When Ruby Quijano went to visit her mother’s grave on her birthday, Sept. 13, she was startled to discover “the headstone was gone.”

The 75-year-old Waianae resident walked around the family crypt and found the headstone bearing the Teramoto family name on the ground. “Who would do things like that? It was devastating. I was shocked.”

She found a few other headstones at the Waianae Japanese Cemetery had also been toppled, but the remains of her parents were left undisturbed, unlike an incident 26 years ago when someone broke into a crypt, removed the urns and emptied the ashes.

The family reported it to police, and a Police Department spokeswoman said a desecration investigation has been initiated.

Although desecration is a misdemeanor, the law was amended in 2002 to change the penalty to one year in jail, a fine of up to $10,000 or both. This was done because of then “recent vandalism at cemeteries” and because the penalties for a misdemeanor were an insufficient deterrent.

Three men from the family had to hoist the Teramoto headstone to its rightful place, Quijano’s niece Myra Fujii said. On Sept. 14, Quijano said, she saw the other toppled headstones were placed upright next to their crypts.

“Back when I was growing up, there was respect for the graves, for the dead,” said Fujii, 56, granddaughter of the Teramotos.

“It’s just so senseless,” she said of the desecration. She posted the photos on social media in hopes of informing families who might have loved ones buried there of the incident.

Fujii has been going to the cemetery since she was a young girl, tagging along with her grandmother to care for family members’ graves.

Although raised in the Buddhist faith, Fujii converted to Christianity and is no longer a member of the Waianae Hongwanji Mission. But she is committed to the family traditions of cleaning the family graves, which includes washing the headstones by pouring water over them, and placing mochi and oranges at the grave sites for the New Year.

Her grandmother told her the federal government had provided the land for the cemetery and that the temple was entrusted with its care, she said.

Years ago the Young Buddhists Association installed plumbing to provide water for visitors to the cemetery, located along a hillside, to perform this ritual and have water for flowers available, she said.

But in 2017, homeless individuals began living under the kiawe trees, attached a water hose to the faucet and created a makeshift shower, Fujii said, and have since been using the cemetery water.

Fujii is frustrated and upset that the mostly aging church members, dwindling in numbers, must continue to pay the water bill.

“I knew it was going to come to the point of vandalism,” she said.

She tried to file a trespassing complaint in 2017 with police, but since the cemetery and the temple are not the landowners, police would not take the report and have been trying to find out who is responsible for the property.

On Sept. 13, police officers questioned a few homeless who currently live there. The homeless told police they do not know who was involved, the family said.

A pink lantern, taken from one of the graves, was hanging near a homeless campsite, Fujii said.

Over the years, vases, incense holders and candles have been stolen from the graves, she said.

Fujii, owner of Mary’s Barber Shop in Waianae, said some of her senior customers are afraid of the homeless living at the cemetery, and their presence makes them uneasy, so they cut their visits short, she said.

She said she’s not blaming the homeless for the vandalism, but their inhabiting the cemetery, tucked out of sight behind homes in a residential neighborhood, could be drawing an undesirable element and undesirable activity there.

The Waianae temple, on Old Government Road, a half-mile away from the cemetery, no longer has weekly services or a priest assigned to it.

The Rev. Jeffrey Soga of the Waipahu Hongwanji Temple holds one service a year in Waianae.

He was surprised to learn of the vandalism since he was at the Waianae cemetery in August for the obon service and said that “everything was fine.”

He directed all questions to the Waianae temple’s membership board, but the head of the board has not returned calls to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

“Nobody seems to care,” Fujii said after attempts to contact the board members have failed over the years. “I just want to make sure the cemetery is preserved.”

Fujii turned to state Rep. Cedric Gates (D, Makua-Makaha-Waianae-parts of Maili) for help. His staff discovered the property is owned by the state and that the Department of Accounting and General Services is responsible for maintenance of the Waianae Japanese Cemetery and five others: Puea Cemetery (1440 N. School St.), Makiki Cemetery (1630 Pensacola St.), Puukamalii Cemetery (1821 Kama­lii St.), Aiea Government Cemetery (99-123 Uahu St.) and another Waianae cemetery at 85-759 Farrington Highway.

Gates has reached out to DAGS and the governor’s homeless coordinator to coordinate future steps for management of this cemetery, his office said.

DAGS Central Services Division Administrator Dean Shimomura told the Star- Advertiser a manager learned of the incident Wednesday and that a grounds supervisor will check into it.

“Depending on what we find, we might be working with Scott Morishige, the homeless coordinator, and figure out what we’re going to do,” he said.

The Department of Land and Natural Resources in 2018 transferred the two Waianae cemeteries to DAGS.

Anyone with information on the vandalism is asked to call police at 911 or Crime­Stoppers at 955-8300.