mind that George Washington never cut that cherry tree [George's biographer made up that story]. Never mind that Honest Abe Lincoln opposed slavery partly for pragmatic, not moral, reasons [2-tiered North-South labor costs gave slave owners a wholly conclusive win over non-slave owners].
The ends justify the means. These are the reality. Only in sanitized ivory tower classrooms do the ends not justify the means.
The greatest lead by action, not words — The greatest leaders do not articulate their mission. Hung Wai Ching is such a leader. He knew not his destiny. All he knew was to help those less able/fortunate than Hung Wai — Hung Wai grew up in poverty & lived thru deprivation of material
comforts. Hung Wai — now here was a Man!! Founder of our all-AJA WWII soldiers/principal catalyst to Statehood! Kansha/immense gratitude, –Curt
1. Hung Wai told Tsukiyama’s Territorial Guard [ROTC] buddaheads, “If you can’t be trusted with firearms, then prove you’re trustworthy w/farm implements [manual labor -- hoe/spade/shovel].” Reverse psychology like no other!! Americanism
dug into deepest/richest soil. Yes, Hilo’s Ralph Yempuku is the VVV organizer [knew ROTC boys as UH asst. AD -- yes, sports buff], but Hung Wai is the
Mother Lode/inspiration behind the VVV, not Ralph.
2. I gotta acknowledge untold enabler Joe Itagaki [Kewalo Inn], the most prolific 442nd correspondent w/Wilsonian internationalist Charles Hemenway & pragmatic Whig/racial pluralist Joe Farrington. Later GOP solon Itagaki visualized a post-WWII Hawai`i free of rich/poor stratification. Hemenway/Farrington believed in & followed thru on Itagaki’s idealism. Later GOP solon Kaua`i native Jack Mizuha also wrote home on his post-WWII vision. Patriots all! Itagaki/Mizuha were heavily influenced by Statehood Joe’s kitchen cabinet of
Hung Wai Ching/Kats Kometani/Mas Marumoto. These local Oriental boys far surpassed later GOP king Bill Quinn’s key advisors, who were like fish out of
water/naive. Quinn did not seek out Joe’s trinity’s wisdom/vast experiences. Quinn’s loss, Dem Jack Burns’ gain. Neither did Quinn co-opt hard scrabble
Randolph Crossley, who, had Crossley elected to stay active as GOP party chief, would have been Ike’s appointed Gov. in 1957, not Quinn. Crossley was bypassed for Gov. in 1953 by Ike, who appointed Taft/Farrington-endorsed Sam King Sr. to appease GOP Taft forces. Quinn solicited neither Taft nor Ike
forces here. Quinn’s loss. Quinn the Irish Quixote.
3. Do you know that Hung Wai was the “Chinaman” [vs. pejorative of tight-ass "Pa-ke"] who gave his last quarter out of his pocket so that the UH boys/Nu`uanu Y kids would not starve? Yes, miserly/stingy he was not!! Son KingLit humorously
says that Dad Hung Wai knew how to spend sponsorship Big 5 monies! Hey, nothing wrong with this — Hung Wai was a magnificent reformist [redistribution of wealth within the system -- no bloodshed!!] w/charm/smarts like no other!! Like P.I. reformist/Father of Independence Jose Mercado Rizal [alter ego to Sun Yat Sen/Mahatma Gandhi/Syngman Rhee], Hung Wai was a brilliant peacemaker!!
4. Hilo GOP solon Tasaku Oka [1st AJA solon w/GOP Andy Yamashiro 1930 -- Oka is Bill Thompson's father-
in-law], pathfinder a la Hung Wai Ching & our other heroes all!
Do you know that our 1st ever native Catholic Bishop here was Madeira Luso roots Stephen Alencastre of Wainaku, and that his mother’s maiden name was Bayau? Bayau is a pejorative Nel Doi allegedly used to demean Ben Menor — meaning, backward Filipino. Bayau is Latin, meaning low ground, as we know bayou to be. Low is key, as w/aspersion.
Low-income Lanakila Homes originally were destined for today’s Banyan Golf Course site —
imagine if our 1st low income housing project Lanakila
Homes were located on Banyan Drive as originally planned in 1945? The 4/1/46 tsunami would’ve caused utter havoc/loss of lives. As it turned out, Mother Nature drove us to higher ground at today’s site off Kapi’olani St. by St. Joseph School.
Steere Noda 1892-1986 Hongwanji church linked Steere to Fred Makino 1877-1953 — Steere took his name after old baron Fred Steere Sr., who helped Steere be accepted by Big 5 haoles. Gigaku Steere Noda, born at `Ewa plantation of Kumamoto extraction, was the 1st scholarship student of Prince
Fushimi endowment [Fushimi was arranged by Kalakaua to marry Ka`iulani but Mutsuhito turned it down -- pure blood rule] & graduated as Hongwanji’s
inaugural student. While Steere was building his Asahi baseball dynasty [started club in 1905 at age 13, just as innate leader Francis Wong started Hilo's
Wanderers Club at age 14 in 1933], son of England trading merchant Fred Makino successfully stopped assembly line/conveyor belt Christian ceremonies
forced on Issei/Japan immigrant picture brides at our immigration compound, which were violation of religious liberty, being that brides were Buddhist.
Noda went to work for the IRS in 1915, the 1st Nisei/2nd generation Fed Gov’t employee. Thanks to Makino’s fellow English brew/kin Joe Lightfoot, Noda was mentored by Jap-hater Lightfoot as a court clerk/interpreter/district court practitioner, all because Noda wholly backed up Makino’s crusade to stop forced Christian marriages on incoming Japan picture brides, along w/Makino’s crusade to save our Nihon gakko/Japanese language schools [haole oligarchy/Big 5 sought to eliminate coercively such bi-lingual mode to defeat "Tokyo-inizing" Hawai`i kids], a crusade that Hongwanji chief Yemyo Imamura 1867-1932 fully sponsored [immigrants mostly Hongwanji Buddhists, not Christian]. Of course, Noda was a made man by Imamura himself a la Brando’s Godfather cinema. Christian leader Takie Okumura 1865-1951 vehemently opposed Makino/Imamura on grounds that “when in Rome, do as the Romans do, ergo do unto Caesar as secular currency emblems Caesar’s inscription.” Makino’s chief rival publisher Yasutaro Soga of Nippu Jiji 1873-1957, though Makino’s compadre/spiritual kazoku in the unified Nikkei Sugar Strike 1909, sided w/assimilationist/
accomodationist Okumura. Ironically, Soga was imprisoned/interned WWII, not White man Makino the provocateur/instigator. That Noda also was the 1st National Guard volunteer pleasantly aroused esteemed attorney Lightfoot’s cackles [Lightfoot's progeny C. Joseph Lightfoot 1917-1944 Navy KIA WWII]. In other words, power relationship cemented Noda’s legacy [Englishmen Makino-Lightfoot][Noda's unfailing allegiance to Hongwanji protector Makino]. Irony is that Hirohito’s/Tojo’s Imperial Japan persecuted Christians/Catholics, but worked w/Hawai`i Christians to promote language schools so long as Big 5 would permit such endeavors — yet tolerated Buddhists in Japan despite forced State Shinto [not Buddhist, but "paganism"], but undercut Imamura in Hawai`i [Imamura protested Tojo's forced takeover of Buddhist churches]. So Makino tried to “Tokyo-inize” Nikkei here, despite being wholly at odds w/Hito-Tojo vicariously via Imamura, & Okumura/Soga tried to Americanize Nikkei here, despite being supported by Hito/Tojo [vs. blowback from Buddhist Imamura]. Man oh man, manifold prism, huh??!! Odd alliances!!
Reed’s Bay on Banyan Drive — Reed’s Bay named for early businessman W.H. Reed, originally black pebble/sand beach, later covered w/dredged coral by Blonde Reef [for harbor construction]. Reed’s Island named after same man, up Kaiulani Drive by Hilo Union School. Baker beach named for theater pioneer Adam Baker [John T. Baker's kin--island gov.], also covered w/dredged coral. Jungle on west side of Baker’s Ocean View drive is site of old heiau.
Fumiko Iwamasa welfare dept. head Big Island —
Gov. Jack Burns gave Scrub Tanaka unfettered singular authority to pick/choose dept. heads for the Big Island. Scrub chose older/experienced Iwamasa over Margaret Ushijima, & hubby John never forgot Scrub’s rejection of Margaret. Scrub’s defense was Truth: Iwamasa was the better candidate! Never mind political machinations a la today’s Gerald De Mello &
his sweetheart relationships w/horrid influence peddlers. John Ushijima was no Scrub Tanaka in terms of the public’s best interests/Social Gospel-Scrub’s Hongwanji Dharma. –Curt
February 28th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Stare decisis/stand by that which was decided –
Stare decisis compels following precedent/do not repudiate established cases [custom/tradition/stability]. Brown v. Bd. of Education revoked
separate but equal precedent 1954, finding that separate was not equal, but caused inequality b/n Whites/Blacks. Local C.J. S.Ct. Ron Moon,
nominal GOP Korean ethnicity, evoking his own sense of self-inflicted guilt vs. Haw’ns, leaped to the Apology Resolution to restrain our State gov’t
from disposing of ceded lands. Sovereign immunity confers power in the legislative branch of gov’t, not Moon’s misguided S.Ct., to deal w/ceded lands. Haw’ns per se/OHA have no ownership over ceded lands. Ceded lands belong to all of Hawai`i people, entrusted via the Organic Act/Statehood Act. Haw’ns per se have no inviolable/singular/solitary claim
to ceded lands. On the other
hand, bankruptcy judge Lloyd R. King, knowing that sale of Aloha Airlines name was inevitable, asked the parties to reconsider their pact, amid
goodwill/self-sacrifice by former employees of Aloha Air who gave the carrier its charm. King correctly tried to be sensitive to former employees, who obviously don’t own the name legally. Different from Ron Moon’s ruling, because what Moon did flies
in the face of all established law, w/no sound basis in fact, opposite from Brown v. Bd. of Education. Remember Dred Scott v. Sanford race supremacy 1856, that started our Civil War [Blacks barred from citizenship, even though born free in the U.S.]?! Forget Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 overturned by Brown v. Bd. of Education 1954. We’re talking what caused our Civil War 1856 [half million died in Civil War]. This is what happens when you get a Moon. Invoke common sense a la Thomas Paine/Sam Clemens.
Overcompensate for fair complexion — neediness to belong to African-American race — Jeremiah Wright is vanilla-colored, like longest-serving Haili Church pastor Stephen Desha Sr. Both local icons needed to prove their devotion to dusk by invectives vs. the White race. MLK is dark as night. He had no need to prove anything. MLK was inclusive/pluralistic to the end. If anything, MLK showed us that Black & White need to work together to improve the human race.
