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Daily Smile

It's always good to teach your dog how to let you know when he's hungry...

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<title>Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 3, 2026</title>

Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 3, 2026

 It&#039;s always good to teach your dog how to let you know when he&#039;s hungry...

De Soto 2025

DeSoto Brown

Hawai‘i History

Columnists

Many people will be familiar with the fountain at the far end of Kapi‘olani Park, close to the base of Diamond Head. Since it’s been there for almost 60 years, it’s understandable that few will be aware that this is actually the third water feature in this area.

This story starts in 1912 with the ascension to the Japanese throne by Emperor Taisho. Thousands of Japanese immigrants in Hawai‘i at this time still felt strong ties to their homeland, so their pride in their original culture  made many of them want to support the suggestion of the Japanese Consul in Honolulu that a monument to Emperor Taisho be erected in a public place in Honolulu. This concept was proposed at the time of his ceremonial coronation in 1915. The Honolulu Board of Supervisors agreed to accept the planned fountain as a gift; it was to be 20 feet tall and topped with a metal sculpture similar to one in Hibiya Park in Tokyo. The pool at its base was planned to be 25 to 30 feet in diameter. November 10, 1916 was the targeted date of the structure’s dedication. 

Actually achieving this idea, however, did not take place on schedule. A celebratory “carnival” held at the Japanese Consulate in November 1915 attracted thousands of attendees who paid a steep admission of $1 each (comparable to over $30 today), which raised nearly $8,000. This was not enough though, and another fundraiser program at the Honolulu Opera House in December 1915 netted another $200, but this was still $800 short of the goal. 

All the elements of the fountain were to come from Japan. In March 1916, completion was stated to be in “a few months.” But it wasn’t until November that the 228 carved stone pieces actually arrived by ship and the finish date was now projected to be February 1917. And this in fact turned out to be when all the stone work ended up in place, which was noted by an inscription in the structure’s base. But still not received were all the metal parts, which, like the stone, had been ordered from the Tokio Fine Arts College. The fountain stood incomplete for the rest of the year. 

In May 1918 work was to “commence soon” as the metal elements were expected in early July. Except … none of it got to Honolulu till September. This consisted of the iron phoenix which would stand with outspread wings at the top, plus two bronze basins, one larger than the other. By January 1919, completion (as usual) was expected “in a month or two.” By now the total cost was over $10,000.

At last, the dedication ceremony was scheduled for February 11th. But in the same pattern already established, this had to be postponed due to continuing casualties in Honolulu from the terrible flu pandemic that had begun killing millions of people internationally the previous year. So it was not until after this medical emergency subsided that on March 16, 1919 — nearly four years after the initial announcement of the project — it finally, really, was finished. 

As can be seen by the photos included here, the complex structure was undeniably dramatic. Water issued from the beak of the phoenix at the top and ran down into the smaller bronze basin, from which it overflowed into the next, larger basin below it, before finally reaching the round pool at ground level. However, most surviving photos of the fountain show no evidence of running water and it’s possible that the supply was eventually just turned off. The entire monument was noteworthy enough without it. 

Considering the years of effort and fundraising to erect the fountain, it was unfortunate that the ruler who was honored by this impressive structure was both physically and mentally incapable of actually performing his imperial duties. Emperor Taisho was withheld from public and ceremonial appearances from 1919 onwards and died seven years later. 

Then came World War II. After the shocking surprise attack on the island of O‘ahu by the Japanese military on December 7, 1941, all things associated with this new enemy were treated with suspicion or outright hatred. The showy fountain, not surprisingly, felt the effects of this rejection. The City & County of Honolulu Parks Board received letters from the public calling for the monument to be demolished, and the board itself was in favor. It was hoped that the metal contained in the structure — derided as being merely iron along with (incorrectly) “cheap brass” — could be melted down to be turned into war munitions of some kind, to symbolically be used against Japan.

As manpower and equipment were busy with other war-specific jobs, there was a brief call for citizens to gather and literally pull down the structure by hand. However, City & County workers did the job professionally on December 14, 1942, a year and a week after the infamous attack that had started the war. Some of the artistic handwork of the fountain appears to have been saved, like the four large stone dogs that stood around the base of its pedestal, along with four carved vertical panels. But once this vengeful destruction was completed, the park was left without a water feature — for a time.

