Square Kady Pascual Headshot RGZ5762

Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

[{"type":"text","text":"Are you buying from the source, aftermarket shops or from the streets?"}]

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Jesstoomuch Labubu Turf War

<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Turf war</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @JessTooMuch. He swears his product is legit!

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Turf war

Are you buying from the source, aftermarket shops or from the streets?  Make sure you follow @JessTooMuch on Instagram!   For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter!

Kam Napier Headshot

A. Kam Napier

Hawai‘i History

Memorial Day started out as Decoration Day, according to the 

 of the U.S . Department of Veterans Affairs, beginning with spontaneous efforts to decorate the graves of Civil War soldiers during the later years of that conflict. “The first national Decoration Day celebration took place a few weeks after the [Grand Army of the Republic] promulgated its G.O. 11, on May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery, VA,” the agency explains.  

The holiday was set to take place in May, in the spring, because flowers would be at their freshest and most plentful.

It has since evolved into Memorial Day, commemorating all those lost in all of America’s wars. We know that, in the abstract. But what if you wanted to be more specific, and remember the service men and women from Hawai‘i who laid down their lives for our nation? What if you wanted to know their names?

[{"type":"text","text":"Here are online resources where you can find those very names."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Civil War"}]

Since this holiday originated in the Civil War, we should point out that more than 100 citizens from the Kingdom of Hawai‘i served in that war. A 2020 

 goes into the details, including the fact that details are actually hard to come by.

King Kamehameha IV had declared the Kingdom neutral but men were drawn to fight for the Union, 

 and missionary descendants who identified with New England and the cause of ending slavery. No one seems to know exactly how many of them died in the war, but it is known for a fact that they included 

, who died at the age of 17 in a Confederate prisoner of war camp.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"World War I"}]

 people from the Territory of Hawai‘i who perished in that war. All their names are transcribed 

, including men who served in U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and who died serving Great Britain.

A full, searchable database of everyone who served for the United States in WWI can be found at this 

A great deal of research and history was compiled not long ago, for the 2018 centennial commemoration of the end of WWI. The Hawai‘i page of that national remembrance lives 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"World War II"}]

In 1949, the University of Hawai‘i Press published “In Freedom's Cause: A Record of the Men of Hawai‘i Who Died in the Second World War,” by Thomas D. Murphy. It names all 

 “of Hawai‘i’s sons [who] gave their lives while serving in the armed forces of the United States during the Second World War.”

Notably, this exhaustive book contains a photo and brief biography of each man and can be found online in its entirety 

You might be thinking, “Wait a minute, I thought many more people than that died on Dec. 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor."

You’d be correct. The UH Press book is specifically concerned with people from Hawai‘i who died throughout World War II. The 

 military and civilians who were killed here on Dec. 7 included people from across America. Complete casualties lists for that terrible day in Hawai‘i is online at 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Korean War"}]

U.S. Military Fatal Casualties of the Korean War for Home-State-of-Record: Hawai‘i

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Vietnam War"}]

Here’s the corresponding page at the National Archives for 

U.S. Military Fatal Casualties of the Vietnam War for Home-State-of-Record: Hawai‘i

We also found other lists for the Vietnam War with slightly different totals. This 2011 

 names for Vietnam, sorted by neighborhood.

 list published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, covered those killed or missing in action for both the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Up to the Present"}]

For those lost in 21st-century conflicts, since 2001, you can search a database of 2,347 names by name, date, conflict, home state and home town at the 

 who hailed from Hawai‘i. The most recent of these was Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kirk Fuchigami Jr., who was 25 when he died on Nov. 20, 2019, “in a helicopter crash while providing security for troops on the ground in Afghanistan's Logar province.”

 for a guide to Memorial Days events happening today.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

I Stock 855553730

<title>Remembering the Fallen</title>

More than 1,600 men and women from Hawai‘i have died serving their country in wartime. For Memorial Day, we pulled together this guide to online resources where you can find nearly every single name.

Remembering the Fallen

IMG 1445

Rick Hamada

Government & Politics

Columnists

Scandals within government feed the narrative that government overall is corrupt.

Such conclusions are subjective, however plenty of claims, statements and a record of past transgressions (including legal actions against those within government here) connect the dots between the perception of corruption and its reality.

Recently, Vice President JD Vance labeled Hawai‘i as a failure in Medicaid fraud prosecutions. Those accusations were rejected by the State Attorney General but, as with most allegations, it's the finger pointing that's remembered, and the responses are often lost in the cycle. The guilt by association leads to the perceived affirmation that Hawai‘i is corrupt.