Current Pope Benedict — Predecessor Pope John Paul lived thru the dual specter of Nazi & Communist tyranny. Jesus was here to be among the untouchables, & so felt John Paul amid secular autocracy. Thence John Paul’s intrepid odyssey thru the world’s inhospitable venues. Spiritual salvation breaks secular one-man iron-fisted rulership. Canon governance by committee pretty much sums up Pope
Benedict’s reign today. No way is Benedict accorded arbitrary authority/life span-long rulership as w/his predecessors. Benedict’s gaffe is when he self-glorifies by narcissizing to his German brethren “I never knew how many people look up to me. It is dizzying. I am so honored by my authority.” Like when a priest chafes, please don’t lay your hand against
the wall — I don’t want to clean it. Turf-touchy/self-serving possessive behavior — me/me/me. Selfish. Committee oversight infuses checks/balances. So that if the Pope, who has the
supposed final say/word/authority, suddenly wakes up one morning & edicts that clergy shall be
allowed to have spouses, he will be constrained by council from “going off the deep end.” We shall not see for the next 2 decades absolute Canonical one-man rulership of long tenure. Rule by committee is the advisory precept. Erasmus was a reformist, Luther was a revolutionary. Luther was more into I/Me — Erasmus was into We/Team-first. Unity of Christianity, not 2 separate churches! And certainly not capricious leadership! Current councillors promote balance/harmony, not risk of one-man absolute rulership. Such rule by committee averts handicap of age senility [evident w/predecessor tenures such
as recent John Paul] — & averts administrative stagnation — & averts radical change/edicts.
During the last decade of John Paul’s rule, idle governance stymied mission strategy/outreach.
Catholic propagation actually receded into loss of parishioners, not gains in number of devotees.
Thence rule by commitee/Benedict’s advanced age in his appointment — ensure a relatively satisfactory & short tenure. Jesus became an untouchable himself by touching the deformed/lepers. So did our Father
Damien. So did Mother Teresa. Joan of Ark was burned at the stake because she defied church hypocrisy. Recent John Paul defied staid protocol by reaching out to untouchables a la Jesus, in conformity w/open-minded/welcome sign Vatican II. Our Bishop Stephen
Alencastre, Luso/Portuguese [1st ever native Bishop], was spurned by the Vatican for mission support, & in turn worked w/the Maryknoll Fathers/Brothers to spread the Word/Canon. Strategist/starter/outreach virtuoso, our Stephen Alencastre was a wunderkind.
Current Bishop Silva, Luso, is an introvert to Bishop Alencastre’s people skills/deftness. Different eras, different calibre. Alencastre was beyond compare. He was a young John Paul! But he did not suffer long decline like sad decrepit John Paul. To see exemplars
of anti-rigid Catholic church hierarchy, bio-up on Martin Luther protege Phillip Melanchthon 1497-1560 & Marcus Aurelius stoic protege Jeanne Marie Guyon aka Madame Guyon 1684-1717.
White Picket Fence — Lore is that Doc Hill’s wife came looking for him at a local bordello. Doc
1890-1970 acquired most commercial leases to Shinmachi, so Doc was familiar w/Mameya [pleasure] Lane, today’s Punahoa St. remnant at the Kamehameha Statue perpendicular to Bishop St. that leads from
Kam Ave. to the Kam Statue. White Picket Fence brothel was on the Keaukaha/oceanside end of Punahoa St. remnant. As one went toward the Hilo Iron Works direction along the original wide expanse Punahoa St., next to White Picket Fence was Green Roof brothel. Where today’s rubble mound is [looks like heiau][Doc Hill's former Coca-Cola 2 story concrete bldg. that saved hundreds of lives in the 1946
tsunami, the bldg. was just completed before the tsunami], stood Mango Tree brothel toward Wailoa pond. Ironically, Nikku/middle camp leader Sekido family lived next to it, w/Tsutsumi-Suitengu
fish god temple next to Sekido toward Hilo Iron Works direction. All structures except Doc Hill’s Coca Cola bldg. were pulverized to smithereens by the 4/1/46 tsunami, except that Mango Tree structure is now off Kanoelehua Ave. as rental dwelling [relocated before the tsunami]. Along where Gunji Kono’s huge
2 story wood structure Hilo Transportation bldg stood [today's cobblestone road, formerly Emma St., leading to DLNR Matson containers by Wailoa pond], the ground actually was gouged out by the incomprehensible killer tsunami, leaving a swamp-like vista [pre-land
reclamation 1923 actual terrain -- swamps/sand/duck ponds].
On Pensacola St. adjacent to McKinley High School is the famous Makiki Christian Church, built by the greatest AJA assimilationist proponent, Rev. Takie Okumura 1865-1951 [died a year before INS allowed Issei immigrants to be U.S. citizens], after his ancient Kochi Japan temple where he was born/raised. As w/WWII War Secretary Henry Stimson 1867-1950 [virtually same age as Okumura, whom Stimson greatly admired/respected], Stimson’s exposure to Japan culture imbued Stimson w/appreciation for Japan’s teeming masses, despite Tojo’s warlocks who destroyed Japan’s equanimity as a people. Xenophobia/jingoism were not in Stimson’s vocabulary. Aptly, Stimson’s chief aide, undersecretary of war John J. McCloy 1895-1989, 1) ran circles around FDR/Navy Sec. Knox to avert FDR’s order to intern 15,000 Hawai’i buddaheads instead of the actual 1,500, FDR wanting to assuage J_p baiting adherents Stateside that military necessity [to avert J_p espionage/sabotage] was being carried out. McCloy’s ruse to stall the ten-fold increase in buddahead internment was to have the 15,000 buddaheads relocated via WRA [where habeas corpus was available, though not restored via the courts till 1945, after-the-fact, so to speak], FDR supposedly being reluctant to ban habeas corpus [banned in Hawai'i via martial law, Hawai'i being Imperial Japan Yamamoto's stepping stone to the West Coast; West Coast internment was via "evacuation" authority as military zone per E.O. 9066, in theory not extreme like martial law in Hawai'i, though Stateside internment was en masse/barbaric, per NAACP, indescribably worse than Hawai'i internment], FDR being cognizant of court strictures vs. martial law. Thence, McCloy’s stall tactic to dissuade ten-fold increase in buddahead internment by making excuse [thankfully, for buddahead survival] that relocating buddaheads to the Mainland via WRA/E.O. 9066 would result in massive habeas corpus petitions [which would overwhelm the Stateside court system], actually worked — giving Hawai’i martial law authorities [Emmons/Fielder/Coggins] wiggle room to avert mass internment here 1942. Yes, the reverse is the case in Hawai’i — martial law authorities tried desperately to AVERT mass internment here, led by D.C. honcho McCloy. Of course, McCloy’s/top boss Stimson’s game plan was to carry out Hung Wai Ching’s postulate to revert our 4-C enemy alien reclassification [though we were AJAs/U.S. citizens born on American soil -- jus soli -- Americans by birthright] back to draft-eligible, giving us original/earlier parity w/other Americans [yes, draft eligible to die in battle, the irony of it all!], which turned out just as planned, though belated [1944, after our 100th Batt. conscripts from the 1940-41 draft suffered the most casualties in U.S. military history for their unit size 1943, & just as our 442 went into battle to supplant them]. Fittingly, McCloy ordered that McCloy’s own tombstone be inscribed, “I supported our Nisei [2nd generation--AJA] Soldier!” Underscoring this, educator turned solon Mits Kido 1906-1983 [Jack Burn's Lt. Gov. candidate 1959] chastened, “In colonial possessions there is an axiom — the white man’s floor is the colored man’s ceiling!” McCloy’s mission was to eradicate this toxin/racism once & for all, white/black/yellow/brown, no matter! McCloy’s unspeakable courage under fire [like UH founder/Merchant St. baron Charles Hemenway 1875-1947], McCloy only needing so easily to play by elite society’s rules to embellish McCloy’s status, yet some kind of blown-mind urge to DO RIGHT gripped & grabbed unceasingly at McCloy, foisting him unwittingly to become among America’s greatest heroes ever! Immanuel Kant’s metaphysical imperative — unstoppable Providential dictate. 2) McCloy fell on “bended” knees after Hung Wai Ching 1905-2002 took McCloy to Waianae quarry to show McCloy where Hung Wai’s defrocked ROTC boys [reclassified to 4-C enemy alien from draft eligible] were breaking boulders w/pick axes amid the dust & heat, to aid the war effort. Wooch Fielder directed McCloy to Hung Wai in 1942, & this seminal scene triggered McCloy’s insatiable urge to create the 442 enlistee combat team, thanks to Wooch/Hung Wai. I dedicate this lookback to my 442 dad Toshiyuki 1913-1998, who loved Primo beer & poker, in no particular order. Do you know that Dad was poker king of the 442?? And that Dad could outdrink his cocky younger boys/brothers in arm?? 442 Scrub Tanaka 1915-2006 always chafed to his closest friend, Isamu Kanekuni born 1921, “This bladid kid [Curt], he don’t know shit!! Always asking me endless questions!! No mo’ end, this stinkin’ kid!!” And yet, Scrub always regaled to me about my dad, how much Scrub loved my dad — though Dad was only 5′2″ in shoes, to Scrub Dad was Scrub’s Rock of Gibraltar, Scrub’s big hero — yet Dad was GOP!! And Scrub was a physical marvel of an AJA — samurai handsome — extremely tall at 5′9″ — our Ken Watanabe of Tom Cruise’s movie “The Last Samurai” — and everytime Scrub came to visit baby brother Mits 1921-2007 in our neighborhood, Scrub would come over to greet Dad, who always had a beer in Dad’s hand. Scrub always melted in front of Dad — like a little kid seeing his Mickey Mantle hero. Scrub told me all the time how Dad was Scrub’s idol [Dad always fun-loving/every moment alive counts for something good]. As is Confucian Order, Scrub always respected Scrub’s Elders [Dad was older than Scrub], with authority flowing downward through the generations/birth order. Which is why Scrub was so hard on younger contempos/associates. Pecking order/totem pole. Like I tell you, post-1920 born buddaheads [thanks to DPI/DOE chief Oren E. Long 1889-1965, chief 1934-1946] like Isamu Kanekuni born 1921 are assholes because they got their high school diploma [from 1934 8th grade & up, thanks to Oren], so totally unlike pre-1920 born buddaheads like Dad/Scrub/Betty Shinae Miwa born 1919, who were “nigger-tom’d” to their 8th grade “ceiling,” so to speak, per Mits Kido’s axiom.
It is propitious that though leadership was drawn exclusively from our governing elite WWII [Merchant St. godfather Frank Atherton 1878-1945/Merchant St. legal whiz/counsel Charles Hemenway 1875-1947, who founded UH & was UH's Regent head 1907-1947 death], our leaders’ immense altruism turned out amazing phenomena of “everybody’s equal” results w/Asian immigrant progeny on equal footing w/their former Big 5 Oligarch “slave masters.” And because of our great “experiment” in race relations in the middle of the vast blue Pacific, it is no surprise that Hawai’i is the chief theatre of global affairs [East West Center as adjunct to Frank E. Midkiff's Institute of Pacific Relations], where, as founder Alex Hume Ford 1868-1945 [peer of Takie Okumura/Henry Stimson][Ford's 1911 Hands Around the Pacific original name] so gloriously resounded, “Honolulu is the central capital of the United States — halfway between Maine and Manila [U.S. possession a century ago], halfway between Alaska and Samoa [U.S. possession] — the spiritual capital of the world, a forum of nations, pan-Pacific and trans-world!!”
