On Sunday, Aug. 30, 1931, the two Yamamoto sisters, ages nine and five, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. S. Yamamoto of Hanapepe Valley, were walking home across the Hanapepe swinging bridge after finishing an errand, when for some unknown reason
On Sunday, Aug. 30, 1931, the two Yamamoto sisters, ages nine and five, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. S. Yamamoto of Hanapepe Valley, were walking home across the Hanapepe swinging bridge after finishing an errand, when for some unknown reason the younger girl fell off the bridge into the Hanapepe River.
Ten-year-old Suemi Serikawa, a little girl who was swimming nearby with some of her friends, saw the girl fall and without hesitation picked up an inflated car inner tube and ran about 75 yards along the river bank to a point opposite from where the girl had fallen.
She then plunged into the river and swam to the smaller girl who was drowning in deep water about 25 yards beyond the shallows.
When Suemi reached her, the girl was at the point of collapse from exhaustion.
Suemi grabbed hold of her, put her inside the inner tube and told her to hold on. As soon as the girl took hold of the tube, Suemi supported her with one arm while holding onto the tube herself and began swimming to the river bank by paddling her feet.
Meanwhile, Suemi’s friends had called for Mrs. Taro Momohara, who was hanging wash clothes nearby, to come and help, and when Suemi and the girl reached the river bank, Momohara administered first aid to the girl who recovered shortly thereafter.
Unhesitatingly, and without a thought for her own safety, Suemi had saved the life of another.
She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Koichi Serikawa of Hanapepe and was attending ‘Ele‘ele School in the fourth grade.
The Kauai Board of Supervisors later wrote her a letter citing her bravery and her presence of mind in having taken the tube with her in rescuing the Yamamoto girl.
