Ship to Shore

The USS Lexington (CV-2) and sister-ship USS Saratoga (CV-3) were originally designed as battle cruisers.  During construction, the cruiser hull was fitted with a flight deck.  Instead of the typical 16-inch cruiser guns, they each received four twin turret 8-inch guns and other armament.

The Lexington, the first of the Lexington class carriers, launched December 14, 1925, was the US Navy’s first fleet aircraft carrier.  Lexington later served as flagship out of Pearl Harbor on January 11, 1942.  (Alex)

The Lexington-class carriers had one major design flaw - the inclusion of their four twin 8-inch/55 caliber gun mounts, which could only be fired in starboard broadsides.

On January 17, 1942, Rear Adm. William S. Pye, acting commander in chief Pacific Fleet, asked if the Hawaiian Department, US Army, was interested in 8-inch naval mounts and guns that might be removed from navy vessels. The Hawaiian Department immediately replied in the affirmative.  (Bennett)

Lexington and Saratoga underwent armament refitting.  Their original 8-inch guns were replaced with the correct weapon against the carrier’s true foe: enemy carrier aircraft.

In early-1942, these 8-inch guns and turret mountings were removed from Lexington and Saratoga and reused as coastal artillery on the island of Oʻahu.

When selecting locations for the naval turret (NT) batteries, commanders desired to extend fields of fire, chiefly for those areas in which current coverage was light, while placing the turrets far enough inland to function as second lines of defense and to reduce the difficulty of protecting them against small raiding parties.

Four battery sites were picked; on the North Shore were Battery Brodie (later renamed Battery George W Ricker) (775-foot elevation in Waialua;) Battery Opaeula (later renamed Battery Carroll G Riggs) (1,120-foot elevation above the Waialua Agriculture Company’s sugarcane fields near Haleiwa.)

On the South Shore were Battery Salt Lake (later renamed Battery Louis R Burgess) on Damon Estate land at Āliapaʻakai (Salt Lake) (170-190 foot elevation) and Battery Wilridge (later renamed Battery Lewis S Kirkpatrick) on Wiliwilinui Ridge (1,200-foot elevation mauka of Waiʻalae.)

Each 8-inch naval turret (NT) mount included a pair of guns mounted in one slide, both guns elevating and traversing as one unit.  The 8-inch gun-mount housings were lightly armored, only providing shelter from the weather and possibly flying splinters.

All 8-inch NT mounts were designed for 360° fire without interfering with each other. The batteries had a high rate of fire (12-16 rounds per battery per minute.)  Each gun could send a projectile over 18-miles.

The turrets and battery commanders’ stations were the major above-ground features.   All the batteries were constructed of reinforced concrete by cut and cover, with projectile and powder magazines, gas-proof plotting rooms, and bombproof generator rooms 15 to 40-feet below the surface.

Target data was plotted in 24 by 30-foot bombproof and gas-proof plotting rooms.  The rooms were equipped with a vertical escape shaft at one end. Metal staple ladders attached to the wall led to small housings on the roofs with steel-plate doors.

Each magazine contained a room for powder and a room for projectiles (holding 250 of each.)  An additional 600 projectiles were to be stored in racks in the open. Powder and projectiles were elevated to the turret mounts by the elevating mechanisms.

All four battery sites were extensively camouflaged, including dummy gun positions to make up for the lack of antiaircraft defenses.

Target practices were usually carried out once a week, firing one round from each gun at a hypothetical target off shore. Homes near the batteries occasionally suffered broken window glass during firing practices.

The North Shore batteries, Brodie and Opaeula, covered the waters to the north, east and west, and as far south as the Pearl Harbor entrance.  The South Shore batteries, Salt Lake and Wiliwilinui Ridge, covered the waters to the south, southeast and southwest, including the approaches to Honolulu and Pearl Harbors, and could also fire north.

This marked the first time NT mounts had been emplaced on shore as seacoast artillery for the US; it created and engineering and design challenge for the shore-based folks.   Upon completion, however, the batteries proved very successful, being rated four of the best seacoast batteries.  (Lots of information here from Bennett.)

The image shows a USS Lexington 8-inch turret ashore on Oahu, 1942.  In addition, I have included more related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hālawa Naval Cemetery

As a result of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, there were 2,403 people killed and 1,178 wounded. Among the deceased were 2,008 Navy personnel, 109 Marine, 218 Army and 68 civilians.  (navy-mil)

World War II brought death to more than 300,000 Americans who were serving their country overseas.  While the war was on, most of these honored dead were buried in temporary US military cemeteries.

(Punchbowl was not a cemetery at that time.  In 1943, the governor of Hawaiʻi offered the Punchbowl for use as a national memorial cemetery; in February 1948 Congress approved funding and construction began.  The first interment at Punchbowl was made January 4, 1949.)

(Initially, the graves at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific were marked with white wooden crosses and Stars of David; however, in 1951, these were replaced by permanent flat granite markers.)

After the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, the Navy selected Oʻahu Cemetery to bury the dead. At the time, only 300 plots at the cemetery were available for use.  Burials began there on December 8, 1941. (navy-mil)

“Historical records show that the Navy originally purchased plots in the cemetery October 9, 1919, and additional land was acquired in 1931. The current cemetery site was acquired April, 13, 1932.”  (NAVFAC)

Several temporary cemeteries were constructed – one was in lower Hālawa Valley, overlooking Pearl Harbor.

“On Dec. 9 it became evident that sufficient land was not available in Oʻahu Cemetery for this purpose.  By direction of the commandant (of the 14th Naval District), a site for a new cemetery was selected by the public works department. This site (Hālawa) was approved by the district medical officer and remaining burials were made in this new cemetery.”  (US Naval Hospital; Cole)

Over the course of about 4-years, about 1,500 graves were prepared (some containing multiple sets of remains.)  All bodies, except those of identified officers, were placed in plain wooden caskets. “Bodies of officers were placed in standard Navy caskets in order that they might later be disinterred and shipped home if desired.”

Two officers of the Chaplain Corps and two civilian priests from Honolulu rendered proper religious rites at the hospital and at the funeral ceremonies held each afternoon in the Oʻahu and Hālawa Cemeteries. The brief military ceremony held at the burial grounds included a salute fired by a Marine guard and the blowing of taps by a Marine bugler.  (navy-mil)

Following the war, Congress passed, and the President signed, a bill that authorized the War Department to take steps to provide a reverent final burial for those who gave the last full measure of devotion.

“A first step in determining the final resting place for Americans who died outside the continental United States during World War II will be taken this week, Col George E Hartman, commanding officer of the Schenectady General depot, US Army, announced yesterday. … letters will be sent to more than 20,000 next-of-kin of American dead now in 15 of 207 temporary cemeteries overseas.”

“Next-of-kin may choose to have remains of WWII armed forces personnel who dies overseas returned to the US for burial in a private cemetery; returned to the US for burial in a National Cemetery; buried in a permanent US military cemetery overseas; or buried in a private cemetery in a foreign country which is a homeland of the deceased or next-of-kin.”    (Schenectady Gazette, March 5, 1947)

In September 1947, the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred and moved the remains to the Schofield Barracks Central Identification Laboratory (Schofield CIL), located at the AGRS Pacific Zone Headquarters, in order to effect or confirm identifications and return the men to their next of kin for burial.

Between August and September 1947, the US military exhumed 18 remains at Kāneʻohe Bay, 339 from Oʻahu Cemetery, and 1,516 at Hālawa, according to a 1957 government report.  (Cole)

What was the Hālawa Naval Cemetery is the vicinity of the Animal Quarantine and Hālawa Industrial Park.  (Currently, there are 135 Sailors, Marines and spouses interred in Oʻahu Cemetery.)

The image shows Hālawa Naval Cemetery.  (Babcock)  In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+    

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

“Something was happening”

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 lasted 110 minutes, from 7:55 am until 9:45 am. Japanese naval forces included 4 heavy aircraft carriers, 2 heavy cruisers, 35 submarines, 2 light cruisers, 9 oilers, 2 battleships and 11 destroyers.

The attacking forces came in two waves, the first consisting of 183 aircraft which included 40 torpedo planes, 49 level bombers, 51 dive bombers and 43 fighters. The second wave included 170 planes, 54 of them level bombers, 80 dive-bombers and 36 fighters.  Over 350 Japanese planes were involved in overall attack.

As a result of the December 7, 1941 attack, there were 2,403-people killed and 1,178-wounded. Among the deceased were 2,008-Navy personnel, 109-Marine, 218-Army and 68-civilians.  (navy-mil)

For part of the attack, and aftermath, first, let’s look back.

In 1899, Gorokichi Nakasugi, a Japanese shipbuilder, brought a traditional 34-foot Japanese sailing sampan to Hawai‘i; this led to a unique class of vessels and distinctive maritime culture associated with the rise of the commercial fishing industry in Hawai‘i.

