I spoke to the Hawaii Japanese Heritage Group this past weekend about noteworthy Americans of Japanese ancestry and their interesting stories.
My talk took the form of a quiz so that it was interactive. The audience knew most of the answers, but I hope they learned some things about the people and companies that they hadn’t known before.
Here are some of the quiz questions. Can you tell which person or company fits these clues?
>> Who was Rep. Daniel Inouye mistaken for at his first White House dinner in 1959?
>> Which company that started in Hilo in 1950 is now building a $200 million plant in Indiana to satisfy Midwest demand for its products?
>> What local market chain is a living memorial to a brother who died while serving in the 100th Infantry Battalion during World War II?
>> Which company was renamed after the owner’s family visited Las Vegas and saw an iconic sign?
King’s Hawaiian
Robert Taira started Robert’s Bakery in Hilo in 1950 with a focus on cakes. His breakthrough, though, was finding a way to extend the short shelf life of Portuguese sweet bread. It became a big seller.
He outgrew Hawaii island and opened King’s Bakery & Coffee Shop on King Street in McCully in 1963, naming it for the street it was on.
Fourteen years later, he expanded to California, then Georgia. The company is spending more than $200 million to open another massive, automated bakery in Indiana to meet demand in the Midwest.
Their goal is to spread aloha to grocery stores across the entire country. More than 70% of their sales are sweet bread products.
King’s Hawaiian had a float in the 2016 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It depicted a waterfall, volcano and surf shop cafe on the float’s “beach” with the word “aloha.”
King of Siam
Daniel Inouye was sworn in as a congressman on Statehood Day in 1959. He was invited to a White House dinner for Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev that weekend.
As his car pulled up to the White House gate, he could hear the guards talking. Apparently, few Asians had visited the White House.
“Who the hell is that?” one said.
“I think it’s the King of Siam!” the other replied. Inouye found it amusing. He smiled and waved to the guards.
ABC
“After graduating from McKinley High School, Sidney Kosasa studied pharmacology at the University of California, Berkeley. When he was within months of graduation, Japan attacked Hawaii. He received a letter that he would be interned.
The dean let all the Japanese Americans take their final exams early. They all passed and got their degrees.
People were directed to the internment camps alphabetically by the name of the street they lived on, so Kosasa moved from one street to the next until he ran out of Xs, Ys and Zs.
After the war, he returned to Hawaii, and launched his alphabetically named ABC Stores. He expanded beyond things you’d find in a drugstore to include items tourists could use, and sales skyrocketed.
ABC now has stores in Waikiki, Las Vegas, Guam and the Mariana Islands.
Las Vegas
Steven Nagamine bought the Olympic Grill at 574 Ala Moana Blvd. in 1950. On a trip to Las Vegas, the family saw the Flamingo Hotel sign and when they returned to Hawaii, Nagamine changed his restaurant’s name to Flamingo.
It caught on. People liked it right away. The logos were similar, and people frequently asked if they were related. They were not.
They sold complete meals for 75 cents, initially to stevedores who worked across the street. They would get a fruit cocktail, soup or salad, entree, drink and dessert. They also put out a relish tray with green onions, carrots and olives.
Flamingo moved to Kapiolani Boulevard in 1960. They bought the former Elliott’s Chuck Wagon in 1966. Flamingo restaurants opened in Pearl City, Kaneohe, Waipahu, downtown and Waikiki.
Lost wages
Tosh Kaneshiro owned Columbia Inn on Kapiolani Boulevard near South Street. Roy Asato owned Wisteria on King and Piikoi streets.
The two went to a Dodgers game in L.A. and made a bet. If the Dodger’s won, Asato would deliver six cases of beer from Wisteria to Columbia Inn, by wheelbarrow, about a mile away.
If the Dodgers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, Kaneshiro would deliver six cases of beer from Columbia Inn to Wisteria.
