history

Community-driven recovery efforts are nothing new to Hawaiʻi. Whether it be massive flooding, a volcanic eruption or wildfires...the community finds a way to rally and rebuild. HPR’s Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi sheds some light on a little known recovery effort that began in Hawaiʻi 70 years ago.

Among the objects feared lost in the fire at Brazil’s National Museum are Egyptian mummies, dinosaur bones, and the oldest human skull found in the Americas. Officials estimate 90 percent of the museum’s 20 million artifacts burned in Sunday’s fire. This may have included a royal Hawaiian feather cloak that found its way to Rio centuries ago. HPR Reporter Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi has more.

July 31 is a national holiday in the Hawaiian Kingdom called Restoration Day. The first observance of this holiday was in 1843 at the Nuʻuanu summer palace of Hawaiʻi’s longest-reigning monarch.HPR Reporter Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi has this story.

In 1834, just fourteen years after missionaries first arrived in Hawai’i, an estimated 90-95% of Hawaiians could read.  Over a hundred Hawaiian language newspapers all through the Kindgom documented legends, place names, current events and everyday trials and tribulations, including volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and lava flows.  HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

Surfing isn’t the only sport with a history in Hawai’i. Polo has been in the islands since Hawaiʻi was a kingdom. This Sunday, professional players from around the world honor that history at the Hawaiʻi Spring Invitational of Polo. HPR’s Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi reports.

Today Hawaiʻi celebrates Prince Kūhiō Day. For some island residents this may just be another day off. But for the hundreds who celebrated this weekend across the island chain, Prince Kūhiō is more than just a holiday. HPR’s Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi has this story.

A first-of-its-kind study of Hawaiʻi’s underwater cultural heritage has been completed. The vast inventory of shipwrecks and submerged aircrafts in Hawaiian waters serve as an underwater history museum waiting to be discovered. HPR’s Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi reports.

Award winning writer and educator, M. Evelina Galang, runs into a lot of people who don’t realize that Koreans were not the only WWII “comfort women.”  “Comfort women” is the euphemism for girls and women abducted and raped by Japanese soldiers across the so-called co-prosperity sphere, including Korea through China and the Philippines.   HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports on Galang’s new book, Lolas' House, which opens a window onto the Filipina experience.

There’s an ongoing court battle involving the health and future of the woman some call Hawai’i’s last princess. Apart from the legal case itself, it’s a story of royalty….and how that lineage continues to this day. HPR’s Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi gives us a look at the history that brought about Hawaiʻi’s princess.

A school name change on Oʻahu is raising awareness in that community about the origin of place names in Hawaiʻi. The Governing Board for Lanikai Elementary Public Charter School has decided to revive the traditional place name for the land beneath the school. HPR Reporter Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi has more.

For Pearl Harbor survivors, the attack of December 7th 1941 was a shared experience, but each story is an individual one. For 94-year old Earl Smith, the day before the world would change featured baseball—as teams from different battleships played in a tournament he still remembers in vivid detail.

As we approach tomorrow’s 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, we are listening to memories and recollections of those who experienced that day in Hawaii.

Honolulu resident Louise Lanzilotti recently read from the recollections of her father, Judge Samuel King. On December 7th, 1941 he was a relatively new attorney, who learned of the attack from neighbors in Mānoa—who told him to turn on the radio.

We’ll have more “Pearl Harbor Voices” all this week on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor was a turning point for Hawai‘i, but it was also the culmination of decades of militarization on O‘ahu.  At the same time, ethnic Japanese constituted forty percent of Hawai‘i’s population, a fact not lost on Washington, as Japanese armies spread across China and the Pacific.

As most of you know, it is hard to break into Hawai‘i’s housing market. The latest census numbers show the state’s median housing value increased 7.4% to nearly $567,000, making it the highest in the nation. But as HPR’s Molly Solomon reports, that’s nothing new. 

