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  • Home
    • Upcoming Events
    • About hakalauhome
    • Contact Us!
  • Yesterday
    • Timeline
    • Camps
    • People >
      • The Ross Families of Hakalau
      • Satoru Kurisu
      • Toraichi Morikawa
      • Waichi Ouye
      • Aigoro Uyeno
    • Schools >
      • Hakalau School
      • John M. Ross School
      • Hakalau Japanese Language School
    • Churches & Cemeteries >
      • Churches >
        • Hakalau Jodo Mission
        • Honohina Hongwanji
      • Cemeteries >
        • Honohina Cemetery
    • The Voice of Hakalau
    • Sugar Production >
      • Hakalau Mill & Other Buildings
      • Wailea Milling Company
    • Transportation >
      • Ships
      • 19th Century Hamakua Roads
      • Bridges >
        • Highway Bridges, 1950-1953
      • The Railroad
  • Today
    • Hakalau Farmers Market
    • Hakalau Jodo Mission Today >
      • Community Commitments >
        • Obon Festival
        • Memorial Day
        • Presentations >
          • American Gatha
          • Building World Peace, Local Style
          • Stronger Than a Tsunami
          • The End of Sugar
          • Ready, Set, Obon!
        • Newsletters
    • Honohina Hongwanji Today
    • Wailea/Hakalau Kumiai
    • Hakalau Reunions
    • Wailea Village Historic Preservation Community >
      • Cemetery Stewardship
      • Reviving Hakalau School
      • Senior Luncheons
  • Then and Now
    • UP & DOWN CAMPS: THEN AND NOW
    • Memorial Day: Then and Now
  • Tomorrow
    • Arsenic Remediation
    • Cliff Failures
    • Hāmākua CDP & the CDP Action Committee

Cemeteries

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Photo taken 1928, courtesy of the Lyman Museum
Burial Grounds and cemeteries are among the most valuable of archaeological and historic resources.  They are evidence of various settlement patterns, burial practices, cultural and religious influences, economic development, social relationships, and genealogy. Unfortunately, they are also one of the most fragile resources to preserve and protect. 
​

Today, there is a dedicated group working with Akiko Masuda of the Wailea Village Historic Preservation Community that cleans 3 cemeteries each month to honor the ancestors. One of the members shared the quote below from the short story "From Dreams to Ashes" from the collection “The Sound of Hilo Rain,” by Hilo writer & attorney, Roy Kodani:
In many isolated areas of the country, far removed from the towns and urban areas of Hawaii, there are graveyards of immigrants buried years ago.  Their headstones have fallen and no one comes to place flowers on their graves. They had probably worked hard intending to return to their mother country, but for one reason or another, they could not return, and now, they remain in desolate, lonely places long forgotten.  The trade winds crossing the land like ancient spirits floating by whisper their names as you pass.
Within the Hakalau Kuleana, there were at least five cemeteries. Hakalau Lower Camp included 3 cemeteries: Korean, Japanese, and Catholic. According to "Voice of Hakalau", there was also a cemetery at Kamae Mauka, although it does not show up on a map. Honohina Cemetery, on Liliuokalani Trust lands, still exists.

Three Cemeteries in Hakalau Lower Camp

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Hand-drawn map of Hakalau Lower Camp, known as "Down Camp" with annotations showing the cemeteries. Maps were drawn for the Hakalau Plantation in 1947 for each camp in existence at that time.
Korean Cemetery
The former Korean Cemetery (also known as the Japanese and Korean Cemetery) is located at Hakalau Point, behind what was formerly the stables. According to an archaeological inventory survey (Rosendahl, Inc. 2009), the graves were disinterred. It was noted that grave markers were buried on site and that the burials were removed using a backhoe, indicating the likely presence of grave markers and disturbed human skeletal remains at the site (DLNR Log 2013.6237, Doc 1312TD01). 
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1928 aerial of Hakalau Point and Hakalau Upper Camp, courtesy of the Lyman Museum.
The Japanese/Korean Cemetery is deemed significant under Historic Preservation Criteria D possibly E. 
  • Criterion D: Yields, or is likely to yield, information important for research on pre-history or history
  • Criterion E: Has important value to the native Hawaiian people or to another ethnic group of the state due to associations with cultural practices once carried out, or still carried out, at the property or due to associations with traditional beliefs, events or oral accounts—these associations being important to the group’s history and cultural identity
Data Source: A Data Recovery Plan for Site 50-10-16-26592, Scientific Consultant Services, June 2014. ​
The photo on the left below, when enlarged, is too pixilated to provide a very clear name or date. However, an archaeologist at a university in Korea, working with Seri Luangplinith, Ph.D. of UH Hilo, think it is of a woman, a second daughter,  from Gyeongsang Province in Korea. ​Their translation of the inscription is on the right below.
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Photo courtesy of Department of Land and Natural Resources, State Historic Preservation Division, from Data Recovery Plan for Site 50-10-16-26592, p. 18, June, 2014.
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Japanese Cemetery

This cemetery was located on a point directly behind the hospital in Hakalau Lower Camp. It was known as the Japanese Cemetery. Waichi Ouye reported that the cemetery held mostly Japanese and a few Korean immigrants who worked at the mill (Haun and Associates, 2014). 