(The term ‘Sampan,’ although usually associate with the Japanese in Hawaiʻi, comes from the Chinese language, meaning three (san) boards (ban,) describing a small simple skiff.)  (VanTilburg)

Japanese-trained shipwrights adapted the original sampan design to the rough waters of the Hawaiian Islands.  The fishermen used traditional live bait, pole-and-line method of fishing and unloaded their catches of aku (bonito, skipjack) and ahi (yellow-fin tuna) at Kewalo Basin.

Local Japanese fishermen opened the commercial tuna industry in Hawaiʻi in conjunction with the innovation of modern packing plants.  It was the ability to can tuna for the distant market which really made possible the expansion and modernization of the fishing fleet.  The industry benefited American canneries.

Vessels began to change with time, as well.  Gasoline engines were fitted into boats beginning in 1905, and more suitable marine diesels by 1927. Shortly thereafter the prominent deckhouse made its appearance.  The Sampans became perfectly adapted to the rough waters between the islands.  (VanTilburg)

The sampan aku fleet was based at Kewalo Basin by 1930, and the McFarlane Tuna Company (later known as Hawaiian Tuna Packers) built a shipyard there in 1929 and a new tuna cannery at the basin in 1933.

By 1940, there were over 450-sampans in the Territory of Hawaiʻi, making the commercial fishery the Islands’ third largest industry behind sugar and pineapple.

That brings us to December 1941, more specifically, December 4 – four sampans (Kiho Maru, Myojin Maru, Shin-ei Maru and the Sumiyoshi Maru) set out for fishing off Oʻahu’s leeward coast.

Later, on the morning of December 7, the Ward (US Destroyer No. 139,) conducting routine antisubmarine patrols in the Hawaiian area, had the distinction of firing the first American gun in anger during the Pacific war.  She searched for a suspected submarine and subsequently fired shots at its conning tower.

(In 2002, the University of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Undersea Research Lab (HURL) team found the submarine about three to four miles off Pearl Harbor and verified it was hit and sunk by the Ward.  (Burlingame))

Heading home, the Ward soon spotted a Japanese fishing sampan, one of many that was a familiar sight in the waters in the Hawaiian archipelago (not part of the four noted before.)

A fisherman suddenly started waving a white flag perhaps he had seen the determined depth-charge attacks and thought that the Americans would bomb anything that moved. Ward slowed and closed to investigate and took the small craft in tow to turn her over to the Coast Guard for disposition.

Nearing the harbor entrance around 0800, those on deck heard the sound of gunfire and explosions, as smoke began to boil into the skies over Pearl Harbor. (Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships)

“Something was happening.”

The Ward had returned and witnessed the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

On the morning of December 8, newspapers announced that all unidentified boats approaching Oʻahu would be fired upon. It was feared that the local fishing fleet, manned predominantly by Japanese might have had rendezvous with Japanese warships. (Roehner)

Then, the fateful day for the four sampans as they were heading home.  “All of a sudden, there were four or five Army P40s flying over us.  Each picked out a target and attacked.”

The war-planes strafed the four fishing boats (Kiho Maru, Myojin Maru, Shin-ei Maru and the Sumiyoshi Maru) about 2-miles off Barber’s Point, about 10-miles west of Pearl Harbor, killing six civilians (nine crewmen survived the mid-morning attack, but most were wounded - most of the crew on the boats were American citizens.)

After the planes attacked, a destroyer arrived on the scene and dispatched launches to tow the sampans, with the dead and wounded, back to Kewalo Basin.  They were then taken to a civilian hospital where the wounded were kept under armed guard.    (European Stars and Stripes, December 9, 1977)

The dead were brought from the waterfront to Hosoi Funeral Parlor. They were: Ogawa Mataichi, Kaichi Okada, Sutematsu Kida, Kiichi Kida, Kiho Uyehara, Riyozo Okogi.  (Scrapbook of Women of WWII Hawaiʻi)

Again on December 12th, sampans were strafed off of both Kailua and Kohala coasts.  (VanTilburg)

World War II had the single largest impact on the sampan fishing industry.   During the war, the fleet was immediately limited to operating only during certain narrow hours in a few selected near shore areas. This, of course, was devastating to the fishery. By the end of 1942, the annual yield was down by a staggering 99%.  (VanTilburg)

In 1967, 26 years after the incident, the widow of the Kiho Maru skipper received $8,000.  Another received about $2,500 and proceeds from the sale of fish that was in his boat on the day of the attack.  (European Stars and Stripes, December 9, 1977)

The image shows sampans in Kewalo Basin in the 1930s.  In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+  

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Postcards, Sails, Sheets, Lights, Ads, Fires and Radio Signals

The attack on the US military installation at Pearl Harbor and other parts of Oʻahu by Japan’s Imperial military was one of the most successful surprise attacks in military history.

But an often overlooked component of the successful attack is that the Japanese Empire had contracted with Bernard Otto Julius Kuehn, a German Nazi, to spy on the American military operations at Pearl Harbor from 1935 (an early ‘sleeper agent’ in espionage.)

The family had been contracted as agents of the Japanese government with the assistance of the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. The arrangement was promoted and negotiated by Goebbels as a byproduct of his relationship with Kuehn’s attractive 17-year old daughter, Susie Ruth.  (Washington Times)

The execution of the plan was reminiscent of “one, if by land, and two, if by sea,” the phrase coined by American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem, Paul Revere’s Ride.

It references the secret signal during Revere’s ride from Boston to Concord on the verge of American Revolutionary War alerting patriots about the route the British troops would take to Concord (two lanterns were shown, the British rowed over to Cambridge.)

The Kuehns arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1935; they started their spying then.  They blended in, and waited.

No one seriously suspected that Caucasians would carry on espionage for the Empire of Japan, so Kuehn, his wife Friedel, their daughter and son, Hans Joachim, were virtually inconspicuous as a white family on the windward side.

Kuehn had houses in Hawaiʻi, lots of money, but no real job. Investigations by the Bureau and the Army, though, never turned up definite proof of spying.  (FBI)

However, every member of the family contributed towards collecting and documenting military activities at Pearl Harbor from 1935 right up to the day the bombs fell from Japanese aircraft.

Paid for his services, in three years he banked more than $70,000; one payment was $14,000 in $100 bills. They had houses in Lanikai and Kailua; these later served as the means of their intricate, yet simple, signaling system.  (Pearl Harbor Board)

The Kuehn family took various means to gather information.

Kuehn would scout the ships at Pearl Harbor.  Daughter Susie Ruth set up a beauty parlor and used it to gather gossip and random information from wives and girlfriends of the military men stationed at Pearl Harbor.  Mother Friedel kept track of all the notes.

Ten-year-old Hans was dressed in a sailor suit and with his father would walk down near the docks.  Many of the sailors thought the little guy was quite cute and some gave him unofficial “tours” of their ships.

Coached by his father, he would ask specific questions and observe everything he saw. Later he would be systematically debriefed by his parents.

The Kuehn family was not working alone; they worked with other Japanese spies attached to the Japanese consulate.

If the Consulate wanted to contact Kuehn, they would send a postcard signed “Jimmie” to his Post Office Box 1476 in Honolulu.  (Pearl Harbor Board)

On December 2, days before the attack, he provided specific - and highly accurate - details on the fleet in writing. That same day, he gave the consulate the set of signals that could be picked up by nearby Japanese submarines.  (FBI)

The set of signals contained eight combinations, each signal represented a number and each number represented the status of the naval fleet at Pearl Harbor.

No. 1 – battle fleet prepared to leave
No. 2 – scouting force prepared to leave
No. 3 – battle fleet left 1 to 3 days ago
No. 4 – scouting fleet left 1 to 3 days ago
No. 5 – air craft carriers left 1 to 3 days ago
No. 6 – battle fleet left 4 to 6 days ago
No. 7 – scout force left 4 to 6 days ago
No. 8 – aircraft carriers left 4 to 6 days ago

Signals were given that represented these respective code numbers.  Part of how they did this was to shine lights out windows and hang sheets on the laundry line.  These were done from their homes in Lanikai and Kailua (using lights in a dormer window.)

One light shining from the window between 7 and 8 pm meant No. 1; one light from 8 to 9 pm meant No. 2 and so forth for Nos. 3 and 4.  Two lights shining from the window from 7 to 8 meant No. 5, etc.  Hanging sheets on the laundry line carried the similar code.

An alternative display of the code used different patterns in the sail of Kuehn’s boat off Lanikai; a sail with/without a star and numbers at different hours represented corresponding references back to the code.

They also arranged the signal through KGMB Want Ads – different advertised items represented different numbers (ie Chinese rug, chicken farm, beauty parlor operator wanted, etc.)

