Statehood Day is approaching on the 21st of the month, and so is the anniversary of Ala Moana Center, which opened on the 13th. This made me think that August is full of historical events. Here are some of them.
Aug. 1
>> Queen’s Hospital opened in a temporary location near the corner of King and Fort streets in 1859. A year later it moved to its current site.
>> The Japanese Hospital changed its name to Kuakini Hospital in 1942. A Japanese name was a liability, it was thought, during a war with Japan.
>> In 1958 the skies of Hawaii were lit up by a nuclear test high in the atmosphere above Johnston Island, 700 miles away. The fireball was clearly visible around 1 a.m. in the territory. The Star-Bulletin reported that “islanders who were up at that time saw a bright flash of light to the southwest, followed by a reddish fireball.” It lingered in the sky for more than an hour.
>> The Pali tunnels were dedicated in 1961. The Hawaiian Historical Society says a tunnel opened to one-way traffic in May 1957 and to two-way traffic on Aug. 1, 1961. Jennie Wilson, the former mayor’s widow, led the dedication ceremonies.
Aug. 7
>> The Diamond Head Lighthouse celebrated its 100th anniversary this week. Its mission was to help ships safely find their way to the harbor.
Aug. 9
>> Tripler began in 1907 as Fort Shafter Hospital, just makai of the base. It was renamed in 1920 for Civil War Brig. Gen. Charles Stuart Tripler.
A bigger facility was needed during the 1940s, and the new Tripler General Hospital opened on Aug. 9, 1948. At 7:50 a.m. “a large convoy of ambulances, their lights ablaze, roared from the motor pool of the new Tripler General Hospital down the winding road to old Tripler to begin the evacuation of medical patients,” according to the hospital’s website.
“Operating with clock-like precision, the patients were loaded and by 8:30 a.m., they are streaming into the Receiving Office at the new Tripler. At 9:30 a.m., the last patient from old Tripler arrived and was carried to his bed, completing the move of 102 patients in less than 90 minutes.”
>> Perry and Price began their morning drive radio show at KSSK on Aug. 9, 1983, following the death of Hal “Aku” Lewis two weeks earlier.
>> On the very same day, Kilauea began erupting on Hawaii island at Puu Oo crater. Since then it’s added over 440 acres to the island.
Aug. 10
>> The Japanese offered to surrender in 1945, ending World War II. Local boy Henry Walker Jr., who later would be president of Amfac, was aboard the USS Missouri when it happened.
He and Adm. “Bull” Halsey’s top communication officers were given a paper bag with the admiral’s thanks. In it was a quart of Old Grand Dad whiskey, a box of ice, cups and cigars.
In the bag the admiral had left them a note. “I and the country owe you and the people who work for you a tremendous debt. This is just my way of saying ‘thank you.’”
Aug. 11
>> In 1911, 21-year-old Duke Kahanamoku broke the 100-yard freestyle world record by 4.6 seconds. A year later, at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Duke won a gold medal in the 100 and a silver in the 4×200 meter relay.
Aug. 12
>> The United States annexed Hawaii in 1898.
Aug. 13
>> Phase One of Ala Moana Center opened in 1959. It was the wing Ewa of today’s center stage.
>> Grand-opening ceremonies were held on the roof-deck parking lot outside Sears and Longs. More than 1,000 attended. Phase II extended the center in 1966 from the center stage area to where Macy’s is today.
Aug. 15
>> The Reciprocity Treaty between the kingdom and the United States was ratified in 1876. It eliminated import duties and allowed our sugar industry to grow dramatically. This paved the way for thousands of Asians, Portuguese and Puerto Ricans to move to Hawaii.
Aug. 17
>> First Hawaiian Bank’s predecessor, the bank of Bishop & Co., opened in 1858. Founder Charles Reed Bishop had found himself in Hawaii by accident. After a harrowing 10-month sea voyage, Bishop was so happy to make landfall in Hawaii that he nixed the rest of his planned trip to Oregon.
He eventually married a princess, co-founded Kamehameha Schools and started Hawaii’s first bank.
Aug. 20
>> The Waikiki Theatre opened in 1936. It was Hawaii’s grandest theater with papier-mache and concrete coconut trees, bougainvillea, cereus and papaya along the walls, and a blue sky ceiling with stars and moving clouds. It was like being outdoors.
The screen had a rainbow arch over it, and it was flanked by coconut trees with fronds that swayed. A pipe organ in the front entertained between movies, and the Usherettes Glee Club often sang before shows. It seated 1,335 people.
Aug. 21
>> Statehood was granted in 1959. (We officially observe it on the third Friday in August.)
Radio station guru Ron Jacobs described the times to me: “James Michener had just published ‘Hawaii.’ Don Ho performed at Honey’s in Kaneohe. Hawaii-based musicians Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman hit the national Billboard Hot 100 charts with their exotic ‘Tiki Lounge’ music. The first open-heart surgery was performed in the Islands.
“The movie ‘Gidget’ introduced a bit of surf culture to American audiences. Henry J. Kaiser leased 6,000 acres from Bishop Estate in southeast Oahu for Hawaii Kai. And, sports fans, Atsushi ‘Fifi’ Hasebe bowled the first 800-plus, three-game series in Hawaii at the Kapiolani Lanes.” Bowling was big back in 1959.
>> In 1908 Ikua Purdy, Eben “Rawhide Ben” Low and Archie Kaaua won the top awards at the world-famous Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. More than 12,000 attended this Wyoming event and cheered the kanaka when they took first, third and sixth places.
Aug. 25
>> Former Sen. Daniel Inouye told my Rotary club eight years ago that he attended his first White House dinner on this night in 1959. He had just been sworn in as a U.S. congressman.
“Hawaii was admitted to the union, and I was elected congressman. I was the first Asian in Congress,” he told us. As his rented limo pulled up to the White House gate, the driver handed his invitation to the guards.
Inouye could hear one whisper to the other, “Who the hell is that?” They had never seen an Asian at the White House before.
The other replied, “I think it’s the king of Siam.” Inouye smiled and waved to them.
Aug. 26
>> Earl Finch died of a heart attack in 1965. He was just 49 years old. Finch befriended thousands of AJAs who were sent to Camp Shelby, Miss., in 1943 for combat training.
He created a Japanese USO canteen, threw parties for the young men, and visited them in hospitals if they were wounded or their families if they had died. For all his work he was called the “Patron Saint of the Japanese-American G.I.”
Aug. 31
>> Kamehameha III moved Hawaii’s capital from Lahaina to Honolulu in 1845. The reason? Honolulu’s harbor attracted more commercial ships, and the king wanted to stay on top of what was happening in his kingdom.
That’s a lot of history for one month!
Bob 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.