Frank Atherton, C & C head, in 1917 formed what may have been the 1st racially integrated YMCA in the U.S., our Nu’uanu Y, Frank’s dad J. Ballard Atherton having founded our local YMCA outfits in 1869. Frank also benefacted Kapi’olani Childrens Hospital & many kids who were not able to afford school, including Hung Wai Ching & Koji Ariyoshi [who worshipped Hung Wai for getting Atherton's sponsorship -- Atherton died before Koji could thank Atherton]. The Wilcox ohana of Kaua’i, Ted/Mary Atherton Richards’ East-West educational exchange, all missionary families who followed thru on Matthew 5/ Isaiah 58.
Hiroshi Scrub Tanaka 1915-2006, our Modern Democratic Party godfather/oyabun [Kanaka Johnny Wilson 1871-1956 is our pre-WWII Democratic Party godfather/guru, w/Kanaka Johnny's delegated leader here Dr. Ernie Mitsuo Kuwahara 1899-1983, who ludicrously was interned WWII, for being AJA leader who might instigate trouble among the teeming masses, Democrats seen as fools back then -- give Ernie Kai 1905-1990 credit/Kai a courageous Democrat amid a sea of governing Oligarch GOPs] — Scrub [for young shoots for horticulture guy Scrub] loved Rick Castberg born 1941, Scrub saying, “This guy, a doctor [Ph.D], yet so humble, just like our Japanese from before. How can you imagine anyone like him [Castberg] being so humble and quiet??!! Plus, he married Eugene Eguchi’s daughter [Eguchi born 1919 is 100th Batt. replacement via 442/Eguchi is 100th Batt. prexy here]!! Way-ah you goin’ find somebody like him?? No, you [Curt] not goin’ write my biography — Castberg goin’ do it — he get the Ph.D. [in political science].” Rick is waiting on Scrub’s daughter to collaborate with about Scrub’s musing about Scrub’s own biography. Rick doesn’t have the passion/interest for hardwood run’ n’ gun’ politics at Scrub’s chiri/ground level. Rick into the courts/law enforcement, what Burns called “isolation chamber” [for Nelson Doi]. Nonetheless, Rick a stoic/quiet chap, ideal counterweight to Scrub’s abrasive nature.
MLK/Malcolm X?? MLK for civil rights, Blacks a minority group in the U.S., needed majority Whites to win civil rights. Malcolm X told MLK, “Hey, people of color outnumber White people by 10 to 1 — we’re talking about the world, not the U.S.!! Why are Blacks a minority?? Blacks are in the majority!! Civil rights?? How about human rights for people of color throughout the whole world??!!” Yes, Plains GA. Jimmy Carter capitalized on Malcolm X — human rights trans-national.
Do you know that JFK 1917-1963 was Nelson Doi’s born 1922 big hero? JFK’s New Frontier was Doi’s inspiration. Of course, Doi was no JFK, Doi’s limitation as a self-serving narcissist dooming Doi’s impact on history. Nonetheless, JFK always sang praises of Hawai’i & its multiracial society, suffusing “Hawai’i is what the rest of the United States strives to be!” Remember that JFK penned Profiles in Courage & also named Kentucky abolitionist Henry Clay [Abraham Lincoln's hero] as among the 5 greatest-ever U.S. Senators. Undeniably, JFK meant what he said about Jack Burns’ New Hawai’i, so to speak. Hawai’i as JFK’s Utopia was not a promotion, but an Idea/Ideal. In this respect, Jerry Carr is correct that homogenous Japan, ever intolerant of outsiders [Japanese as the master race, so to speak], still musters the folly that the U.S. is the bad guy for dropping the A-bomb on Japan.
The Issei/Japanese immigrant experience in Hawai’i is different from its Stateside/Mainland experience only in terms of its exposure to outside forces, the sojourner idea being the same, then of course the settler/Horatio Alger ideas of upwardly mobility also being the same.
Yes, East vs. West also has its class/racial connotations. Old political district East O’ahu being the rich/haole, West O’ahu being the poor/non-haole, so to speak. East of the Mississippi being cultured/White, West being uncultured/pejorative colored, so to speak.
DPI/DOE chief Oren Long 1889-1965 [chief 1934-1946], defiant Kansas Granger, proclaimed that equal opportunity requires that “all children have access, without discrimination, to tax-supported schools.” Long targeted 3 odious Big 5 hurdles to non-haole kids’ access to public schooling: 1) public school tuition as onerous as private school tuition which “increases the difficulty for children from poorer homes to continue in school” by impacting unfairly on those least able to pay; 2) “the practice of eliminating from further schooling, by administrative decree, an indefinite percentage of the graduates of each eighth grade class”; 3) the students who were compelled to travel up to 10 miles or more to school at their own expense, a burden which affected the health/safety of the student as well as limiting such schooling opportunity. Long’s unabashed crusade led to radical changes in our public school system. No longer would the Betty Shinae Miwas [Dr. Paul Miwa's wife, Paul ex-UH chancellor 1969-1975] born 1919 [& before like Scrub Tanaka 1915-2006 & my dad Toshiyuki 1913-1998] be “nigger tom’d” to the “colored man’s ceiling” [8th grade], being the White man’s floor [Big 5 repression vs. non-haoles & "White Trash" like Jack Burns].
Just as Rudy Peterson was our banking egalitarian, so was his Big Island rep Jim Evans [hoopster Jim Jr.'s dad] a great inclusionist/polyglot proponent, as was Jim’s Hilo rep Sam Wong [Kukuihaele native, brother Archie was Ruddy Tongg's bosom buddy]. On the other hand, rival Bishop/1st Haw’n Bank’s GS Wong was highly educated, & mingled among the governing elite, not homespun/folksy like Bank of Hawaii’s Sam Wong.
Boston Blackie Nakasato born 1942 takes me to his fav eat out Kozmic Cones [not my fav by a stretch], where we sit across Buddy Serrao/wife, retired high level Maui P.Dept. I don’t intro Blackie to Buddy/wife, who greet me as we sit. In comes Catholic stalwart/retired Rob De Motta [lives w/daughter Mt. View], who sits in the booth adjacent to Buddy/wife. I go bananas, & it doesn’t matter that Rob doesn’t know me, Rob comes to greet Blackie, & Blackie intros me to Rob, whom I worked with 40 yrs. ago at the Naniloa Hotel’s various restaurants. I exude to Rob, “You are an amazing soul — you have such tremendous class and character — always, always, you are loving and compassionate!!” Rob is startled, & Rob asks me how I know Rob. Well, Rob was the gentleman dishwasher, I was a teenage busboy for our waiters/waitresses. Easily, Rob is a gentle-man, literally, because of Rob’s faith in Rob’s Bible. I am in awe of Rob because here is a man, a very simple man, who demonstrates unfathomable empathy & respect for everyone. Blackie laughs and laughs w/tickled emotion, that I know Rob from antiquity, so to speak, that we share a moment in time so lasting & beautiful. Punchline: Social standing means nothing in reality. It’s about heart.
Luso/Portuguese enablement of our Chinese residents today — Yes, David Benz 1920-2008 was born in Shanghai, northern China, the world’s busiest cargo port along the Yangtze River. China’s other 2
blockbuster richest port cities/leading financial capitals are along its southern coast — Hong Kong founded by Portugal mariner Jorge Alvares [Alves in Hawai`i] in 1513, & Macao [Luso ascription of
Chinese word for matsu--sea god--in Japan pine cone trees along sea cliffs] founded by Luso seafarers same time as Alvares’ discoveries. Chinese Confucian industry/thrift/toil akin to Mayflower Puritan work ethic, w/added plus/positive element of alms/”gift is
to share, not hoard” from Luso creed. Macao is the 1st & last European colony in China. Says loads about Luso ingenuity/beneficence, opposite of Hawai`i slurs/bigotry vs. Luso here [based on outdated luna mentality]. As w/northern China’s/world’s busiest cargo port Shanghai of Luso influence, Luso enabled southern Chinese to acquire material wealth/upward
mobility. Look at ALL of our Hawai`i Chinese descendants today — measurement of assimilation/value is HONG KONG, ergo, Luso derivation!! The closer in geography that Chinese
are to Hong Kong, the more assimilative/upwardly mobile they are [Canton]. Let’s face it, founder of modern China Sun Yet Sen is not from commie Beijing [Mao Tze Tung/Chou En Lai], but from Luso suffusion in southern China. Unquestionably, coastal/port roots
conducive to Western thought/trade/economy. No greater influence early on originated than our Luso seafarers/traders/financiers. Jardines is among world’s leading international conglomerates, w/direct facilitation of Shanghai/Japan 1858, not to mention its origination of Hong Kong/Macao. Jardines gobbled
up our Big 5 quarter century ago. Of course, Jardines virtually owns Singapore. Enough said?? Romantic/ethereal novelist James Clavell’s exceptional “Tai-Pan,” “Gai-Jin,” & “Noble House” are based on Jardines’ wayfinding. After all, what is more surreal than a mysterious place at the mouth of southern China’s Pearl River 90 miles from Canton?? Hong Kong is synonymous w/Lusitania [Portuguese].
