Shurei Hirozawa (1919-2002) was born just across the railroad tracks from the McBryde Sugar Company mill at New Mill, Kaua‘i, not far from where the Kaua‘i Coffee Company headquarters stands today.
That mill was originally called “the new mill,” since in 1901 it had replaced McBryde’s original ‘Ele‘ele mill, once situated in the vicinity of today’s ‘Ele‘ele School.
The thriving plantation camp that grew around the new mill was consequently named New Mill, or “Numila” in Hawaiian.
In 1974, the McBryde sugar mill at New Mill shut down, and nowadays New Mill camp is practically deserted, but during Shurei Hirozawa’s childhood and adolescent years, it was a lively place with its mill, busy streets of employee housing, and its plantation office building, warehouse and plantation store.
Hirozawa later recalled that the sugar mill whistle announced events at the plantation.
Four steady blasts for a cane fire, another series of blasts for a bad accident in the mill, continuous blasts at the end of the harvest season, and a single long one for minor occasions such as lunch hour or pau hana.
Plantation kids would sneak into the mill on Sundays when only watchmen were on duty and explore its stairways, tanks of molasses, catwalks and machinery on three floors.
And, during grinding season, Hirozawa would visit the boiling house on the top floor of the mill, where cane juice was boiled to form raw sugar and where his father and grandfather both worked.
Following his graduation from Waimea High School in 1937, he joined McBryde in the blacksmith’s shop, which fabricated tools, structural components, machine parts and other equipment.
A Mr. Sato was lead blacksmith and Hirozawa was paired with journeyman blacksmith Venancio Villaflor as his helper.
During the nine years he was with McBryde, he also worked in the boiling house and as a payroll clerk before heading off to the Mainland to earn a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1950 from the University of Iowa.
Successful careers with The Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper and First Hawaiian Bank followed.
He was survived by his wife Betty and children Gail, Joan and Robert.
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Hank Soboleski has been a resident of Kauai since the 1960s. Hank’s love of the island and its history has inspired him, in conjunction with The Garden Island Newspaper, to share the island’s history weekly. The collection of these articles can be found here: https://bit.ly/2IfbxL9 and here https://bit.ly/2STw9gi Hank can be reached at hssgms@gmail.com
