My topic this week is the unique stories Hawaii’s hospitals have. Specifically, two queens, two kings, two emperors, two saints and a pope founded, supported or named island hospitals. I don’t think you could find that anywhere else in the world.
Which are they?
The Queen’s Medical Center
In the early 1850s the health of the Hawaiian population was in crisis. Many were succumbing to diseases they had no previous contact with.
Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma lobbied the legislature to build the first hospital in the islands, but there were no funds.
The king and queen, both in their 20s, personally went door to door and solicited funds. They exceeded their $8,000 goal with 250 individuals, businesses and groups donating $13,530.
In 1859 The Queen’s Hospital opened on lower Fort Street (near King Street) with 18 beds: “for treatment of indigent sick and disabled Hawaiians, as well as such foreigners and others who may choose to avail themselves of the same.”
Hawaiians called the hospital Hale Ma‘i o ka Wahine Alii (literally, sick house of the lady chief), or Hale Ma‘i for short. Opening day was Aug. 1, 1859 — 158 years ago this week.
A year later the hospital bought the dusty and barren area named Manamana (which means “much spiritual power” in Hawaiian) for $2,000.
It was off Punchbowl Street, mauka of Beretania Road on what was then the outskirts of town.
They erected a facility with 124 beds. In its early days patients stayed for long periods in the hospital. In 1875 the average patient stayed for 73 days.
Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children
The next monarchs in our story are King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani, who opened a maternity home in 1890. Queen Kapiolani personally helped raise $8,000 through bazaars and luau over a 10-year period.
It was called the Kapiolani Home of the Hoolu and Hoola Lahui Society (Society to Propagate and Perpetuate the Race). It occupied a five-bedroom house at Makiki and Beretania streets named Ululani, which had belonged to the queen’s sister, Princess Kekaulike, who had died six years earlier.
At the time, women would spend two weeks at the maternity home, delivering their babies, then learning how to care for them. The cost was $1.75 a day. It wasn’t immediately successful. Hawaiian women were suspicious of doctors, and only six babies were delivered in the home’s first year.
By 1929 the home was more successful and needed more space. It moved to the former home of Dr. John Whitney on Punahou and Bingham streets, where it is today. It was renamed the Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital in 1931. President Obama was born at its Kenyan branch (just kidding) in 1961.
Kapiolani merged with Children’s Hospital in 1978 and is part of Hawaii Pacific Health today.
St. Francis Medical Centers
St. Francis Medical Centers in Hawaii have connections to a king, queen, two saints and a pope!
There were once two St. Francis hospitals in Hawaii, one in Nuuanu and one in Ewa. They were founded in 1927 and 1990 by the Sisters of the Third Franciscan Order of Syracuse, N.Y., who came to Hawaii in 1883.
They were responding to the request of King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani to help the poor and sick here. Fifty religious groups across the U.S. and Europe turned them down until Saint Marianne in Syracuse accepted. That was 134 years ago.
The religious order and two hospitals were named for St. Francis of Assisi, who was born around 1182. Pope Pius IX played a role in selecting that name.
When the Sisters of St. Francis were being founded in Philadelphia in 1860, Bishop John Neumann of Philadelphia had suggested to Pope Pius IX that the order be Dominicans (preachers), according to Sister Agnelle Ching.
“The pope said they were more like Franciscans (caregivers). Therefore, the pope, in naming this particular religious congregation, indirectly named St. Francis Hospital in Hawaii,” Ching said.
Maui Memorial and Hilo Hospital
Queen Kapiolani founded Malulani Hospital in Wailuku in 1884 with St. Marianne Cope. The Franciscan sisters administered the hospital until 1929. Today it’s called Maui Memorial and is run by Kaiser. The sisters also founded Hilo Hospital in 1915 and staffed the hospital in Kalaupapa, Molokai, until a few years ago.
Kuakini Medical Center
The two emperors in this article are associated with what is today called Kuakini Medical Center. Its story begins with the roughly 70,000 Japanese, mostly men without wives, who moved to the islands between 1885 and 1920 to work on our plantations.
To care for all the womenless men, the Japanese Benevolent Society (Nihonjin Jizenkai) was founded in 1892. It started the Japanese Charity Hospital in Kapalama in 1900 with 38 beds.
The hospital outgrew its first and even a second location, and the JBS solicited funds for a larger hospital. Emperor Taisho of Japan and the empress contributed about $40,000 (in today’s dollars) to building a 70-bed facility at its current site on Kuakini Street. Three Japanese princes donated about another $10,000.
The 4-acre site was large enough for current and even future needs. The name was shortened to Japanese Hospital.
The nurses and doctors spoke and kept records in Japanese. Doctors wore yukata and geta. Signs were in kanji. There were communal baths and teahouse parties.
In 1934 Emperor Hirohito of Japan contributed to the hospital’s expansion to 100 beds, with a donation of about $90,000.
World War II, however, changed everything. The large copper nameplate, with the words Nihonjin
Byoin (The Japanese Hospital), was taken down, and everything Japanese was removed.
The U.S. Army took over the hospital in 1941. The name was changed to Kuakini Hospital and Home on Aug. 1, 1942, because it was on Kuakini Street.
Kuakini Street was named for John Adams Kuakini (1791-1844), brother of Queen Kaahumanu and governor of the Big Island and acting governor of Oahu.
After the war Kuakini Hospital returned to civilian control, and its mission broadened to serving the medical needs of the entire community. Today Kuakini is the last existing U.S. hospital established by Japanese immigrants.
So there you have it. Hawaii hospitals founded, supported or named by two queens, two kings, two emperors, two saints and a pope.
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EDITOR’S NOTE:
Starting today, Rearview Mirror will appear in the Local & Business section on Fridays, moving from Sundays. Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@yahoo.com.