Two other signaling means included garbage fires on a friend’s property on the side of Haleakala on Maui between certain times, representing different code numbers.  Signals were also sent via shortwave radio.  (Pearl Harbor Board)

Following the fateful attack of December 7, 1941, Honolulu Special Agent in Charge Robert Shivers immediately began coordinating homeland security in Hawaiʻi and tasked local police with guarding the Japanese consulate. They found its officials trying to burn reams of paper. These documents - once decoded - included a set of signals for US fleet movements.  (FBI)

All fingers pointed at Kuehn. He had the dormer window, the sailboat and big bank accounts. Kuehn was arrested the next day and confessed, though he denied ever sending coded signals. (FBI)

On February 21, 1942, just 76 days after the tragic attack on Pearl Harbor, a military court in Honolulu found Bernard Otto Julius Kuehn guilty of spying and sentenced to be shot "by musketry" in Honolulu.  His sentence was later commuted to 50 years of hard labor.

He served time in Leavenworth Penitentiary from December 1, 1942 to June 6, 1946 (when his sentence was commuted in order to deport him.)  On December 3, 1948, he was deported to Buenos Aires, Argentina.  (FBI)

Kuehn was one of 91-people convicted of spying against the United States from 1938 to 1945.  (FBI)

The image shows the Kuehn home on Kainalu Drive in Kailua (star-bulletin.)  I have added other images to a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+    

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

1st POW

11 pm, December 6, 1941, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki and Petty Officer Second Class Kiyoshi Inagaki entered their 2-man midget submarine and were released from their mother sub about 10-miles off Pearl Harbor.

They were part of Special Attack Forces, an elite 10-man group of five 2-man midget submarines that would attack Pearl Harbor.

They planned to carry out suicide attacks against the enemy with no expectation of coming back alive: “That the personnel of the midget submarine group was selected with utmost care was obvious.”

“The twenty-four, picked from the entire Japanese navy, had in common: bodily strength and physical energy; determination and fighting spirit; freedom from family care. They were unmarried and from large families.”

“None of us was a volunteer. We had all been ordered to our assignment. That none of us objected goes without saying: we knew that punishment was very severe if we objected; we were supposed to feel highly honored.”  (Sakamaki)

His 78.5-foot-long submarine, HA-19, and four other midget subs, each armed with a pair of 1,000-pound torpedoes, were to attack American destroyers or battleships.  (NYTimes)

From the beginning, things went wrong for Sakamaki and Inagaki.  Their gyrocompass was faulty, causing the submarine to run in circles while at periscope depth - they struggled for 24-hours to go in the right direction.

The submarine was spotted by an American destroyer, the Helm, which fired on them, and the midget sub later got stuck temporarily on a coral reef. The submarine became partially flooded, it filled with smoke and fumes from its batteries, causing the two crewmen to lose consciousness.

With the air becoming foul due to the battery smoking and leaking gas, the midget sub hit a coral reef again.  They abandoned the sub.

Sakamaki reached a stretch of beach, but, again, fell unconscious. In the early dawn of December 8, he was picked up on Waimanalo Beach by Lt. Paul S. Plybon and Cpt. David Akui of the 298th Infantry.  (hawaii-gov)

Sakamaki became Prisoner No. 1 (the first US Prisoner Of War in WWII.)

He was the only crewman to survive from the midget submarines; his companion's remains later washed up on the shore.  All five subs were lost, and none were known to have caused damage to American ships.

Humbled to have been captured alive, Sakamaki inflicted cigarette burns while in prison at Sand Island and asked the Americans permission to commit suicide. His request was denied and the first prisoner of war spend the rest of the war being transferred from camp to camp.  (Radio Canada)

He spent the entire war in various POW camps in Wisconsin, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas.  He and others were offered educational opportunities through the "Internment University" that had lectures on English, geography, commerce, agriculture, music, Japanese poetry, Buddhist scriptures and other subjects.

He became the leader of other Japanese POWs who came to his camp; he encouraged them to learn English. He also tried to address the problem of other Japanese POWs' wanting to commit suicide after their capture, since he previously had gone through the same feelings.

At the end of the war, he returned to Japan and wrote his memoirs, ''Four Years as a Prisoner-of-War, No. 1,'' in which he told of receiving mail from some Japanese denouncing him for not having committed suicide when it appeared he could be taken captive.

His memoirs were published in the United States on the eighth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack with the title, ''I Attacked Pearl Harbor.''  (NYTimes)

Mr. Sakamaki became a businessman, serving as president of a Brazilian subsidiary of Toyota and then working for a Toyota-affiliated company in Japan before retiring in 1987.

His submarine was salvaged by American troops, shipped to the United States in January 1942, and taken on a nationwide tour to sell War Bonds.  Admission to view the submarine was secured through the purchase of war bonds and stamps.

On April 3, 1943, HA-19 arrived in Washington DC for the war bond drive and for a brief time sat in front of the United States Capitol Building for people to see.

On arriving in Alexandria, Virginia, “George W. Herring, Virginia lumberman, bought $16,000 worth of war bonds yesterday for the privilege of inspecting a Jap submarine. One of the two-man submarines captured at Pearl Harbor was here for a one-day stand in the war bond sales campaign.”

“Those who buy bonds are allowed to inspect it. Herring held the record for the highest purchase and was the first Alexandrian to take a peek at the submarine. War bond sales for the day totaled $1,061,650.”  (Belvedere Daily Republican, April 3, 1943)

It was placed on display at a submarine base in Key West, Florida, in 1947 and later transferred in 1990 to its current site, the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, home of Admiral Chester W Nimitz (who served as Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet during WWII.)

Back to Sakamaki … when he returned from America, he saw a woman working in a neighbor's field with whom he fell in love at first sight, although he reviewed her papers ("a health certificate, academic records, a brief biography, a certificate of her family background, all certified as to their accuracy") prior to making the commitment to marriage.

Her father and brother had died in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, so her mother and she had moved back to their ancestral home next to Sakamaki’s home. They married on August 15, 1946, the first anniversary of the end of WWII.  (Lots of information here from Gordon and hawaii-gov.)

The image shows the beached midget submarine at Waimanalo.  In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+  

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Coaling Station

Prior to the early-1900s, most vessels were powered by sail; the absence of a fuel to move was a major factor in the flexibility of fleets.  And, the carrying capacity of the sailing ship made it an indispensable element in its own logistic support.

For centuries, the most critical item of supply was water, which sailing ships found difficult to carry in sufficient quantities and to keep drinkable for long voyages. Food was somewhat less of a problem, except for its poor quality in the days before refrigeration, the sealed container and sterilization.  (britannica)

The advent of steam propulsion resulted in faster and more direct travel for ships (in the early years, ships with steam engines still sailed, and used the engines only as auxiliary power – coal was burned to produce the steam to power the engines.)

The gain in control of where you were going (without reliance/variation in the wind) was a significant improvement for the long haul.  But, for a time, the inordinate amount of space that had to be allocated to carry coal seriously inhibited the usefulness of early warships.

Steam warships were slow to catch on, but by the late-1850s, all new warships built by the Navy featured steam engines.  The engines did not make the ships dramatically faster, and many steam ships continued to use sails preserve fuel on long trips.  These ships looked and functioned much like ships from the age of sail except for the tell-tale smokestack rising above their decks.  (Bailey)

The replacement of sailing ships with steam led to a requirement for fuel to be widely available.  Ultimately, this produced the need for numerous coaling stations – places where the ships replenished/refueled their supply of coal.

Noting the need for a refueling site in the Pacific, Captain AT Mahan noted, “To any one viewing a map that shows the full extent of the Pacific Ocean, with its shores on either side, two circumstances will be strikingly and immediately apparent. He will see at a glance that the Sandwich Islands stand by themselves in a state of comparative isolation, amid a vast expanse of sea”.

“From San Francisco to Honolulu, 2,100 miles easy steaming distance, is substantially the same as from Honolulu to the Gilbert, Marshall, Samoan, Society, and Marquesas groups (the nearest inhabited islands,) all under European control”.

“Too much stress cannot be laid upon the immense disadvantages to us of any maritime enemy having a coaling station well within 2,500 miles of every point of our coast line from Puget Sound to Mexico. Were there many others available we might find it difficult to exclude from all. There is, however, but the one.”

“Shut out from the Sandwich Islands as a coal base, an enemy is thrown back for supplies of fuel to distances of 3,500 or 4,000 miles - or between 7,000 and 8,000, going and coming - an impediment to sustained maritime operations well nigh prohibitive.”

“It is rarely that so important a factor in the attack or defence of a coast line - of a sea frontier - is concentrated in a single position, and the circumstance renders it doubly imperative upon us to secure it, if we righteously can."

In the 1860s, a coaling station was established in Honolulu to refuel coal burning American ships. US warships followed a policy of cruising the Hawaiian Islands starting in 1866, and rented a coaling station for them.  (globalsecurity)

The lease of land for the coaling station was the first regular US Navy shore-side presence in the Hawaiian Islands. This station practically fell into disuse shortly after it was built due to the policy that required warships to use sail power wherever possible.  (navy-mil)

Then, in 1873, Secretary of War, William W Belknap, issued confidential instructions to investigate the defensive capabilities of Honolulu to Major-General John McAlister Schofield (the Barracks up the hill from Pearl Harbor were later named for him (1908)) and Lieutenant-Colonel Barton S Alexander.  (Young)

General Schofield reported: “The Hawaiian Islands constitute the only natural outpost to the defenses of the Pacific Coast. In possession of a foreign naval power, in time of war, as a depot from which to fit out hostile expeditions against this coast and our commerce on the Pacific Ocean, they would afford the means of incalculable injury to the United States.”

