​Why we created hakalauhome.com

This is a personal website, not a commercial endeavor. It is an effort to dig deep into the history of a small slice of the Big Island, and distill from that history cultural values to share with the area's current residents and others. Most of the current residents came from someplace else. ​

​Background:
  • Ken has a personal interest in the history of Hakalau since his father was the Harvesting Superintendent from 1954-1959, and his family lived in Wailea during that time. Any chance to talk with folks who grew up here was an opportunity not to be missed.
  • On the day of the open house, about 25 people visited our home and encouraged us to join them for the bus tour of their old stomping grounds. What a tour that was! Ken was delighted with memories shared by individuals who remembered his family, having delivered milk and the newspaper to his home, or having played baseball with his older brother Roger. Of course, there was also Ken’s fellow cub scout pack member, Cal, whom we had met in 2011 at the showing of Aloha Buddha at the Hakalau Jodo Mission.​
Picture
Cub Scouts, Troop 5, circa 1954-55. Left to right: Kneeling: Gary Morishita, Van Dale Furusho 1st row: George Muramatsu, Calvin Motoda, Wayne Yoshida, Ken Forbes 2nd row: Gary Yoshizumi, Curtis Ochiai, Chadwick Andagan, Francis Ouye, Melvin Souza 3rd row: John Kunishi, Mrs Andagan, Wilfred Morikawa, Mrs Souza. Photo and identification of individuals provided by Calvin Motoda.
Diligent Efforts to Preserve History:
  • Former residents share a love of Hakalau and work diligently to share pictures, stories and maps to reinforce their memories. Ken and I learned a lot from these folks and, gladly, have maintained contact with many. The key lesson:  culture and values can be passed from one time to another and one group to another.
  • The values from the plantation community that former residents shared are gifts to us:​
Engage in collective effort.
Look out for each other.
Honor hard work.
Show respect for those who came before us.
  • As we've learned more about Hawaiian and Sugar Era history of this area, we realized there is another important value critical to us today:
Aloha and Mālama `Aina:
Aloha 'aina simply means to love and respect the land, make it yours and claim stewardship for it.
Mālama 'aina means to care for and nurture the land so it can give back all we need to sustain life
​for ourselves and our future generations.
Creating hakalauhome.com is our way of showing our respect for those that came before us, building upon the their history and values and sharing them broadly, and showcasing the collective effort of residents of Hakalau today.

We hope you enjoy hakalauhome.com,
​Ken and Susan Forbes

​What does Hakalau Kuleana mean?

The Hakalau Kuleana is a term used for this website to cover the area from the Kolekole River in Wailea (at about the 14 Mile Marker of Highway 19) to the Poupou Stream in Ninole (at the 20 Mile Marker). This area, up to the tree line, was the former Hakalau Plantation. ​
Kuleana is a uniquely Hawaiian value and
practice which is loosely translated to mean "responsibility." The word kuleana refers to a reciprocal relationship between the person who is responsible, and the thing which they are responsible for.

For example, Hawaiians have a kuleana to our land: to care for it and to respect it, and in return, our land has the kuleana to feed, shelter, and clothe us, through this relationship we maintain balance within society and with our natural environment. (Source: Hawaiian Word of the Day on Hawaii News Now, April 17, 2015)
Our collective responsibility is to care for the land, the people and the culture. ​

​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. The photos of buildings from the Hakalau Plantation provided courtesy of the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association Archives at the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa - Hawaiian Collection within the Hilo Coast Processing Co. series. 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 the Hakalau Kuleana
  • Clyde Chinen--Chin Chuck
  • Bobby Fujimori--Chin Chuck
  • Bernice Hirai (nee Yamagata)--Hakalau Upper Camp
  • Ella Miyoko Iseri (nee Fujii)--Ella grew up in hakalau Lower Camp
  • Jay and Maureen Ishimoto--Maureen grew up in Hakalau Upper Camp
  • Kay and Antoku Kobashigawa--Wailea. Antoku, son of Toku Kobashigawa 
  • Gail Tsuha-Maesato--Ninole resident who grew up in Honomu and Wailea.
  • 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, Ph.D.--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 
  • Ken Shimabukuro--Hakalau Upper Camp
  • Nelson Soken--Wailea Store Camp
  • Emi Uemura--Hakalau Upper Camp, source of many, many memories and photos
  • Harold Uyeno--Honohina. His father, Aigoro Ueno was the carpenter foreman  for the construction of the Hakalau Jodo Mission in 1936 and served as foreman for the Honohina Hongwanji in 1939.
  • Robert and Norma Yara--Chin Chuck
  • Arlene Yonemine--Chin Chuck

Descendants of those who grew up in the Hakalau Kuleana
  • 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
  • Leanne Kirk, great-granddaughter of Tamehichiro Noji and first cousin, twice removed of Toraichi Morikawa, both from of Hakalau Lower Camp (aka Down Camp).
  • Kim Kohl, granddaughter of William Ross, clerk then manager of the Hakalau Store from 1902-1937
  • Kehaulani Lum, descendant of the Hele-la and Nala’ielua ‘Ohana of Wailea, Hakalau, and Ninole
  • Rob Morita, whose father, Shigeyoshi Morita, grew up in Wailea Spanish Camp
  • Sharon Nomura, granddaughter of Shotaru Shimizu, owner of the baker in Hakalau "Down Camp" where the first Japanese Language School was located 
  • Marjorie Oda-Burns, M.D., daughter of Margaret Oda, last principle of Hakalau School, and granddaughter of Satoru Kurisu of Wailea
  • Corrine Yabuta, descendant of the Nishiyama family of Wailea
  • Stephen Yoshida, son of Helen Hatsue (Hirata) Yoshida of Honohina Mauka
  • 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
  • John Cross, Edmund Olson Trust Archive and long-time resident of Hakalau, history aficionado and expert on the sugar era and its aftermath
  • Eric Page, Archivist, and Gladys Suzuki, Education Specialist (now retired), Lyman Museum
  • Wayne Subica of the former Hawaii Plantation Museum

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
  • ​Raven Hanna
  • Elizabeth Hansen
  • ​Ron Hubbard
  • Valerie Yong Ock Kim
  • Brad Kurokawa
  • Jan Nakamura
  • ​Valerie Poindexter
  • Deb Scrivens
  • ​Ricky-Thomas Serikawa
  • Easten Tanimoto
  • Hansen Tsang
  • Garry Wykoff​​
Your contributions of pictures and information are appreciated. Contact us if you have stories and/or pictures to share. Thank you!

hakalauhome.com is always under construction!

We frequently receive new information and new sources of information. These sources include current residents, individuals that used to live here and their descendants, newspaper and journal articles, libraries and museums.  We also review our existing materials repeatedly. The result: our understanding of the history of the Hakalau Kuleana changes over time. Periodically we need to reorganize pages to accommodate new materials or make navigation easier for the user. As we learn more, we add more, we reorganize more....and on and on. We keep building. We will continue to publish updates, sometimes showing pages that are under construction. Do you have information to share? Suggestions? Contact us!
​Please also contact us with recommendations you have for hakalauhome.com.
For the Hakalau Kuleana, our responsibility is to care for the land, the people, and the culture. We are guided by cultural values of YESTERDAY: Engage in collective effort. Look out for each other. Honor hard work. Show respect for those who came before us. Aloha and Mālama `Aina. In 2021, Akiko Masuda added two more values to the list: Consistently show up. Whatever has to be done, jump in and do it!