Cane Fire

Emi Uemura
​Grew up in Hakalau Upper Camp, i.e., "Up Camp", during the 1940s and 1950s
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​April 23, 1998

I grew up in a plantation town where sugar dominated the whole region. During harvest time, sugar workers prepared for burning of the cane by pushing rows of cane away from the boundary in order to prevent fires from spreading beyond the fields. If I recall correctly, a man would wave a white flag to signal that it was ready to start the fire. Once the men set the field on fire, I heard the loud crackling as the fire consumed the leaves, leaving the denuded stalks of cane standing.  The crackling sound was scaring that we had to cover our ears. Smoke from the burning of the cane was so thick that we could not see for about 10 to 15 minutes or longer.

While the cane leaves were burning any animals in the field were burned to death. This controlled the rats, mongooses and toads' populations. After the fire subsided the men would go into the field and start to cut the cane stalks and pile them in bundles. Other workers would carry the bundles to the flume to float them down to the mill for processing. One of the flumes was back of our home. We would climb on the flume and watch for the bundle cane to come by and the boys would jump the bundle and ride it for a short while before any of the workers found them. While we younger kids would climb in the flume and ride the rushing water and get off before we got caught.

Photo from a display at the Hakalau School and Community Reunion, photographer unknown.

On the day, where the cane fire is near by and depending on the direction the wind was blowing, the soot would fly into the camp where my Mom was doing her laundry. When it a good (otenki) day, she would hang the laundry outside. She would rush out to pick  the clothes from the line before the soot landed on the drying laundry. When she lost the race, she had to wash the soiled ones all over again. In those days we didn't have a washing machine or dryer.
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She started a fire using guava log or pine wood or anything that was available. My father built a fireplace that accommodated a 10-gallon can for boiling clothes. After the clothes were boiled sufficiently to separate them from the soiled, the clothes were taken to the sentaku-ba (wash house) where the clothes were scrubbed clean and rinsed several times in clean water. When Mom was satisfied that the clothes were clean, she took them out to hang in the sun. If the sky looked cloudy, she hung them under the house where there several clothes lines. The older sisters had to learn how to wash clothes from my mom when they were about 12 or 13 years old. I got lucky, by the time I reached 12 we had a washing machine but no dryer.
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When Mother did her laundry, we put sweet potato, araimo or mochi in the fire. You could smell the wonderful aroma of the sweet potato or araimo cooking. The sweet potato or araimo at times ended up with a koge (burnt) crust. We would peel them and eat the inside of these tubers. Sometimes we ate the koge (burnt) crust, too.

Hakalau Upper Camp House #156

Hakalau Upper Camp House #158