We arrived into Kahului, Maui. That's Haleakala, 10,023 feet high,
The Silver Whisper's itinerary did not have Kauai as a stop. If on our schedule, the ship would not have been able to stop there because of damage caused by Hurricane Lowell. However, as Kauai has been in the news lately I thought I'd use this day to provide some background for those reading this posting considering a vacation there.
- Hurricane Lowell cause considerable damage to Kauai, including knocking out power to 90% of residents.
- That is bad enough, but Kauai was a few days ago identified as having a COVID positivity rate of 13%. Authorities began to take measures when this number reaches 10%. And, by the way, we heard from a 15 Craigide resident that there are new cases there. Haven't bothered to confirm that rumor, but if so, hope that problem will go away by the time we return on September 13.
I have had many memorable experiences on Kauai, which is where my family history in Hawaii began. First, some facts about the island.
- Is the 21st largest island in the USA,
- Population of 73,730, Was 58,500 in 2000,
- Called the Garden Island,
- Is the largest island in the county, with Niihau, Kauula and Lehua. You now know that there are four islands in Kauai Country. Few people living in Hawaii know that,
- Well, actually, Kauula and Lehua are not islands, but islets, with a total land area for both of 0.7 square miles,
- Kaaula, 158 acres, but with a volanic tuff cone that reaches up to 548 feet, Not on the map to the right, but located around 23 miles southwest of Niihau,
- Lehua is around 280 acres, with Mount Lehua at an elevation of 705 feet. Is less than a mile north of Niihau. As you can see, is crescent shape. No one lives on either islet.
- Niihau had a population of 170 in 2010, but this has dropped to between 70 and 184, all native Hawaiians.
- Called the Forbidden Island.
- Elizabeth Sincair purchased Niihau and parts of Kauai from King Kamehameha V in 1864 for what today is worth $2.28 million.
- By 1875 there were 350 Native Hawaiians and 20,000 sheep.
- In 1915, grandson Aubrey Robinson closed the island to most visitors and public access since then have been very limited.
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- The current owners, primarily now Leiana Robinson, bans alcohol and tobacco, and if a resident leaved for an extended period, that person can't return. No long hair for women and beards for men. No electricity, paved roads, telephone and running water. I have a friend who went there to manage the synthetic natural gas supply.
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- There is a small Navy installation, but no one is permanently stationed there. But 80% of island income comes from the placement of Pacific Missile Range tracking facilities.
- Interestingly, Franklin D. Roosevelt considered Niihau as the possible location for the United Nations headquarters in 1944.
- Since 1991 another source of income are tourists in hunting safaris for eland, aoadad, oryx, wild sheep and boars.
- Residents tend to vote Republican and speak Hawaiian.
- There is K-12 education powered by the sun.
- History,
- Polynesian explorers came from the Marquesas or Society Islands as early as 600 AD.
- A second wave from Tahiti around 1100 AD.
- 1778: James Cook.
- King Kamehameha I tried to conquer island in 1796. Second try cancelled because of an epidemic.
- 1810: Kauai ruler Kaumualii ceded Kauai to the Kingdom of Hawaii,
- The Russian Empire attempted to gain entry and built a fort in Waimea in 1817. But were forced leave.
- From 1830 into the mid-20 century, sugar companies dominated the economy, I worked at the Kilauea Sugar Company in 1963. 118-year old Gay and Robinson Plantation was the last to close sugar operations in 2008.
- Norwegian Valdemar Knudsen became prominent, mostly in sugar, from 1857.
- Pineapple started in 1906 and left in 1962.
- More recently, rancher and wellness baron Frank VanderSloot had the only large farming operation.
- Mark Zuckerberg came in 2014 with the purchase of 700 aces, now up to 1650 acres. Has spent $145 million to develop his property, including rearing Wagyu beef.
- Highest peak is Kawaikini at 5243 feet. Second highest is Mount Waialeale, one of the rainiest spots on earth, averaging 460 inches.year,
- Waimea Canyon, the Hawaii version of the Grand Canyon is 3600 feet deep, but still above sea level.
- Na Pali Coast is on the northside, and while accessible, is best scene from a cruise.
- Tourism is the largest industry.
- Has 3 high schools and a branch of the University of Hawaii,
- Home to the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the west side.
- That changed to 92% oil when sugar closed down.
- Today, 56% fossil fuels,9% hydro, 12% biomass and 223% solar,
- Cities;
- Lihue, country seat, is in the south where there is an airport. 8000 population.
- 6 miles east is Kapaa with 10,000.
- More people along the western coast,On the northeast is Kilauea, where I once worked, with a population of 3000.
- Princeville, further north, has more recently developed with hotels. 2,158 people.
- A road does not circle the island.
