​Nishiyama Bus Service and Garage in Wailea

Notice the flume at the left of the photo, and sugar cane growing right up to the garage. The flume crossed Old Mamalahoa Highway and 

Nishiyama Garage on the Old Wailea Road (see map below) circa 1939. Standing on the left bus is Kazumi Hamada, about 14 years old. Next to him is Susumu "Dango" Kimura. On the far right are Shigeo ("Ribs") Nishiyama, about 26 years old, with his two children, Dennis and Roy. Shigeo's father, Gosaku Nishiyama, built the vehicle at far left from a 1933 Dodge truck, creating a 20 passenger bus. 

A 1939 bus built on a Dodge truck chassis, one of the Nishiyama Bus Service Fleet. Passengers preferred the large buses over the railroad. Photo courtesy of the Lyman Museum.

Hawaii Tribune Herald, March 16, 1941, accessed via Newspapers.com

Former Wailea resident, Kazumi Hamada, now living in Florida, remembers the photo above:

My uncle "Ribs" & cousins Dennis next to him & Roy.  Both uncle Ribs & Roy are gone now. And "Dango" we called him big "Dango" and his younger brother was small "Dango".  The handsome guy sitting on the middle bus you may guess is me.  Don't remember when this photo was taken but seems like I was 13--14 years old at that time so could have been 1942-43? long time ago.  Big "Dango" was one of the bus drivers that transported people from Hakalau to Hilo & back. Of course it included people from Hakalau, Wailea, Chin Chuck, Stable Camp, Kamae Mauka & Kamae Camp.

About that time Uncle "Ribs" started a trucking business hauling & distributing store supplies that retail stores like Yamamoto Store & Fujii Bakery Store in Wailea and retail stores in Honomu town had put in their orders with the wholesalers in Hilo.

Why I am in the photo?  A young kid wanting to do something so I volunteered to service and clean the busses after the business day was over & be parked in the garage ready for the next day.  No compensation for the job but I enjoyed doing the work to help my
uncle. Occasionally I would get a bonus by finding a nickel or dime that passengers had dropped.  Finders keepers, I thought.  A big day was when I would find a couple of quarters while sweeping the bus
floors & wiping the seats. The toughest work was in gassing up the empty gas tank of each of the buses.  There was only one gas pump which was manually operated & held only 10 gallons.  Each bus would take in at least 20 gallons so you can imagine how many times I needed to fill the pump 10 gallons at a time with cranking the pump handle manually. One benefit I got from doing this work was that I self taught myself to drive since all the drivers had gone home after leaving their busses at the garage & someone had to park the bus next to the gas pump nozzle to gas up.  So much of my story!!!

The building was the garage for the busses to be kept while not in business and was located at the bottom of small hill entering Wailea business section & was across the home of the Kishimori family. 

That's my story as best I can remember. 

In the mid 40's WWII was intensifying and Uncle "Ribs" had expanded his trucking business with several trucks in his fleet.  U.S. Marines were returning from battles in the Pacific & had built a large Marine Camp "Camp Tarawa?" in Kamuela.  Coca Cola "Coke" drink was popular at that time.  Uncle had a contract with the only Coke company in Hilo to supply the marines in Kamuela with the drinks.  I now became my uncle's helper to load/unload cases of Cokes from the truck. In January 1945 I became a 16 year old teenager.  The very next day of my birthday Uncle took me to Hilo Police Dept. to get my drivers' license.  On several trips he would let me drive the truck and teach me.  Few days later he let me have a truck to have it loaded up with Cokes for delivery to where the order was for that day.  Most of my deliveries were to small retail stores that opened for business because of the large number of marines that filled the camps.  By now I was one of his paid employee among 5 or 6 others,  I was delivering Cokes as far out as Capt.Cook in Kona. We made deliveries to stores in Kohala too.  And later we were hauling bagged sugar cane pallets to Hilo wharfs for loading onto ships waiting for bags of raw sugar cane to fill their holds. Then came the 1946 Tidal wave that hit the Islands & by then the war had ended. 

End of story...for now...about the Nishiyama buses.

The building in the picture is the 2nd Nishiyama Garage -- the first burnt down on February 11, 1939, and four buses were lost. This fire was well-reported in both the Hawaii Tribune-Herald and Nippu Jiji, ​one of the two major Japanese newspapers in Hawaii (the other is Hawaii Hōchi ) with a wide readership among Japanese migrant workers.

Hawaii Tribune-Herald, February 11, 1939, accessed via Newspapers.com.

Nippu Jiji first reported the fire on February 11th, the day of the fire, and then again on February 14, 1939. The estimated loss differs between the two articles. One of the estimates was the same as that reported in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. The February 14th articles indicated that arson was suspected, whereas the February 11th article suggested combustion or a short circuit.

ARSON SUSPECTED
The cause and loss of the fire at Nishiyama Garage, Wailea, Hawaii Island is under investigation.  
The loss seems to be about $25,000 and no insurance coverage.  Arson is suspected.  
​Nippu Jiji, February 14, 1939, page 6.

FIRE AT NISHIYAMA GARAGE, $5000 LOSS, ARSON SUSPECTED
A fire occurred at the garage of Mr. Gosaku Nishiyama in Wailea, Hawaii Island on February 11, at 3 a.m., that burned the garage, 2 buses and 2 banana cars down.  The vehicles were purchased 2 or 3 years ago.  The loss is predicted to be $5000.  
​
A neighbor of Nishiyama Garage Mr. Tamashiro woke up by a dog barking and opened his window, and found that the garage went up in flames.  2 buses, 2 trucks and other things were rapidly burned down.   It was one consolation that the gasoline tank didn't explode because Hilo Fire Engines had come right away.  The older son's bus was in Kawaihae, and another bus was in another garage. Arson is suspected because it was 3 a.m., no one must have not smoking and no cars were working.  
​​Nippu Jiji, February 14, 1939, page 8.

These Nippu Jiji articles were accessed from the Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. Translation provided by Rev. Junshin Miyazaki of the Hakalau Jodo Mission.

For the complete story of the development of the bus systems, including the role of the Nishiyama Bus Service and Garage, read the April 13, 2003 article in the Hawaii Tribune Herald.

Read the Article!