Smiling as she sat in her wheelchair beneath the trees of Ala Moana Regional Park, Aiko Kaneshige, 96, her slight, trim figure clad in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag, held a sign that said “Putin get out” in Japanese.
“I made the sign for my mother because she wanted to show her support for the people of Ukraine,” said her daughter, Gladys Nakahara, adding she and her husband, Earl Nakahara, were pacifists and that “Mom is anti-war, too — she experienced the horrors of war in Tokyo during World War II.”
Amid displays of blue-and-yellow balloons and hand-painted signs demanding peace in Ukraine, the Honolulu family gathered with a half-dozen other local residents Wednesday afternoon to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and express solidarity with its beleaguered people.
Standing around a picnic table, some signed a petition asking NATO to close the airspace over Ukraine, while others discussed the war with Yaryna “Rainy” Volynska, 28, the event organizer and a Ukrainian native who immigrated to the U.S. as a child and is studying anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
“We’re 100% behind you,” Gladys Nakahara told Volynska.
“That means a lot,” Volynska, who has family in Ukraine, replied with a smile and tears in her eyes.
Irene Tang, a retired state worker, said that “with people speaking out all over the world, I thought I should do something, at least just add to the crowd.”
She added, “I wish there was a Russian embassy here in Honolulu so we could yell at them.”
“This is not just about Ukraine; it’s a global fight for democracy,” said Tang’s friend LaVonne Vashon.
“Let the gas prices go up — I’m willing to sacrifice, understanding what’s at stake.”
“I was really shocked by what Putin has done,” said Anne Wright, a former U.S. diplomat who served in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and elsewhere and resigned as deputy ambassador to Mongolia when the U.S. invaded Iraq.
“When Bush went into Iraq, we didn’t get jailed for protesting,” she said about the arrests of Russians protesting the war.
“This stuff does make a difference,” said Kava Kalani as he shot a video of the gathering on his phone.
The Honolulu resident, accompanied by his mother, Leda Peni, and his sister, Lisa Moala, said he is a member of an international TikTok movement posting videos in protest of Russia’s invasion.
Kalani said a “Hawaii Stands With Ukraine” rally would be held at the state Capitol from 4 to 6 p.m. today.
Volynska said she doesn’t know any other Ukrainians here and would definitely attend the rally.
In a phone interview Thursday, UH graduate student Olexiy “Alex” Dvornikov, 30, said he was happy to learn about the rally, as he had been feeling isolated while trying to help his family in Ukraine from afar.
While seeking to connect relatives, who are sheltering or constantly on the move, with friends and acquaintances in neighboring countries who might be able to provide shelter, “I’m feeling numb,” he said. “After a week the anxiety kind of turns into shell shock.”
Some have managed to escape over the past week to Hungary, Austria and Italy, Dvornikov said, noting parents of young children were leaving with them, while parents of teenagers were sending them abroad and electing to remain in order to resist the Russians and help others.
Most men cannot leave the country “unless they have a good reason,” he added, as they were drafted by the Ukrainian government when the invasion began.
“One father left because his car was packed with kids so the border guards could tell he was needed,” Dvornikov said.
Seniors were also staying, he said, as “they mostly can’t imagine living elsewhere.”
A U.S. citizen who immigrated to California at 12, Dvornikov is studying for his Ph.D. in physics and astronomy at UH Manoa. He said he “was walking around yesterday on campus, wearing a traditional Ukrainian shirt, white with embroidered flowers,” in the hope of meeting other Ukrainians.
But nobody reacted, he said.
“We’re scattered across the globe like pollen,” he said, noting that for most of its history Ukraine, literally “the borderland,” has been under invasion and a buffer between East and West.
He added that he was looking forward to joining in protest with fellow Ukrainians and others at the Capitol rally.
LOCAL SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE
>> A rally will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. today at the state Capitol, and a march will be held from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday, starting from Magic Island, Ala Moana Regional Park. For more information, visit Facebook.com/HawaiiStandsWithUkraine.
>> Chabad of Hawaii, part of an international Jewish organization, is seeking donations, all of which will go directly to Jewish people in need in Ukraine. Visit chabadofhawaii.com/special/campaigns/ukraine/donate.
>> The Episcopal Diocese of Hawai‘i welcomes donations to aid Ukraine through its international organization. Check support.episcopalrelief.org/ukraine.