“With one exception there is no harbor on the islands that can be made to satisfy all the conditions necessary for a harbor of refuge in time of war. This is the harbor of ʻEwa, or Pearl River. … If the coral barrier were removed, Pearl River Harbor would seem to have all, or nearly all, the necessary properties to enable it to be converted into a good harbor of refuge.”

“It is to be observed that if the United States are ever to have a harbor of refuge and naval station in the Hawaiian islands in the event of war, the harbor must be prepared in advance by the removal of the Pearl river bar.  When war has begun it will be too late to make this harbor available, there is no other suitable harbor on these islands.”

As a means of solidifying a site in the central Pacific, the US negotiated an amendment to the Treaty of Reciprocity in 1887.  King Kalākaua, in his speech before the opening session of the 1887 Hawaiian Legislature, stated (November 3, 1887:)

“His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, grants to the Government of the US the exclusive right to enter the harbor of Pearl River, in the Island of Oʻahu, and to establish and maintain there a coaling and repair station for the use of vessels of the US and to that end the US may improve the entrance to said harbor and do all things useful to the purpose aforesaid.”

Ten years later, “Secretary Long has sent to Congress a report of the project for the establishment of a naval coaling and repairing station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi, submitted by Rear Admiral Miller, commander-in-chief of the Pacific naval station.”

“As a result of the surveys and examination Admiral Kirkland reported that … the Government should acquire possession of the whole of the Waipiʻo Peninsula, comprising 800-acres of land, if a station is to be located at Pearl Harbor.”

“Secretary Long recommend(ed) that Beckoning Point be selected as a site for the contemplated station, on account of its proximity to East Loch, which has the largest anchorage, as drydocks may be easily built, and as there is ample room for space to dock and undock vessels of any size.”  (Sacramento Daily Union, April 2, 1898)

In May, 1899, a coaling station with a capacity of 1,000-tons was established and plans involved increasing that capacity 20-fold.  Six months later the Naval Station, Honolulu, was established.  

As an example of the coal demand for ships, the battleship USS Massachusetts burned 8-12 tons of coal per hour at full power. In order to fully stock for a deployment at sea, a warship would load thousands of tons of coal on board ship, all of it moved by hand.  (Colamaria)

The US Navy dredged the first deep-draft channel into its coaling station at Pearl Harbor in 1903, and suddenly the US had a strategically important naval station in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. (Sanburn)  On May 28, 1903, the first battleship, USS Wisconsin, entered the harbor for coal and water. (navy-mil)

The next decade saw steady and continuous growth.  On September 23, 1912 Pearl Harbor was closed to all foreign commercial shipping, and foreign warships might enter only by special permission. (Young)

The post-World War I period was characterized by irregular growth of the Naval Operating Base. Appropriations tended to diminish with the economies of the twenties. In 1921, the Naval Station in Honolulu was forced to close because of insufficient funds. Although the Secretary of the Navy referred to Hawaiʻi as the “Crossroads of the Pacific,” nothing was being done to take advantage of its position. (navy-mil)

Networks of coaling stations were established, effectively extending the range of warships; however, the era of the steam warship powered exclusively by coal was relatively brief-lasting from 1871 until 1914.

Fuel oil was the emerging fuel technology. In the early-1900s oil refining procedures had been standardized to the point that fuel oil (bunker oil) was now a better option to feed the fires that powered the ships (plus, the bunker oil took up less storage room on the ships.)  (Scott)

The USS Texas, commissioned in 1914, was the last American battleship built with coal-fired boilers. It converted to burn fuel oil in 1925 – resulting in a dramatic improvement in efficiency. By 1916, the Navy had commissioned its first two capital ships with oil-fired boilers, the USS Nevada and the USS Oklahoma.

To resupply them, “oilers” were designed to transfer fuel while at anchor, although underway replenishment was possible in fair seas.  During World War I, a single oiler refueled 34 destroyers in the mid-Atlantic – introducing a new era in maritime logistics.  (American Oil & Gas Historical Society)

Wartime needs called for more expansion to the Pearl Harbor base facilities. Construction began on a fourth large drydock at the location of the old Coaling Station; these went into service in 1944.

The image shows the Pearl Harbor coaling station in 1919.   In addition, I have included more related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Life in the Islands During WWII

Japan's method of declaring war on the US was a four-wave air attack on installations in Hawaiʻi on the morning of December 7, 1941. It was executed in what amounted to five phases.

Phase I: Combined torpedo and dive bomber attack lasting from 7:55 am to 8:25 am; Phase II: Lull in attacks lasting from 8:25 am to 8:40 am; Phase III: Horizontal bomber attacks between 8:45 am to 9:15 am; Phase IV: Dive bomber attacks between 9:15 am and 9:45 am and Phase V: General attack. Raid completed at 9:45.  (Maj Gen Green)

The first order of business was the issuance of orders immediately essential to the internal security of the Hawaiian Islands. The next was providing means for enforcing those orders.  (Maj Gen Green)  Later in the morning, the Army’s commanding officer met with Hawaiʻi’s Territorial Governor.

“General, I have thought it through. I feel that the situation is beyond me and the civil authorities and I think the safety of the Territory and its citizens require me to declare martial law.”  (Governor Joseph Boyd Poindexter to General Walter Campbell Short, December 7, 1941; Green)

“He asked General Short if he concurred in his conclusion and General Short said that he did. The Governor then asked General Short if he would accept the responsibility and General Short replied that he saw no other way out.  Whereupon, the Governor stated that he would declare martial law and inform the President in accordance with Section 67 of the Organic Act.”

The men arose, shook hands and the Governor said, “I wish you luck.”  (Maj Gen Green)

A rush of nationalism surged over the country, and everyone did his or her part to support the war effort. Children collected scrap materials, such as rubber and metal, to help supply the armed forces.  (Taylor)

Tens of thousands of young men from Hawaiʻi enlisted and were shipped out to bases on the US mainland and to fight in Europe and the Pacific. In their absence, over 500,000 soldiers from outside Hawaii were based in the Islands at the height of the war.  (PBS)

Immediately after the attack, Boy Scouts helped to extinguish fires that resulted from the attack, transported supplies and messages, went door to door informing residents of the blackout policy and even stood as sentries on roadways.

Day-to-day life during World War II, whether on the continent or in the Hawaiian Islands, changed.  Hundreds of general orders were issued under the name of the commanding general.

Martial law with its seemingly endless string of rules and regulations dictated minute details of daily life, setting limits on things that were once part of daily life: curfews, registration, blackouts, drills, rationing, air raid sirens, censorship … detention (for some.)

The Army also instituted a 6 pm to 6 am curfew for anyone not on official business and drew up intelligence reports on 450,000-people in Hawaiʻi.  Every citizen over the age of six years was fingerprinted, registered and issued an identification card.

The military ordered a strictly enforced nighttime blackout. Anyone caught with a lit cigarette, pipe or cigar during the blackout was subject to arrest, as was anyone else if the light of their radio dial or kitchen stove burner could be seen through the house windows.

Homes, schools and businesses were directed to prepare bomb shelters. Everyone was issued a protective gas mask and students were trained in their use and conducted drills where an Army officer would fill a classroom with tear gas and have the students walk through to be sure their masks were functioning properly.  (Taylor)

Gasoline was rationed, the possession of arms was prohibited to unauthorized persons, radio transmitting sets and short wave sets were regulated, photo materials were rationed and the local telephone company was taken over to insure the maximum availability of it to the military.    (Maj Gen Green)

Food was rationed; sugar was the first food to be rationed.  Across the country, to prevent hoarding and skyrocketing prices, the Office of Price Administration issued 123-million copies of War Ration Book One, which contained stamps that could be used to purchase sugar.

Because the islands were so isolated, shipping and receiving supplies, and even mail, became a logistical nightmare.  To supplement food needs, Americans planted “victory gardens,” in which they grew their own food.

Transportation between the islands and the mainland was stopped.  Only those needed to fill positions in the islands were allowed to travel.  (Taylor)

All outgoing mail was read by military censors, and letters that could not be edited with black ink or scissors were returned to the sender to be rewritten. Long-distance telephone calls were required to be in English so that military personnel could listen in.  (White & Murphy)

Fearing that Japanese invaders might try to disrupt US currency, the military confiscated and burned more than $200-million in US paper money, and replaced it with bills with HAWAII overprinted on them.

In addition, people in Hawaiʻi were forbidden to make bank withdrawals of more than $200 in cash per month or to carry more than $200 in cash. (White & Murphy)

Japanese in Hawaiʻi had it worst.  Many Japanese Americans were incarcerated in at least eight locations on Hawaiʻi.  They were put in these camps, not because they had been tried and found guilty of something, but because either they or their parents or ancestors were from Japan and, as such, they were deemed a "threat" to national security.