The History of Political Correctness; "Finding the 9th" Art Exhibit; Mindfulness and Joy in Troubled Times; West African Dance in Hawaii

The Downside to Political Correctness? Father Walter Brownridge

A two-day conference in Jakarta this week broke more than 50 years of official silence on one of the worst atrocities of the twentieth century.  Security Minister Luhut Panjaitan said Indonesia must make peace with its past, but ruled out an official apology, while a retired general called for a truth and reconciliation commission.  More from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

The Future of Wahiawa General; HTC Production of "Othello"; Scots in Hawaii

Wahiawa General in Danger of Closing:  Rep. Marcus Oshiro

The Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands vows that a new battlefield memorial will be completed on Guadalcanal in time for ceremonies on the 75th Anniversary of the battle.  US Marines waded ashore on Red Beach on August 6th, 1942, beginning a six month struggle that marked a turning point of the Second World War in the Pacific.  We have more from Neal Conan, in the Pacific News Minute.

Around 1,000 people are expected to gather in a few weeks to put the finishing touches on a historic Hawaiian fishpond. 

The Pani Ka Puka campaign has worked to restore the wall of the Paepae o He’eia fishpond in Kāne‘ohe bay. The organization has been working to restore the pond for more than thirteen years, and this event will complete and enclose the pond.  The project allows the community to learn the traditional Hawaiian aquaculture practice of trapping and raising fish.

The rising cost of health care is a concern for all Hawai‘i residents.  But one group in particular is facing added medical expenses.  About 10,000 Micronesians live in Hawai‘i.  They're at the center of an issue dating back to U.S. nuclear testing in the South Pacific.  This week, Jackie Young is taking a closer look at some of that history—and how it impacts us today.

Ninety seven years ago: the guns fell silent on the Western Front on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.  The First World War transformed Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa - and while the Pacific was a minor theatre in the conflict, it did play a part, including, as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute - the first naval battle of the conflict.

A new documentary is capturing the music of Hawai‘i’s plantation history.

Japanese workers cutting sugar cane passed the time and dealt with difficult conditions by improvising songs called “Holehole Bushi”.

The name roughly translates to “dried cane leaf song”, and they became musical windows into the hardships of early plantation life

But the songs were almost forgotten as workers left the fields for the city.  Their memory was preserved in recordings from a music teacher named Harry Urata who recorded hundreds of examples in the early 80’s.

Today is the 177th birthday of Queen Lili'uokalani.  She was Hawaii’s last monarch, and witness to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.  

The life of Hawaii’s ambassador of aloha is being celebrated in a new exhibit at the Bishop Museum.

A retrospective of the life and accomplishments of Duke Kahanamoku is the museum’s first exhibition about a single person.  Kahanamoku is remembered as an Olympic champion who popularized the sport of surfing.  He was also a sheriff, a businessman, and an ambassador for Hawaiian culture.  Michael Wilson is an exhibit designer for the Bishop Museum. 

This morning Hawai‘i welcomed the Solar Impulse 2, a sun-powered plane attempting to fly around the world without using a drop of fuel.  The plane landed at sunrise at Honolulu’s Kalaeloa Airport. The record-breaking journey is just the latest memorable flight in a state with a rich aviation history. HPR’s Molly Solomon takes a look back at the story of air travel in the islands.

  You would figure that two countries with democracy and open-market economies would be able to work closely together. But that’s not the case between Japan and South Korea. And although they have specific values in common, how they deal with one another and the U.S. deals with both is often a case of national identity. We talk to two scholars who call for a grand bargain in their new book. That’s today at 5 on HPR-2.

Today is Cinco De Mayo, a celebration that’s come a long way from its historic roots in Mexico.  In the US, May 5th is often mistakenly associated with Mexico’s Independence Day….which actually falls on September 16th.  But historically, the 5th of May marks the Mexican Army’s brief victory over French forces during the battle of Puebla in 1862.  The French occupation of Mexico continued for the next three years until support was cut by Napoleon III, leaving French occupiers to fight on until their slaughter.

Fifty years ago this month, there was a protest in Australia. At the time, it led to national news, and eventually, a change in the law. But it started out relatively quietly. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.