Speaking of the State Attorney General, she and her office are on the other side of the coin. The declared investigation into bribery and fraud allegations that a high ranking, elected official in the Big Square Building allegedly took a paper bag filled with $35,000 in cash is still unresolved. Despite the cloudiness of the allegations the perception is, in fact, that not only did it occur, but all that remains is identifying which lawmaker took it.

Whether or not we accept these assessments by outsiders or listen to locals who lament the scarring of Hawai‘i's reputation, there is unfortunately a roster of documented cases that bolster the argument of corruption here at home.

27 individuals participated in an illegal scheme to boost Honolulu voter registrations for candidate Ross Segawa. Segawa was convicted on 10 counts of election fraud, criminal solicitation, and evidence of tampering. Segawa served a year in prison and was expelled from law school. State Sen. Clifford Uwaine was convicted of conspiring to illegally register voters and served three months in jail; and Debra Kawaoka, an aide to Uwaine who also played a part in the false registration, served numerous weekends in prison. Brian Minaai and the other students each pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.

 reported on Andy Mirikitani's sentencing, "

He will spend more than four years behind bars. He used a kickback scheme to steal thousands of dollars from the city. Now, Mirikitani will pay for his crimes. Mirikitani's sentence, four years three months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He must also pay back the money he stole." 

2002, Hawai‘i News Now again, reported on the sentencing of former state Sen. Marshall Ige. "A state judge sentenced Marshall Ige to six months in jail after being convicted in two separate cases. The first involved a couple from Beverly Hills approaching Ige in 1998, asking he clear their daughter's criminal record of two drug convictions. Ige said he could do it for $30,000 dollars. When he never came through, they contacted the Attorney General's office. The second case involved this farmer who leased 5 acres of land from the former Senator. In 1999, Ige threatened to evict Hanh Lam if he did not pay $7,000 dollars, in advanced rent."

 in 2003, reporting on the sentencing of Gary Rodrigues. "[O]nce one of the most powerful union leaders in Hawai'i, [he] will be able to remain free for as long as an estimated two years as he appeals his federal prison sentence of five years and four months for felony convictions of mail fraud, embezzling union money and related charges. A federal jury convicted Rodrigues in November last year on 101 felony counts, accusing him of taking kickbacks and steering phony union consulting contracts to his daughter."

These cases proved to be the highlights of the lowlights when it came to scandals well over 20-plus years ago. But the revelations of power grabbing, manipulation, and so much more within a beloved Hawaiian institution defined the most public and devastating story of corruption in our history — the Bishop Estate scandal that played out from 1997 to 1999.

This one got national attention, as this lengthy 1999 

 attests. Trustees then — "Gerard Jervis, 50; Henry Peters, 58; Richard “Dickie” Wong, 65; Oswald Stender, 67; and Lokelani Lindsey, 60" — famously made $840,000 a year in commissions. That's $1.7 million in 2026 dollars. 

"The estate became the center of public melodrama in 1997, when the school community learned of a private confrontation between Lindsey, the lead trustee for education, and student body President Kamani Kuala’au, who was bound for Princeton University," wrote the LA Times. Lindsey reportedly threatened the student by calling Princeton to jeopardize his academic career. Once word got out protesters marched on the Bishop Estate offices demanding that Lindsey to "stop meddling". 

This led to the "Broken Trust" essay appearing in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin alleging mismanagement of trust assets, conflicts of interests by individual trustees and poor selection of trustees, who are named by members of the Hawai‘i Supreme Court. Other developments ensued including internal lawsuits calling for the removal of Lindsey, the state attorney general accusing the trustees of using trust assets to create an economic empire, engaging in kickback schemes, awarding improper contracts, making sweetheart deals for relatives and friends and using improper business practices.

Perhaps the most sordid, yet tragic, story involved a Bishop Estate trustee and an Estate team member caught engaging in sexual infidelity in a hotel restroom. The public revelations led to the suicide of the woman involved and the attempted suicide of the trustee. I'm purposefully redacting names because I want to. Even after so many years later, enough is enough.

The dissolution of the Bishop Estate, the criminal to immoral conduct of the trustees (Oz Stender was never implicated) and the incredible shock and awe of the betrayal of the Princess's legacy remains the most troubling scandal to this day.

[{"type":"text","text":"Is corruption in Hawai‘i a reality or a perception?"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Depends on where you look."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"But let's turn the light on."}]

In recent years, State Sen. Kalani English, State Representative Ty Cullen, HPD Chief Louis and Prosecuting Attorney Katherine Kealoha were each public servants found guilty of crimes and served time proving that scandal and corruption exists today.

