The movie ‘The Hawaiians’ filmed on Kauai
The movie, “The Hawaiians,” released in 1970, was based on the novel, “Hawaii,” written by author James Michener and covered the time period from arrival of Chinese and Japanese immigrants in Hawaii during the mid to late 19th century, as well as the birth of the pineapple industry, and the political development in the Islands from the days of the monarchy through to shortly after Hawaii became a territory of the United States in 1898.
Kauai Volunteers Commander Paul Townsley
Paul Townsley (1899-1956) was Lihue Plantation’s office manager from 1929 to 1954 and the commander of the Kauai Volunteers, a militia formed during World War II to supplement the Armed Forces and National Guard in defense of Kauai.
German Consul protests the St. Catherine’s Fair of 1938
On Nov. 7, 1938, Robert Lange, the German consul at Honolulu, notified the press that he would be asking Territorial governor Joseph Poindexter to eliminate the “sock ‘em” game to be held at the Saint Catherine’s Church fair on Saturday and Sunday, November 19 and 20, at Kealia Park, the present Kealia, Kauai rodeo arena.
Kauai School Teacher Diedrich Prigge Sr.
Born in Germany, Diedrich Prigge Sr. (1878-1954) immigrated to Kauai with his parents in 1881, and beginning in 1897, when he was just 19 years old, he was employed for fifty years by the Department of Public Instruction on Kauai as a vocational teacher, until he retired in 1947.
Hanapepe’s Aloha Theater
On Sunday, Oct. 4, 1936, dedication services for the newly constructed Aloha Theater on Hanapepe Road, Kauai were conducted by Shinkan Tahara, the Shinto priest of the Lawai Shinto Temple.
Kauai and ‘Victory at Sea’
During World War II, thousands of American military personnel were stationed on Kauai, while hundreds of Kauai’s men and women served overseas in the Armed Forces and in the Merchant Marine of the United States and as civilian volunteers both home and abroad.
Kauai School Teacher Yone Kagawa Miyake
Kauai school teacher Yone Kagawa Miyake (1903-1981) was born at Makaweli, Kauai, the daughter of Japanese immigrants Saichi and Yoshi Kagawa, who’d arrived in Hawaii in 1895, with Saichi under contract to work at Paauhau Sugar Plantation on the Big Island for three years.
A Glimpse of military life on Kauai during World War II
During World War II, more than 40,000 American soldiers were stationed on Kauai, where the Army established camps, training areas, firing ranges and artillery impact zones for the purpose of training troops for combat in the Pacific.
Episodes from Noboru Miyake’s Early Years
Born and raised on a 20-acre rice farm on land his parents leased deep within Waimea Valley, Kauai, far beyond the present swinging bridge, Noboru Miyake (1896-1988) would become the first person of Japanese ancestry to hold public office in Hawaii, when voters elected him to the Kauai Board of Supervisors in 1930.
Hanamaulu School Principal Carlotta Stewart Lai
Hanamaulu School Principal Carlotta Stewart Lai (1881-1952) — one of the first African American women to make their home in Hawaii, and Hawaii’s first African American school principal — was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of African American clergyman, attorney and civil rights leader Thomas McCants Stewart and Charlotte Harris Stewart.
Kamehameha’s failed invasions of Kauai
In 1796, Kamehameha I, then the conqueror of all the Hawaiian Islands, except Kauai and its satellite island of Niihau, launched his first invasion of Kauai from Waianae, Oahu.
Kokee Forest Ranger Joseph M. Souza Jr.
Born on Kauai, Joseph M. Souza Jr. (1913-1990) worked for Kauai Electric Co. and McBryde Sugar Co. before joining the Merchant Marine and serving in the Hawaii Army National Guard during World War II.
Willie ‘Golden Boy’ Duarte of Duarte’s U-Drive & Tours
Willie Duarte (1921-2007) started Duarte’s U-Drive & Tours on Kauai in the early 1950s, and by the time he sold the company and Orchid Island Tours on the Big Island to Amfac in 1969, he’d expanded his operations and became such a financial success that he was known locally as Willie “Golden Boy” Duarte, the U-Drive king of Kauai.
Willa Shell, the heroine of the 1946 tidal wave
On Monday, April 1, 1946, two powerful tidal waves hit Kauai beginning about 6:30 a.m., and in their wake, 14 people died, three were missing, presumed dead, and seven were hospitalized for injuries.
Lorraine Fountain was KTOH secretary
Born in Nawiliwili, Lorraine Fountain (1918-1999) was the daughter of Kauai police officer and commercial fisherman Edward Fountain and longtime Lihue schoolteacher Eva Fountain, and her brother, Edward, became a counselor at Kauai High School.
Recalling the Napali Milolii expedition of 1953
In 1952, Kauai forest ranger Joseph M. Souza, along with Ruth Knudsen Hanner and Isabel Fayé, decided to create a visitor center and natural history museum at Kokee.
Kauai Pineapple Co. in Lawai closes
The Kauai Pineapple Co. of Lawai, also known as Kauai Pine, was formed in 1906 as Kauai Fruit & Land Company with the backing of McBryde Sugar Co.
John Manaia Nawela and the Shark Akua
On a spring morning in 1885, Native Hawaiian John Manaia Nawela (1852-1940) was a sailor in Hilo Harbor aboard the schooner Pohoiki, which was being loaded by lighters with a cargo of ohia railroad ties bound for Honolulu.
Kahuna Morrnah Simeona’s exorcism at Lihue Dairy
In February 1946, Alan Fayé Sr., the manager of the Fayé family’s Waimea Sugar Co. and Waimea Dairy, was considering the purchase of 70 Holstein cows and bulls from Lihue Dairy, then managed by Caleb Burns, also the manager of Lihue Plantation.
Valdemar Knudsen’s Waiawa Vineyard
Kauai sugar pioneer and rancher Valdemar Knudsen (1819–1898) once held a 30-year lease on Hawaiian Crown Lands encompassing over 100,000 acres, which stretched westward from the Waimea River, across the plains of Kekaha and Mana, beyond Polihale as far as Nualolo Valley along the Napali Coast, and inland from the sea into the mountains of Kokee, all of which was home to several hundred Hawaiians.