The state is looking to build a permanent memorial to honor the 1924 Hanapēpē Massacre, a tragic turning point in Hawai‘i’s labor movement that led to the deaths of 16 Filipino strikers and four police officers.
In 2019, researchers uncovered a mass grave containing the dead strikers in the trench of the Hanapēpē Filipino Cemetery on Kaua‘i. In order to locate the graves, the researchers used stories from descendants, a ground penetrating radar and stories from two Japanese newspapers — the Hawai‘i Hochi and The Nippu Jiji.
Michael Miranda, the vice president of the Filipino American National Historical Society Hawai‘i Chapter, said he felt responsible for preserving the memory of what took place on Kaua‘i — as the event is not widely known.
“It’s our responsibility to get somebody to install a memorial, give them the proper recognition and have their history understood,” he said.
A nearly forgotten part of history
Miranda said Visayans were the first wave of laborers to Kauaʻi.
On Sept. 9, 1924, Filipino plantation workers were camped out in Hanapēpē to try and fight for improved working conditions. During that time, workers demanded a wage increase of $1 a day to $2 and reduced working hours from a 10-hour day to eight hours.
The violent exchange happened when the Kaua‘i police entered a Visayan strike camp, where two Illocano strike breakers were being held against their will and detained from going to work.
“The Visayans discovered they were paid less than they were promised,” he said. “They were promised almost $1 a day for their work, but in fact, they were paid between $0.25 and $0.45 a day. They also discovered that housing wasn’t free, so they had to pay rent.”
He said the massacre that ensued is unknown to most Filipinos on Kaua‘i.
“I think a lot of generations of plantation workers didn’t want to talk about it out of fear or retaliation or retribution from the sugar plantations,” he said. "So, as time went on, more people forgot about the Hanapēpē Massacre.”
Miranda, who is Filipino and from Kaua‘i, said he was a junior at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in the early 2000s when he first learned about the massacre. He said his professor was giving him a hard time because he was from Kaua‘i and didn't know the history.
Miranda vowed to learn more about it, which led to his work with the Hawaiʻi chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society, a technician, and an engineer to find the graves.
To find the site, they compared historic photos of the funeral, sourced from two local Japanese newspapers.
To his surprise, the photos from the newspapers were identical, showing the exact location of the funeral.
“Surprisingly, all the trees in the background are exactly the same as they were in 1924. So that’s how we identified the site,” he said.
Miranda thought of exhuming the bodies but said it would harm the relationship with the community.
“The evidence we have is pretty strong that it’s the right place, so it’s better to leave them alone,” he said.
Paying respect to what took place
The Department of Accounting and General Services is creating a memorial plaque at the cemetery. The plan is to finalize it by the end of this year and have it installed by next year.
Eric Agena, a DAGS engineering program manager on Kaua‘i, anticipates placing a memorial just outside the cemetery.
But Agena said, after looking at reports from the state archives, the Hanapēpē Massacre is more nuanced than most think.
“This was a dark and tragic but important part of labor history in Hawai‘i,” he said.
Agena said there were police officers and up to 200 Filipino strikers armed with pistols, knives and clubs involved in the event. He added that the crowd was closing in on the officers and the Ilocanos.
“Accounts vary, but a gunshot was supposedly heard,” he said. “No one knows who shot that shot, but that is what ended up causing this rain of gunfire and chaos that ultimately led to 16 strikers dead and four deputies also killed.”
The National Guard was sent to Kaua‘i, arresting 100 strikers, and the movement dissolved months later. However, progress toward better working conditions happened between 1937 and 1958, as effective unions and strikes helped workers gain a fairer share of their labor.
Miranda underscored the importance of preserving the memory of the Hanapēpē Massacre and the lessons learned from labor movements.
“It’s a lesson of civil rights and safe working conditions that we enjoy today,” he said.
