When news of Michael Misaka’s death in the Lahaina wildfire began to spread, his 30-year-old daughter in Oregon was contacted by people from California to the East Coast who became lifelong friends of her dad’s after Misaka served them at a Kaanapali resort bar.
Megan Sweeting’s parents split up when she was a child, but she grew up visiting Misaka at his home in Lahaina every summer and Christmas.
Misaka was gregarious and friendly on the job and would brag about Megan to the customers he served drinks, she said. Three separate families wanted to meet Megan so they would go out to dinner together with her and Misaka.
“He would talk so much about me, and they would want to meet me and go out to dinner,” Sweeting said. “He was very social and he had regulars that came by who would come and stay in timeshares and would come to the bar and talk story with my dad. My dad just loved talking with people.”
Visitors who met Sweeting as a child then reached out to her three decades later through Facebook to offer her their condolences.
Sweeting, Misaka’s only child, just gave birth to her first child in September, and Misaka planned to overcome his disdain for cold weather to fly to Oregon this month to meet his grandson.
On Aug. 7 — the day before Misaka and at least 98 others died in the Lahaina wildfire — he and Sweeting happily talked on the phone about his upcoming visit to meet his grandchild, Jackson Michael Sweeting.
“We named him after my dad,” Sweeting said through tears. “My dad, sadly, never got to meet him. He was really excited about it. He was kind of a kid himself and goofy, and I was looking forward to him having that relationship with my son.”
Misaka really didn’t like cold weather, but was happy to travel to Oregon in the fall.
“He would say, ‘It’s too cold, it’s too cold.’ He needs a solid 85 (degrees),” Sweeting said. “He’s just an island boy through and through. He loves the hot weather and humidity.”
Misaka, 61, was born in Wailuku and grew up in Lahaina, attending King Kamehameha III Elementary School, which was damaged beyond repair in the fire, and Lahainaluna Intermediate and Lahainaluna High.
He studied history for two years at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and later welcomed Sweeting when she was born on Oahu.
Misaka returned to Lahaina, where he tended various bars until arthritic knees forced him to retire during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sweeting said. On the job, Misaka was gregarious “and very, very friendly,” she said.
But at home, in the house Misaka inherited from his mother, he could be “a man of few words,” she said, while simultaneously being a “loving dad, always joking around.”
When it was just the two of them, Misaka talked about his love of history — and for food of all kinds.
“He can talk to you about any time in history, whether world history or American history,” Sweeting said. “My biggest question was always, ‘Why, why, why?’ and he would always explain it to me why things were the way they are.”
He was an avid reader of history books, collected “a ton” of National Geographic magazines and soaked up historical documentaries.
“He also loved to talk about food,” Sweeting said. “We were just always talking about food and recipes we would try. He loved all kinds of food. I feel like I grew up in Lahaina … and I love Hawaiian food and he knows that and would say, ‘Here’s a place you should try in Portland.’ Food was a big big part of our lives together. Food was the main source of entertainment. … He was a very good cook.”
Misaka had other passions, including swimming at the Lahaina Aquatic Center and doing other aquatic exercises, which helped his knees.
“Everyone knew him there because he would go every single day,” Sweeting said. “When it was closed, I would hear about it.”
At home in Lahaina, Sweeting estimated Misaka had 30 tanks of saltwater and freshwater fish, including descendants of guppies she originally owned as a child.
He also raised aquatic plants that he sold, cultivating them in “glass tanks and tubs and jars, anything he could put something in,” she said.
“He had his daily routine,” she said. “He would spend hours swimming at the Lahaina Aquatic Center, and he would take care of his fish three times a day. That was a big part of his day.”
Misaka also was an only child, Sweeting said, and had no other direct family other than her and Misaka’s grandson, who carries his name.
