Ka`u News Briefs Wednesday, July 30, 2014

A tour at Kilauea Military Camp yesterday highlighted its history as an internment camp where Hawai`i Island Japanese Americans were detained during the first five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Photos by Ron Johnson

SIGNAGE AT SITES USED FOR INTERNMENT of Japanese Americans at Kilauea Military Camp during World War II is being developed, according to Laura Schuster, Chief of Cultural Resources Division for Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. The signs will commemorate KMC’s history as a temporary internment camp of Japanese Issei, first generation immigrants, and Nissei, second generation. Schuster announced the effort during a tour of the facilities yesterday.

Jadelyn Moniz-Nakamura, with red backpack, shows historic photos outside
KMC's Recreation Hall which served as barracks for detainees during WWII.

HVNP archaeologist Jadelyn Moniz-Nakamura and archive technician Geoffrey Mowrer led tours of KMC’s facilities where more than 100 Hawai`i Island residents were detained during the first five months following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The first detainees arrived at KMC on Dec. 7, 1941, the day of the attack. Beginning on Feb. 20, 1942, they began to be transferred to other internment camps on O`ahu and the mainland. More continued to arrive, and the last left KMC on May 7, 1942.

The current Recreation Center housed the internees in a room 100 feet long by 50 feet wide. Internees came from a Custodial Detention List, created by the FBI prior to the outbreak of war with Japan, of citizens, enemy aliens and foreign nationals who were considered dangerous. The list focused on businessmen, consular agents, Japanese language school teachers and principals, Buddhist and Shinto priests and those who had Japanese military service or who were deemed to have extreme nationalistic sentiments and were therefore considered a danger to American security. According to written accounts of detainee Yoshio Hoshida that Moniz-Nakamura shared, the common thing among he and seven other men picked up at the same time was their participation in an organization that promoted judo and other Japanese self-defense arts.

While at KMC, detainees were confined to their barracks and were marched to the adjacent mess hall, now Crater Rim Café, for meals. Guards on foot surrounded them. Also, a bell tower that stood in front of the mess hall was converted to a guard tower, on top of which a machine-gun position was erected. The men were allowed outside one hour per day, when the would play basketball and throw balls to each other, and the older men would sit on benches in the sun. Their averages ages were from 50 to 60 years old.

Filmmaker Ryan Kawamoto, HVNP Cultural Resources chief Laura
Schuster and Carole Hayashino, of Japanese Cultural Center of
Hawai`i, joined the Kilauea Military Camp tour yesterday.

During their detention at KMC, some of the Japanese Americans got to visit family members once. On Feb. 15 and 16 of 1942, families traveled to KMC for three-hour visits. The first day, families were allowed into the barracks. On the second day, however, because of an infraction that happened the day before, families had to view their loved ones through wire mesh across the porch.

Filmmaker Ryan Kawamoto and Carole Hayashino, president and director of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai`i, presented screenings of The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai`i before and after the tours. Hayashino said the center is working to find ways to memorialize WWII internment sites throughout Hawai`i. When the film was made, 13 sites were known. There are now 17 known sites, with three on Hawai`i Island.

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HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC COMPANIES ARE PROPOSING programs to provide customers more options for saving on their electric bills while supporting adoption of more clean energy, reducing the use of more expensive fossil-fueled generation and relieving stress on the electric grid. The programs are outlined in the utilities’ Integrated Demand Response Portfolio Plan filed with the Public Utilities Commission yesterday.
The plan lays out new and enhanced “demand response” programs for residential, commercial, industrial and water pumping customers. Under the programs, customers receive financial incentives for shifting energy use to certain times of the day or voluntarily allowing the output of certain appliances or equipment to be adjusted if necessary to help maintain reliable service for island grids.
Traditionally, when demand for electricity fluctuates throughout the day, utilities have focused on meeting that demand by adjusting the supply of power. This becomes more challenging as variable renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar, continue to increase. The possibility of power outages increases when these resources suddenly stop producing power. Demand response programs allow utilities to adjust demand to help maintain the balance between customer use (demand) and generation (supply).
Also, according to HECO, demand response programs can be a more cost-effective option than using energy storage or oil-fired generation to balance demand and supply.