[{"type":"text","text":"And these are the only the cases we can confirm."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"I will say this."}]

Hawai‘i has its scandalous moments because humanity is imperfect. As long as you have humans operating with a public expectation of perfection, some (not all) will succumb to failures. However, it is unfair to cast aspersion upon every governmental agency, elected official or public servant because that's a patently false premise. Most serve honorably. It's how you identify, investigate and prioritize the consequential actions against violators that makes a lasting and influential impact.

And the State of Hawai‘i has this opportunity to define our reputation regarding corruption starting with the swift and transparent answering of this question.

[{"type":"text","text":"Who the hell took $35,000 in a paper bag?"}]

Solve this and perhaps our state will be on the road to reputational repair.

[{"type":"hardBreak","marks":[{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":""}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"italic"}],"text":" "}]

corruption I Stock 1093288618

<title>Hamada: How corrupt is Hawai‘i?</title>

Most public servants get through the day doing absolutely nothing wrong. But as ASD opinion columnist Rick Hamada observes, there have been more than enough high-profile cases of corruption to justify the perception that Hawai‘i can be pretty rotten.

Hamada: How corrupt is Hawai‘i?

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Ben Sasse is bleeding from the face."}]

He’s seated across from New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, 

, and he pauses to note it. He’s dying of stage 4 pancreatic cancer. One side effect of the treatment is that his body can’t grow skin.

“Yeah, you look terrible,” says Douthat.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Thank you,” says Sasse with a smile."}]

Since his diagnosis, Sasse has appeared on 

 stage, and a parade of podcasts. He uses the time to say what most politicians never dare to.

He talks about faith. He quotes R.C. Sproul. He discusses Tocqueville with the ease of someone who has actually read him.

Sasse is a two-term Republican Senator from Nebraska, a Harvard graduate, a Yale PhD in History. He voted to impeach Donald Trump and took the consequences. Though popular with voters in his home state, he left the Senate to serve as President of the University of Florida.

Now he spends his last days making one argument: American political life has gone badly wrong. Not because the wrong party is winning. Because the whole enterprise has lost its bearings.

Sasse starts with something most politicians would rather ignore: the pace of technological change. Previous economic transformations — industrialization, electrification — unfolded across generations. This one won’t. Robotics and automation will wipe out whole careers within a single working life.

Sasse sees a second shift: disembodied consciousness, the way screens let people leave their world. Families are breaking apart. Communities are dissolving. The local ties — churches, civic groups, the small-scale institutions Edmund Burke called “little platoons” — that help people absorb hard times are being stripped away. The formation of souls and citizens is at risk, and government is mostly ignoring it in favor of clickbait and rage.

He thinks our loves should be ordered, first to God, then to those nearest us, rippling outward from family to neighborhood to state to nation. Caring about a national political party more than your own community isn’t just confused. It’s a disorder of affection.

What’s true of the nation is true in Hawai'i. The legislature introduces three thousand bills a year. How many of those take the large challenges seriously? The demographic shifts, the cost pressures squeezing local families, the slow hemorrhage of young people off the Islands? The floor speeches and press releases gesture toward these problems, but the lawmaking doesn’t match the problem.

Sasse’s example suggests why. He can sit for an hour-long interview on dense political and theological matters because he has a clear philosophy — a disciplined way of working through problems. It also gives him the power to persuade, which is the precondition for coordinated action.

The founders studied rhetoric and philosophy with the same care they gave the law, because republican government runs on argument and clear speech. Most of Hawai‘i’s lawmakers couldn’t sustain an interview like Sasse’s, and the laws show it. There’s no clear direction. No will to rally the public. Few signs that anyone has thought hard about what government is for. What fills the vacuum is performance: press releases, floor speeches written for social media, outrage timed to the news cycle.

Sasse has a simple framework for what a coherent politics looks like. He describes four ways of valuing government, measured in cheers. No-cheer people — hardcore libertarians — don’t understand that government exists to secure liberty. Three-cheer people believe in a state that controls everything. Republicans, he says, are the one-cheer party. Democrats are the two-cheer party. Each has an extreme wing. Hawai‘i’s loudest voices are at the extremes.

What we lack are the one-cheer leaders: those who see government as necessary but flawed, able to secure order but not to deliver salvation.

Government should do a small number of important things well. It should get out of the way of the little platoons. It should never present itself as the path to utopia. Hawai‘i’s government casting itself as humanity’s last best hope has always been faintly comic.