In the Islands, between 1,200 and 1,400 local Japanese were interned, along with about 1,000 family members - 120,000 people were interned on the continent.  (Not a single Japanese American in Hawaiʻi was ever convicted of espionage, treason or sedition.) (NPS)

Although originally it was believed that martial law would last only a short time, it lasted for almost three years. After it was terminated, curfews and blackouts still remained in effect until October 24, 1944.  (Schneider)

To get a glimpse of conditions in the Islands at the time, read and see ‘Under the Blood Red Sun,’ written by Graham (Sandy) Salisbury.  (Nelia reads the book to her 5th grade class each year at Kainalu.)

Here’s a trailer to the movie (It is released today for digital download, September 14, 2014:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JmKdFNDkpE  (Click here to get to their website: http://underthebloodredsunmovie.com)

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Honolulu Sugar Company

A little over 100-years after it started, its buildings were almost refurbished and saved from demolition … to serve as a headquarters and factory for Crazy Shirts Hawaiʻi.

For nearly 50 years the mill and refinery buildings were surrounded by thousands of acres of sugar cane fields with linkages by railroad to other mills and cane field sources.
It began as the Honolulu Sugar Company, but over the years it went by a lot of names – but to most folks it was known as the ʻAiea Sugar Mill.

Let’s look back.

September 1, 1888, Bishop Estate leased about 2,900-acres for a period of twenty years, until September 1, 1908 to James I Dowsett.

At about this same time, (1898,) the Hālawa Plantation Company was organized, with 4,000-acres from the coastal plain around Pearl Harbor up the hillsides to 650 feet.  A year later Hālawa Plantation Company was reorganized as Honolulu Plantation Company.  (NPS)

Dowsett died and on August 1, 1898, the administrator of his estate sub-let the land to the Honolulu Sugar Company (formed in San Francisco and headed by John Buck.)  That year, the Honolulu Sugar Company built a sugar mill in ‘Aiea.

Almost two months later, Honolulu Sugar Company assigned the lease to the Honolulu Plantation Company.  (US District Court)  Operations expanded; the plantation and mill prospered.

ʻAiea was named for a small shrub (Nothocestrum - used by ancient Hawaiians for thatching sticks (ʻaho) and fire-making) that once grew profusely there; it was plowed under to make way for sugar.  The town of ʻAiea was created because of, and grew up around, the mill.

Labor for the fledgling company was problematic; many workers had to be imported: “We have some 200 Contract Japanese Laborers now on the plantation and another hundred at the Quarantine Station in Honolulu which will swell our daily labor to about 500 men, there being nearly 300 Chinese, Japanese, Native and Portuguese free laborers now on the plantation.”  (Klieger)

The plantation expanded along the inshore and upland areas of Pearl Harbor – it extended from ʻAiea westward as far as Mānana and Waiawa Streams.  It included lands where the present Honolulu International Airport and Hickam Base are located.  (Cultural Surveys)

By 1901, Honolulu Plantation Company had started its own railroad. On the Hālawa property, the narrow-gauge rail line extended through the lower canefields (at what is now Honolulu International Airport,) crossed the OR&L at Puʻuloa Station (near the present Nimitz Gate at Pearl Harbor), skirted the southern edge of Makalapa Crater, wound its way past the fields at the confluence of Kamananui and Kamanaiki Streams, and climbed the grade up to the ʻAiea mill site.  (Klieger)

In December 1914, a newspaper article reported that “Generally, the first request of a visitor to Honolulu who wishes to see the sights and has but a few hours in which to do so is to be shown a sugar mill, and in nearly every instance the sugar mill of the Honolulu Plantation Company at Aiea is the one visited.”

“Malihinis receive their first impressions of sugar-making here, and they are always lasting, for the mill of this corporation is an up-to-date and model institution, incorporating all the latest devices and improvements in the manufacture of sugar, and in some instances putting into use innovations.”  (NPS)

By the early-1900s, all of the ʻEwa plains was transformed and planted in sugar; by the mid-1930s, Honolulu Plantation Company had more than 23,000-acres of land in and around ʻAiea.

In 1910 the Honolulu Plantation Company helped with the reforestation of ridges and uplands; about 125,000 trees were planted in the fall of 1910 and 1911.

In the 1930s the Honolulu Plantation Company employed about 2,500 people and refined more than 40,000 tons of sugar annually.

Pre- and post-World War II impacts and military needs affected not only the expansion, but also transformed the future of Honolulu Plantation.

The beginning of the end of ʻAiea as a plantation came in 1935 when the US government took 625-prime cane acres to build Hickam Field. With the advent of WWII, the company lost more of its best lands to military operations, roads and rapidly developing commercial and housing areas.  (NPS)

In 1942, the Army built a cupola or lookout tower on top of the refinery and manned it day and night for the next three years.

In 1944 and 1945, despite having lost nearly 50% of its lands to the Army and Navy, the company supplied the mid-Pacific area with 70,000-tons of white sugar - noted as "a remarkable wartime achievement." Two years after the war, plantation operations were discontinued and houses sprouted in ʻAiea where sugar cane once grew.  (NPS)

Honolulu Plantation was forced out of business by rising labor costs, low sugar yields and military confiscation of half its canefields and went bankrupt in 1946; the plantation acreage was sold to Oʻahu Sugar Company and most of the mill equipment went to a Philippines firm.

Taking over the mill enabled C&H to refine raw sugar intended for the Hawaiʻi market in the Islands, instead of sending it to California for refining and shipping it back for use here.  By 1954, the ʻAiea mill’s refined sugar output, to Hawai'i retailers, manufacturers and pineapple canneries, reach 62,000 tons. (HHF)

Alexander & Baldwin Properties bought the site in 1993 and soon added a new liquid-sugar refinery in order to satisfy an increasing demand for soft-drink sweeteners. But granulated sugar production was becoming unprofitable.

A&B sought to scrap the site and develop an industrial park.  In steps Rick Ralston from Crazy Shirts to save the historic structure, restoring some to maintain the historic sugar flavor, as well as refurbish and reuse parts for the shirt production.

However, costs for clean-up mounted and forced abandonment of the restoration – Bank of Hawaiʻi took over the property.  The ʻAiea Mill was demolished in 1998.  The ʻAiea Sugar Mill property was bounded by Ulune Street, ʻAiea Heights Drive, Kulawea Street, Hakina Street, and ʻAiea Intermediate School.

The image shows Honolulu Sugar Company and the former ʻAiea Sugar Mill and Reinery.  (1915)  I added some other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+    

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

West Loch Tragedy

Despite its moniker, "Large Slow Target," the ‘Landing Ship, Tank’ (LST) was an important naval vessel created during World War II to support amphibious operations by carrying significant quantities of vehicles, cargo and landing troops directly onto an unimproved shore.

An LST, 382-feet long and 50-feet wide, carried a crew of 8-10 officers and 115 enlisted men; in addition, there were berths for over 200-troops and a capacity to carry a 2,100-ton load of tanks, trucks, jeeps and weapon carriers and associated munitions and supplies.

1,051 LSTs were constructed and used in the war effort; they were used in the Atlantic and the Pacific.  Only 26 were lost in WWII due to enemy action.

However, in Hawaiʻi, a once secret and often-forgotten tragedy struck at Pearl Harbor, in 1944.

At the time, the Allied forces were preparing for two assaults – one was in the Atlantic (D-Day, June 6, 1944 - nearly 200,000-Allied troops on 7,000-ships and more than 3,000-aircraft headed toward Normandy, France.)

The other was in the Pacific (Saipan, June 15, 1944 - more than 300-landing vehicles put 8,000-Marines on the west coast of Saipan; eleven support ships covered the Marine landings.)

In preparation for the Saipan assault, in late-May, crews were loading ships at the US Pacific Fleet base at West Loch, Pearl Harbor.  (Pearl Harbor is divided into a series of lochs that fan out from Ford Island that sits in the center of harbor. West Loch was the staging area for the invasion fleets of the Pacific.)

29-LSTs, plus a variety of other amphibious vessels that would support the initial landings and follow-on operations, were tightly clustered while their hulls and decks were being filled with ammunition, supplies and other material.

That list of items included munitions of all calibers and types, propellants, aviation gasoline, vehicle fuel and a variety of other volatile cargoes.

Nested beam-to-beam at piers off of Hanaloa and Intrepid Points opposite Lualualei (now known as Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor) were six compact rows of LSTs and other craft moored at "Tare" piers jutting into the adjoining waters of West Loch and Walker Bay.

At 1508 (3:08 pm) May 21, 1944, Lualualei's tranquility was shattered by a deafening explosion which thundered across most of Oʻahu. Without warning, an enormous mushroom of orange black fire encapsulated LST-353 at Tare 8, obliterating it and most of the seven other ships from view as the giant fireball burst into the cloudless sky.  (Oliver)

The explosions continued, damaging more than 20 buildings shoreside at the West Loch facility. For 24-hours fires raged aboard the stricken ships.  (NPS)

Had the Japanese struck again - another sneak attack on Pearl Harbor? ... No one knew.