- Go west from Lihue for the more touristy sites.
- Go east for other things.
- There are a 100 different places worth visiting.
- Kauai has been featured in more than 70 films and TV shows.
Kauai provides incredible memories for me.
- My father's father, Kenjiro, got educated somewhere in the USA, and on his way home to Japan, stopped off on Kauai in 1903, where he was hired to build in Wainiha the first hydroelectric plant in Hawaii.
- Happened to be an eligible girl there, so got married and produced my father.
- Unfortunately, died at the age of 33 at the powerplant site a few months before the facility was commissioned in 1906. Then produced 4 MW. Today, 120 years later, still generates 3MW with mostly the same water delivery system and equipment.
I was here planning to go into details about what I was doing in Kilauea, Kauai, but will instead only copy a blog I posted on 31March2009.
Tomorrow I continue my quest to search for Kenjiro's grandmothers. The following excerpt is from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth:
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In 1963, after a short stint in the Army Reserves, while on a trainee assignment to the Kilauea Sugar Company on Kauai, a newsletter noted my arrival. A very old man came up to me one day and said he had known my grandfather. My initial reaction was mild astonishment, as while I knew that my father had been born on Kauai, I don’t recall him talking much about his parents. That individual said my grandfather was involved with the Wainiha Powerhouse and was extraordinary, in that he was very well educated and served as a supervisor. Unfortunately, he died only a few years after arriving and was buried up on the hill above the town. My family knew I was on this island. Why had no one said that I should visit my grandfather’s burial spot, for the culture of even Hawaii Japanese, was to honor the dead. Then again, maybe someone did and I did not pay any attention.
Well, returning to 1963, weeks later, this gentleman came back and said he had found the gravestone, which was outside the cemetery fence, and that he and his friends went on to restore the area. He led me there and took a photo of me with his daughter, two neighbor children and Pearl. I am today, 44 years later, now kicking myself, for I never really expressed my thanks to him. Only as I write this sentence do I appreciate the enormity of what he did, for I recently used this finding as the starting point for my roots search. Also too, I never bothered to ask him for details about my grandfather. I did, though, mail a copy of that photo to my older brother, Stan.
I pretty much forgot about all this until 2005, when I got a sudden urge to search for my roots. At this point, all I had were a few rumors. Yes, there was that encounter on Kauai 42 years previously and my first visit to the grave of my father’s father. Deep in my brain cells were wild thoughts of this grandfather being educated at Columbia University, his grandmother being a female samurai Robin Hood on Hokkaido…but no proof. And I still did not even know what his first name was. So the process of searching for my roots started at a one day workshop held at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. This is where I created the family mon as a composite of two classic versions. I colorized this official form into the rainbow version shown above, which then became the cover for SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth. The mon represents a high bridge (Takahashi means high bridge in Japanese) to connect countries and people taking the high road to cooperation. This book hopes to serve this function.
In September of 2005, Pearl and I visited Misa Tamura, the son-in-law of that older gentleman, to find the gravestone on Kauai. Misa, himself, was well into his 80’s by then, and he asked if we also wanted to see my grandfather’s powerhouse, for somehow, the community even then, a century later, referred to the site as Takahashi’s powerhouse. The Wainiha Powerhouse was commissioned in 1906, and today produces 4 MW with essentially the same incoming pipes and generation equipment. Around this time, my brother, Stan, found the earlier photo and sent me a note that the name on the gravestone was Kenjiro Takahashi. Thus, I learned for the first time that I was named after this grandfather, for my middle name is Kenji.
There were still huge doubts on what was real until I had the good fortune to sit next to Elsie and David Ikegami at a 50th year Wedding Anniversary party of a mutual friend. David was born in Utah, was a Mormon, but lived most of his life in Hawaii. At the age of 80, he ran one of those Mormon family centers famous for conducting these root searches. I visited his office and passed on all the information I had, which was not much. Within two weeks his staff found a nine page document signed by the Secretary of the Territory of Hawaii showing that Kenjiro came to Kauai from America, was originally from Hokkaido, Japan, and served as a luna, or supervisor, at the Kilauea Plantation. He fell at the hydro site in 1906 and died in the same year that the powerhouse commenced operations. Well, with most of what I thought was largely made up now turning out to be true, the search was intensified with a trip to Utashinai, his home village, and will continue for Kenjiro’s grandmothers in Akita on Honshu and Otaru, just outside of Sapporo. Even if I find nothing else, there is enough already to write a book, tracing this possible female samurai Robin Hood to me. At this time, this one looms as a novel.
