• Failure notice from provider:
    Connection Error:http_request_failed

  • Submission Deadlines

    Advertising

    Thursday 4pm

    August 14, 2025

    Content

    Friday 4pm

    August 15, 2025

    To print on:

    Wednesday

    August 13, 2025

  • Join us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Google Plus Subscribe via RSS

History

Stories about Molokai’s rich cultural history.

Open House for Kalaupapa Planning

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Open House for Kalaupapa Planning

Preserving, protecting and sharing Kalaupapa is a delicate process – a balance between government agencies, the settlement’s history of both Native Hawaiians and Hansen’s disease patients, and family members and tourists who want to learn all they can about Kalaupapa. The National Park Service (NPS) has been collecting mana`o and ideas from all spectrums for the Kalaupapa General Management Plan and draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The General Management Plan (GMP) process officially began in 2009 with several public scoping sessions. NPS staff planners then came up with four alternatives, incorporating four different ways the park could be managed for the next 15-20 years.

Last week, NPS held another public session, open house style at the Mitchell Pauole Center.  They presented four potential plans as they stand now, and asking for more opinion to ensure all opinions are heard.

“[We want] to really connect with the community, to make sure we’re not missing things along the way,” said Steve Prokop, NPS superintendent for Kalaupapa.

Everyone’s experience with Kalaupapa should be “hands on,” said Boogie Kahilihiwa, a patient living in Kalaupapa who attended the topside open house. Kahilihiwa said any plan should ensure the entire history of the peninsula is included. “[We’re] not the only ones telling the story, but [the visitor] is there [feeling it].”

,” he said.

Other comments included residents’ requests for more local access to the area, and more agricultural and cultural perpetuation. Karen Holt, executive director of the Molokai Community Service Council, suggested involving resource management from topside organizations.

“Kalaupapa will forever serve as a place of knowledge,” Waros added.

Moving Forward
Comments will continue to be taken until July 16, and NPS offers a variety of ways to get involved. The public can complete the electronic comment card at parkplanning.nps.gov/kala (the preferred method); email to KALA_GMP@nps.gov; send a letter to Superintendent Prokop (Kalaupapa National Historical Park, P.O. Box 2222, Kalaupapa, HI 96742); or call 567-6802 ex. 1103.

The GMP and draft EIS are due for public review eight months to a year from now, according to Prokop, and the final review will be done in 2013. NPS expects implantation of the approved plan and subsequent statements (EIS, Cultural Impact Statement, etc.) to begin in 2013.

Posted in , , commentsAdd your comment

How Cola Gave Molokai Clean Water

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Community Contributed by Chik Hirayama

Posted in , comments3 Comments

Hawaiian Language Lives On

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Hawaiian Language Lives On

`Olelo Hawaii filled the Molokai High School Hawaiian Immersion graduation ceremony, and dozens of lei rose to the noses of the graduates last Friday evening.

The ceremony was the culmination of five students’ knowledge of Hawaiian language and culture: Kekukuimawaenaokamokumaikekuahiwiakalaniikekai  Kaiama-Lenwai, Kealakai Alcon, Keakaokalani Kaiama, Ka`imiola Sagario and Kailana Eheu`ula Ritte-Camara.

Each graduate spoke in Hawaiian for about 10 minutes in front of an audience of 100 people at their garden at Molokai High School. The students also recited their “Oli Mo Okuahuhau,” or genealogical recitation.

language and culture thriving on Molokai,” he said.

Posted in , , , , , , , commentsAdd your comment

Blessed Marianne Cope Returns

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Blessed Marianne Cope Returns

While St. Damien is a household name on Molokai, Blessed Mother Marianne Cope isn’t far behind in the process of being declared a saint. A relic of the venerated nun, who served in Kalaupapa with Damien, will be on display on Molokai on May 6 and 7.

Not only did Mother Marianne leave her home in New York to care for Hansen’s disease patients in Kalaupapa and Honolulu for 35 years, but she also founded the first hospital on Maui, as well as Hilo General Hospital and orphanages for children around the state.

“I am hungry for the work, I am not afraid of the disease, hence it would be my greatest delight even to minister to the abandoned lepers,” said Mother Marianne in response to a request to serve in Hawaii, in 1883, according to blessedmothermarianne.org.

,” Lau said. “She assured none of our sisters will contract Hansen’s disease. And nobody has. That in itself is a miracle, I think.”

Mother Marianne spent the last thirty years of her life in Kalaupapa taking care of those exiled there, never having a chance to return to her home in New York before dying of natural causes.

During her time there, she helped start the construction of the Bishop Home in Kalaupapa for homeless women and girls affected with Hansen’s disease. She also opened the Kapiolani Home on Oahu for daughters of Hansen’s disease patients.

Possible Sainthood
In order to be declared a saint by the Catholic Church, two miracles must be attributed to the subject and verified by the Vatican in Rome; Mother Marianne has one miracle to her name. In 1992, a cancer patient, Kate Mahoney, touched a relic of Mother Marianne and was healed shortly after. Doctors were dumbfounded by her recovery, and she is still alive today.

There is currently one more alleged miracle attributed to Mother Marianne, but the details of it have not been released.

Marianne’s first phenomenon was verified in the late 1990s.  Another possible miracle is being reviewed by the Vatican in Rome, but the details of it have not been released.

The relic comes just in time for her six-year anniversary of being declared Blessed.  She gained beatification in 2005, which is the third step of four in the canonization process.

Mother Marianne’s efforts on Oahu earned her the Royal Medal of Kapiolani. Upon arrival in 1883, the Sister’s first task was to take care of newly diagnosed Hansen’s disease patients at Branch Hospital. A year later, she founded Malulani Hospital, the first hospital on Maui.


Mother Marianne met St. Damien two years before he was diagnosed with Hansen’s disease, in 1884. He was so satisfied with her and her Sisters’ work, he requested that they take over for him in Kalaupapa after he died.

Blessed Mother Marianne Cope’s relic will be on display at Kalaniana`ole Hall on May 6 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and at St. Damien Center until midnight for prayers. From there, it will be transported to St. Francis Church at 10:30 a.m. on May 7.

Posted in , , , , commentsAdd your comment

Modern Kids, Old History

Monday, April 11th, 2011

Modern Kids, Old History

Students at Kualapu`u School transformed their auditorium into a multi-cultural mecca last Thursday with a school play about Hawaii’s history.

“I wasn’t nervous today,” said La`a Sumarnap, a sixth grader of Kualapu`u School.

Last Thursday’s play portrayed important events from Hawaii’s history, starting with the formation of Hawaii’s archipelago, to the banning of hula, and the migration of Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos who worked on Hawaii’s plantations.

“We made our drums out of tires and tape,” he said.

Kenilyn Nishihiri-Aki, a sixth grader at Kualapu`u , summed up the play.

“We all have aloha for this place where we live. We love the Hawaiian culture,” she said.

Posted in , , , , , , , , , comments1 Comments

Internment History on Molokai

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Internment History on Molokai

About 2,000 Japanese-Americans were forcibly confined in camps around Hawaii during World War II – 2,000 stories previously untold.

The National Park Service (NPS) recently uncovered six previously unknown internment sites, for a total of 13 around the state.

Kaunakakai was one of those sites. The old jail, the island’s oldest wooden building now standing vacant in Malama Park, was used as a holding site for four known Molokai residents picked up during WWII.

Sites like these, where little remains to identify their historical significance, are being studied by NPS to determine whether they should be brought into the NPS system. Planners and NPS officials are hosting meetings around the state to gather public input on all the sites, as well as collect information on each island’s specific locations.

Judy Bittenbender, a local resident who attended last week’s scoping meeting on Molokai, said preserving these sites are important, “in part for the future generation, as so many of our seniors are passing on.”


Mana`o and ideas on internment preservation – both of Kaunakakai and the other island’s sites – can be shared with NPS for this study until May 31. The draft study will be presented again to the public in the fall, before being sent to Congress in spring 2012. More information can be found at nps.gov/pwro/honouliuli and HawaiiInternment.org. Testimony and questions can be sent to Bott’s email, suzanne_bott@nps.gov.

Internment throughout Hawaii
KAUAI – Wailua County Jail, Kalaheao Stockade, Lihue Plantation, Waimea Jail
OAHU – Honouliuli Gulch, U.S. Immigration Station, Sand Island Detention Center
MAUI – Wailuku County Jail, Haiku Camp
MOLOKAI – Kaunakakai Jail
LANAI – Lanai City Jail
HAWAII – Waiakea Prison Camp, Kilauea Miliary Camp

Posted in , commentsAdd your comment

Preserving Forgotten History

Monday, February 28th, 2011

By Associated Press and Molokai Dispatch staff

Not many people in or outside of Hawaii know the state hosted internment camps – preliminary studies have identified 13 sites in Hawaii where people were confined for varying lengths of time between the 1941 start of the war and the war's end in 1945.

Honouliuli Gulch on Oahu, which held 1,200 people between 1943 and 1945, was the largest camp in Hawaii.

The National Park Service is holding public meetings over the next month to get input on internment camps in Hawaii during World War II to help it determine the best way to preserve these sites and share their history.

Posted in , commentsAdd your comment

Life of the Land

Monday, January 31st, 2011

Life of the Land

Community Contributed

By G.T. Larson

“We are life that wants to live in the midst of other life that wants to live,” Albert Einstein once said.

Many of us love this island, this land, but the question should be asked: do we love the life of this land? Much of our attention has been given to the interaction between humans and everything else, for we are the only creatures on Earth capable of destroying all the life of the land or protecting any of the life of the land.

The early Hawaiians knew that the natural world was their sole source of food, clothing and shelter, which necessitated a deep since of respect, even reverence for the land. Today, the preservation of the natural world has been somewhat relegated to the realm of being a nice thing to do, a good cause, be green, save the whales and all that. But the true essence of the land, the lessons contained therein, lessons that speak of balance, lessons, that for some of us, speak of the Creator, are being drowned out by the noise of the world.


We have more time-saving devices than ever, but less time than ever. In reality, time is the same length as it’s always been: a minute, an hour, a day, a month and a year are still a minute, an hour, a day, a month, and a year long. We just have much more to do now; important things, like trying to make a living, paying the bills, maybe raising a family. These are responsible endeavors, but even they are being crowded into smaller and smaller corners of the day. Technological advances have brought us to the point of 24/7 technology. Using the term advances usually has a positive connotation, but is it a sign of advancement to spend large amounts of the day texting, tweeting, and twittering? And if we are truly honest with ourselves, are all those phone calls, messages and tweets drawing us closer to our loved ones and advancing a useful, caring society?

Civilization is being separated from its roots. We are an integral part of the natural world, but we have allowed ourselves to be distracted from the real world and lured into an electronic illusion. This does not mean that all technology is bad, for this article was written on a modern computer. Instead, we need to be the masters of our technology not the slaves to it. Most importantly, we need to get up from the computer, turn off the TV, put down the gaming device and get our head outside. Look up at the stars, down at the flowers and across the mountains to the sea.

Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono – the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. Seek for the righteousness of the land. Aloha Ke Akua.

Posted in , , commentsAdd your comment

Humble Heroism

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Humble Heroism

As we enter the 60th anniversary year of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, those that witnessed the most widespread war in history are becoming few and far between.

Molokai is lucky enough to still have a number of those heroes in our midst, and they have been gracious to share their stories. Now in their 80s, still with sharp minds and cracking jokes, Molokai WWII veterans come from all branches of the military, and each have stories to inspire us.

“You have to appreciate that throughout history, there is a war every 25 years. That’s generational,” said Padraic “Paddy” Evans, who served in the Army Air Corp from 1942-47. “We’re a small, elite group…becoming smaller every day.”

“It was terrible,” said Ben Munesue, who served in 1943. “I feel fortunate to still be alive.”


Call of Duty
The extraordinary stories of WWII are not extraordinary to the Molokai veterans who lived them – eternally humble, many expressed a simple loyalty for joining, and a no-regrets attitude.

“You volunteer because you’re a citizen, it’s your duty, regardless of denomination,” Evans said.

“Whether you’re a combat vet or serving in the North Pole, when you’re called to duty, you do what you’re taught regardless of how you feel,” said Larry Helm, commander of the Molokai Veterans Caring for Veterans.

This duty for many stayed beyond the Second World War – many of these veterans stayed in active duty or joined the National Guard after the war, and went on to tours of service in Vietnam.

Some WWII veterans on Molokai who were not interviewed include Robert Takeuchi, Noba Shimizu, Mike Misaki and Osamu Murikami, who, with their comrades above, are highly commended for their service to this country, as well as to this island.

Posted in , commentsAdd your comment

Kalaupapa Memorial Moving Forward

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

National Park Service News Release

Ka Ohana `O Kalaupapa, in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS), proposes to build a memorial to honor sufferers of Hansen’s disease (leprosy) at Kalawao on the east side of the Kalaupapa Peninsula. The authority to establish this memorial is in Senate Bill 22, signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 30, 2009.

An Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared to provide the decision-making framework, examining two locations within the Old Baldwin Boys Home at Kalawao, and a no-action alternative.

Posted in , , , commentsAdd your comment