Then the ground shook to a second blast. Earthquake?  Volcano?  Aerial bombs?  Alarms rang as another shattering blast of even greater magnitude jolted the air.  (Oliver)

Predictably, flaming gasoline and exploding ammunition soon began to take a frightful toll of the Soldiers, Sailors and Marines loading and manning the ships.  Fires and explosions drove back ships and craft engaged in firefighting efforts, each time those vessels re-entered the inferno to contain the fires and keep the disaster from spreading to the rest of the Fleet anchorage. (USNavalInstitute)

Several investigations sought to find the reason for such a disaster, but no conclusive evidence as how it occurred was decided upon.  Two major causes emerged as most likely: Either a fused mortar round was accidently dropped while unloading the LCT aboard LST-353, or the initial explosion was caused by gasoline vapors.  (Oliver)

The Navy put a “Top Secret” status on the tragedy.  Survivors and eyewitnesses to the calamity were warned under threat of prosecution not to make any mention of the disaster in letters or calls to family members. To the outside world the tragedy at West Loch simply never happened.  (Oliver)  (It was declassified in 1960.)

The total casualties were 392 dead; 163 sailors, the rest young Marines from the newly formed 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions, and 396 injured - eight ships were lost.

It was recommended that LSTs no longer be nested, so that disaster like that at West Loch could be avoided. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz disagreed. He felt that facilities were too limited at Pearl and that the nesting was necessary. “It is a calculated risk that must be accepted.”  (NPS)

Despite the losses, the Saipan invasion force put to sea as scheduled on June 5, 1944, just as the largest invasion armada ever to sail was crossing the English Channel en route to the Normandy beaches.

On June 15, 1944, during the Pacific Campaign of World War II (1939-45,) Admiral Turner was in charge of the assault on Saipan.  At 05:42, his orders came – “Land the landing force.” In position, about 1,250 yards from the line of departure, 34-LSTs moved into line. Two huge doors on the bow of each ship opened and dropped their ramps into the water. (BattleOfSaipan)

US Marines (having earlier trained at Camp Tarawa, Waimea, Hawaiʻi Island and Camp Maui, Ha‘ikū, Maui) stormed the beaches of the strategically significant Japanese island of Saipan, with a goal of gaining a crucial air base from which the US could launch its new long-range B-29 bombers directly at Japan’s home islands.

Facing fierce Japanese resistance, Americans poured from their landing crafts to establish a beachhead, battling Japanese soldiers inland and forcing the Japanese army to retreat north. Fighting became especially brutal and prolonged around Mount Tapotchau, Saipan's highest peak, and Marines gave battle sites in the area names such as “Death Valley” and “Purple Heart Ridge.”  (history-com)

This was the first action of Operation Forager, the conquest of the Marianas, consisting of two Marine Divisions, a US Army Division, and the required force and support units from an amphibious armada of nearly 600-ships and craft.

When the US finally trapped the Japanese in the northern part of the island, Japanese soldiers launched a massive but futile banzai charge. On July 9, the US flag was raised in victory over Saipan.  (history-com)

The image shows USS LST-480 on fire in West Loch.  In addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+    

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Watertown

As a means of solidifying a site in the central Pacific, the US negotiated an amendment to the Treaty of Reciprocity in 1887.  King Kalākaua in his speech before the opening session of the 1887 Hawaiian Legislature stated (November 3, 1887:)

"I take great pleasure in informing you that the Treaty of Reciprocity with the United States of America has been definitely extended for seven years upon the same terms as those in the original treaty, with the addition of a clause granting to national vessels of the United States the exclusive privilege of entering Pearl River Harbor and establishing there a coaling and repair station.”

From 1901 to 1908, the Navy devoted its time to improving the facilities of the 85 acres that constituted the naval reservation in Honolulu. Under the Appropriation Act of March 3, 1901, this tract of land was improved with the erection of additional sheds and housing. The station grew slowly, and not always at an even pace.  (navy-mil)

On May 13, 1908, the US Congress affirmed Pearl Harbor's strategic importance by appropriating funds and authorized and directed the Secretary of the Navy “to establish a naval station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi, on the site heretofore acquired for that purpose”.  (Congressional Record)

Until the transfer of the Naval Station to Pearl Harbor, the naval reservation in Honolulu remained nothing more than a rather elaborate coaling station. The major interests were the shipping and weighing of coal and the checking of invoices.  (navy-mil)

Immediate improvements included dredging the entry channel; constructing the necessary infrastructure and other naval facilities; and building a drydock.

Congress further noted that Secretary “may, in his discretion, enter into contracts for any portion of the work, including material therefor, within the respective limits of cost herein stipulated, subject to appropriations to be made therefor by Congress, or may direct the construction of said works or any portion thereof under the supervision of a civil engineer of the Navy.”  (Congressional Record)

“A small army of men, looking for work at Pearl Harbor, besieged the Naval Station this morning.  … Men, who have been turned away from time to time with the promise that they might find something, when the necessary papers arrived, this morning thronged to the place to get the precious slips. … The men are to be put to work as soon as Washington has been heard from and building at Pearl Harbor begins.”  (Evening Bulletin, August 6, 1908)

On December 5, 1908, the newly-formed “Hawaiian Dredging Company of Honolulu was found to have made, the lowest figure of the six bidden ($3,560,000,) which included two Honolulu concerns and four mainland companies.”  (Evening Bulletin, December 1, 1908)

Hawaiian Dredging apparently initially intended a partner, “The contract for the dredging of the Pearl Harbor channel... will be handled in a combination with the San Francisco Bridge Company”. (Hawaiian Star, December 18, 1908)  However, shortly thereafter, it was noted that Hawaiian Dredging “is now controlled and owned entirely by the Dillingham interests”.  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 22, 1908)

“The contract was signed December 24, 1908, and actual dredging operations began March 1, 1909.”  (Congressional Record)  The period from 1908 to 1919 was one of steady and continuous growth of the Naval Station, Pearl Harbor.  (navy-mil)

That leads us to this piece’s title and the focus of this summary – Watertown.

With all the work underway at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Dredging created a camp, more like a small city, to house and provide for the workers and their families.

It was called ‘Watertown,’ because of the frequent leaks in its water main, which was installed so hastily that much of it lay above ground.  (McElroy)  (It was alternatively known as “Dredger’s Row” or “Drydock Row.” (Waller))

It was situated “on the Waikīkī or Honolulu shore of the channel ... just below Bishop Point, and mauka of Queen Emma Point (Fort Kamehameha.)”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser; Papacostas)

Watertown was a 2,000-acre settlement containing numerous large structures, roads, rail lines, port facilities and an ethnically diverse population of laborers responsible for the dredging of Pearl Harbor. In the early 1930s the population of Watertown numbered 1,000 laborers and their families, including 300 school-aged children. (McElroy)

The residents were made up of Japanese, Russians, Chinese, Portuguese and a score of Americans who were the employees of the dry-dock, machinists, launch hands, laborers and native Hawaiian fishermen.  (Fletcher)

In addition, off-duty inspectors overseeing the dredging operations lived at Watertown in quarters provided by Hawaiian Dredging and ate their meals at a restaurant conducted by Chinese. (While on duty they slept and ate on the dredges which were located from one-half to two miles from shore in the channel.)  (Fletcher)

The town included a schoolhouse and adjacent Catholic Church, a theater, post office, at least one hotel and a number of stores and offices.

In addition to housing its resident population, Watertown was noted as a recreation hub for the entire region, complete with gambling, drink and prostitution.  (McElroy)

By the early-1930s, Watertown was falling into disrepair and businesses were declining. Demolition began in 1935 and had disappeared by December 11, 1936, when Hickam Air Force Base airfields replaced the town (however, the former Watertown school buildings were initially used by the construction crew associated with the Hickam construction.)  (Waller)

The image shows dredging at Pearl Harbor.  (honoluluadvertiser)    In addition, I have included more related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Honouliuli

The island of Oʻahu is divided into 6 moku (districts), consisting of: ‘Ewa, Kona, Koʻolauloa, Koʻolaupoko, Waialua and Waiʻanae. These moku were further divided into 86 ahupua‘a (land divisions within a moku.)

‘Ewa was divided into 12-ahupua‘a, consisting of (from east to west): Hālawa, ‘Aiea, Kalauao, Waimalu, Waiau, Waimano, Mānana, Waiʻawa, Waipi‘o, Waikele, Hōʻaeʻae and Honouliuli.