In August 1949, the City & County of Honolulu accepted a contractor’s bid of $10,784 to build a new Kapi‘olani Park fountain which was to be completed by December of that year. This was not located in the same spot as its predecessor; it was more towards Diamond Head in what was called the “Kalākaua Avenue Circle”. This was a round island in a park roadway that had been started in late 1941 but wasn’t finished probably until late 1945 and which mostly paralleled the original Kalākaua Avenue that was lined by ironwood trees, closer to the beach. Far simpler than the previous ornate Japanese fountain, this new 1949 version consisted of just a shallow round pool with a single jet of water in the center. In turn, this lasted until 1967. 

The unassuming pool was then considerably improved to become the Louise G. Dillingham Memorial Fountain which was dedicated on July 27, 1967 and remains in use today. Funded by Mrs. Dillingham’s adult children and family friends and constructed by Hawaiian Dredging, the new fountain was accepted as a gift by the City & County of Honolulu. It contains multiple jets of water of different heights, like the classical ones found in public squares in Europe, and was designed by Edwin Murayama and Albert Ely Ives. Its honoree had been a member of Honolulu’s Department of Parks and Recreation from 1931 until her death in January 1964, and she and her husband Walter had lived in the estate that they had constructed nearby known as La Pietra. This still remains today on the slopes of Diamond Head not far from this fountain, housing a private girls’ school of the same name.

As attractive as the current fountain is, we can regret that the unique tribute to Emperor Taisho did not survive. Its outstanding craftsmanship might not even be possible to replicate today, and it would be an outstanding attraction of Honolulu if it still stood in Kapi‘olani Park.

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8 Kap Park fount 2026 16x9

<title>The saga of the fountains</title>

The fountain we all know and love near the Diamond Head end of Kapi‘iolani Park is not the first fountain in the area, nor is it in the original location of the first fountain. ASD history columnist DeSoto Brown takes us through the fountain's story, all the way back to its original source — Imperial Japan.

The saga of the fountains

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Government & Politics

Six mayoral candidates want to run Kauaʻi County. On a Saturday afternoon in Līhuʻe, a few took turns at the microphone explaining how the island would feed itself.

The businessman Megeso-William Denis put it least cautiously. He believes in “total food independence,” he said. The island should stop leaning on outside sources.

The crowd, gathered to mark the 20-year anniversary of a food-security nonprofit, took this in without a murmur. No one asked whether an island that grows almost none of its dinner can be made to grow all of it. No one asked who would still be living there if it did.

The other five disagreed mostly about method. A county agriculture department, zoning rewritten so farmers can house themselves, government grocery stores — the means varied, the destination did not. Kauaʻi feeding Kauaʻi is a good so self-evident that the only live question is how fast to arrive.

These islands have run the experiment already. For five centuries before Captain Cook, Hawaiʻi was as food-independent as a place can be. It was sealed off in the middle of the largest ocean, fed by what its people drew from soil and sea.

The archaeologist Patrick Vinton Kirch has spent a career 

 what that isolation produced. The population climbed for centuries, struck a ceiling around 1450, and held there for a time. Then the dryland farms of Maui and Hawaiʻi were worked to the soil’s nutrient limits, until their surplus shrank rather than grew. The oral traditions remember famines when people survived on ferns.

What the islands could grow shaped how they were ruled. Kauaʻi and Oʻahu have the valleys and year-round streams for irrigated terraces, and a steady surplus kept their kingdoms settled. Maui and Hawaiʻi leaned on dryland fields instead, worked at the mercy of the rain. So those islands bred the restless, conquering kings, in part because a kingdom that cannot grow more food can still take from its neighbor.

When Cook’s ships returned in 1779, the kings of Maui and Hawaiʻi were at war. The unification that followed was finished, in the end, with European muskets.

We can look back on that world and see a garden, not a barren field. We can afford to, because we live on the comfortable side of the divide. The 85 to 90 percent of our food that arrives by sea is only the surface dependence. Beneath it run federal aid, state transfers, tourist dollars, and the quiet giving of people who made their fortunes far from any field.

The conversation on Kauaʻi runs on that last kind of money. Civil Beat’s “Hawaiʻi Grown” 

 is funded in part by the Ulupono Fund, established by Pierre Omidyar. He also founded Civil Beat and has long been its principal backer.

