Community Focus – Ireisai Hoyo Memorial Service Set for Aug. 25 in Hilo

The Japanese Community Association of Hawaii will hold the 80th Ireisai Hoyo Memorial Service at ‘Alae Cemetery in Hilo on Sunday, Aug. 25, at 2 p.m. The annual observance was initiated by the late territorial Sen. Sanji Abe, who had the 14-foot, 7-and-one-half-inch marble monument cast in Japan in August of 1938. The memorial was dedicated in Hawai‘i a year later, on Aug. 20, 1939. The Kona-born Abe served with the Hawai‘i County Police Department for 20 years and became the first senator of Japanese ancestry elected to Hawai‘i’s territorial Legislature.