‘Ewa was at one time the political center for O‘ahu chiefs. This was probably due to its abundant resources that supported the households of the chiefs, particularly the many fishponds around the lochs of Puʻuloa (“long hill,) better known today as Pearl Harbor. (Cultural Surveys)

Each had fisheries in the harbor, floodplains with irrigated kalo and fishponds, and interior (lower kula valley streams/gulches) and mountain forests.  One of these, Honouliuli, had a large coastal area, including what it is typically referred to as the “ʻEwa Plains.”  (Kirch)

Honouliuli includes lands extending from the mountains, to the watered plains where loʻi kalo (taro pond fields) and loko ia (fishponds) were developed, to the arid plains and rich fisheries on the ocean. Along the ocean-fronted coast of Honouliuli are noted places in lore and ancient life, such as Keahi, Kupaka, Keoneula (Oneula), Kualakai, Kalaeloa and Koʻolina.  (Maly)

Honouliuli (dark bay) includes a wide plain back of Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor) and Keahi (a point west of Pearl Harbor) where the homeless, friendless ghosts were said to wander about. These were the ghosts of people who were not found by their family ʻaumakua or gods and taken home with them, or had not found the leaping places where they could leap into the nether world.  (Pukui)

In 1793, Captain George Vancouver described this area as desolate and barren:  “From the commencement of the high land to the westward of Opooroah (Puʻuloa – Pearl Harbor) was … one barren rocky waste, nearly destitute of verdure, cultivation or inhabitants, with little variation all to the west point of the island. …”

In 1839, Missionary EO Hall described the area between Pearl Harbor and Kalaeloa as follows: “Passing all the villages (after leaving the Pearl River) at one or two of which we stopped, we crossed the barren desolate plain”.  (Robicheaux)  In the 1880s, these lands were being turned over to cattle grazing and continued through the early-1900s.

Nearby Moku ʻUmeʻume (Ford Island) provided pili grass for house thatching. Ewa's house builders gathered their pili grass for house thatching here until the time came when foreign shingles were introduced, then thatching was discontinued.

It was also covered with kiawe trees; it was noted that the kiawe forests there and the Honouliuli region supplied much of the fuel for kitchen fires in Honolulu.

Reported in 1898, a few fishermen and some of their families built shanties by the shore where they lived, fished and traded their catch for taro at ‘Ewa.  Their drinking water was taken from nearby ponds, and it was so brackish that other people could not stand to drink it. (Cameron; Maly)

James Campbell, who arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1850, ended up in Lāhainā and started a sugar plantation there in 1860 (later known as Pioneer Mill.)  He also started to acquire lands in Oʻahu, Maui and the island of Hawaiʻi.

In 1876, he purchased approximately 15,000-acres at Kahuku on the northernmost tip of Oʻahu from HA Widemann and Julius L Richardson. In 1877, he acquired from John Coney 41,000-acres of ranch land at Honouliuli.

Many critics scoffed at the doubtful value of his Honouliuli purchase. But Campbell envisioned supplying the arid area with water and commissioned California well-driller James Ashley to drill a well on his Honouliuli Ranch.

In 1879, Ashley drilled Hawaiʻi’s first artesian well; James Campbell's vision had made it possible for Hawaiʻi's people to grow sugar cane on the dry lands of the ʻEwa Plain.

“At 240 feet the water commenced to overflow. The bore was continued to 273 feet, the flow increasing and coming to rise from one-half to two-thirds of an inch crown above the pipe, 7 inches in diameter.  This success was a happy surprise to the community. (There was) a sheet of pure water flowing like a dome of glass from all sides of the well casing, and continuing to flow night and day, without diminution.”  (Congressional Record, 1881)

What they discovered was vast reservoirs of artesian water; the groundwater here is composed of a freshwater lens that generally moves toward the ocean but is impeded by a wedge of caprock that overlies the volcanic rock near the coast.  (Nellist, Bauer)

When the first well came in at Honouliuli the Hawaiians named it "Waianiani" (crystal waters.)  (Nellist) The ʻEwa Plain has been irrigated with ground water since 1890. By 1930, Ewa Plantation had drilled 70 artesian wells to irrigate cane lands; more were drilled later.

It was some years after the first artesian wells were brought in before there was a general understanding of the formation of the coastal caprock and its vital importance in the creation and functioning of the artesian reservoirs.

Discovery of artesian water at Honouliuli was beyond question the most important single contribution to the development of Oʻahu and Honolulu as we know the island and city today.  (Nellist)  (The flow from the well continued for 60-years until it was sealed by the City and County of Honolulu in 1939.)

In 1889, Campbell leased about 40,000-acres of land for fifty years to BF Dillingham (of Oʻahu Railway and Land Co;) after several assignments and sub-leases, about 7,860-acres of Campbell land ended up with Ewa Planation.

By 1923, Ewa Plantation was the first sugar company in the world to raise ten tons of sugar per acre and, by 1933, the plantation produced over 61,000-tons of sugar a year.

Ewa Plantation was considered one of the most prosperous plantations in Hawaiʻi and in 1931 a new 50-year lease was executed, completing the agreement with Oʻahu Railway and Land Company and beginning an association with Campbell Estate.

By 1936, ʻEwa Plantation Company was the first plantation to have a fully mechanized harvesting operation and by 1946 tests were made to convert the hauling of cane from railroads to large trucks.

During WWII, Japanese Americans were put in internment camps in at least eight locations on Hawaiʻi; one of those sites was at Honouliuli Gulch.  The forced removal of these individuals began a nearly four-year odyssey to a series of camps in Hawaiʻi and on the continental United States.

They were put in these camps, not because they had been tried and found guilty of something, but because either they or their parents or ancestors were from Japan and, as such, they were deemed a "threat" to national security.

In 1962, Castle and Cooke purchased majority control of ʻEwa Plantation Company stock and in 1970 ʻEwa Plantation Company merged with Oʻahu Sugar Company in Waipahu (the ʻEwa mill closed in the mid-1970s after the sale; the mill was demolished in 1985.)

Campbell became known by the Hawaiians as “Kimo Ona-Milliona” (James the Millionaire).  Despite his success in sugar, his interests turned to other matters, primarily ranching and real estate.

When James Campbell died on April 21, 1900, the Estate of James Campbell was created as a private trust to administer his assets for the benefit of his heirs (in 2007, the James Campbell Company succeeded the Estate of James Campbell.) The Estate played a pivotal role in Hawaiʻi history, from the growth of sugar plantations to the growing new City of Kapolei.

The image shows an early (1873) map of Honouliuli (DAGS.)  In addition, I have included other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+    

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

“East Wind, Rain”

Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese spy, arrived in Honolulu on March 27, 1941, aboard the Japanese liner Nitta Maru.  His papers identified him as Tadashi Morimura, the name he was always referred to while in the Islands (and subsequent investigative records.)  (He’ll be referred to here by his real name, Yoshikawa.)

Born on March 7, 1914, Yoshikawa had been approached in 1936 to work as a civilian for Japan’s naval intelligence service: “Since I had been studying English, I was assigned to the sections dealing with the British and American navies. I became the Japanese navy's expert on the American navy.”

“I read everything; diplomatic reports from our attachés, secret reports from our agents around the world. I read military commentators like Hanson Baldwin (New York Times military affairs editor.)” Yoshikawa also studied Jane's Fighting Ships and memorized the silhouettes of all the American ships, something that would later prove critical.  (Savela)

Posing as junior diplomat, Yoshikawa was to keep current on the status of the US fleet and its anchorages, reporting his observations to Tokyo by coded telegraph messages.  Thanks to Hawaiʻi's large Japanese-American population, Yoshikawa easily blended in.

When Kita briefed Yoshikawa, he reminded him, “Don't make yourself conspicuous; maintain a normal, business-as-usual attitude, keep calm under all circumstances; avoid taking unnecessary risks; stay away from guarded and restricted areas and be aware of the FBI.” (Prange; Savela)

In keeping with his cover, Yoshikawa avoided illegally entering military bases or stealing classified documents. He shunned cameras and notepads, relying instead on memory. He supplemented his observations with items of interest gleaned from daily newspapers.

Yoshikawa familiarized himself with the principal Hawaiian Islands and their military installations, which were concentrated on Oʻahu. He frequently relied on a hired cab driven by John Mikami, a Japanese-Hawaiian who often performed chores for the consulate.  (Deac)

Other times, Yoshikawa was chauffeured by Richard Kotoshirodo, a consular clerk. It did not take long for Yoshikawa to scout out the various US Army and Navy bases on central, southern and eastern Oʻahu. Predictably, the focus of his attention was Pearl Harbor, the nearly landlocked US Pacific Fleet anchorage on the south coast of the island.

The assignment fit into a plan outlined in January 1941 by Combined Fleet Commander Isoroku Yamamoto. The plan called for an aerial assault on Hawaiʻi as the opening move of a war between the United States and Japan. Yoshikawa was to become his country's only military spy in the islands and Yamamoto's most valuable source of current information on Oʻahu.  (Deac)

And with its relatively open landscape, sloping elevations, and limited restrictions on movement, he readily compiled useful intelligence. His encyclopedic knowledge of US ships and his methodical charting of their movements made his reports all the more valuable.  His contribution to the Japanese effort was ultimately "an important one."  (Savela)

Yoshikawa did not work alone.  Later joining him in espionage was a ‘sleeper agent’ Bernard Otto Julius Kuehn and his family, Nazi spies sent to the Islands by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.  (Washington Times)

The Kuehns arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1935, they blended in, and waited; no one seriously suspected that Caucasians would carry on espionage for the Empire of Japan, so Kuehn, his wife Friedel, their daughter and son, Hans Joachim, were virtually inconspicuous as a white family on the windward side.

