Yonekichi Sakuma On June 20, 1868, the first group of Japanese emigrants to Hawai‘i arrived at Honolulu aboard the British ship “Scioto” as laborers for Hawai‘i sugar plantations. Records differ as to how many Japanese were aboard the Scioto. One
Yonekichi Sakuma
On June 20, 1868, the first group of Japanese emigrants to Hawai‘i arrived at Honolulu aboard the British ship “Scioto” as laborers for Hawai‘i sugar plantations.
Records differ as to how many Japanese were aboard the Scioto. One account lists 148, including four married women and several children. Another shows 153.
It’s also unclear how many were sent to Kaua‘i, either 8 or 22. Of these, only two names are now assuredly known — Yonekichi Sakuma and Bunkichi Murata.
Murata worked for Lihue Plantation, married a Hawaiian girl and founded a family. Mrs. Mary Ahana of Lihu‘e was his granddaughter.
Somewhat more is known of Yonekichi Sakuma. Born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, in 1840, he applied to emigrate to Hawai‘i at age 28.
After sailing from Tokyo in April 1868 and arriving in Honolulu in June, he and Murata landed at Nawiliwili, where they met Paul Isenberg, manager of Lihue Plantation at that time. Isenberg led them to their housing in the original Lihue Camp, located where the Lihue Shopping Center now stands.
Sakuma worked for Lihue Plantation for a number of years before becoming the cook for sugar planter George Norton Wilcox and Wilcox’s family at Grove Farm, a position he held for over 35 years.
His first wife was a Hawaiian girl and they had three children, two of whom were living in Honolulu as of 1968.
When Sakuma retired after his long and faithful years of service as cook, Wilcox pensioned him and built him a retirement cottage next to his beach house on Nawiliwili Bay at Papalinahoa, which was located near where now is the Aloha Center Marketplace building.
Yonekichi Sakuma lived there with his second wife, a Japanese woman, until he died in 1927 at age 88. Their daughter was Mrs. George Kondo of Koloa.