Omidyar made his money at eBay, a company whose apocryphal founding legend has him building a marketplace so his fiancée could trade her collectible PEZ dispensers. The dream of growing our own dinner is underwritten, in part, by the global trade in plastic candy toys.

The same sleight of hand appears wherever self-sufficiency is preached. The island that means to free itself from foreign energy will do it on solar panels from China. China makes more than four-fifths of the world’s photovoltaic panels. Kauaʻi will store that energy in batteries from the same China. Autarky, it turns out, is brought to you by globalization.

Nor does the fantasy belong to one party. The degrowth left and the bunker-stocking right find in it the same flattering promise — that a community, or a household, or a single man, might arrange life to need no one else.

There are good reasons to grow more food here. It tastes better when it hasn’t crossed an ocean. Open land is worth keeping in cultivation rather than left to become a fire hazard. Farming is honest work, and a shelf of local sweet potatoes is a fine thing to have when a shipping lane snarls.

Some of what the candidates propose is sensible. Rewriting zoning so a farmer can build a house on the land he works removes an obstacle the county itself put up. Whether a thin harvest calls for a brand-new county department is another matter. The instinct to meet every shortfall by adding to government is its own quiet tell. The error is not in wanting more gardens. It is in the small, smuggled step from growing 

— from a sensible hedge to a daydream of sovereignty.

The daydream is least affordable now. The farming that fed old Hawaiʻi was punishing, and it rested on a population that was large and still climbing. Ours is shrinking and growing old. The state lost residents again last year, as it has for most of the decade. Our working-age people are leaving for cheaper lives on the Mainland faster than children arrive to replace them.

Kauaʻi has held its overall numbers, but this masks a hollowing out. At that same forum, Councilmember Felicia Cowden warned that the island is pushing its own people out and will soon have no workforce left. A place cannot wall itself off from the world while its own young are filing toward the airport.

Suppose the island managed it — every acre planted, every farmer housed, the container ship turned away at the harbor. The farmer would still rise each morning and search the sky. He cannot make it rain, or call up the sun. He cannot hold off the storm that flattens a field the week before harvest, or the blight that takes a crop overnight. He clears the ground and sets the seed and pulls the weeds, and then he waits on weather he cannot command. Rain comes as a gift or it does not come at all.

By all means, grow the gardens and let the land bring forth food. But whether food comes from the farmer’s market or the Matson container, we should bring it to the table with gratitude that God has fed us again. We ought, then, to let go of the oldest and proudest illusion there is: that the aim of man is to reach the point where he depends only on himself.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

I Stock Kauai

<title>Can Kauaʻi feed itself? Why food independence won't work</title>

Food independence is a luxury belief, says ASD columnist Sterling Higa, and it is most affordable to those who have never gone hungry.

Can Kauaʻi feed itself? Why food independence won't work

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

Business & Tourism

 — Oʻahu’s largest Latin American market — just opened its second location.

The business's second retail and wholesale location is in Waipahu. Its grand opening block party will be on Saturday, June 20, in Waipio’s Koa Ridge (in the Royal Koa parking lot). The event will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., but the retail store will be open for shopping until 6 p.m. The store is currently in its soft opening, and is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Saturday event will feature a variety of local food and beverage partners. Attendees can look forward to pop-up booths with authentic cuisine, music and an exclusive Mercado de la Raza gift (available while supplies last).

“I think a lot of people have been waiting for this moment, and we see lots of kids coming in (to our store), so we want to make it a family event,” says Alex Villarino, who co-owns the business with his wife, Megahn Chun.

“We’re in a very residential area, so we wanted to share a little bit of the culture, and introduce them (community members) to the culture and food,” Chun adds.

Mercado de la Raza has been open since 1994, according to Villarino.

“It’s a common thing in Mexico for a mercado to be known as ‘mercado de la raza,’” he says. “Raza means ‘of the people,’ kind of like ‘market of the people.’”

The husband-and-wife team says they wanted to open in central Oʻahu when it was time to expand to a second location.

“We learned there were a lot of people who were traveling from the North Shore, Kapolei, ‘Ewa Beach, Wahiawā and Mililani to our Beretania store,” Chun says. “We decided when we open a second location, it had to be in Central Oʻahu — just to be closer to everybody and serve these communities.

“It was a journey (to find the right location),” she adds. “It’s never easy to find the right fit.”

Chun recalls how she and Villarino would drive around at night, looking at potential places for their next location.

“When we saw this place, we asked our realtor to come and show it to us,” she says. “After we opened the door, I just felt this is the place. We saw a vision, and this is the place that it had to be.”

This second location has been in the works for about a year, according to Chun. The Waipahu store is bigger than the original store, and it features a warehouse section and retail store. Customers will be able to shop in the larger retail space, which is fully stocked with handmade tortillas, imported beverages and snacks, and more. There are also a variety of dishes, merch, flags and more.

“This is a hybrid location,” Villarino says. “We have one side that is destined to help more of the business owners that are on this side of town. On the right side, we have a retail location; we have a little bit more space here, so we’ll probably have a few more products.”

Customer favorites have included tamarind candy, specialty sodas, empanadas, and — in light of the World Cup — jerseys and flags.

“We have sodas from all over Latin America — from Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina and Peru,” Villarino says. “Sodas are a big thing.”

“It’s definitely a festive place,” Chun adds. “Anything related to empanadas (is popular) — we have ready-made empanadas you can put in the air fryer or oven.”

Partnering with and highlighting up-and-coming businesses is important to Villarino and Chun. At the Beretania store, a local Latino entrepreneur was featured every month, and their products would be sold in the store, according to Chun.

“We would set them up at the front of the store and give them a sales channel,” she says. “We had Raiz Tortillas, Madres Churros and more; we carried all of these locally made brands.”

“We serve a lot of established restaurants, but we want to give the opportunity to a lot of the smaller ones who are just starting,” Villarino says. “A lot of what we do is to support people.”

A dedicated community gathering space — which will host language workshops, cooking classes and other events — will open later this year.

“We can have a little more space for activations here, things that are more geared for the community,” Chun says. “We have a lot more children’s books; we want to have more children’s events, as well.”

The Waipahu store’s hours are the same as its Beretania Street location — 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Customers can park in the lot outside the store; street parking is also available.

“Food is the ultimate connector, and we’ve always taken pride in helping people find the exact ingredients that taste like home,” Villarino states. “We want families to walk into this new space and immediately feel a sense of belonging, education and community.

“I think it’s important to show that Latinas are good, hard-working people, and we’re ready to offer so much to the communities,” he adds.

Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays

Mercado de la Raza owners 061526

<title>Mercado de la Raza opens second location in Waipahu</title>

This Latin American market is celebrating the grand opening of its second store this Saturday, June 20, in Waipio’s Koa Ridge. The block party will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This second location is bigger than the business’s original store on South Beretania Street.

Mercado de la Raza opens second location in Waipahu

IMG 1445

Rick Hamada

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressing a joint session of Congress on December 8, 1941.

Those who lived in close proximity to that infamous date have vivid recollections of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. More contemporary generations leading to the present day do not. That's unfortunate. It is each proceeding generation's responsibility to perpetuate history and culture to the previous generations. Although there were attempts via the classrooms, film and TV, even here at home we have neglected to preserve a detailed and fact-based legacy of December 7 appropriate for perpetuity.

[{"type":"text","text":"There are exceptions."}]

I will cite The Pearl Harbor National Memorial, The USS Arizona Memorial, The Battleship USS Missouri, The Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and numerous other sites that preserve and present our remarkable role in history in arguably the most globally impactful event in history.

[{"type":"text","text":"The question is, when is the last time you paid a visit?"}]

When is the last time you shared these experiences with your family, especially with your children?

When is the last time you reflected upon and shared this vital history with others? With yourself?

This is not a criticism, but it is a reminder of the wealth of history ensconced in our collective communities, and we should all become educated on this history because this is our home.

Along these lines there was one glaring component of World War II that virtually everybody was aware of — concentration camps.

A simple mentioning of centers of such barbarism, brutality and violation makes one cringe. The documented prejudicial rounding up of men, women and children because of their faith was as despicable as could be. Further documentation proved that these innocents were housed in Nazi concentration camps and subjected to such atrocities that their virtually inevitable deaths seemed welcome. This was the manifestation of true evil.

The invocation of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, and other concentration camps elicit understandable outrage and shame. However, WWII was rife with actions of great exploitation and violations. Seizure of land, properties, belongings, assets, irreplaceable heirlooms and basic rights and freedoms unfortunately had a permeating presence.

[{"type":"text","text":"Did you know that we were infected with grievous violations here at home?"}]

Honouliuli National Historic Site is near Waipahu on the island of O‘ahu and is the location of the Honouliuli Internment Camp, Hawaiʻi's largest and longest-operating Japanese internment camp, which opened in 1943 and closed in 1946. 

The internment camp held 320 internees. In Hawai‘i, where more than 150,000 Japanese Americans comprised more than one-third of the territory's population, only 1,200 to 1,800 were incarcerated. The site also became the largest prisoner of war camp in Hawaiʻi with nearly 4,000 individuals being held. Of the 17 sites that were associated with the history of internment in Hawaiʻi during World War II, the camp was the only one built specifically for prolonged detention.

Hundreds of Germans and Italians and other nationalities were also arrested and detained for months at a detention facility on Sand Island. Among them, Austrian-born architect 

, who would go on to design the USS Arizona Memorial itself.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was an attack on the United States. However, Hawai‘i was a territory, so authoritative control of the Islands was bestowed upon the U.S. military immediately via martial law. This facilitated unilateral authority with demands of unquestioned compliance. Severe consequences were meted out if deigned necessary.

I want to make clear that the inhumanity demonstrated by Nazi Germany and other Axis nations are mostly proprietary to them although the actions of others are indefensible as well. The same level of abject violence, death and more associated with Axis concentration camps were not elements that dominated Honouliuli.

But it was still an egregious set of actions taken against Japanese American citizens and residents of Hawai‘i.

Those actions were founded in the combination of racial prejudice and basic fear.

[{"type":"text","text":"The logic employed was simple."}]

The Japanese attacked us. You are or look Japanese. You are now the enemy, and you'll be treated as such.

That treatment of Japanese American citizens included the rounding up and arresting those who may have had some status in the community. The presence of Japanese plantation workers along with immigration and, yes, naturalization, of Japanese over generations drove the Japanese American population into the 30% to 40% range. Imprisoning that vast number was logistically and financially impossible. Selective apprehensions took place and rarely entire families.

Let's not forget that individuals were separated from families, were corralled into makeshift prisons, were denied basic rights including due process, arbitrarily suffered public humiliation in a culture that holds honor as the definition of character, loss of income, revenue and assets with no knowledge or assurances of even surviving.

[{"type":"text","text":"These people, these families, were wronged."}]

In affirmation of this important statement, there were two post-war governmental efforts to clarify said wrongs, to offer redress and provide compensation.

On August 2, 1979, Hawai‘i Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced Senate bill 1647 to establish the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC). In 1980, Congress passed and President Jimmy Carter signed that bill into law. The CWRIC gathered archival sources, scholarship, and personal papers that explained the government’s decision and process for incarceration.  On February 24, 1983, the CWRIC issued its report 

 “was not justified by military necessity, and the decisions which followed — detention, ending detention and ending exclusion—were not driven by analysis of military conditions. The broad historical causes which shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria, and failure of political leadership.” 

The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was signed into law on August 10, 1988, and implemented the recommendations of the CWRIC. Throughout his time in office, Senator Matsunaga supported civil rights for Asian Americans and was the primary advocate for the Civil Liberties Act. According to Leslie T. Hatamiya in 

Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and the Passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988,

 “Matsunaga’s efforts cannot be overemphasized.”

And signing The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 into law was President Ronald Reagan.

These legislative efforts do not exonerate the United States government of actions during World War II. But it is legal and public admission of wrongs committed and a small restoration of losses suffered by those who were innocent.

[{"type":"text","text":"This is the 80th anniversary of the closure of Honouliuli."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"I would recommend the following:"}]

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

Honouliuli

<title>Hamada: Commemorating Honouliuli</title>

Events coming up this weekend recognize the 80th anniversary of the closing of the Honouliuli Internment Camp, where up to 1,800 Japanese and Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. ASD opinion columnist Rick Hamada gives an overview of the history of the site, and the steps taken in the years after to attempt to right that wrong.