However, every member of the family contributed towards collecting and documenting military activities at Pearl Harbor from 1935 right up to the day the bombs fell from Japanese aircraft.

On December 2, days before the attack, Kuehn provided specific - and highly accurate - details on the fleet in writing. That same day, he gave the consulate the set of signals that could be picked up by nearby Japanese submarines.  (FBI)

At midafternoon on December 6, Yoshikawa made his final reconnaissance of Pearl Harbor from the Pearl City pier.  Back at the consulate, he coordinated his report with Kita, and then saw that the encoded message was transmitted to Tokyo.

At 1:20 am on December 7, 1941, on the darkened bridge of the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi, Vice Admiral Chui­chi Nagumo was handed the following message:
“Vessels moored in harbor: 9 battleships; 3 class B cruisers; 3 seaplane tenders, 17 destroyers. Entering harbor are 4 class B cruisers; 3 destroyers. All aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers have departed harbor…. No indication of any changes in US Fleet or anything unusual.”  (Savela)

In the early morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese pilots flew toward the island of Oʻahu from six aircraft carriers (the Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku;) two waves of planes attacked various military installations on Oʻahu.

The prearranged coded signal “East wind, rain,” part of the weather forecast broadcast over Radio Tokyo, alerted Japanese Consul General Nagao Kita in Honolulu, and others, that the attack on Pearl Harbor had begun.

The first wave of 183-planes (43-fighters, 49-high-level bombers, 51-dive bombers and 40-torpedo planes) struck its targets at 7:55 am.  The second wave of 167-Japanese planes (35-fighters, 54-horizontal bombers and 78-dive bombers) struck Oʻahu beginning at 8:40 am.

The Japanese consulate staff locked the consulate doors and began burning all their codebooks and classified material. “Smoke was pouring out of the chimney.”   At about 9:30 am, December 7, the consulate staff was arrested and later shipped to Phoenix, Arizona.

By 9:45 am, the Japanese attack on Oʻahu was over.

The image shows Takeo Yoshikawa. In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+  

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

"Ah! What delicious-looking crabs you have here!"

So said the visitor to Ke Awa Lau o Puʻuloa – but he wasn’t speaking of crustaceans, he was speaking of the fishermen he saw as “fat crabs”, that is, a dainty morsel.

He was Mikololou, a man-eating shark from the Kaʻū district on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

He was part of a large company of sharks who came to visit from Hawaiʻi, Maui and Molokaʻi. Most of these had human relatives and were not desirous of eating human flesh, but among them were some who disregarded the relationship, and learned to like them.

The sharks had planned to make a circuit of the islands and perhaps later to visit Kahiki.  They stopped at Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor.)

Kaʻahupahau, hearing those words, knew at once that some of the strangers were man-eaters.  Guardians of the area, she and her brother Kahiʻuka went into action to protect the fishermen.

But Kaʻahupahau could not distinguish between the good and the bad sharks; she then she changed into the form of a great net and hemmed in her visitors while the fishermen who answered her signal came to destroy them.

Her brother Kahiʻuka struck at intruders with his tail, one side of which was larger than the other; the fishermen hauled in the nets to shore and Mikololou was cast upon the shore with the evil doers, where they were left to die of the intense heat.

All but Mikololou were soon dead; though his body died his head lived on and as the fishermen passed to and from their work, his eyes followed them and tears rolled down his face. At last his tongue fell out. Some children playing nearby found it. They picked it up and cast it into the sea.

Now Mikololou’s spirit had passed out of his head into his tongue and as soon as he felt the water again he became a whole shark. With a triumphant flop of his tail, he headed for home to join his friends again. When Kaʻahupahau saw him, it was too late to prevent his departure.

"Mikololou lived through his tongue," or, as the Hawaiians say, "I ola o Mikololou i ka alelo." This saying implies that however much trouble one may have, there is always a way of escape.

Kaʻahupahau lived in an underwater cave in Honouliuli lagoon (West Loch.) Kahiʻuka lived in an underwater cave off Mokuʻumeʻume (Ford Island) near Keanapuaʻa Point at the entrance of East Loch

Kaʻahupahau may mean "Well-cared for Feather Cloak" (the feather cloak was a symbol of royalty). Kahiʻuka means "Smiting Tail"; his shark tail was used to strike at enemy sharks; he also used his tail to strike fishermen as a warning that unfriendly sharks had entered Puʻuloa.

Such guardian sharks, which inhabited the coastlines of all the islands, were benevolent gods who were cared for and worshiped by the people and who aided fishermen, protected the life of the seas, and drove off man-eating sharks.

Pukui notes Kaʻahupahau in ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings, No. 105: "Alahula o Puʻuloa, he alahele na Kaʻahupahau": "Everywhere in Puʻuloa is the trail of Kaʻahupahau. Said of a person who goes everywhere, looking, peering, seeing all, or of a person familiar with every nook and corner of a place." Kaʻahupahau was noted for traveling about, vigilantly guarding her domain against man-eating invaders.

Puʻuloa also was home to Komoawa, (or Kamoawa,) a large shark who was Kaʻahupahau’s watcher.  His cave, called Keaaliʻi, was at the entrance of Puʻuloa.  (Thrum, Hawaii-edu)  Kualiʻi guards the entrance to Pearl Harbor, while the home of Kaʻahupahau is deeper into Honouliuli lagoon.

Years later, the US Navy, having acquired Pearl Harbor, was working to expand the facilities.  This included dredging the channel, adding a coal station and construction of a drydock.

"The dredging of the Pearl Harbor channel was begun long before the drydock was more than desultorily talked of - in 1900.  It took many years to deepen, straighten and widen the channel into the lochs sufficiently for a man of war to enter. But the work progressed steadily if slowly, and on December 14, 1911, the cruiser California steamed from Honolulu to the entrance to Pearl Harbor, and then, turning her gray nose inward, proceeded majestically through the still tortuous channel and dropped her anchor off the dry dock site."  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

The drydock was to be the "Largest In (the) World - Less than a decade will have elapsed between the beginning of the great work and its completion. And when the Pearl Harbor drydock is finished it will be the largest and the finest in the world, capable of accommodating any vessel now built or building, or that probably ever will be built by the United States."  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

But, during construction, disaster occurred.  "Much progress had at that time been made on the construction of the drydock, and success seemed assured. But the contractors had been having trouble with the bed of the drydock … it suddenly blew up with a tremendous explosion. No lives were lost, although there were several narrow escapes. But the work of years had been wrecked … pressure had forced the bottom of the drydock up until it literally burst (on February 17, 1913.")  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

"For a time it was feared that the entire project might have to be abandoned. But Uncle Sam's engineers refused to be defeated by natural forces, and finally, after long experiment, mean were found for anchoring the bottom of the drydock.  Admiral Harris was one of the board that came to Hawaii to investigate the causes for the explosion and try to find a way of preventing future disasters of similar nature."  (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

They cannot say they were not forewarned.  “While at work three Hawaiian fishermen come to where we were working, one of whom was aged, who asked me what we were doing there. ‘Digging a hole 50 feet deep’ was the reply. He then told me to move away from there; and when asked why, he said, ‘These places are tabu; they belong to shark god, name Kaʻahupahau.’”  (Richards (a worker on the drydock project,) Navy-mil)

“The old man was watching my men working, and talking to them. Again he came over to me with tears in his eyes and asked me to quit digging ‘til my boss came. "I told him, I can't do that." They stayed there several hours, then he said to me that, ‘You people will be punished severely.’” (Richards, Navy-mil)

"Several years ago, some will remember, when work started on the Pearl Harbor naval dry dock, some of the Hawaiians said the location chosen would disturb a "shark god" who would be affronted and they prophesied dire disasters. The work was started and there came a collapse. The forecasters of trouble were prophets. Changes were made in plans and locations."  (Maui News, June 9, 1922)

Merely a coincidence?  Some think not.

One of the workers on the project noted, “As we went along pumping the water out of the dock, we pumped out five feet and cleaned the side and plastered and corked all the leak, 15 to 20 days and then pumped till we got to the bottom which was full of mud and in the middle of the dock where I went through a cave of nine feet diameter. Mr. Hartman, assistant boss, found a backbone of a big shark, 14' 4" long. I came by where they were working when Mr. Hartman said to me, ‘You certainly got the shark. Here it is.’”  (Richards, Navy-mil)

(The Story of Mikololou is from Wiggins, Beckwith)

The image shows Pearl Harbor Dry Dock #1, after the February 1913 explosion In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC