KeOlaMagazine.com | September-October 2018
Aiko Sato of Pähoa stands in her ¼ acre anthurium garden tucked away on an unmarked lane in Pähoa Village. photo by Tiffany Edwards Hunt
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another one with Japanese characters that read “Akebono Za Gekijo” (theater). Aiko recalls that there were Japanese films twice a week at the Akebono Theater, with Thursday offering more contemporary films and another night offering samurai films. One night a week there would be a Filipino movie, to cater to the Filipino plantation workers who called Pāhoa home. “I can never forget that theater,” Aiko says, expressing sadness that such an iconic building burned. She was too young to remember; however, Aiko was told about the Fukumoto’s tofu factory burning down, and her grandmother being so afraid that the fire would spread into the nearby plantation camp that she fled with a chest of drawers on her back. Aiko’s grandmother couldn’t even lift the chest of drawers the next day, a testament to the adrenaline she had with the fire threat. Hiroo wrote in Pahoa Yesterday, “The tofu shop was located across from the Pāhoa YBA Hall. The fire that started from a fireplace destroyed the structure on November 8, 1953.” Aiko lists the businesses she used to walk by on her way to Pāhoa School: Pāhoa Cash and Carry, Momita Store, Subota’s Puna Tavern, Miura Tavern, Sami’s Bar. They are all gone. The only remnant of the commerce of Pāhoa’s past still standing is Jan’s Barber Shop, situated just after the boardwalk and before the uphill descent toward Sacred Heart Catholic Church and the complex of Pāhoa schools. Over at Jan’s Barber Shop, Jan Ikeda will tell you all about that fateful day in 1953 when the cane truck lost its brakes and went barreling into her family’s business. She has the photograph to show in one of her many collages of memories on the wall of her barbershop. The ‘Ōla‘a Sugar Company brought in a crane to hoist the truck and trailer onto the road, and carpenters from the plantation restored the building to its original condition, according to Hiroo’s report. “I still remember when they used to go out and work in the cane fields and cut cane piece by piece,” Jan recalls. “Then later on the mechanical harvester came and did the harvesting with the machine.” She noted that before there were cane trucks, there were cane trains that would bring the cane from Kapoho to the ‘Ōla‘a Sugar Mill via Pāhoa. In fact, the train tracks were right beside the barbershop. This year Jan’s Barber Shop celebrates 69 years in business.