History

Exhibit Celebrates 150th Anniversary of the Meiji Restoration and Immigration to Hawai‘i Wayne Muromoto Commentary Special to The Hawai‘i Herald In the “I Ching,” there is a popular canard, or myth: In crisis or change, there is opportunity. This is based on a false and superficial reading of the Chinese characters, or hanji (in Japanese:....

Retired Brig. Gen. Thomas S. Ito, only the fourth Japanese American to be promoted to the rank of general in the U.S. military, died Jan. 26 at the age of 90. Ito began his military career in 1951 when he joined the Hawai‘i Army National Guard as a field artillery officer. He spent 37 years....

Wahiawä’s Pineapple Camp Nisei Tell Their Stories Gail Honda Special to The Hawai‘i Herald In the pre-World War II years, Wahiawä’s pineapple camps were scattered around the outskirts of the town proper. In these self-contained communities, the plantation workers and their families lived and worked together and bonded through both hardships and good times. For....

Gail Honda Special to The Hawai‘i Herald The following interview write-up is the second of seven that will be published in The Hawai‘i Herald this year in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Honouliuli Internment Camp. It is part of a series titled, “In Their Own Words.” In 1980, I was....

How Significant is “The Japanese Vote?” Richard Borreca Special to The Hawai‘i Herald Asking about ethnic voting in Hawai‘i is like posing the question: “Is it raining in Hawai‘i?” Yes, somewhere in Hawai‘i almost every day, rain is falling and, yes, Hawai‘i voters take ethnicity into consideration when they go to the polls. But it....

Hui O Laulima to Retrace Its Journey from “Auxiliary” to “We Can Do It! They were just supposed to help their husbands entertain visiting dignitaries from Okinawa by serving ocha (tea) and snacks, help the men organize dinners, and sit beside their husbands and smile . . . But something happened along the way. If....

A “TRIPLE PASSAGE” Michael Malaghan Special to The Hawai‘i Herald The weather was miserable, so we didn’t go to the Imperial Palace. I viewed this imperial turnover in the context of a “triple passage” because my wife Tomoko and I got engaged in Japan just as Emperor Hirohito died, bringing the Showa Era to an end, and we....

The Voice of Shinzaburo Sumida Gail Honda Special to The Hawai‘i Herald The following interview write-up is the fifth of seven that will be published in The Hawai‘i Herald this year. It is part of a series titled, “In Their Own Words.” In the spring of 1980, I had the opportunity to interview seven former....

Fifty years ago, all of Hawai‘i state government’s elected big shots — from then-Gov. John Burns and his lieutenant governor, Tom Gill, to state senators and representatives — closed their ‘Iolani Palace offices and walked across what was then Hotel Street to America’s newest state capitol building. As they walked into Hawai‘i’s political and governmental....

The Little-Known Story of the Landmarks Left by World War II Italian Prisoners of War Gregg K. Kakesako Special to The Hawai‘i Herald During World War II, some 3,000 Okinawan soldiers, conscripts and civilians were imprisoned in Hawai‘i as prisoners of war. Twelve of them died while in captivity here in Hawai‘i and were buried....