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A friend in Pahoa stumbled onto an old (looks like an original) "Memorandum of Agreement" dated January 11, 1900, between the OLAA SUGAR COMPANY and Haruemon and Soyo Miya****a. It is signed/stamped by The Japanese Immigration Bureau. Our friend asked us to help find descendants of the family.
It's printed in both Japanese and English. Looks like it should be framed in a museum...or something to be cherished by a local famly named Miya****a. Any leads would be appreciated. Feel free to email me through the forum.
Mahalo.
Tim
A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions--Confucius
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LOL, the swear word filters won't allow me to type the family name M i y a s h i t a. These filters are kinda racist, no?
Tim
A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions--Confucius
let me test out that word filter: ****ake mushrooms
One place to start is the Japanese center/museum on Kanoelehua Ave. a little further down, but on the same side as the Toyota Dealership. Lyman Museum could give you some leads. Blind phone calls to that surname in the phone book might score a hit.
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I purchased a lovely book "Pahoa Yesterday" by Hiroo Sato of Pahoa.
You might try to locate him. His resources among many were Pahoa School, Lyman Museum, Hawaii Island Japanese Immigrant Museum. The book was purchased through the Hawaii Japanese Center, Hilo.
I agree the document should be preserved and archived for historical purposes indeed. Best of luck!
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Thanks for those leads! We thought of the Japanese Center as we know the gentleman who runs it. The Hawaii Island Japanese Immigrant Museum sounds like another good lead. But just for fun we'll probably stop by Jan's barbershop and talk story with Ikeda-san! We figure if Jan can't point us in the right direction then no one can.
Tim
A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions--Confucius
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The CLDS has the largest collection of genealogy records in the nation outside of the national archives. Your search might get the most sucess starting there.
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Punafish, how very nice of you to try to track down the family! They are surely going to appreciate that effort.
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Whoa! That Star Bulletin article is downright creepy. Not only does it sound like the exact same document (on the table in front of me right now), but this passage jumped out at me: "His friend Teruo Mukai's wife, Karen, is a retired librarian who found the document in one of her books." I mention this because our friend (a Japanese national) also found it inside a book that a local Japanese friend had given him. (I kid you not.) When our friend showed it to the person who gifted the book, he didn't know anything about it.
This is too weird, but I really appreciate the leads.
Thank you Carey for those links.
(Edited because I misspelled Carey's name--so sorry!)
Tim
A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions--Confucius
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one more suggestion. call puna hongwanji mission in keaau . many japanese/okinawins in Olaa were connected to the temple and we keep extensive records there.