While the cemetery was based on ethnicity and not religious affiliation, many of the Japanese immigrants to Hakalau Plantation were Pure Land Buddhists with rich ceremonial traditions for funerals and honoring the dead.

The cemetery contained 202 graves and was maintained by  the Hakalau Jodo Mission. The earliest graves here were probably late 19th/early 20th century and the latest graves are probably the mid to late 1930's.  A 1966 Department of Health survey reported that Rev. Bino Mamiya, acting as an interested party for the community, collected money to keep the cemetery clean. Tetsuo Yugawa cleaned the cemetery on a regular basis.

In the early 1970's, probably early 1974 (see notice to the right)  the remains were removed to Homelani Memorial Park at the request of the local kumiai, which also paid for the relocation of remains.

Data Sources: a) Archaeological Inventory Survey #2083169, April, 2014, Department of Land and Natural Resources, State Historic Preservation Division and b) PHRI letter report #2174-090101 to John Cross, Mauna Kea Agribusiness, Inc., September, 2001.
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Japanese cemetery, Hakalau Lower Camp.
Photo courtesy of Department of Land and Natural Resources, State Historic Preservation Division, from Archaeological Inventory Survey #2083169, p. 15, April, 2014
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Accessed via Newspapers.com
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Catholic Cemetery

This cemetery was an informal plantation cemetery. It was neither owned nor operated by the Catholic Church but was likely associated with the Wailea Church and the Hakalau Filipino Catholic Club. There may have been between 200 and 250 Filipinos, Portuguese, and Puerto Ricans buried there. These were probably plantation workers and members of their families.

Deceased were interred at the Catholic Cemetery during the first half of the 20th century. Some of the remains might have been moved to another location by family members. Most of the grave markers were made of wood, though a few inscribed stone monuments were used. The wooden grave markers are not longer present at the cemetery. Given the age of the cemetery, it likely qualifies as an Historic Property under state rules.

Data Source: A Data Recovery Plan for Site 50-10-16-26592, Scientific Consultant Services, June 2014. 
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Site plan for TMK 3-2-9-002-088-0000 showing easement for both the cemetery and the footpath leading to the cemetery. Site plan courtesy of the Edmund Olson Trust Archive.
Click on map to enlarge.
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Catholic Cemetery outlined in red. Photo courtesy of Cal Motoda, taken in 1972.
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Kamaee Mauka Cemetery

This cemetery is not shown on the plantation map from 1947 or on the field map, which has been annotated to show the location of the camp. 
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Courtesy of the Edmund Olson Trust.
Click on map to enlarge.
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Voice of Hakalau, November, 1960, p. 4
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Courtesy of the Edmund Olson Trust.

Honohina Cemetery

Honohina Cemetery was established about 1899 to serve the Japanese community in Honohina. This cemetery is not shown on the plantation maps from 1947, but annotations in red have been added below. 

​Because Honohina was occupied by mostly sugar workers, the town disappeared with the demise of the sugar industry in that area in the 1970s. The Honohina Hongwanji, built in 1939, was dismantled in 1969. The Ninole Hongwanji along the Hawaii Belt Highway near the 19 mile marker, was renamed the Honohina Hongwanji. Members of the temple continue to maintain the cemetery today.
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1947 Plantation map of Honohina Upper Village Camp, with annotations showing the relationship of the Hongwanji to the Cemetery.
From the  brochure of the Honohina Centennial ...
Honohina Cemetery also had an early beginning...1899 was its first burial. Majority of the burials took place in the early 1900's...and the latest was Ken's mom, Kimiyo Fujimoto in 1954. Since the beginning of the Honohina Hongwanji, members of the Church took care of the graveyard, keeping it tidy and presentable.

In preparation of the centennial celebration, special care and cleaning was done, mold was cleaned off most of the headstones and money was donated by Mr. Richard Taniguchi to repair some of the fallen stones. A directory was madewith the tireless efforts and patience of Mrs. Mitsuko Takasaki. All the graves were numbered by Mr. Takeyoshi Maesato. "Shine" sprays to keep the weeds down. Then Yuko Nishimoto donates the gas and Round-Up, and Yoshio Takemoto made the new Honohina Cemetery sign. Many of the graves were exhumed as families moved from Ninole and Honohina. Latest count was 142 graves...Many thanks for those who passed before us.

​Namu Amida Butsu
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Annotated Google Maps view of Honohina Cemetery.
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Photo courtesy of Susan Forbes.

Piha Cemetery

The pictures below are from a forgotten cemetery just a little bit down towards Honokaa after you pass Nanue Bridge in Ninole. There’s a huge avocado tree on the makai side of the road near the entrance.
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Photos and translation courtesy of Seri Luanphinith, Ph.D.
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TMK and Plat Maps available at https://www.hawaiicounty.gov/departments/planning/tmk-maps
Click on map to enlarge
Contact us if you know of other cemeteries between the Kolekole River and Poupou Stream.
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!