The Dodgers lost and Kaneshiro had to deliver. Ed Doty, who owned Eagle Distributors, hired a Dixieland Band. He put them in an old Budweiser delivery truck along with cheerleaders from UH.
All three TV stations and both newspapers’ reporters and photographers covered the event.
Kaneshiro left Columbia Inn, going Diamond Head down Kapiolani Boulevard. He made a “pit stop” at Flamingo Chuckwagon for a cold beer. He made sure the musicians and cheerleaders were sufficiently hydrated, then continued up Piikoi Street.
Finally, he reached Wisteria, where Asato threw a big party to celebrate his arrival. It garnered lots of publicity and more than paid for their trip to L.A.
University Laboratory School
Shizumi Kunioka ran the cafeteria at University Laboratory School from 1944-1982. Students raved about the hamburger pizza, Spanish rice, chili con carne, baked spaghetti, almond cookies, corn chowder, tuna macaroni and Ivory Jell-O with chocolate sauce.
At her 1982 retirement party, she arrived in a Rolls Royce limousine. She was presented with a plaque that said:
“Rarely does one person touch the lives of so many during their careers. You not only nurtured us by serving over 3,000,000 lunches, but you have also taught us the values of hard work, being responsible, and having concern for others, which have helped us throughout our lives.”
American Cafe
Ushi Takara was one of the first Okinawans to open a Honolulu restaurant, in 1923. American Cafe was downtown on King Street near Alakea Street, where Central Pacific Bank is today.
He hired many Okinawans as waiters, cooks and bus boys, and encouraged them to learn the business and open their own places. More than 70 did from his village, Oroku Aza.
About 200 other Okinawans founded Hawaii restaurants, such as Columbia Inn, Zippy’s, Flamingo, Like Like Drive Inn, Shiro’s, Wisteria, Kapiolani Coffee Shop and KC Drive Inn. Most sold American food, island style.
Earthquake
Shuichi and Taneyo Fujiwara lost everything they owned in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. They boarded a ship to return to Japan. It stopped in Hawaii, and they decided to stay here.
They purchased a nearly 1-acre Alewa Heights property and opened Shunchoro Tea House in 1921. It became Natsunoya in 1958.
Hawaii had dozens of tea houses at one time, such as Ishii Gardens, Nuuanu Onsen, Rainbow Garden and Kanraku, but today, Natsunoya is the last one remaining. It’s run by the Fujiwara’s grandson, Lawrence Fujiwara Jr., who’s training his son Micah to take over one day.
Smart
This woman was smart — valedictorian and class president at Maui High. She was turned down by 12 medical schools because she was an Asian woman in an interracial marriage. She got into the University of Chicago Law School only because they thought her name was a man’s.
Patsy Takemoto Mink had to sue to be allowed to take the bar exam in Hawaii. She passed, but no law firm in Hawaii would hire her, so she started her own.
She ran for political office to change the system that allowed the discrimination she faced. Mink became the first woman of color ever elected to the U.S. Congress in 1964.
In 1972, Congress passed her Title IX legislation outlawing gender discrimination in education. It opened doors for millions of women to go to medical school, law school or participate in sports programs.
As Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm said, “She taught us that if they won’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair and then rewrite the menu.”
Dreams come true
Albert and Wallace Teruya opened Times Grill on Kapiolani Boulevard in 1939. They chose the name because it was easy to understand and pronounce and would symbolize the company’s progressive image.
Their brother, Herman, planned to go into the grocery business. When WWII broke out, he went to the mainland for training as a combat infantryman but spent his free time looking at grocery stores and wholesale warehouses.
Herman was part of the famed 100th Infantry Battalion. Unfortunately, he died in one of the fiercest battles, at Cassino, Italy.
In 1949, Albert and Wallace decided to sell the cafe and go into the grocery business as a living memorial to their brother. The first store was at 1772 S. King St., in McCully.
“He gave his life,” said big brother Albert. “The least we can do is make his dreams come true.”
Times is the third-largest grocery chain in the islands, behind Foodland and Safeway.
Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.
