100TH AND 60TH ANNIVERSARIES

Yesterday Bob Sigall (left) in his Rearview Mirror reported on how Service Motors, the distributor of Toyota and other products in Hawaii, got started a century ago.  That led me to thinking, what about other anniversaries, for I also noticed that the Ala Moana Shopping Center was celebrating 60 years of service.

Let me start with Peter Fukunaga (that's his grandson Mark to the right, now CEO of the company), who first came to Hawaii from Hiroshima when he was 17 in 1909.  Reminds me of myself, but Peter's life was built on turning setbacks into opportunity:

• started cutting sugar cane, a truly tough job
• became a dynamite "powder man," which, while really dangerous, earned him a lot more money, sending half to his family in Japan
• he almost died when he fell off a 30-foot cliff and broke both wrists, so while three months in a hospital read a Japanese-English dictionary to improve his English language skills (I too broke my wrist while a junior in high school, so decided to memorize all the words in the Scholastic Aptitude Test book, which changed my whole future life, getting me into Stanford) 
• in his mid-20's he contracted tuberculosis, spending a year at Leahi Hospital, further improving his english skills
• broke his leg at work, and while recuperating in the hospital took a correspondence course in automative work

• he and a partner scraped together $25 to buy the Haleiwa Garage in 1919
• within a year he was operating service stations in several towns
• in the early 1930's, during the time of the Great Depression, he opened appliance and finance operations
• in 1958 he went to Japan and talked Toyota into giving him the franchise in Hawaii
• five years later he sold two cars, one to his daughter
• he died in 1960 and Servco is one of the most successful companies in the state

A hundred years ago the Versailles Treaty was signed, formally ending World War I.  The U.S. Senate hates treaties, and never ratified it.  Also the first dial telephone went into operation and the pogo stick was invented.  I find this hard to believe, but in 1919 Honolulu Rapid Transit was granted a perpetual license to operate a railway system.  Slight name change, but the Honolulu Rail Transit is scheduled to start "soft" service in a year or two.

A hundred years ago was when the Spanish Flu ended, killing nearly 700 in Hawaii.  Worldwide, one-third of the world population caught this flu and 50 million died.  The U.S. Congress expanded the 18th Amendment, prohibiting alcohol, and approved the 19th Amendment, allowing women to vote.  Adolf Hitler gave his first speech.  Jackie Robinson, Eva Gabor, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Jennifer Jones, Nat King Cole, Eva Peron, Pete Seger, Liberace and Pierre Trudeau were born.

Sixty years ago when Ala Moana Center opened, I was a sophomore at Stanford and Hawaii gained statehood, becoming the 50th State in the Union.  It took 60 years from the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy.  What I remember most about the land over which the shopping center (still the largest open-air shopping center in the world, and said to be the most valuable shopping mall in the USA) was built were those millions of tadpoles that magically appeared soon after a major rainfall.  Walter Dilllingham bought the land from Bernice Pauahi Bishop.  Turns out that Ala Moana, which means path to the sea, the Center, led to the the name of Ala Moana Beach Park, and even Ala Moana Boulevard.

I'm being somewhat facetious, but a major shopping complex would not happen today, for this area of Kalia had Hawaiian fishponds and many residents had to be relocated.  I might add that in 1889 Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole proposed statehood for Hawaii while the delegate to U.S. Congress.

In 1959 Henry Kaiser leased 6000 acres from the Bishop Estate to build Hawaii Kai, well named, for it means community by the sea, and uses the first three letters of his name.  William Quinn was elected as Hawaii's first governor, and Fifi Hasebe bowled an 800+ three-game series (said to be more difficult than a 300 game--but more recently perfect 900 scores happen almost monthly) at Kapiolani Lanes.  World-wide in 1959:

• Fidel Castro gained control over Cuba
• the Soviet Union landed Luna 2 on the Moon
• Alaska as #49 beat Hawaii to statehood
• Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated as the first president of the French 5th Republilc
• "The Day the Music Died"
• the Dalai Lama was exiled to India
• first 7 NASA Astronauts named

• Michiko became the first commoner to marry into the Imperial House of Japan
• Singapore gains self-governance, headed by Lee Kuan Yew
• Xerox sells first paper copier
• Super Typhoon Vera makes landfall near Nagoya, killing more than 5,000 and leaving 1,533,000 homeless
• Viet Cong starts Vietnam War
• China celebrates 10th anniversary
• MOS transistor invented, leading to the electronics of today
• Congo experiences first known HIV death
• birth of Renee Fleming, Mike Wallace, Iz Kamakawiwo'ole, Simon Cowell and Weird Al Yankovic

50 years ago Neil Armstrong became the first to walk on the Moon, for which I selected Apollo 11 as the greatest human achievement.  Here is one list that agrees with me, then selected electronic devices as #2.  Fire is sometimes mentioned, but I would think that this was something just found after a thunderstorm, and, only later did somehow devise a spark or used sticks.

But there is something of course more magical about a 100th anniversary, and it is reported that Ksheerasagars Lakshman (right) and Lakshmibai of India celebrated their 100th.  But, partly, this is because they tied the knot when he was two and she one.  

There is a 100th anniversary gift:  a 10 carat diamond.  The official Guinness World Record for longest marriage is that of Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher of North Carolina:  86 years and 290 days.

-

Typhoon Lekima killed 22 in Zhejiang Province, leaving 2.7 million homes without electricity.

Typhoon Krosa has weakened to just under hurricane strength, and should make landfall at midweek over Shikoku or Kansai:

-