In addition, by offering lower or higher prices during certain times of the day, some demand response programs encourage customers to shift energy use to specific times, such as when solar and wind systems are producing the most power. This can maximize use of wind and solar power that might otherwise be wasted.
“Demand response programs are a win-win for our customers and the environment,” said Shelee Kimura, Hawaiian Electric vice president for corporate planning and business development. “With demand response, customers get financial rewards that lower their monthly bills. We reduce the use of more expensive generators to meet electricity needs. And together we can unlock the potential for more low-cost renewable energy.”
To help enroll customers, Hawaiian Electric Companies plan to work with independent companies that also have experience implementing demand response. This includes coordinating with Hawai`i Energy, the PUC-appointed public benefits fund administrator that manages energy efficiency programs, including rebates for solar water heating and energy efficient appliances.
Subject to review and approval by the PUC, existing programs will be revised and new ones developed and rolled out in 2015.
The new demand response portfolio complements the use of large-scale energy storage as another way to support clean energy while maintaining reliable service. HECO recently issued a request for proposals for large-scale energy storage and is currently reviewing bids.

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Map from DLNR/DFW

HAWAI`I DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES is seeking new projects for the Hawai`i Forest Legacy Program to protect important working forest lands from the threat of conversion to non-forest uses. The U.S. Forest Service-funded Forest Legacy Program, administered through DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife, welcomes applications for conservation acquisition assistance.
Hawai`i Forest Legacy Program works with private landowners, conservation nonprofit groups, the counties and other state agencies to promote sustainable, healthy forests.
DFW is also currently working on projects that will protect an additional 5,000 acres of important forested watershed lands through the establishment of conservation easements.
A conservation easement allow a landowner to retain ownership of the restricted title to their property while providing permanent protection from development or unsustainable uses, providing landowners with an alternative to selling their land to development companies. While entering into a conservation easement is voluntary, restrictions are binding to all future owners in perpetuity.
Hawai`i Forest Legacy Program has identified forest lands throughout the state as important and in need of permanent protection, complementing the state’s broader watershed initiative, The Rain Follows the Forest. See dlnr.hawaii.gov/forestry/lap/forest-legacy.
The Hawai`i program accepts both fee title and conservation easement acquisitions. Fee title acquisitions are voluntary and can provide landowners with the knowledge that their property will be managed and owned in perpetuity by the state.
The deadline for the next round of applications is Wednesday, Aug. 20. Applications can be found at the website above and should be submitted to Irene Sprecher by email at Irene.M.Sprecher@Hawaii.gov. Landowners and nonprofits entities who are interested in participating in the Forest Legacy Program are encouraged to contact Sprecher at 808-587-4167 or by email to discuss their property and interest in the program.

Manu Josiah and Leilehua Yuen present Sunset Hula Friday. Photo from VAC

EARLY WALK-IN VOTING CONTINUES AT PAHALA COMMUNITY CENTER weekdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. through Thursday, Aug. 7.

SUNSET HULA BEGINS AT 6 P.M. ON FRIDAY at the kahua hula (platform) near Volcano Art Center Gallery in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. This month’s event features Manu Josiah and Leilehua Yuen, who are known for their blending of storytelling, science, chant and hula to create a journey through Hawaiian history and culture. Some of their students join them for an evening of traditional chant and hula. Free; park entrance fees apply.

ZENTANGLE: THE BASICS TAKES PLACE Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village. This pre-requisite for subsequent Zentangle classes provides a foundation in the philosophy, ceremony and benefits of tangling. $40 VAC members/$45 nonmembers. Call 967-8222 to register.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.