The Last Days of Sugar on Hawaiʻi Island (1996) | PBS HAWAIʻI CLASSICS

This rebroadcast of the Spectrum Hawaiʻi episode "Kaʻū Sugar: A Town Remembers" documents the last days of sugar in Pāhala, Kaʻū on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, to the closure of Kaʻū Sugar on March 27, 1996.
This content is made possible by viewers like you. Support PBS Hawaiʻi: www.pbshawaii....
Classics Episode 108 (Spectrum 1305)
Original Airdate: 1/15/97
Rebroadcast Date: 1/4/23
#hawaii #pbs #sugar

[@marylong4693]

I was born in 1949 & raised in Hilo, Hawaii. I loved all the sugar plantations, especially the Hamakua fields, roads, barrelling cane trucks that had the right-of-way, water chutes, & big mills. The smell of the 'Aina, the cane, stalks, planted-then-fired fields, and the processing sugar at the mills, then the jettisoning of the bagass residue into the ocean & large floating masses washing ashore along the coastlines, where we would go collect big batches of it to mulch other plants on properties & enrich the soil. All the hardworking immigrants bringing their food, cultures, expertise, languages, who stayed, established families & communities that blended into the Hawaiian community of inclusiveness....Ahhhh, my beloved paradise! How I miss it! The music, talk story, the dances, Pidgin English, accents, the fun & shared laughter, ohana, cooperation & solidarity, comfort, wisdom and much more. The mana of Hawaii! Treasured memories! An all-encompassing Gift of God & the people of Hawaii ...love them all!

[@efrans2627]

Free Hawaii and Guam 🇬🇺✊

[@myronyoshioka8742]

Poi...haven't had poi and lau lau for such a long time...sigh

[@kristinabouquet7108]

Wow Mahalo for sharing your love of the Mana of Hawaii. My mom, born 1950, experienced much of that in the late 60's, 70's. Her last physical journey there, in 2016 went to Ke Kai over Wainai Falls into Haunauma Bay. Ke Akua Bless her Soul. I was her Ku'u i'po. God bless you ✝️ I loved the part of this documentary when the lady truck driver, Jen, was talking about driving the trucks. I drove snowplow for the state here in Montana. Would love to ride horses and go flying through the old sugarcane fields, yeah!! I'm a country girl.

[@marylong4693]

@@kristinabouquet7108 In Hawaii, we didn't care how muddy/dirty we got. We would "pre-wash" clothes & all by jumping into the coastal waters somewhere, or in a pond (fish🐟, frogs/toads ok2🐸), or under a waterfall, or roadside gully, or someone's outside hose (ask permission 1st), or stand outside for 'da next rain pour. Then, we would go home, go shower (inside or outside) & get clean with soap 🧼, & into clean clothes (if you had some; otherwise you'd be dressed in dad's clean ole ragetty T-shirt while washing your own clothes in a pail/sink/tub & hang on a clothesline.) If you had a washer/dryer(?) to do a full laundry load & knew how to do it...aahhh, mo'betta, yeah?!! Hawaii, it's assets, means & ways are unique.. there's a way always, not a 'no-can'! Thanks for the shout-out reply...I enjoy the repartee! I wish we could visit in-person at a place with ono-licious food 🍍🥭🥝🍇🥪🍳🥘🥗🥓🍙🍜🥟🥄🍵🍨☕️ 🍱🍣🥡on 'da table & us talkin' story! Mahalo &Aloha! /ML (Meleana Loa)

[@Malama_Ki]

Were you at these days? Puna is the fastest growing district in the state is blowing up. People pouring in from other islands and mainland too.

[@samhughes1601]

Can't wait for this one... I never lived Big Island when the sugar was flowing - but am genuinely curious about the last days of this industry. It must have been hard to see go.

