ISLAND HISTORY: Old-time assistant Lihu‘e postmaster Yoshiake ‘Dick’ Hiramoto
Yoshiake ‘Dick’ Hiramoto (1902-1976), the son of Japanese immigrants Seijiro and Samayo Hiramoto, was born at Lihu‘e Plantation’s Kilipaki Camp, once located opposite the plantation’s sugar mill on what is now Haleko Road.
ISLAND HISTORY: Japanese American internment sites on Kaua‘i during WW II
During World War II, from 1942 to 1944, U.S. military personnel, in collaboration with local authorities, arrested and interned 2,270 people of Japanese ancestry in Hawai‘i.
ISLAND HISTORY: IJN I-3, the Japanese submarine that shelled Nawiliwili during WW II
On December 7, 1941, Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser submarines I-1, I-2, and I-3 arrived in the Kauai Channel between Oahu and Kauai under orders to conduct reconnaissance and attack ships that sailed from Pearl Harbor during and after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that morning.
ISLAND HISTORY: Kaua‘i pineapple and sugarcane homesteader Elmer Cheatham
Originally from Missouri, Elmer Cheatham (1882-1961) established residence in Honolulu in 1910 and obtained employment at B. F. Ehler’s & Co., the predecessor of Liberty House, which was in operation from 1918 to 2001.
ISLAND HISTORY: Sugar manufacturing at a typical Hawaiian sugar mill
During the 1980s, when a yearly harvesting season was complete at McBryde Sugar Co., I would be temporarily reassigned from my job as a haul cane truck driver to the Koloa mill electric shop, where I assisted journeymen electricians and became acquainted with a maze of mill machinery designed to produce raw sugar from sugarcane.
ISLAND HISTORY: History of the old Lihu‘e Plantation Dispensary
Hawaiian sugar plantations provided free medical care for their employees and dependents at hospitals and at plantation dispensaries, several of which were located on Kaua‘i.
ISLAND HISTORY: Jack Wada and the early days of television on Kaua‘i
The first television broadcast to residents of Hawai‘i occurred on Dec. 1, 1952, the day Honolulu’s KGMB-TV Channel 9 began broadcasting a regular daily telecasting schedule.
ISLAND HISTORY: A history of Kaua‘i’s Soto Zen Buddhist Temple
The origins of Kaua‘i’s Soto Zen Buddhist Temple date back to McBryde Sugar Co.’s Wahiawa Camp in 1903, the year the Rev. Ryoun Kan arrived there to begin preaching Soto Zen Buddhism in Tsuneo Takai’s home.
ISLAND HISTORY: ‘Plantation Stories’ — Keith Smith’s new book about plantation life on Kaua‘i
Local author, Keith Smith, who was born in Pepeekeo, Hawai‘i, and raised in the plantation town of Kilauea, Kaua‘i, during the 1950s and 1960s, where his father, Ernest Smith, was Kilauea Plantation manager, has recently published his second book titled “Plantation Stories.”
ISLAND HISTORY: Philip Kauai‘iki Palama Sr.’s rare stone bowl
In 1952, a survey of private collections of Hawaiian artifacts was made on Kauai by Miss Mary Stacey, a member of Dr. Kenneth Emory’s class in anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i.
ISLAND HISTORY: Scottish sailor, John Nicol, visited Kaua‘i in 1786 and 1787
While serving aboard English Captain Nathaniel Portlock’s “King George” as steward and cooper, Scotsman John Nicol (1755-1825) visited Kaua‘i twice in 1786 and once in 1787, during Portlock’s whaling and fur collecting voyage of 1785-1788 in the Pacific and Alaska.
ISLAND HISTORY: Historic preservationist Mike Faye of Waimea, Kaua‘i
Born and raised on Kaua‘i, Mike Faye is the grandson of pioneer Kaua‘i sugar planter Hans Peter Faye, and his father and an uncle managed Waimea Sugar Mill Co. and Kekaha Sugar Co.
ISLAND HISTORY: Brief history of Lihu‘e Plantation’s Hanama‘ulu Store
Around 1900, Lihu‘e Plantation built Hanama‘ulu Camp to provide housing for its employees working at its Hanama‘ulu sugar mill and in its cane fields in the vicinity of the mill.
ISLAND HISTORY: A brief history of the McBryde Plantation Store
In 1899, McBryde Sugar Co., named after Judge Duncan McBryde, was incorporated as a consolidation of Eleele Plantation, the McBryde Estate, and Koloa Agricultural Company.
ISLAND HISTORY: A brief history of Kaua‘i’s Kealia Store
In 1887, Theo H. Davies & Co. opened a general merchandise store at Kealia, Kauai and appointed George Tweedie as its storekeeper.
ISLAND HISTORY: Taniguchi ‘ohana’s mountain guides, paniolos and hunters
The Taniguchi ohana is among the most numerous of families on Kaua‘i.
ISLAND HISTORY: Herman Widemann – Queen Liliuokalani’s defense lawyer
In 1836, an adventurous young man named Herman Widemann (1822-1899) from Hanover, Germany signed on board a whaleship and sailed off for a cruise through the vast Pacific.
ISLAND HISTORY: Isaac Kaleialoha Brandt – Koloa Plantation timekeeper and Inter-Island Steamship Co. purser
Born in Koloa Plantation’s German Camp in Kaluahonu Valley, east of Waita Reservoir, Kaua‘i, Isaac Kaleialoha Brandt (1905-1992) was the grandson of German immigrants Gerhard and Margretta Brandt, and the son of Herman Brandt Sr., the assistant manager of Koloa Plantation between 1913 and 1922, and Lillie Nauele Hart Brandt.
ISLAND HISTORY: Mitsugi Nishihara – longtime employee of Koloa Plantation Store and Lihu‘e Store
Mitsugi Nishihara (1906-2004), the son of Hichiro and Fusa Nishihara, was born in Lihu‘e at Halehaka Camp, not far downhill from the Japanese cemetery on Halehaka Road, and attended Koloa School until the eighth grade, after which, at age 15, he began work at Koloa Plantation.
ISLAND HISTORY: Tadao ‘Barber’ Kawamoto was Koloa’s barber for 50 years
The son of Taichi and Shigeno Kawamoto, Tadao “Barber” Kawamoto (1911-2000) was born and raised in what was then the fishing village of Kukuiula on the shore southwest of Koloa, Kauai.