Luso is Lusitana for modern day Portugal — Paul F. Hooper’s “Elusive Destiny: The Internationalist Movement in Modern Hawaii” 1980 about expansive
altruism among planter haoles here, spurred by leaders like Frank Atherton 1878-1945 & Bill Westervelt 1849-1939. I saw tremendous inclusion by Catholic [ergo Luso] schools toward buddaheads. Issei immigrants were a strange breed w/topknots, so instinctively HUMAN NATURE isolated Issei from society. Luso lunas [blue collar substitutes for absent middle class] were direct overlords vs. Issei, so instinctively friction ensued. Haole planters lorded over Luso lunas, but stress was mental [vs. haole mgrs.], not physical [vs. Issei]. Let’s face it, friction not over race but class, as in class hierarchy [rich vs. poor]. Luso regarded by recruiter Hillebrand as docile white people willing to do laborious/tedious work that other whites
refrain from doing. Thence, hard friction b/n Luso laborer lunas-Issei laborers. Haole mgrs. insulated
from shock-contact b/n most recent immigrants [1878 Luso vs. 1885 Issei]. Once Luso tore the foil
laid by haole planters [obedient "hatchet men"], Luso self-actualized into the loving ethnic gang which
they were — typified by cousin Dennis Freitas’ grand-uncle Henry Freitas 1884-1944, St. Louis alumnus
who was leading bldg. contractor & endowed philanthropy on St. Louis/Chaminade–also solon like John Kai Jr. St. Louis major stepping stone for Nisei who boarded from afar/work-study toward diplomas [like Kalihi's Dick Mamiya]. In contrast, haole Punahou had 10% Asian race quota till 1966. Of course, benevolent Congregationalists incl. Damon/Mills MPI. Episcopal `Iolani also inclusive to AJAs. I earlier mentioned sequences on
Luso beneficence/altruism. Candidly, the time period/epoch dictate the character of the ethnic group. Naturally, Issei had it hard vs. Luso lunas — this is the honest truth. But look at the big picture — once Luso broke the yoke of repression [from haole planters], they self-actualized as inclusive/compassionate ethnic group. Do you realize how many Luso love japanee songs? How many Luso love japanee tv shows? Do you know that legendary educator Ernie B. De Silva was the kindest inclusionist/bestowed greatest respect to AJA school painters, not to mention Ernie’s enablement of AJA kids? The stories are endless of Luso enablement of AJAs [& all other ethnic groups]. Obrigado/kansha, –Curt
> From: Franklin Odo
>
> Hi Curtis,
> Always a pleasure to read your stuff. I think I mentioned once before that I’m translating a bunch of “holehole bushi” or Jpn immigrant folk songs from sugar plantations – roughly 1890s to 1930s. They were supposed to die out with the issei but made a recovery in the 1960s and then became kinda fashionable in this millenium, including in Japan. Of course, several make reference to the “hated” lunas. And many historians link lunas to the Porturguese. Some of the issei explicitly cite Portuguese lunas as especially cruel. So, I’m sure some of this is true, since being cruel was how the plantations got the most work out of the laborers. However, I do want to be able to use some of your wisdom about countering the stereotypes most of us have had about the Portuguese. I would really appreciate your putting some of this together that I could quote from [and, of course, properly note you as source] to make sure that I don’t simply reinforce old stereotypes. This doesn’t need to be in a hurry since I work at a snail’s pace. But some good examples and real stories – at which you are a master – would add greatly to this book. Many thanks, for considering!! — Franklin
Truman’s seizure of steel mill industry 1952 —
Truman 1884-1972 disdained the Taft-Hartley Act [over his veto 1947], & did not invoke it to seize steel mills [essential for munitions Korean War], esp. since Truman’s gripe was vs. steel bosses, not unionmen. Neither did Truman use Conscript Act
to seize mills [too cumbersome for "buck stops here" Harry]. Against Truman’s legal advisors/experts, Truman invoked executive power to seize mills. Executive power only granted in cases of great national emergency so long as Congress has
not expressly denied such power, such inherent power derived from the aggregate of powers under the Constitution & necessity of compelling executive action in dire circumstances/emergencies. Key is that Korean War not declared by Congress [just
as w/VNW-Iraq War]. In contrast, Presidential seizure/eminent domain of private property in wartime upheld under military powers [Art. II sec. 2]. In event of insurrection/invasion, President may deploy military vs. enemy, foreign or domestic, w/out waiting for Congress’ declaration of war per separation of powers doctrine [Prize cases 1863 upheld Lincoln's seizure of vessels/cargo of foreign neutrals/southern planters per Lincoln's EO to blockade southern ports during Civil War]. Korean War/VNW/Iraq War come under ambit of this amorphous distinction. Which is why most legal experts counter that Executive Power has wiped out any semblance of Congress’ War Power [via separation of powers doctrine -- to keep in check the executive authority -- to avert "king does no wrong" tyranny]. John
Yoo Korean born 1967 amplifies nazi/Mengele mentality that king does no wrong — Yoo concocted excuses to ratify waterboarding [Guantanamo Bay]. Yoo’s imperialism triggered counterpoint to Bush’s tyranny. Yoo’s guru is German Nazi Carl Schmitt 1888-
1985, who promoted imperial exceptionalism [Hitler as commander in chief correctly heedless to legislative/international law-treaties]. Deadly mix of oppressed people [Korea subjugated colony, Yoo's mentality] & master race [Nazi supremacy--Schmitt's
mentality], springing concoction of false god [above the law, in the name of der fuhrer] to save the teeming masses [Korean slaves]. Fasi bought 60 busses when Weinberg/Rutledge couldn’t break their impasse, via executive power authority, per
advisor pundit Paul Devens, eventually upheld sans cost loss to Weinberg, not loss of profits. Far cry from Yoo’s/Schmitt’s waterboarding nazi tyranny.
Jesse Shima grassroot vs. William R. Castle Jr. —
Jesse 1901-2002 connected better w/FDR [via FDR chief advisor Harry Hopkins][Truman wanted to keep retaining Hopkins but Hopkins died of ill health shortly after FDR's death -- WWII ravaged FDR/Hopkins healthwise] & Ike [via Ike's trusted aide Jim Hagerty]. Castle & Cooke scion Bill Castle Jr. 1878-1963 was a Nippon-phile [pundit] & top statesman [undersecretary for far eastern affairs under Hoover][Bill abdicated C & C isolation in Pacific & went back to Harvard -- married Boston scion -- then to D.C. & State Dept.]. Castle was parochial/aristocratic & emblematic of class smugness/
status-centrism, & was dearly close to Nippon diplomatic corps, but Tojo’s warlock imperialism overran Castle’s Nippon contacts/network.
Thence, after Japan’s Asian military conquests pre-WWII, Castle receded into irrelevance in D.C. By the time post-WWII prime minister Shigeru Yoshida came calling to Truman, Castle was reduxed
again because Castle’s former Nippon contacts/emissaries re-emerged. But by 1951 Jesse Shima was in full control of public relations b/n
D.C. & Japan emissaries, inasmuch Castle was on age-slide at 73 yrs. Castle stopped interlocking w/Nippon contacts in 1953 & died in 1963.
Social class schism with all-volunteer army —
Enlistees from society’s underclass, w/elite society immune from military service. As variant, proposal to award citizenship to aliens who enlist in military is like foreign legion, where we make others fight our wars. Wrong.
Plain talking Missouri border [North/South] slave state — It’s no surprise that ambivalence triggers immense social good. Sam Clemens aka Mark Twain was born 1835 to slave owner family. Sam fought for the Confederates 1861, only to desert the ragtag outfit after Union Blues “hunted [Rebels] like a rat the whole time.” Sam’s compulsion over race relations spilled over in his novel “Pudd’nhead Wilson,” which challenged the constitutional contempo that Negroes are inferior to Whites. Sam’s story has 2 babies switched at birth, slave girl gets pregnant from White master, switches her White-looking child w/White master’s newborn child from his wife. Sam points out that nature [vs. nurture] a fallacy, that Negroes are not dim-witted vs. White folk. Yet, Sam, steeped in Scripture, points out via Sam’s “A true story, repeated word for word as I heard it,”
that a White master’s Negro slave, Aunt Rachel, makes
life mind over matter, that she disposes herself to be happy amid her squalor, a la Gospel. Sam was a terminal hedonist who sunk into repeated bankruptcy, but learned that money is not god, it’s diablo. Sam’s penance was the power of his pen. And was he contrite!! Sam died broke as a fallen porcelain in 1910. At the peonage opposite pole, White man John Henderson was born 1826 to sharecropper parents, who died when John was a child. John then was sold to a White master. John ran away & set off on his own, eventually making big money off his native Missouri land speculation. John never forgot his indentured
past, & fought for the Union in the Civil War. John then was elected to Congress, where he authored the 13th Amdt. that outlawed slavery for good [picked up where Honest Abe left off, via Abe's tragic assassination]. John’s ambivalence was over class, not race, that class stratification was unbreakable unless one revolted & cut the yoke of oppression.
Thence John’s uprising for Negroes via his Missouri past that formed his eventual firm adult convictions, despite his slave state roots/despite his white skin. Yes, John aided fellow MO. plain dealer Sam Clemens. John died in 1913. John’s widow adopted orphan Jesse Shima in 1923, believing that Jesse spiritually was John incarnate. Jesse went on to
become the greatest Japanese wayfinder in America [social legislation/Far East diplomacy/etc.]. Harry Truman 1884-1972 used racial epithets like there’s no tomorrow, but was piqued at his core over Harry’s race ambivalence. Harry opened up the military to integration, an unbelievable change for America’s most intolerant/conservative bastion. Harry’s
MO. slogan “Show Me” State [St. Louis was gateway for
pioneers heading West] certainly mirrors its bellwether standing as having voted for the winner in every presidential election since 1960. Other famous Missourians incl. Maya Angelou/Josephine Baker/Daniel Boone/Omar Bradley/Dale Carnegie/George Washington Carver/Walter Cronkite/Walt Disney/T.S. Eliot/Betty Grable/Edwin Hubble/Rush Limbaugh/Obama’s guru Reinhold Niebuhr/J.C. Penney/Joseph Pulitzer/
Ginger Rogers/Tennessee Williams/notorious Jesse James.
Yes, Joyce Kono Fasi born 1937 [Frank's wife, Frank 1920-2010] is Na’alehu roots. Her uncle Gunji Kono was Shinmachi oyabun/godfather [Gunji moved to Shinmachi from Na'alehu], employing many of Shinmachi’s residents at Gunji’s mega Hilo Transportation Co. [site between Hilo Iron Works parking lot north to Emma St., which is today's cobblestone lane leading to DLNR Matson containers along Kam Ave.]. Gunji’s son Russell was 442 MIS/younger son Hiroaki was married to DOE administrator Elaine Kurisu Kono [Margaret Oda's sis, Margaret wife of Glenn Oda, son of contractor SK Oda]. Gunji was swept away by the 1946 tsunami as Gunji ran up his back stairwell to retrieve his cash [April 1 payday for workers] — Gabriel Manning was shivering w/fright in the Hilo Iron Works factory rafters when Gabriel saw the 3rd wave splinter into matchsticks the huge 2 story Hilo Trans bldg. while Gunji was running up the stairwell in the rear of the bldg.
Sanzo Kawasaki was HPM prexy till 1954, when he was replaced by Fujimoto kazoku/family members, inasmuch Sanzo/Kametaro Fujimoto [who died over 20+ yrs. before Sanzo's bow-out] founded HPM 1921, after which Kame’s son Barney succeeded Kame, after which Barney’s son Bobby succeeded Barney, & today Bobby’s son Mike is in charge. GOP/Gov. Quinn ace Bobby Fujimoto born 1927 was messiah to HPM/IK Motors/other tsunami victims when Bobby quick-silvered relocation to current Maka’ala/Holomua industrial area tract. Credit to Bobby, the only outfit which met the specs for today’s IK site was IK itself [gas station-repair-retail parts/car dealership all in one!]. Bobby’s instant restoration of merchants saved the economy 1960-1962.