Sasse’s sharpest line comes when he describes what voters already sense about the way their leaders talk.

They know it’s bullshit, he says — and they don’t want to be lied to. Why can’t politics do a small number of important, long-term things?

There is something clarifying about a man making that argument while bleeding from the face. He has no election to win, no caucus to protect, and by his own reckoning, weeks or months to live. What he’s chosen to do with his time is sit down and think hard about what government is and isn’t for, and what we’ve lost by confusing the two.

In watching Ben Sasse die, Hawai‘i might learn something about how to live.

Ben Sasse Getty Images 1231346544

<title>Ben Sasse is dying in public</title>

The former U.S. senator from Nebraska is talking about big ideas everywhere he can as pancreatic cancer takes his life. Hawai‘i's politicians could learn from what he has to say about government doing fewer things well, says ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa.

Ben Sasse is dying in public

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

 is opening its newest location at Park Shore Waikīkī this Saturday, May 9, at 10 a.m. This is the business’s second O

first Hawaiʻi store in Kapolei about one year ago

The new Waikīkī spot is located close to Honolulu Zoo and Waikīkī Beach. 

It’s in the former space of Tucker & Bevvy, which closed its retail location on April 1.

“Oakberry’s fresh, health-focused concept is a natural fit for our property and the vibrant Waikiki community,” states Matt McGuigan, general manager of Park Shore Waikīkī.

To celebrate the opening of its new Waikīkī store, customers who subscribe to Oakberry's newsletter with their email in-store will get a free 12-ounce Fruity acai bowl (while supplies last).

The business is known for its 100% natural acai that features no dyes, corn syrup or artificial preservatives. Acai smoothies are also available.

Customers can choose from signature items like the crunchy bowl — acai topped with chia pudding, granola, strawberry, blueberry and cacao nibs — and the matcha bowl, which features acai, double matcha chia pudding, strawberry, goji berries and honey.

Customers can also choose to create their own acai bowls by choosing from toppings like locally sourced cacao nibs, honey, granola, peanut butter, almonds, chia pudding and more.

Oakberry has more than 700 stores in more than 35 countries, including Australia, Colombia, Brazil and more.

“I’m really excited to bring Oakberry into town,” says operations manager Zayne Chong. “We’ve been open in Kapolei for the last year. The community has been great, and I’m really excited to see the response we get in town.

“The menus (at both stores) are the same for now,” he adds. “We’re looking to add more to the menu, some different drink options. We’re always looking to innovate our different bowls and the toppings that we have.”

Chong confirms that Oakberry's third location is planned to open this summer in ‘Aina Haina.

Oakberry Waikiki original 050726

<title>Oakberry Hawaiʻi is opening in Honolulu</title>

Acai business Oakberry Hawaiʻi is opening its newest location at the Park Shore Waikīkī on Saturday, May 9 at 10 a.m. This store is located close to Waikīkī Beach and Honolulu Zoo.

Oakberry Hawaiʻi is opening in Honolulu

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Arts & Entertainment

 and Dave Bautista will soon star in a new movie, “The Wrecking Crew,” which was filmed in 

. It will start streaming globally on Prime Video on Jan. 27.

Momoa, known for his roles as Aquaman in “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” the warlord Khal Drogo in “Game of Thrones,” and — most recently  — Kaʻiana in “Chief of War,” plays one of the estranged half brothers. Bautista, known for his roles as Drax in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and Sapper Morton in “Blade Runner,” plays the other one. 

The action comedy features the estranged brothers, Jonny (Momoa) and James (Bautista) who must reunite when their father dies mysteriously. The brothers discover a conspiracy with the power to tear their family apart. The movie is set in Hawaiʻi. 

It was directed by Ángel Manuel Soto (“Blue Beetle” in 2023) and written by Jonathan Tropper.

It stars Claes Bang, Jacob Batalon, Miyavi, Stephen Root and Morena Baccarin and actors who appear in “Chief of War” including 

, who plays King Kahekili in the series, and 

Disney’s live action version of “Lilo & Stitch” (2025), including  

, who was appears in the movie with shave ice, and died a few weeks after its release in theaters. 

, who plays Sina, Moana’s mother, in Disney’s live action movie “Moana,” which is set to release later this year, is also in “The Wrecking Crew.”

"The Wrecking Crew"

<title>What to know about 'The Wrecking Crew' starring Jason Momoa</title>

The new movie launches this month, featuring Momoa and Dave Bautista, who play estranged brothers brought together by the death of their father. The story is set in the Islands.