[@marylong4693]

It was ...one plantation & mill closing after another! Globalization consumed by corporate greed! The C&H Refinery in Crockett CA had less to process, shipping was impacted also. Sugar beets in Louisiana got more of the USA share, then other foreign countries where labor is cheaper to grow, harvest & process. Hawaii's land lay fallow for many years; some became residential, small family farms, specialty crops (land taro attracted theives making it hard for those farmers to earn a viable profit to keep growing it). Then came the pole eucalytus (ruins the soil) for growers who sell the lumber to Japan for making paper. Climate change is causing more rain, more soil erosion into the surrounding ocean, sea-level rise, fiercer storms. I only remembered one (1) typhoon (hurricane) during my first 18 years. Now, muiltiple 🌀 hurricanes hit or are near- misses each year. A few years ago, I watched 5 back-to-back projected direct landfall hit hurricanes come via satellite. Many of us prayed 🙏, asking God to veer these hurricanes NNE-ward of each Hawaiian Island as they formed & their trajectory ...God answed our prayers!

[@leonhsiung]

❤

[@kapomaikai661]

I was Raised in Naalehu. And went to graduated at KA'U Highschool... I miss them days in the 70's and 80's My uncle Joe Pedro is Talking story at 6:45 and my Dad Albert Pedra is the guy on left at 23:48.. They taught me everything... I now live in Denver Colorado and a Master Electrician of 28 years... Proud KA'U Boy Tim D.

[@marylong4693]

I remember going to the rodeos during the 4th of July in Naalehu, then hitchhiking back to Hilo's Mooheo Park for the Japanese Taiko drums & being able to dance in the Bon 💃 🕺 dance at night. / My foster-father was Rev. Albert Mitsutoshi Yasuhara who pastored first at Glad Tidings A/G in Hilo, then Kurtistown A/G , then Naalehu A/G, then lastly in Hawi A/G. Anna Lililehua Auhulau (Kau area orig family) was his wife. We called them "Bro.Albert & Sis.Anna" ...loved them sooo much. They are "Home with the Lord" (in Heaven) now ... very missed by all who knew them!

[@kapenamokiao6384]

These videos of Hawaiis past is precious to me to think of how my parents and kupuna lived and stories they tell. I hang on every second of all these videos. Mahalo PBS for sharing these to us ❤️

[@patriciayomes8800]

Interesting

[@myronyoshioka8742]

Living in Texas now and seeing this brings such fond and loving memories of the Big Island....my home sweet home

[@marylong4693]

Mine, too. A beloved place to have had. I wish I could go back, I miss Hawaii Island sooo much. It is still "Home..my paradise place! Everything about it! The 'Aina, it's Kama'ainas, it's waters, it's mana, it's features, it's history, it's life, trees, floral, fauna, ocean creatures, land, animals, foods, cultures, languages, music, beliefs, sunrises, sunsets, rainbows that form from the sun shining thru a patch of passing rain, rivers running into the ocean, poi when it was 50cents/per 25lb bag from the Pueeo Poi Factory in Wainaku, Hilo Hawaii. Yes, it is & was "Home Sweet Home"! Sooo many memories of my God-given place I was privileged to have! MY HOME, TOO! My idea of Heaven always!

[@myronyoshioka8742]

Met the love of my life ❤️

[@efrans2627]

Immigrant working from Japanese, filipino Chinese korean and Puerto Rican portuguese

[@808Cummins]

My home. Everyone there is like family. Pahala boy for life🤙🤙🤙🤙. Thanks for sharing.

[@marylong4693]

He Pahala boy...there's a whole Lotta shakin' (magma earthquakes) going on now in your Kau town... Da volcano guys say one of the magma spots is under Pahala! [Me: HI grapevine msg service]

[@808Cummins]

@@marylong4693 correct. It's situated deep

[@JAnotherday]

I enjoy looking at Old Hawaii and the wonderful older generation. If you have any footage on the old kalakaua Avenue when they used to have Joe's Tavern and the wax museum, and other old buildings please post them also and also of the alawai Canal where the homes and buildings and apartments started from Jefferson Elementary School, to the end of the alawai canal. I would love to see those maybe I could find my grandmother's apartment. She live just off of wainani way.

[@erikh9991]

My first visit the islands was '86. I wish I would have take more pictures but you only got 36 pictures to a roll.

[@reddiver7293]

My family's home was a plantation house on a neighbor island. Back in those days, it was all about cane. I would go to sleep with sound of the flume outside my window. Miss those days.