Well, returning to 1963, weeks later, this gentleman came back and said he had found the gravestone, which was outside the cemetery fence, and that he and his friends went on to restore the area. He led me there and took a photo of me with his daughter, two neighbor children and Pearl. I am today, 44 years later, now kicking myself, for I never really expressed my thanks to him. Only as I write this sentence do I appreciate the enormity of what he did, for I recently used this finding as the starting point for my roots search. Also too, I never bothered to ask him for details about my grandfather. I did, though, mail a copy of that photo to my older brother, Stan.
I pretty much forgot about all this until 2005, when I got a sudden urge to search for my roots. At this point, all I had were a few rumors. Yes, there was that encounter on Kauai 42 years previously and my first visit to the grave of my father’s father. Deep in my brain cells were wild thoughts of this grandfather being educated at Columbia University, his grandmother being a female samurai Robin Hood on Hokkaido…but no proof. And I still did not even know what his first name was. So the process of searching for my roots started at a one day workshop held at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. This is where I created the family mon as a composite of two classic versions. I colorized this official form into the rainbow version shown above, which then became the cover for SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth. The mon represents a high bridge (Takahashi means high bridge in Japanese) to connect countries and people taking the high road to cooperation. This book hopes to serve this function.
In September of 2005, Pearl and I visited Misa Tamura, the son-in-law of that older gentleman, to find the gravestone on Kauai. Misa, himself, was well into his 80’s by then, and he asked if we also wanted to see my grandfather’s powerhouse, for somehow, the community even then, a century later, referred to the site as Takahashi’s powerhouse. The Wainiha Powerhouse was commissioned in 1906, and today produces 4 MW with essentially the same incoming pipes and generation equipment. Around this time, my brother, Stan, found the earlier photo and sent me a note that the name on the gravestone was Kenjiro Takahashi. Thus, I learned for the first time that I was named after this grandfather, for my middle name is Kenji.
There were still huge doubts on what was real until I had the good fortune to sit next to Elsie and David Ikegami at a 50th year Wedding Anniversary party of a mutual friend. David was born in Utah, was a Mormon, but lived most of his life in Hawaii. At the age of 80, he ran one of those Mormon family centers famous for conducting these root searches. I visited his office and passed on all the information I had, which was not much. Within two weeks his staff found a nine page document signed by the Secretary of the Territory of Hawaii showing that Kenjiro came to Kauai from America, was originally from Hokkaido, Japan, and served as a luna, or supervisor, at the Kilauea Plantation. He fell at the hydro site in 1906 and died in the same year that the powerhouse commenced operations. Well, with most of what I thought was largely made up now turning out to be true, the search was intensified with a trip to Utashinai, his home village, and will continue for Kenjiro’s grandmothers in Akita on Honshu and Otaru, just outside of Sapporo. Even if I find nothing else, there is enough already to write a book, tracing this possible female samurai Robin Hood to me. At this time, this one looms as a novel.
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So tomorrow I'm off to search for Kenjiro's grandmothers in Otaru and Akita. As Japanese kosekis only go back 80 years, and these great-great grandmothers were all born around circa 1825, perhaps church records or folk tales will provide the only clues. As neither Pearl nor I read or communicate in Japanese, Hiromi Hotta, wife of Nihon University Ocean Engineering professor, Kenji Hotta, will be with us. She, too, has roots in Otaru, so she has been looking forward to this combined expedition.
Before I close, thought I would add this photo of my wife Pearl and dog Pepper, and quote from a 16November2019 posting:
You might want to read this posting because it goes on to say something about Pearl and France Nuyen, plus more on that 4MW hydro facility on Kauai. And, scrolling down to the next posting, the life Pepper had on Kauai, for he passed away just as we were leaving the island.
- Was the deadliest foreign attack on American soil in history.
- Killed 2,977, plus 19 hijackers.
- Both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City were demolished, a plane struck the Pentagon in DC and Flight 93 crashed into a Philadelphia field.
- Incidentally, #2 on this list was something I saw. On 7December1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, killing 2403 Americans. 64 Japanese servicemen died, 29 of their aircraft were shot down and 5 midget submarines were destroyed.
- For this current Kilauea eruption, which started on 23December2024, the highest lava fountain came on 10March2026 in Episode 43: 1770 feet to the right. The Empire State Building is 1454 feet tall.
- The Kilauea eruption of 1959 into 1960 produced a fountain of 1900 feet on 17December1959, below.
Mount Etna to the left.
While maybe this confuses you, here is a video that shows there have been fountains that reached 22,200 feet. In 2025, Discovery wrote about the 1886 eruption of Tarawera in New Zealand that produced lava fountains of 32,000 feet. The article explained that this might have been an explosive eruption, and goes on to describe this type of volcanic bombs. Below is a painting by Charles Blomfield of this eruption from eyewitness accounts. He lived from 1848 to 1926.
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