Every day in Hilo, locals and visitors gaze at the statue of Kamehameha, picnic in Wailoa State Recreation Area and play soccer on the grass along Kamehameha Avenue.
Only a few might know that between 1913 and 1946, this green space between Hilo Iron Works and Bishop Street was Shinmachi, a thriving neighborhood of small business pioneers who beat the odds to establish such Hawaii Island mainstays as Hawaii Planing Mill, Atebara Potato Chips, S. Tokunaga Sports and Hilo Macaroni Factory. The Hawaii Consolidated Railway helped maintain business and family ties between Shinmachi and Hakalau to the north — but the tsunami of April 1, 1946, disrupted these connections when it destroyed the mill at Hakalau Plantation and swept Shinmachi off the map.
Yet the memories and spirit of this place live on in the tsunami survivors and Shinmachi descendants, who still reside in our community.
Historian Heather Fryer will present Shinmachi history, stories and photographs, highlighting the ways in which plantation values sustained these small business families through the Great Depression, World War II and tsunami, on two occasions at the Lyman Museum in downtown Hilo.
The first is from 7-8:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14. Fryer will present her program again from 3-4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15. The program is part of the museum’s Patricia E. Saigo Public Program Series.
Admission is free to museum members; $3 for nonmembers. For more information, call 935-5021 or visit www.lymanmuseum.org.