[@lindawoody8501]

I do remember visiting the Big Island in the 1970s and 1980s when we had a haze of smoke from the burning cut fields.

[@FrankC321]

Awesome talk story time.

[@kaumingo]

Both of my grandfathers worked at the sugar factory on Calif central coast. I discovered Ka'ū in 1999, it was strangely familiar and yet unique. Hospitality and Aloha were magnets that held me there. Ka'ū no ka oi !

[@ourv9603]

Countries all around the Pacific rim have been learning how to grow & harvest quality sugar cane. They can get the work done for less labor cost ALSO the US has been moving away from real sugar to sugar substitutes so eventually the sugar cane industry in Hi collapsed and now it no longer exists. The same happened to pineapple. Time moves on. !

[@david-gg8sk]

I actually drove through a cane fire working graveyard shift when the area surrounding Campbell Industrial Park was still agricultural zoned. (1990-92)

[@1610jd]

Ka’u will always be my home. I lived near the cane haul road me and my siblings would sit on a big boulder next to the road and watched as they drove by we learned that almost every truck had a distinct sound and knew who the driver was just by the sound and truck number. we went to sleep and woke up to the sounds of the trucks. my friends dad took us on a ride to get a load of cane some of best times

[@Howrider65]

It was all about money why it closed yes???

[@timhazeltine3256]

In my opinion, the sugar and pineapple industries were destroyed by free-trade, which allowed the importation of agricultural products from countries who paid penny wages into the U.S. It eventually decimated the Hawaiian floral trade, that's why most lei are cheap flowers imported from Asia rather than home grown. But no worries, it made the Walton family of Walmart into billionaires while impoverishing working class and middle class people in Hawai'i and the mainland.

[@jerryakamuadams6399]

i was born pretty miuch after hawaiis plantation era but i heard plenny stories from my grandparents/great grand generation. the plantations are why my great grandparents from Portugal, China, Japan immigrated here. One set of great grandparents are Kanaka from Maui

[@tikigodsrule2317]

So glad my daughter saw the sugar mill inoperation on Kauai before it shutdown.

[@patriciayomes8800]

Many workers left for California. Filipino ‘s were the last to work in cane fields.

[@Wekeslayer]

I love you Pahala, What a special town. Aloha the Naboa ohana 🤙🏾

[@JohnDoe-sy6tt]

My mother lived in Pahala for 28 years. Hawaiian!

[@jaymo8206]

Lived on The Big Island of Hawaii during this transition. Been to Pahala many times. My ex lived there when her parents worked at the Pahala clinic. That was a long time ago. I bet they knew many of the locals interviewed in this superb film. Aloha Nui Loa.

[@illuminaughty2929]

No moa canefield cat or canefild toad.

[@patriciayomes8800]

Interesting stories.

[@guslevy3506]

A great documentary. The old men talking story is the best history…undiluted truth. An underappreciated figure in this story is Frances Morgan. He was the man who sold everything he had to buy Hamakua Sugar Company in the early 80s to try and save the industry and the culture for the area…it was prob a losing battle from the start but the last sugar would have been processed a decade earlier if not for his efforts…

[@mariaelena2132]

I’m wondering, when they say ‘Spanish’ camp, do they mean Puerto Rican? It’s documented that Puerto Ricans came to Oahu & then Big Island in 1900 so I am curious. ❤

[@marvinemercado4829]

So many memories of my hometown! ♥️

[@efrans2627]

Free Hawaii and Guam 🇬🇺✊

[@patriciayomes8800]

Nice story!

[@JavnuteeGaming]

I grew up around the sugar industry in Lahaina. I lived in the camp formally known as Lahaina Pump. I still remember the black ash and stinky smell. I hated back then but miss it now

[@MrJearley6]

Thank you for this video subscriber from Los Angeles but I own property on the island as well in Hilo and watching some of these old videos thank you for all the history to learn more about the island. I don’t live on the Highland just on the property and visit back-and-forth three times a year to family over there on the island and it feels good to learn more about the Hawaiian culture. Well, I hope this makes sense because I’m talking into my phone. I didn’t feel like typing.🤙🏽🤙🏽🤙🏽🤙🏽