The Founding Father of Surfin' USA

George Freeth, whose mother was native Hawaiian, brought the sport of surfing from Hawaii to Southern California 100 years ago this Sunday.

Freeth came to Venice on July 22nd, 1907 at age 24 and by the end of the month, it was reported in the news that a Hawaiian was riding the waves on a board on the north end of Venice.

As if it weren't enough to bring what later would become the cultural phenomenon of surfing to Southern California's shores, Freeth is also revered as a pioneering lifeguard. [Link]

A statue at Redondo Beach Pier also gives Freeth credit for inventing the "torpedo shaped rescue buoy that is now used world wide." If not for George Freeth, a lot more people would have drowned on Baywatch.

The Battle of Niihau

I'm a bit of a World War II buff, so I enjoyed reading this evening about The Niihau Zero—a Japanese plane that crash-landed on the westernmost of Hawaii's main islands while returning from the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Having terrorized the islanders who refused to return his papers, the pilot was dispatched by Bene Kanahele and his wife Ella, making the "Battle of Niihau" the first American victory of the war.

A sidebar to the Air & Space print article explains why the pilot couldn't successfully land his plane on the island. It was all because of the pre-war prediction that, if captured by the Japanese, Niihau would make a perfect base for attacks on the other Hawaiian Islands.

To preclude that, Alymer Robinson, Keith's uncle, began plowing up Niihau. "They started with mules," Keith Robinson says. After the Japanese sinking of the USS Panay in China's Yangtze River in 1937, the Robinsons added the tractor power. In all, over 50 of the island's 70 square miles were rendered unusable, all at the family's personal expense.

From a helicopter today, you can still see traces of Niihau's furrows, especially along the island's drier barrens. It was these that denied Shigenori Nishikaichi a safe landing, sending his Zero crashing into brush and boulders that December 7 morning. While Pearl's mighty defenses fell, Niihau's held.

Fellow buffs might want to read more about The Niihau Incident at HistoryNet.com.

Only Genealogists May Enter Here

From The Honolulu (Hawaii) Star-Bulletin of Oct. 30, 2005:

Mausoleum fears theft of treasures

The caretaker says a Hawaiian group has reneged on a loan

By Sally Apgar
sapgar@starbulletin.com

Two sacred staffs topped with golden orbs that for more than 113 years watched over the crypt of the royal line of Kamehameha are missing and believed stolen, according to the caretaker of the Royal Mausoleum known as Mauna 'Ala.

In interviews last week, William Kaihe'ekai Mai'oho, the "kahu," or caretaker, of the Royal Mausoleum in Nuuanu Valley, said he stood on sacred ground of the high chiefs, or, "ali'i," and looked straight into the eyes of another Hawaiian who asked to borrow the pair of "pulo'ulo'u." Mai'oho said he "made a good-faith loan."

[snip]

The pulo'ulo'u are believed to hold strong mana. In front of a chief's house, they were sometimes crossed, which forbade entrance to others unless the person chanted their genealogy and business and was permitted entrance. If the pulo'ulo'u were upright, a person could pass through.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Brady Bunch Flashback

From the Honolulu (Hawaii) Star-Bulletin of Aug. 19, 2005:

Kawananakoa sues, seeking return of Hawaiian artifacts

The treasures were believed to have been secretly buried in a Big Island cave

Sally Apgar
sapgar@starbulletin.com

Abigail Kawananakoa, a wealthy heiress and descendent of royal Hawaiian blood, filed a federal lawsuit this morning against the Bishop Museum and a controversial native Hawaiian group, demanding the return of Hawaiian treasures believed to have been secretly buried in a Big Island cave.

[snip]

Hui Malama reburied the items in Kawaihae cave to honor ancestors and refused repeated requests by the museum to return them. The group allegedly secured the cave from treasure hunters by sealing it with stone, cement and metal rebar.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Everything I ever needed to know about the preservation of native Hawaiian artifacts I learned from watching the Brady Bunch.

J. K. Rowling: Pureblood, Half-Blood, or Mudblood?

From The (Glasgow, Scotland) Sunday Mail of Aug. 14, 2005:

JK'S SECRET SCOTS FAMILY

Writer in hunt for lost relatives

By Donna White

HARRY POTTER author JK Rowling has secretly traced her Scottish roots.

Adopted Scot Joanne, 40, believes she is the great-granddaughter of a pioneering doctor from Arran.

Dugald Campbell, who died aged 82 in 1940, moved from his Scots home to Hawaii, where he helped to create a national health service in the 1890s.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]