The Hilo-based Japanese Community Association of Hawaii will honor Yamada &Sons and Cafe 100 as the recipients of the 2020 Nikkei Kigyo Award.
The two companies will be honored at 5:30 p.m. Friday, live on Na Leo TV, channel 53. The event was originally scheduled at Nani Mau Gardens in April, but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re pleased to honor Yamada &Sons, run by Shelbylynn Yamada, great-granddaughter of founder Bob Yamada, and Cafe 100, now headed by Richard Miyashiro’s granddaughter, Mari Kobayashi Leung,” said event co-chair Jan Higashi. “It’s especially fitting in 2020 that both companies are helmed by women.”
Higashi also thanks the staff of Na Leo TV for working with the association to put together Friday’s presentation.
Proceeds from the event will benefit the association’s scholarship program and enable JCAH to continue its mission.
For more information, email jcahawaii@yahoo.com, call 969-6437 or visit www.jcahawaii.org.
YAMADA &SONS
Bob Yamada came from humble beginnings as one of 12 children growing up in a Japanese immigrant plantation family. He quit high school a month before graduation to take over his father’s trucking business, founding Yamada Transfer Inc. in 1925. Three years later, he married his wife, Emma, who was part Hawaiian and herself came from a family of eight children.
In the early days, if it could be hauled, Yamada Transfer would haul it. The company serviced the many “mom-and-pop” stores in the plantation communities along the Hamakua coastline between Hilo and Laupahoehoe. Bob’s quickness to react to disaster and problems helped the company grow.
During World War II, when Americans of Japanese ancestry were not allowed on the docks, he would juggle his workforce so workers of other races took the trucks onto the docks. He secured major hauling jobs and got contracts to haul sugar and molasses to Hilo and to the Paauilo railroad terminal.
Yamada Transfer had a number of firsts to it credit. It was the first trucking firm on the Big Island to bring in semi-trailers to haul bagged sugar from Kohala to Paauilo and to return with supplies for the Marines based in Waimea. It was the first, other than the plantations, to bring in the big 10-wheelers common on the island’s roadways today.
At the end of the war, Yamada moved the company from Laupahoehoe to Hilo. Then the tsunami struck in 1946, destroying the railroad terminal and many of the railroad bridges along the coastline.
Gasoline for the communities along the coastline was hauled by the railroad, so there was great need for someone to haul fuel following the tsunami. Yamada helped design the required equipment, and almost overnight Hilo Iron Works built the tanker trailers that enabled him to respond and fill the need.
Diversifying into construction was one of Yamada’s major moves. The company also expanded into mining, producing various kinds of aggregate as well as hot asphalt for road construction and ready-mix concrete for residential and commercial structures.
Eventually, it was decided to focus their efforts and hone their skills in mining, construction materials manufacturing and road construction.
After Yamada passed away in 1979, his wife became the president until 1983. Their son, Donald, then served as president from 1983 until Brian Ikawa assumed the leadership role in 2006.
The Yamadas were blessed with 19 grandchildren, 48 great-grandchildren and, to date, almost 70 great-great- and great-great-great-grandchildren. One of their great-granddaughters, Shellbylynn Yamada, currently serves as president. She is supported by family members and others in positions of leadership in the operations and administration of the company.
Yamada &Sons Inc. today continues its founders’ tradition of service. In addition to employing about 50 people, the company is committed to providing affordable building materials for Big Island families and the community.
CAFE 100
Richard Seiji Miyashiro was born Aug. 13, 1916, in Hakalau. He met his wife, Evelyn Matsue Oshiro, in Honolulu. Both were nisei whose parents came from Okinawa to work in the sugar plantation.
They were married in 1944 shortly after Miyashiro returned from serving with the 100th Battalion in Italy during WWII.
Cafe 100 started Jan. 21, 1946. The name is a tribute to the 100th Battalion.
Located on the corner of Kamehameha Avenue and Manono Street in Waiakea, the cafe was a regular hangout for fishermen, longshoremen, the Waiakea Pirates and, of course, Miyashiro’s fellow veterans. Three months after it opened, the April 1, 1946, tsunami hit Hilo and the restaurant sustained significant damage.
In May 1960, Miyashiro built the “restaurant of his dreams” just past the original location on Manono Street. Three weeks after it opened, another devastating tsunami struck and completely destroyed the new building.
The Miyashiro family lived next door to the restaurant. They were at home when the waves struck, lifted their house and carried it several blocks up the road. They then realized the restaurant building had saved their lives.
The Miyashiros lost their business, their home and most of their belongings, but they did not give up. Miyashiro worked for a short while as a cook at the Volcano House, then took over the Naomi’s Fountain site on Kilauea Avenue, where the family lived upstairs.
Property next door at 969 Kilauea Ave. became available for purchase from the state. The couple researched a new concept called the drive-in, where customers took home meals in disposable plates.
On Aug. 24, 1962, the third incarnation of Cafe 100 was born. It was the first drive-in in Hilo to serve plate lunches, including its popular beef stew. The loco moco family, with variations on all kinds of meats besides hamburger, also was born.
Today, Cafe 100 sells approximately 10,000 loco mocos a month, and there are 30 varieties on the menu. The family trademarked “Cafe 100, home of the Loco Moco.”
On Aug. 20, 1964, Miyashiro was invited to meet President Lyndon Johnson at the White House and was presented with the Small Businessman of the Year award for the Western Region of the United States. This was a proud moment for a businessman who had only an eighth-grade education.
Miyashiro died March 20, 1982. He was happy to know that his daughters, Gail Miyashiro and Kay Shintani, were taking over the business. Their mother, although retired, also remained involved in the business.
Rather than just turning a profit, their focus changed to increased efficiency in operations, more employee benefits and programs of support for the local community.
The year 2014 welcomed the third generation of the Miyashiro family.
Miyashiro’s oldest grandson and namesake, Richard Kobayashi, took over the business. He modernized the kitchen, upgraded the electrical system and added a photovoltaic system to the building.
Last September, his sister, Mari Kobayashi Leung, entered the business as the next third-generation owner/operator of Cafe 100. Her husband, Timons Leung, is the head cook and night manager.
These third-generation owners have returned to the beginning, continuing the legacy Richard and Evelyn Miyashiro began.