How this website grows:

This website grows as we learn more about the Hakalau Kuleana*. The timeline, in particular, grows as we scour old English and Japanese language newspapers.  Visits to the UH Manoa Hamilton Library produced a treasure trove of photos of buildings owned by the Hakalau Plantation, including the camp houses. Other organized sources include the Lyman Museum, the Hawaii Plantation Museum and the Edmund Olson Trust Archive. 

The most heartwarming sources are people. Sometimes, individuals contact us through the website, sometimes they meet us and give us pictures or tell us stories, staff at museums and libraries assist us. We now have several "email pals" who regularly answer questions. Our gratitude extends to all of them, at this time including:
  • People who grew up in Hakalau
    • Clyde Chinen--Chin Chuck
    • Bobby Fujimori--Chin Chuck
    • Jay and Maureen Ishimoto--Maureen grew up in Hakalau Upper Camp
    • Kay and Antoku Kobashigawa--Wailea. Antoku, son of Toku Kobashigawa 
    • Lloyd Matsunami--Hakalau Upper Camp. Grandson of Masujiro Matsunami and son of Yasuo Matsunami, community leader who worked for the Hakalau Store and later purchased it from the Plantation
    • Calvin Motoda--Hakalau Lower Camp
    • Robert Nishimoto--Ninole resident. Son of Sakae and Yukio Nishimoto, proprietors of the Nishimoto Store
    • The family of Waichi Ouye--Hakalau Upper Camp, community leader, avid chronicler 
    • Emi Uemura--Hakalau Upper Camp, source of many, many memories and photos
    • Harold Uyeno--Honohina 
    • Robert and Norma Yara--Chin Chuck
    • Arlene Yonemine--Chin Chuck
  • Descendants of those who grew up in Hakalau
    • Darrelyn Bates, granddaughter of Ralph Murray, bookkeeper at the Hakalau Plantation
    • Gordon Ferguson, grand nephew of Georgiana Ross, wife of Plantation Manager John M. Ross
    • Susan Fuller, great granddaughter of Mrs. Benjamin P. Macy, the last teacher at Hakalau School when it was located in Hakalau gulch
    • Kim Kohl, granddaughter of William Ross, clerk then manager of the Hakalau Store from 1902-1937
    • Rob Morita, whose father, Shigeyoshi Morita, grew up in Wailea Spanish Camp
    • Corrine Yabuta, descendant of the Nishiyama family of Wailea
    • Jaime Yugawa, great grandson of Tetsuo and Yae Yugawa, grandson of Takeshi and Hanako Yugawa, Hakalau Lower and Upper Camps
    • Kathy Zoellner, granddaughter of Willis C. Jennings, Hakalau Plantation Manager (1942-1948)
  • Ministers or descendants of ministers of the Hakalau Jodo Mission
  • Experts at Museums, Archives and Libraries
  • Current Residents
    • Yumiko Bamba translates Japanese language publications
    • Heather Fryer, Ph.D., periodic Wailea resident and professor of history at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Heather regularly supplies historical information about the Hakalau Kuleana. She is known by many for her extensive research on Shinmachi. 
    • Akiko Masuda shares many, many "tidbits" and pictures from the past that she finds in her files 
    • Billy Spiedel shares pictures, primarily related to George Ross and his brother, John M. Ross
  • Peace Corps Volunteers to Wailea-Hakalau 1966-67 provided pictures and stories.
    • Howard Koons
    • Paul VanDerWerf
  • Photographers, professional and casual, share their photos of current activities:
    • Barb Alford
    • Yumiko Bamba
    • Drean Barley
    • Kerry Browning
    • Tom Burton
    • Ray Farmer
    • Dave Gallagher
    • Michele Gamble
    • Julie Goettsch
    • Elizabeth Hansen
    • Valerie Yong Ock Kim
    • Brad Kurokawa
    • Jan Nakamura
    • Deb Scrivens
    • Hansen Tsang
    • Garry Wykoff
​
​Your contributions are appreciated. Thank you!

Updates as of September 17, 2019

Yesterday:
  • Updated Timeline. The current update features new content for the 1900s and 1910s.​​
  • Updated John M. Ross School to include the content from the booklet produced for the only school reunion held in 2003.
  • Updated Hakalau Jodo Mission: Years Between World Wars to include include articles and notices of congratulation for the completion of the new temple, social hall and parsonage in 1936. The source was Hawaii Mainichi, a local Japanese newspaper, provided courtesy of Rev. Yamanaka, the grandson of the Rev. Yamanaka who presided over the 1936 Mission.
  • Added an issue of Voice of Hakalau from 1942, donated by granddaughter of Hakalau Plantation Manager Willis C. Jennings (manager from 1942-1948).

​Today: ​​
  • Updated Calendar of Events​​​​, including the notice regarding the new season for bon dance practice with Odori Sensei Jane Heit at the Hakalau Jodo Mission
  • Coming soon! John Cross, long-time Hakalau resident and expert on the Big Island's sugar plantations, their demise and aftermath will talk about Land and Water in the Hakalau and Hamakua Coast area during the sugar era and what happened once the industry died...including sale of the land. Save the Date: October 18th, 1:30 - 3:00 p.m., Hakalau Jodo Mission. Registration details coming soon.
  • Updated Hakalau Farmers Market, including new vendors: the Giampapas selling freshly-baked breads, and Barb Alford selling kim chi and tapioca.
  • Updated and reorganized Hakalau Jodo Mission Today and added new photos and content including the 2019 O-bon festival. 

Tomorrow:​​​​

2019 Goals for hakalauhome.com

New Year's Resolution #1:  Expand historical information about the former Hakalau Plantation using newspaper sources. 
  • As of September 2019: The timeline has been expanded to include articles and ads. In June 2019, digitized and searchable copies of Hilo newspapers became available, greatly expanding reporting sources and enhancing human interest stories. The approach is to tackle one decade at a time and within a decade, one year at a time. The timeline for the following decades are most fully developed: 1900s, 1910s, 1960s-2000s. Not only is this an ongoing process, but it is iterative as well. 
​New Year's Resolution #2: Track and explain the sale of lands to sugar interests after the Great Māhele and the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875.
  • As of September 2019: Research in progress.

​New Year's Resolution #3: Quantify and describe the demographic changes over time in the Hakalau Kuleana, the area within the boundaries of the former Hakalau Plantation from the Kolekole River in Wailea to the Poupou Stream in Ninole (at the 20 Mile Marker).
  • As of September 2019: No action to date.