Yes, our only top haole Buddhist Ernest Hunt actually was an infantry soldier for England in the Boer War [Ernie born 1876], which turned him into a Pacifist, & Ernie actually was Wainaku sugar luna in 1915. Ernie was among Patton’s gotcha’ list 1937 for internment if Japan warred vs. U.S. Yes, George Houghtailing/Herm Lemke/etc. all St. Louis grads, which is why relationships lord over us all — St. Louis grad Joe Pao’s friends in high/low places were fellow St. Louis grads. Yes, Albert Yoshito Inaba was Norman’s older brother 1914-2003, Al a Moloka’i icon/educator, 12 yrs. older than Norman. Norman is Hollywood’s Carrie Inaba’s ojisan/grandpa. WWII 442 soul-keeper Joe Itagaki was w/Wahiawa’s Kemo’o Farms 1924, then owned Kewalo Inn w/fellow GOP/gorgeous single dame Mary Noonan 1950. Hawai’i Delegate to Congress Kanaka Billy Jarrett’s son Jr. was VVV soul to kids Ted Tsukiyama/Herb Isonaga. Al Karasick was a Russian ballet trooper 1912 who stayed here & became a wrestler/promoter. Shiro Kashiwa is not Maui but Kohala [Shiro/baby brother Genro were AJA icons]. Give Lee Chau [Kwong See Wo owner] credit — he acknowledged Jimmy Kealoha 1908-1983 as his son — from single woman Alice Makanui Kealoha of Pahoa. Yes, TV personality Napua Stevens was from Waiakea town, Hilo High ‘36 grad [born 1918]. Reppun of O’ahu is Russian, Shaheen is Lebanese. George Y. Bennett, great altruist from Hilo Sugar, was never heard from after 1935 because he was transferred to Waimanalo Sugar Co., George being 44 yrs. old at the time. Bennett, as befits Georgia founder James Oglethorpe, was Gainesville GA native. Honoka’a icon Manuel Botelho was Azores native born 1878, came to Hawai’i 1880. Antone Correa born 1871 in Funchal Madeira, came here 1879, was actual Ferreira surname adopted by Correa, learned ropes under colorful atty Paul Neumann. Correa spawned iconic Correa familia/progeny [not Jimmy's Waiakea familia]. Oren Long 1889-1965 came to Hawai’i 1917, was seminary grad [though non-minister degree, but social work]. Charles Loomis born 1887 Minneapolis native who came to work for Atherton’s YMCA 1911. Contractor EJ Lord a century ago from Canada, born 1868. Monsarrat is French, came to Hawai’i 1849. Yamashiro Hotel River/Beretania St. was respite for 1909 strikers [1st buddahead pro baseballer 1917 Andy Yamashiro's dad's hotel]. Goo Sun Wong born 1875 Kwantung was Liberty Bank pioneer. Henry Walker Sr. AmFac born 1885 is the blowhard who insulted Jack Burns which triggered Burns’ running for Governor 1959, not Henry Walker Jr., an adaptable chap. Shinn is Korean, as icon M.D. born 1906 who was Boy Scout leader. Ted Richards born 1867 was atty/pastor who married Mary Atherton, Frank’s older sis. Ted’s/Mary’s daughter married altruist Frank Midkiff, John Midkiff’s older brother. Henry Schwartz of Cincinnati was Methodist minister in Japan & came to Hawai’i in 1920 amid our J_p sugar strike, so to speak. Henry was our savior. Earl Nishimura born 1906 was older Nisei icon agronomist/atty. Charles Pietsch born 1888 Brooklyn came to O’ahu 1918 as architect/realtor/developer. Guido Giacometti was born in Italy 1877, was Ola’a Sugar suptd., owned Island Motors corner Kam/Kumu St., married Emma Porter 2nd marriage, wife was educator. Arioli engineer/contractor is Italian. Kenji Goto born 1904 was Baron’s baby brother [Kuakini hospital exec]. Herb Gomez born 1911, 1st Spanish plantation mgr., was Celeste Santos’ dad [obnoxious Bob's sweet as sugar wife]. James Glover was actual merchant, born 1904. Doug Freeth of Frisco born 1906 married Evelyn Clark, Doug icon architect, Evelyn health rehab catalyst. John Fox born 1906 came to Punahou 1944, was shown beauty of female form by Hung Wai Ching. Walt Ecklund born 1892 VHY boss, looks exactly like David Figueira born 1957, Honoka’a Souza-Ferreira familia/ohana. Webley Edwards Hawai’i Calls born 1902 was college football quarterback who came to islands to play football. John Dykes of Scotland is Jim Dykes’ dad, was influenced by Scotchie Henderson’s parents to welcome Doc Hill. Les Deacon of C & C was born 1896, Frisco native. Maui’s Dan case’s grandkids are Jim/Dan Case [Ed's dad is Jim]. Daisy Yamaguchi Conquest born 1913 was Hilo Commercial College registrar. Herb Camp born 1892 Nebraska was Bob Midkiff’s former boss at Haw’n Trust. Gavien Bush was born O’ahu 1901. George Bicknell born 1893 Springfield MA., savior of AJAs WWII, became Veterans Affairs head here post-WWII. Maude Beers born 1880 Michigan, hubby Kanaka Billy longest-serving elected DA in Territory/State history here [Billy died 1946], was Kapi’olani Elem. School principal. Carolina Brasao Andrade’s 2nd husband was Joaquin Jose Andrade, whose progeny are Willy Andrade/Mary Nachbar/etc. Lina’s lst hubby Vieira died young, leaving kids Mary [married Antone Souza Jr.] & Roberto Vieira. Of course, Lina’s/Jose’s son Dr. James Andrade born 1899 was a centenarian. Engineer Art Akinaka born 1909 was AJA icon, as was Hilo educator Keith Abe born 1913. Roy Blackshear Jr. looked exactly like his dad Sr. Dick Devine born 1907 Illinois married Lei McLean.
Yes, Carrie Inaba is Norman Inaba’s granddaughter.
Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” —Times come & go, as do people/relationships. Koehnen was Doc Hill’s bookkeeper & bought Doc Hill’s optical/eyeglass sales business 1928, where Doc Hill’s bldg. still stands 1917 [Doc came here 1913]. Doc’s bldg. is where today’s Basically bkstore is next to the former National Dollar Store, also built same time [Hilo Emporium, which originally was today's Toyama bldg. 1909]. Fred Koehnen born 1924 is esteemed retired businessman/Army reserve officer [non-combat veteran]/Shun Kimura’s managing director. Koehnen’s was our aristocrat shop before Liberty House came to Kuhio Plaza 1985 & pulled the rug right out from under Koehnen’s [jewelry/keepsakes]. Koehnen’s [now furniture] has struggled till this day. Akin to Tanimoto Store [where today's Filipino TNT seafoods is] getting overrun by Kress Store 1932, & Kress Store getting its last breath before falling to Kuhio Plaza 1985. The times they are a changing.
Reminiscences — Remember Uchinanchu/Okinawan Gushikens’ Smile Inn next to Modern Appliance on Kilauea/Wilson Sts. 1950s? Where today’s Big Island Pizza is was Kobatas’ former KKs Place/Kilauea Inn . Of course, Roy Yoshioka had his little Roy’s Place [later Roy's Gourmet]. Hiroaki Kono [Hilo Trans' Gunji Kono's son] always used to go to Smile Inn to vent w/Sus Hata [Y. Hata wholesaler/Primo beer] in a very cordial/friendly way. Hiroaki’s dad’s baby brother is Joyce Kono Fasi’s dad. Hiroaki married Elaine Kurisu from Hakalau [not Scotch's kin]. Hiroaki’s dad Gunji ran up the back stairway to Hilo Trans Bldg. next to Hilo Iron Works [Hilo Trans looked like "Kawamoto" block across today's Ben Franklin craft store on Kilauea Ave.] 4/1/46, didn’t see the 30 foot wall of black [black sand] water rush in from Sand Beach [today's regatta facility], & was
killed instantly as the water pulverized/obliterated the huge 2 story wood frame Hilo Trans bldg. Gabriel Manning watched in horror as this scene unfolded
before his very eyes as Gabriel clung for dear life in the rafters of the 50 ft. high Hilo Iron Works factory, which shook violently as if the whole
bldg. were going to fall down amid the roiling black water [from black sand]. Elaine Kono’s baby sister Margaret married Glenn Oda [SK's son]. Elaine/Margaret became top DOE officials, & especially Elaine’s physical beauty was like Audrey Hepburn’s. Apparently DOE’s Harry Chuck took a liking to Elaine’s beauty. Hiroaki/Elaine’s only son Larry died before Elaine, & she was very lonesome toward the end of her life. Larry was a good athlete. Hiroaki’s brother Russ was judge under Burns/Ariyoshi.
Rumsfeld/Cheney had all the experiences in the world, having served under Presidents Ford/Bush Sr., but did depth of experience count for anything? No. On the other hand, Reagan had no foreign policy experience [was CA. governor], but had great character/common sense, & is largely attributed as triggering downfall of the Soviet Union. Reagan correctly is McCain’s idol, yet McCain knocked Obama for lack of foreign policy experience [like hero Reagan], & yet McCain
picks unthinkable VP Palin. Sheez.
Slurs — Sen. John B. Henderson 1826-1913, Great Emancipator, said that if it’s not one slur [racial epithet], it’s another [class condescension]. John
was born “White trash” like Jack Burns 1909-1975 & never saw life in black/white race singularity. Slurs diffuse afar [gender/disability/photogeneity/etc.]. A century after 13th Amdt. crafter Henderson [outlawed slavery once & for all], Hung Wai
Ching 1905-2002 chastened son KingLit born 1936, “Be proud you’re Chinese! Don’t be afraid of anything!” Great pep talk! Still, KingLit knows that power relationships always revolve around trust/”who you know,” not what you know. Such is the tumble in life. Slurs are overcome by love, not fear. Hung Wai is right. Why are Hung Wai’s maxims still alive today? Because of Hung Wai’s power of Love. Nothing beats the power of Love. Kohala’s KJ Luke [genesis non-haole developer -- Salt Lake -- w/Kukuihaele native Ruddy Tonng; KJ also founded Hawaii National Bank] always told his UH students — “Don’t be a conformist!! Be yourself!!”
Unsung hero Henry Opukahaia 1792-1818 — Henry Opukahaia was orphaned upon the deaths of his parents in a carnage/battle over territorial control [Kamehameha's conquests]. Henry sailed the high seas for in 1808 & ended up in New England, where he was schooled by Congregationalists. Henry changed
the face of America by demonstrating that everybody’s equal according to Scripture. He became a martyr to his devotion & inspired the greatest political
leaders of the time like Henry Clay 1777-1852, the great Emancipator who was Abraham Lincoln’s biggest hero. Destiny revealed itself for this little boy
from our Ka`u District [called "split belly" in Hawaiian when his baby brother was speared & killed while Henry carried his brother on Henry's back to escape from Kamehameha's forces in 1802 vs. Kaiana, at which time Henry's parents were killed], who eventually succumbed to typhoid, & Henry’s death inspired the arrival of our missionaries in 1820, the same time kuhina nui [real power behind throne] Kaahumanu via ruler Liholiho [Kamehameha II] abolished the kapu system. The fullness of time — Opukahaia’s missionaries helped fill the moral &
spiritual vacuum that resulted from the breakdown of their ancient pagan faith, so to speak, from the missionaries’ viewpoint. Our social service organizations today are a direct outgrowth of Opukahaia’s martyrdom — our YMCAs which uplifted immigrant shantytowns/tenements Waiakea [furyoshonen -- AJA hooligans -- were inspired by guardian angel
Jean Hartley]/Shinmachi ["New Town" in Japanese] — serviced by John Beukema’s Hilo Center [where our former Texaco Service Station is on Kam/Pauahi Sts.], not to mention our old town Hilo Hawaiians [via
Haili Church-Hilo Boarding School where Boys-Girls Club is today--YWCA still at today's site]. Essentially, modern Hilo is built upon the moral & spiritual groundwork laid by Opukahaia’s missionaries.
Hence, Henry Opukahaia is our unsung/untold hero, the sine qua non of societal fulfillment and happiness, per assimilation vantage point [naysayers call this cultural genocide]. And looking at each ethnic group, Opukahaia’s peacemakers filled the need — the Chinese had Rev. Tsui’s social hall across Lincoln Park [today's church is on Mohouli-Kino`ole Sts.], the Portuguese had Rev. De Silva’s mission on Haili
St. [today's Central Christian Church], the Japanese had Rev. Kwan Higuchi’s hall at Lincoln Park, the Filipinos had their church in Papaikou, the Koreans had their church on Haili St.
Red China — alter ego Mao — Yes, age mentorship. Mao 1893-1976 the bear clawed/swooshed his way to power, ably aided by urbane Chou En-Lai 1898-1976. Deng Xiaoping 1904-1997 infused capitalism after titans Mao/Chou died. Deng’s protege` Zhao Ziyang 1919-2005 went too far democratic for Deng’s slow moderation via Zhao’s empathy w/student rebels Tiananmen Square 1989. Zhao
was purged/banished to obscurity/house arrest till his dying day. It is obvious that a dictatorship does not stay in power unless it appeases the middle class, or prevents it from emerging via brutal tyranny a la Stalin/Mao. But w/Red China’s failed agrarian reforms, it was time for Deng to discard Mao’s retro communism & get up to speed w/the rest
of the industrialized world powers. In Hawai`i, Queen Lili`u 1838-1917 just did not have the temperament/moxy to get up to speed w/internationalism. Kanaka Johnny Wilson 1871-1956 & Kuhio 1871-1922 were better suited for pluralism/statesmanship, despite their own flaws [Wilson's nepotism/Kuhio's decadent self-aggrandizement]. As w/today’s Trask/Osorio, Lili`u was a retrograde who fed on fear/hate,
not love/tolerance. Auld lang syne.
ILWU’s Stateside haole transplant Eddie Tangen [pronounced Tan-Jen] 1921-1992 — in return for supporting Gov. Burns, ILWU nerve center Eddie Tangen made the Land Use Commission his personal fiefdom 1969-1977. As its chairman 1973-1977, Tangen was the dealmaker for developers/labor force. Tangen was Jack Hall’s buddy, & succeeded Hall as braintrust after Hall died 1971. Hall had many detractors [vs. Hall's impudent/arrogant bearing], among them Hall’s boss Harry Bridges of Frisco Central, along w/local rep Newton Miyagi. Of course, Hall ruined Kapoho longshoreman Jack Kawano after Kawano refuted Hall’s takeover of the ILWU in 1944. Tangen always felt
that Bridges was jealous of Hall’s political legacy [coalition w/Burns Dems], something which Frisco’s Bridges had no opportunity to achieve. Bridges
repulsed vs. Hall’s autocratic/megalomaniac ways, not to mention Hall’s inability to groom able islander successors/Hall’s prolific drinking-coarse crude vocabulary. Papaikou’s famous Luso George Martin 1924-2009 treaded gingerly b/n antagonists Bridges/Hall. After Hall died unexpectedly, Martin threw his hat in w/respectable Bridges, serving as Central VP until Bridges told Martin that Bridges wanted a longshoreman [not a plantation boy like Martin] to succeed Bridges as Prexy. Of course, all that Hall wanted was to be respected, not respectable!! Hilo police detective Jerry Ogawa’s sister Yoshiko [Ogawas from Kea`au] is Jack Hall’s wife. Like Bridges, Martin was a union man all the way, not a politician like Hall. Kea’au girl Mitsue Shinchi married local ILWU leader David Thompson, not Frisco’s Frank Thompson. Which are why ILWU hater Scrub Tanaka 1915-2006 [ILWU endorsed GOPs over Dem Scrub when Scrub was solon 50-55 yrs. ago] detested Kea’au buddahead girls [for marrying topshelf ILWUers], along w/Pepe’ekeo buddahead girls for the same reason. Male Chauvnist.
Pahoa’s sawmill was to use lumber that was cut in order to clear the lands for sugar cane — Pahoa’s 1908 lumber mill [went broke in 1916 partly because its ohia was too brittle for Stateside dry land railroad ties]
was the world’s largest railroad tie mill, essentially sprouting Pahoa town. Its huge expanse lay behind
today’s Akebono theater.
Jesus’ refrain to John the Baptist [Wataru Kohashi as untold hero] — When John the Baptist lamented that Jesus had not come to see John in prison [John eventually was beheaded], Jesus reassured John the Baptist that Jesus was the Messiah, inasmuch miracles
were happening — the blind can see, other captives are set free — & Jesus intoned to convey to John the Baptist, “Blessed are those who are not offended in Me.” At which point John the Baptist confessed, “He must increase, I must decrease.” “Let a man not
think more highly of himself than he really is.” And as Jesus said [Song of Solomon], “Follow the footsteps of the flock [singular entity] if you know not where,” where Jesus is the bridegroom & Christians are the bride. Pastor Roy Kim born 1946 is a great Christian historian like his antecedent Eusebius 263-339 A.D. And like Canadian Christian theologian/evangelist A.B. Simpson 1843-1919,
Roy is unmatched in application of Scripture to sentient challenges. I’ve discoursed w/many a devotee of the New Testament, but Roy
Kim has bedrock comprehension of Old/New Testament & an A.B. Simpson ability to transcend mortal befuddlement [ergo Rich Uejo/Boston Blackie Nakasato] & make Scripture come alive. Point in fact/application — Wataru Kohashi willingly sacrifices self-recognition by giving his DSC [upgraded to Medal of Honor for intrepid/indescribable courage under fire] to first KIA of 442nd RCT, California’s Kiyo Muranaga. Truth be told, Muranaga [1st day of battle] got flustered/disoriented/delirious & failed to release the firing pin off the mortar, resulting in the German
tank shelling Wataru’s/Muranaga’s mortar position, causing Muranaga’s death [died in Wataru's arms/Wataru held down Muranaga's head to prevent Muranaga's head from getting blown off by tank fire]. Yet Wataru, blinded by the tank shell, had the presence of mind to scream out to his 200 men of F Co., “Where da tank, where da tank?!” Because
Wataru, though blinded, wanted to reposition to fire mortar to deter the tank, which could’ve mowed down all of F Co. F Co. stumbled upon the German tank by accident. Jesus recognizes that Truth has its time & place. After all, Jesus didn’t tell his apostles up front, “You’re gonna die!” Samuel didn’t tell David that Samuel would anoint David, though Jehovah directed Samuel to do so. Samuel gave David a ruse,
& anointed David in great dignity. Or, as Scripture instructs, don’t throw your pearls before those who don’t know they’re pearls. As Roy chastens, 65 yrs. have passed since Muranaga died, leaving no wife/
children. Wataru at age 87 won’t live much longer. Wataru gave up willingly all glory for symbolic 1st KIA 442. Let Muranaga’s honor rest in peace. But as we come to year 2010, society should know that
untold heroes sometimes inspire us to greatest acts of beneficence/love for all, as Wataru’s lifelong self-sacrifice of glory has shown us [to be other-directed]. Honor Muranaga, but acknowledge the untold
hero in our midst, especially as we pass by 65 yrs. of unspoken history. After all, F Co. boys have corroborated Wataru’s supreme act of honor/kindness via oral history. Truth be told with respect for
Muranaga, who has had his legacy memorialized w/no intent to revoke/rebuke the honors bestowed upon him. I had Wataru meet Afghanistan War paratrooper combat veteran Isaac Nahakuelua, born 1981, Hilo High ‘99 grad. Wataru spoke to Isaac as an EQUAL,
man to man, & told Isaac, “Just be glad you’re alive!” Heartstopper respect from Wataru to Isaac. Mo’o ali’i [generational leadership/inspiration]. Love everlasting.
Bourgeois — Karl Marx defined bourgeois as capitalist ruling class, whereas conventional
meaning was “middle class.” German Marx saw bourgeois as pejorative for materialism’s heyday, thence Marx’ unique designation. Over the long
sweep of history, Marxism never won, evidenced by Soviet collapse/tyranny over the teeming masses by Mao. Mixed capitalism/regulatory oversight produced highest standard/quality of life worldwide, seen here
in U.S./Thatcher’s Britain. Even in Hawai`i among local brahmins/elite, Christian Grace promulgated patron saints Charles Hemenway/Frank Atherton/Walt Dillingham along Merchant St. block. Of course, Puritan notions of thrift/frugality/toil expanded capitalist acquisitions, but thankfully our Social Gospel [Matthew 5/Isaiah 58] averted terminal
avarice/greed. Unquestionably, Hemenway/Atherton evoked the best of altruism/selfless giving. Today’s AJAs Matsy Takabuki/Dan Inouye/George Ariyoshi/Hilo’s Rob Kiyosaki-Isamu Kanekuni hora fuku/blowhards tout about self-reliance/economy/material worth, but actually they are what Karl Marx postulated as decadent wanna-bees [sycophants of nouveaux rich/new aristocrats], who in the end will be adjudged as vain
men who self-glorified amid their acquisitions.
Earl Finch 1915-1965 in Honomu [12 miles north of Hilo along Hamakua coast] — Honomu teacher Alex Akita’s son Stan was German POW. Stan eventually was
released unharmed. Honohina’s Harold Fujimoto [wife Edith owned Edith's Dress Shop] was Honomu Sugar Co. industrial relations PR go-to guy. Alex/Harold got
Earl Finch to stop over in Honomu on Earl’s victory ride thruout the Haw’n Islands. Earl was the 442 messiah who took in our 442 boys when no one else would down in Hattiesburg Miss. outside Camp Shelby 1943. Honomu’s Seigi Hanashiro/Shige Katekawa entertained Earl w/gala music outside Akita store on Honomu’s main street [old Mamalahoa hwy]. Tsukasa Ishii kept photos of Earl’s visit, which show Earl being swooned by Honomu’s deliriously joyful villagers. Tsukasa was obnoxious & loudmouth when Tsukasa drank, & would stir up our neighbors w/his yelling. He/my Dad were 442 drinking buddies, but my Mom dreaded Tsukasa’s ignoble traits. My Dad was mellow when Dad drank, not odious like Tsukasa. Alex/Stan Akita were monoshiri/narcissistic, not beloved among Honomu folks.
Sherwood Greenwell 1919-2004 — Henry Greenwell left England/immigrated here 1850. His coffee quality was world-rated the best in 1873. Missionary Sam Ruggles intro’d coffee to Kona 1828 [started Hilo mission w/Joe Goodrich 1824], Guatemala strain replaced Ruggles seed 1892. Sherwood is Henry’s grandson, & Kona’s greatest philanthropist. Sherwood always prided [correctly] his company on allowing coffee tenants [buddaheads/etc.] to sell to anyone, not lockstep to landlord Sherwood. But immigrant Henry Greenwell’s other descendant Norman [Sherwood's cousin], unlike Sherwood/Norman’s older brothers Henry-Jack, was very abusive/ruthlessly cruel
to non-haoles. Yin/yang, Jekyll/Hyde. Norman a cattle rancher/dairyman/coffee
planter/etc.
Colin Powell born 1937 — Colin regretted his U.N. 2/03 speech & considered that a blight in his life. He was forced out by Bush 11/05. He still proclaims himself GOP today, despite his endorsement of Obama ["generational change"]. Colin gave max contribution to McCain 2007, but soured
on McCain’s trump on Ayers/Acorn. Actually, Colin not
a fence-sitter for his own advantage, inasmuch Colin gave money to McCain before Obama’s miraculous accession to the Presidency. Colin soured on McCain’s pick of Palin as VP, & feels that
Colin himself should’ve been VP pick, inasmuch Colin/McCain are war position allies. Altogether, minusses not getting picked as VP [McCain buckled under GOP right-wing]/Palin’s farce selection/
distracting-ad hominem low ball swipes via Ayers-Acorn by McCain/McCain’s inability to overcome momentum shift to Obama by way of correctly attacking Obama’s tax increases [cost of operations
passed on to consumer], which McCain does not compel-forceon as simple common sense/McCain’s untenable health ins. promo [no safety net for those most in need of health care] — swung
Colin toward Obama. Race a subtext, Obama’s ascension a plus [undecideds vote for favorite in polls] — all tilted Colin toward Obama. No, it’s not in Colin to be a Mazie Hirono/Dan Akaka self-interested fence-sitter [neither endorsed
anyone until Obama had the Dem nomination locked in]. BTW, Colin a huge boxing fan/Hank Kaplan’s 1919-2007 acolyte, & because of this, I don’t feel that Colin is an obsessed opportunist like Hirono/Akaka — something about boxing grits/
grinds one to be all-or-nothing — no vacillation/wishy-washy nature.
Sports guru Paul Lou [Korean 2nd generation][supposed to be Yu] — Hall of Fame’s Doak Walker told all assembled, incl. Paul Lou, “Herman Wedemeyer is among the greatest running backs I’ve ever seen. I only hope that Herman doesn’t get punchy [brain damage] from all the hits he takes. He’s never had a good line to protect him.” Sure as prophecy, Wede got
hurt from hits & didn’t last long as a pro. His St. Mary’s U kin coach jumped to pro & didn’t have the calibre linemen to protect Wede from hits/tackles. Paul saw Adrian Murrell NFL & Paul says that Wede was a Gale Sayers vs. Murrell’s lower calibre. Paul says that Joe Francis was no Wede. Paul says that no one comes close to Wede. Paul happens to be Mr. Boxing godfather/guru west of the Rockies, & was immensely respected by my mentor Boxing Hall of Fame boss Hank
Kaplan 1919-2007. Paul born 1930 lives in Hawai`i Kai, sharp as ever.
–”da gang” –Dan Inouye’s tough-boy attitude — Dan’s rawhide has plus [MoH 442] & minus [Lenore Kwock]. His Emma St. tenement backdrop [like Hung Wai Ching's] is real, which is why Dan chooses
to be authentic to Dan’s past. Which is why we heard of Kwock. Dan’s rough childhood comes a generation after Hung Wai’s, who was an adult when Dan was born in 1924. Both Dan/Hung Wai were straightened by
guardian angel Scot John Young 1902-1990, who almost certainly was a closet gay [no machismo/very effeminate]. Life’s strange turnabouts/blends. Fact is stranger than fiction. No one is more macho than
greatest-ever hoopster Ah Chew Goo born 1918. Ah Chew respects Young because of Young’s genuine compassion/aloha spirit, even if Young was “soft” in personality/manner!!
A great writer like Kevin Hickman Steadman born 12/7/53 answers 6 questions: 1) What is my point? 2) How do I say it? 3) What image do I project to sharpen it? 4) Does this image grab the reader? 5) Can I abbreviate my message? 6) Can I omit the minuses/negatives? On my count, WWII flier Ben Kuroki born 1917 93 yrs. young in 2 months, is the only Japanese-American in the United States Army Air Forces to serve in combat operations in the Pacific theater of World War II. A B-24 ball turret gunner, Kuroki was heckled by Japanese American internees while doing a war bond tour at Heart Mountain. But the no-no resisters did not free up/liberate their fellow internees — patriots like Nebraska-born Kuroki did! Point being that resisters are not heroes, they’re simply human, and often do not know the right answer in advance of the choice they make to resist. Randall Jarrell’s “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” emotes, “From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State, and I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” Kuroki did more to free our Japanese American internees via his willingness to give up his life for America, than the combined force of the war resisters from the internment camps. Love is forever!
The Japanese language school laws to abolish the Japanese language schools/gakko were struck down in 1927 by the U.S. Supreme Court, a body praised by Japan’s press as “the world’s most authoritative and dependable organ.” In 1935 Congress allowed WWI Japanese alien U.S. war veterans to become U.S. citizens. Mamo St. icon Sen. Sanji Abe was an American-born 2nd generation U.S. citizen, as was County Public Works engineer head Frank Futoshi Arakawa. Both also served with our WWI Co. D as doughboys [Frank was an officer], along with conscripted aliens. Both men also were great athletes in their halcyon younger days. The Advertiser gushed w/pride in its August 15, 1917 article which remarked on our all-Japanese Co. D [Who said our 100th/442 were the original Go for Broke boys?? No, WWI Co. D was!]: “It is going to be a good company. With the enthusiasm displayed by the Japanese and their desire to give a practical demonstration of their loyalty to the American flag, it is safe to say that it is going to be one of the crack (top) organizations. Anyone who knows the Japanese knows that!” Abe/Arakawa, our stalwart AJA leaders, were ignobly interned WWII for greeting Japan Navy/dignitaries who came to see Kilauea volcano pre-WWII.
Most 3rd generation Japanese Americans [born between 1946 to 1960 -- baby boomers] emote “voyage of personal discovery” & deliberately revise the actual renderings of America at mid-century 60 yrs. ago. From D.C.’s perspective, the 442 was created to distract from the bad press which the internment camps were getting. Not every hakujin/white person approved of bringing flush toilets to the Idaho desert, when Idaho whites didn’t have flush toilets in their own homes for another decade.
Adam Carvalho’s wife Charlene is Jimmy Correa’s sister, just as Nathan Carter Sr.’s w
March 1st, 2010 at 10:54 am
Oops, Nathan Carter Sr.’s wife Grace also is Jimmy Correa’s sister. By the way, A & B is the only Big 5 outfit to start as sugar planter.
Japanese visit grave sites via Web
Services gain popularity as people leave their hometowns for cities [Thank you, Denise Takashima, for this article]
McClatchy-Tribune News Service via Honolulu Advertiser
TOKYO — As the nation of Japan grays and people gravitate to big cities leaving their hometowns behind, new services that enable people to see live images of the graves of their loved ones online or access photographs of their loved ones via the Web is gaining in popularity.
Several online services are available to subscribers, such as having photos of relatives who have died put online or providing access to live streamed videos of graves.
A 50-year-old magazine editor who lives in Tokyo signed up in 2009 with Cyberstone, a Web site run by Buddhist temple Kudokuin in Toshima Ward.
By entering his user ID and password on his cell phone or home computer, he can access a Web page that displays a photograph of his mother, who died in October, as well as a summary of her life and a message he dedicated to her at the funeral.
Part of the message reads: “Mom, you were always cheerful and pleasant, and were popular with others wherever you went, weren’t you? Thanks a lot for always being kind to me.”
The urn containing her ashes is held in the temple’s tomb with other urns, before which a religious service is regularly performed.
As the man has no siblings, and spends half of the year overseas due to work commitments, while his father has been in hospital, he felt his mother “might feel lonely in the afterworld” as he could seldom visit her grave.
He said he decided to use Cyberstone “so I could remember my mother wherever I am,” the man said.
Years before starting the Cyberstone service, Kudokuin temple had a computer installed beside the joint tomb to enable the families of those whose ashes are kept there to access personal data when visiting the temple.
Nyokai Matsushima, a senior monk at Kudokuin, said, “Because of such reasons as the graying of society, an increasing number of people have been finding it hard to visit the tombs of their ancestors.”
“When people are able to visit their ancestors online, they can share memories of those who have passed away with relatives and friends,” Matsushima added.
Another online tomb service features images of tombs streamed online.
The Buddhist temple Honkokuji, on the outskirts of Sendai, has been providing this service by streaming live images of tombs online via three cameras set up in its graveyard, which holds about 60 tombs.
By accessing the site, a relative can use a remote-control system to zoom in on a tomb with a camera to make a virtual grave visit via a PC or cell phone.
The service is usable from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. free of charge.
Since its launch in 2004, the Web site has had about 1,000 hits a month, including those who make virtual grave visits before going to work every morning, said priest Koyu Kusano, 71.
“It’s of great importance that people feel in their heart that they want to remember those who have passed away, irrespective of what form that feeling may take,” he added.
March 1st, 2010 at 11:24 am
Money mgr. Kenneth Wong born 1924 [not Helco engineer-later Kona businessman Kenny Wong] married Mona Carter, Keoki Kai’s paternal grandma’s sister. Kenneth’s son Donald 1947-2008 was AG investigator. Kenneth’s family restaurant was Wo Chong Chop Suey House next to Vana Bldg. corner — SW corner Furneaux/Kam Ave.
Keoki Kai born 1965 is our holy grail on family relationships. Keoki was w/his grandparents from the star & knows both the Old/New families. –Curt
March 1st, 2010 at 11:26 am
Manuel Jesus Coito was just 11 when he immigrated here from Madeira, Portugal, in 1886 to work on the sugar plantations. Between 1895 & 1920 he wrote more than 100 poems in his native Luso lingua. Coito died at age 81 in 1957, but his poetry was only unearthed 2 decades after his death, if by accident when his daughter unpacked his boxes. UH language translator Edgar Knowlton Jr. translated Coito’s poems into English. Knowlton said that Coito wrote in many styles, often following the classic narrative epic poetry style of Portugal, Spain, and Italy. His poems were published in the Luso newspapers of the day. Knowlton said that the “Portuguese have prized poets in their heritage… they respect poets more than we do. Those who were not literate would listen to storytellers who recited the verses.” –Curt
March 1st, 2010 at 11:35 am
No matter what batterings you take, gang, love is forever and romance never dies. Never. Like stoic Marcus Aurelius [Issei/immigrant Kango Kawasaki's hero], fabled folk hero Hawea Waia’u, granddaughter/mo’opuna of Haili Church’s longest-serving pastor/solon, Rev. Stephen Desha Sr., evokes tenderness & grace. Armed w/Ph.D. Columbia U., steeped in music [her Haili Choir enshrined in Kahauanu Lake's Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame, Kahauanu is Hawea's acolyte], Hawea personifies the profound goodness in arduous/selfless service to others, & is true to our forebearers, composed/contemplative/tremendous heart/courage. Hawea the intrepid/gallant peacemaker, gentle pragmatist who builds bipartisan support/consensus for the common good, a positive historymaker, a balanced empiricist. Beautiful to observe and studoy. Love eternal, –Curt
March 1st, 2010 at 11:37 am
Advertiser July 15, 1912: Hamakua [Maulua Gulch] Tunnel is Now Complete: More than a year of hard work was needed to drive bore through — After more than a year’s work the big one-half mile tunnel on the Hamakua extension of the Hilo railroad has been completed. This tunnel is located twenty miles north of Hilo on the south side of the Maulua Gulch and is the largest on any of the Islands. The only other tunnel is the one only ninety feet in length at Wainaku on the same railroad about one and one-half miles from Hilo [still there next to C. Brewer office of old warehouse]. The total length of the Hamakua extension will be thirty-two miles which was started more than two years ago, and now with the completion of the long tunnel the biggest undertaking in connection with the construction is finished. The grading of an area of more than two million yards is required for the entire work, and several wood and steel bridges are being erected along the route. In order to build this [Maulua] tunnel, it has been necessary to drill through a ridge, most of which is composed of hard volcanic material. Where the hard rock material was encountered, the natural [solid rock] tunnel was formed, but in many places cinders were encountered and it was necessary to wall up the soft material with timbers. Work has been done on both ends of the tunnel at the same time. The importance of the construction of the Hamakua extension can hardly be estimated as the country for a distance of sixty miles north of Hilo has numerous sugar plantations.