What to know about 'The Wrecking Crew' starring Jason Momoa

, the award-winning contemporary Japanese restaurant from New York, is celebrating its grand opening tonight at 

. The restaurant rose to fame as the first hand roll bar in New York in 2015, and now offers everything from hand rolls and nigiri to a la carte dishes and its signature Domokase (DOMODOMO’s omakase).

The brand is celebrating its 10th anniversary on the East Coast, and has other locations in Jersey City and Dallas. The Hawaiʻi location is open to the public starting tonight for dinner. 

i is to create a space that feels both familiar and fresh — one that connects our East Coast roots with the Pacific’s welcoming spirit,” states Brian Kim, co-founder and DOMODOMO executive chef. Kim is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America with more than 20 years of experience.

i’s design features natural light and warm wood textures. The 3,000-square-foot restaurant boasts panoramic views of the ocean and golf course.

The extensive menu goes beyond hand rolls. You’ll find izakaya-style appetizers, sushi, katsu sets, rice and noodle dishes and a la carte hot dishes. 

The menu is inspired by popular Japanese and Korean comfort foods.

No visit to DOMODOMO is complete without trying the brand’s popular hand rolls. The hand roll combo ($24 for four pieces) includes spicy tuna, salmon cream cheese, spicy crab and shrimp tempura.

Sushi and sashimi options are plentiful, ranging from yellowtail crudo ($26) and chef

’s choice sashimi plate ($38) to a variety of rolls (shrimp tempura, salmon cream cheese, spicy crab and more). If you want a sampler, go for the chef’s choice sushi plate ($32), which features eight assorted nigiri.

During dinner, the eatery even offers a sushi and hand roll course ($42). It includes yellowtail crudo, chef’s choice of premium sushi, and choice of two hand rolls.

Appetizers range from shrimp yuzu salad ($16) and fried corn ribs ($14) to menchi katsu ($14), truffle salt French fries ($12) and fried kanikama ($14). The fried corn ribs are topped with corn cheese powder and shio kombu. We especially enjoyed the crispy fried kanikama (crab), which was topped with nori powder and served with smoked aioli.

Katsu sets include rice, cabbage salad and miso soup; choose from pork loin ($24), pork tenderloin ($24) or ebi katsu ($25).

Hot entrees are also served with rice, cabbage salad and miso soup (the NY-style smashburger with fries is an exception). Options include miso black cod with kabocha puree ($28), spicy pork bulgogi ($25) and tteokgalbi loco moco ($23). The latter features tender tteokgalbi (minced beef short rib patties) over rice with savory brown gravy and a sunny-side up egg.

The Korean-style chirashi bowl is a colorful medley of seasonal fish, tobiko, mixed vegetables, egg and yuzu chojang. The Korean fried chicken ($21) — complete with garlic soy glaze and pickled celery — is expected to be another customer favorite.

During dinner, customers can opt for the eatery’s signature Domokase ($79) experience, or its take on the chef’s choice omakase. The dining experience includes Kona kampachi, octopus, beef carpaccio, grilled seasonal fish, chef’s choice premium sushi, choice of one hand roll and choice of dessert. 

Speaking of dessert, options include sweet potato crème brulee ($13) and kakigori ($12), or Japanese-style shave ice. Choose from three flavors — strawberry, matcha or grapefruit.

i location represents a return to the essence of DOMODOMO’s spirit.

“After 10 years, bringing DOMODOMO to the Islands feels like the most natural step in our journey,” Kim states. “Hawai

i embodies harmony — between nature, culture and people. That spirit aligns perfectly with who we are as a brand.”

Open 11 a.m.-4 p.m., 4-9 p.m. Mondays-Fridays; 10 a.m.-4 p.m., 4-9 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

DOMODOMO Hawaii owners 111925

<title>DOMODOMO Hawaiʻi is open in ‘Ewa Beach</title>

The contemporary Japanese restaurant from New York — known for its hand roll bar — is open in 360° Ewa Beach Country Club. DOMODOMO New York was featured on the MICHELIN Guide’s Bib Gourmand list from 2017 through 2023. Here’s what you’ll find at its new Hawaiʻi location.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Turf war

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Neighborhood weather updates

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Island vibes

Gotta catch ‘em all — at Ala Moana Center: voices from Pokémon GO’s “Wild Area: Global” event

Starbucks holiday launch draws crowds for limited-edition cups

Most read

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Turf war

Authors

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Neighborhood weather updates

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Island vibes

Gotta catch ‘em all — at Ala Moana Center: voices from Pokémon GO’s “Wild Area: Global” event

Starbucks holiday launch draws crowds for limited-edition cups

Most read