March 1st, 2010 at 11:38 am
Delaying tactic which results in a later victory — Gen. Benedict Arnold led his sailors on Lake Champlain against a far superior British fleet near Peru New York & lost. But their arduous battle in October 1776 delayed British movement south for a year, when the British would be defeated in the Battle of Saratoga. The Battle of Valcour Island was really a victory in defeat which gave Colonial forces a chance to win at Saratoga — and eventually the Revolutionary War, marking Valcour among the legendary events of lore, such as Leonidas’ stand at Thermopylae. Incredible fortitude/valor!!
March 1st, 2010 at 11:48 am
Keoki Kai’s great-great-great grandfather “Gung Gung”
Tang Hung Sin aka Akina was our earliest sugar master who learned the value of education thru osmosis/gradual Americanization. In this sense, pioneer planter Akina was a self-made man who, having come here long before other ethnics came to labor in the sugar fields, picked himself up by his bootstraps, unlike Japanese immigrants/Issei kanyaku imin who came here under the Meiji edict of 4 yrs. of compulsory schooling — essentially, the formal group-oriented Japanese had education instilled in them by government decree even before they immigrated to Hawai’i, unlike Gung Gung & his lone rangers from impoverished southern China who, for all intents & purposes, were irrelevant non-existent “untouchables” to the imperial Manchu dynasty. Huge difference between Gung Gung’s chinamen [throw-aways, literally] & the formally organized Japanese immigrants. Truly, Gung Gung’s chinamen were SELF-MADE. “…For once you have known someone [like Gung Gung Akina], the years cannot erase the memory of a pleasant word or of a friendly face. For such name stands for one who has touched my life sometime, and in that meeting has become the rhythm of the rhyme … I really feel I’m composed of each remembered name, my life is so much better than it was before you came.” [author unknown] Other than Gung Gung being self-made, vs. Kanyaku Imin who were inculcated by the Meiji dynasty [1868 till today] to have at least 4 yrs. of compulsory schooling, Gung Gung’s other distinguishing feature is his altruism, stemming from his agrarian/hard scrabble roots [which can backfire via totem pole socio-economic oppression from former hard scrabble but current oppressor against his/her underlings, such as you see w/most posthumous philanthropists like Harry Weinberg/Ford Foundation/etc.]. Of course, Gung Gun was libido-filled & married a Hawaiian lass, which really is where the aloha spirit materialized in Gung Gung. Aloha, –Curt
March 1st, 2010 at 11:57 am
John Kai Jr. 1878-1962 is Keoki Kai’s great grandpa [handsome Keoki born 1965/'83 Waiakea High grad/UoPacific CA. grad]. John’s paternal grandma [John Sr.'s mom] Lukia Kahilo was among the 1st converts to Catholicism, being baptized in 1841 at age 25. John Jr.’s maternal grandpa was granted land via the Mahele, where Jr.’s home was built [today's senior citizen housing on Haili St. mauka of Haili Church], inasmuch Jr.’s maternal branch was descended from kapu chiefs of Ka’u.
March 1st, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Curtis, please contact me. Need info. on old Hilo. Thanks.
March 1st, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Drop dead handsome Al Nakaji [like actor Hiroyuki Sanada
--Ujio-- in "The Last Samurai"] born 1951 is the grandson of the famous Nakaji Koa Shop man from Shinmachi, whose site is between the bouldered driveway [old Ke'elikolani St.] where the Wailoa Park sign is & the gravel road [old Emma St.] to the DLNR Matson containers by the Hilo Iron Works parking lot. Nakaji Koa Shop was the Zen Cabinets of its time, customizing in cabinets/etc. Al’s Dad worked at Helco’s Waiakea generating plant & survived the 1946 tsunami, but Dad’s 1st wife/2 sons perished [sucked out the front door of their home behind the koa shop by the "drawdown" water after it had completed its surge inland, the drawdown nearly as strong as the surge, generally referred to as isostatic rebound where the shore re-emerges again after the surge/drawdown]. Dad’s daughter survived the tsunami because she was stuck in the house, not sucked out of the house. So sad. Shinmachi & downtown Hilo were not plantation towns — these were commercial hubs, w/bldgs. lined from Wailuku river to Wailoa river on both sides of wide-body Kamehameha Ave. Thank you, Al, for our discussion. Always grateful, –your fan Curt
March 1st, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Erudite Amy Dunn born 1955 ocean science degree mentioned our low tide during our tsunami 2 days ago as a factor in the lower than expected surge, along w/the lower than expected energy pulse [8.8 Moment Magnitude vs. 1960 killer tsunami generated by earthquake of 9.5 Moment Magnitude from almost the same area of Chile at nearly the same depth 21 miles underground], which might account for the period between energy pulses being longer/elapsed time, which might account for the lower than expected surge, because there was no mighty buildup of water mass from the drawdown/receding water as it met the incoming energy pulse.
March 1st, 2010 at 5:22 pm
From Wikipedia:
Geology
The Nazca Plate [west] is subducting under the South American Plate [east]. This movement causes seismicity and volcanism throughout Chile.
The earthquake took place along the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates, at a location where they converge at a rate of eighty millimeters (about three inches) a year. This earthquake was characterized by a thrust-faulting focal mechanism, caused by the subduction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American. [generally, withdrawal of the sea precedes the surge west in Hawai'i].
The Chilean coast has suffered many megathrust earthquakes along this plate boundary, including the strongest earthquake ever measured [1960]. Most recently, the boundary ruptured in 2007.
The segment of the fault zone which ruptured in this earthquake was estimated to be 249 km (155 mi) long. It lay immediately north of the 373 km (232 mi) segment which ruptured in the great earthquake of 1960.
March 1st, 2010 at 5:38 pm
From Wikipedia:
Hawaii
United States Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka issued a joint press release announcing the first tsunami evacuation in Hawaii since 1994. Warning sirens were sounded throughout the state, as hotels in Waikiki evacuated tourists at 6 a.m. People in tall buildings were encouraged to move above the third floor. Waves measuring nine feet high were originally predicted to strike Hilo Bay on the Big Island of Hawai’i at 11:05 a.m. local time (2105 GMT), but by 11:18 a.m., major receding and waves had not been reported on the shoreline but drops over 10 m (33 ft) and ten wave crests up to 20 m (66 ft) were recorded offshore southeast of Honolulu, and discoloration was reported by 11:20 a.m. By 11:40, several waves hit the islands amounting to raising and lowering of the sea near the coast, and a fourth wave hit around 1:12 p.m. The tsunami warning for Hawaii was canceled in the early afternoon on Saturday, February 27.
Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center was quoted as saying: “We expected the waves to be bigger in Hawaii, maybe about 50 percent bigger than they actually were.” Early in the morning, the Center expected waves of 10 feet. In actuality, the highest tsunami waves ended up being about 5 to 6 feet peak to trough.
March 1st, 2010 at 5:49 pm
John Kai Sr.’a altruism was immense, Sr. taking newly invented lantern slides to Kalapana [hub of oldtime Hawai'i culture] churches for the benefit of the community/church members 1880s. John Kai Jr. 1878-1962 was a philanthropist, sponsoring many charitable events/church activities, though Jr. was the Tiger Woods of his day, drop-dead handsome, though his wife Annie Akamu Kai was Hollywood gorgeous, faithful to a tee, raising all sons, no daughters. George Kai, son of John Jr., was a faithful/devoted husband/father, always for the little guy/gal, never a braggart/blowhard. George’s son Peewee had the Carter fighting spirit but was always a grounded/grassroot joe. Of course, Peewee’s son Keoki Kai born 1965 turned away Girls Gone Wild from his popular Uncle Mikey’s nightclub because Keoki felt that such obscenity demeans women, in that Keoki worships Keoki’s mom/2 baby sisters. Keoki also turned away other lurid spectacles which, though highly profitable, would demean Keoki’s loved ones/reference groups. Keoki a good man, an altruist like his ancestors.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Scotman Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem about Mother Marianne Cope & the Sisters at Kalaupapa:
“To see the infinite pity of this place,
the mangled limb, the devastated face,
the innocent sufferers smiling at the rod,
a fool were tempted to deny his God.
He sees and shrinks, but if he looks again
lo, beauty springing from the breast of pain
He marks the Sisters on the painful shores,
and even a fool is silent and adores.”
Mother Marianne & her Franciscan Sisters started St. Francis Hospital [no other outfit in Hawai'i has been run by 7 successive female CEOs]/St. Joseph school in Hilo/St. Anthony on Maui/etc.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Yes, musician Peter Moon is the son of Wook Moon, who founded Ming’s jewelers in 1939. Meadow Gold is the successor to Dairymen’s [ice cream/milk]. Hiram Bingham III, grandson of Punahou school founder Rev. Hiram Bingham 1841, is famous for discovering Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca city high in the mountains of Peru. He is the inspiration for the movie character Indiana Jones. The only major charitable foundations in Hawai’i not founded by Congregational missionary descendants were McInerny/Watumull/Weinberg.
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:34 am
[...] Big Iceland Chronicle »Blog Archive» Dispatches From Curt … That is why the ethnic Hawaiians were raised on behalf of Gibson. I tell Laura Serene say it's the only processes each burning / profound question you ask. I say to Laura that is one step ahead of me, because she found his answers to my questions. "Laura, you did before …… Mother Marianne and her Franciscan Sisters started St. Francis Hospital [no other suit in Hawaii has been a director general successive 7] / College of St. Joseph in St. Hilo / Maui St. Anthony / etc … [...]
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:33 pm
[...] Big Island Chronicle » Blog Archive » Dispatches From Curt … [...]