Hamada: Commemorating Honouliuli

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

More than 200 candidates are running for elected offices in Hawai‘i and will appear on ballots this year. See the candidates for city and county races, 

Tuesday marked the filing deadline for prospective political candidates to submit their nomination papers to run for office in the upcoming 2026 elections. The 2026 primary election will be held Saturday, Aug. 8, with the general election set for Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Here are the candidates for statewide races. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Governor"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Lieutenant Governor"}]

U.S. Representative candidates, District II

State Senator District 5 (Wailuku, Kahului)

State Senator District 8 (Kaua‘i, Ni‘ihau)

State Senator District 9 (Hawai‘i Kai, Diamond Head)

State Senator District 10 (Kaimukī, Kapahulu, Mō‘ili‘ili)

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"• Incumbent Les Ihara Jr., Democrat "}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"• Jackson Sayama, Democrat  "}]

State Senator District 11 (Mānoa, Makiki, Punchbowl)

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"• Incumbent Carol Fukunaga, Democrat "}]

State Senator District 13 (Liliha, Iwilei, Nu‘uanu)

State Senator District 14 (Moanalua, ‘Aiea, Fort Shafter)

State Senator District 15 (Kalihi, Māpunapuna)

State Senator District 17 (Mililani Town, Wahiawā)

State Senator District 19 (Pearl City, Waipahu)

State Senator District 20 (‘Ewa Beach, Ocean Pointe)

State Senator District 21 (Kalaeloa, Kapolei)

State Senator District 25 (Kailua, Waimānalo)

State Rep. District 3 (Hilo, Keaukaha, Kea‘au)

State Rep. District 4 (Hawaiian Paradise Park, Hawaiian Beaches)

State Rep. District 5 (Kea‘au, Mountain View, Volcano, 

Pāhala, Punalu‘u, Nā‘ālehu, Hawaiian Ocean View

State Rep. District 6 (Captain Cook, Kailua-Kona)

State Rep. District 7 (Kailua-Kona, Honokōhau)

State Rep. District 8 (Hawi, Waimea, Waikōloa)

State Rep. District 12 (Pukalani, Makawao)

State Rep. District 13 ( Moloka‘i, Lāna‘i, Kaho‘olawe)

State Rep. District 15 (Hā‘ena, Hanalei)

State Rep. District 16 (Wailuā, Līhu‘e)

Kōloa, Po‘ipū, Kalāheo, Ele‘ele, Hanapēpē, Waimea

State Rep. District 18 (Portlock, Hawai‘i Kai)

State Rep. District 19 (‘Āina Haina, Niu Valley)

State Rep. District 20 (Leahi, Wai‘alae, Kaimukī)

State Rep. District 21 (Pālolo Valley, Wilhelmina Rise)

State Rep. District 23 (Mō‘ili‘ili, McCully)

State Rep. District 25 (Ala Moana, Downtown Honolulu)

State Rep. District 26 (Makiki, Punchbowl)

State Rep. District 27 (Pacific Heights, Nu‘uanu)

State Rep. District 28 (Sand Island, Chinatown)

State Rep. District 29 (Kamehameha Heights, Kalihi Valley)

State Rep. District 30 (Kalihi, Hickam Village)

State capitol 022725

<title>Here's who's running for office in 2026, part 1</title>

Tuesday marked the filing deadline for prospective political candidates. See who's running for state offices here.

Here's who's running for office in 2026, part 1

Lopaka and Tanya Kapanui

Lopaka Kapanui and Tanya Kapanui

A place of gentle rains, verdant forests, and an almost daily arch of color across the sky, Mānoa has long been known as the Valley of Rainbows. In Hawaiian tradition, this beauty is explained through the story of Kahalaopuna, the famed “Rainbow Princess” of Mānoa.

Long ago, Kahaukani, the strong, swirling wind deity, and Kauahuahine, the gentle, misty rain deity, were united, and from them was born Kahalaopuna, a young woman of extraordinary spiritual radiance whose presence was marked by rainbows. From infancy, she had been promised in marriage to Kauhi, a high chief of Kailua.

But jealousy and deceit intervened. Two lesser chiefs falsely boasted of intimacy with Kahalaopuna. Hearing the lies and never having met his betrothed, Kauhi believed them. Consumed by jealousy, he sought her out and, despite her innocence and gentle nature, attacked and killed her. Through the aid of a large pueo who was a god and a relative of Kahalaopuna, she was restored to life several times as Kauhi continued his cruelty across the mountains and valleys of Oʻahu.

After Kauhi killed his betrothed one last time and buried her under the roots of a huge koa tree, the pueo was unable to retrieve her. However, her story did not end there. Her spirit came across a kind young ali‘i named Mahana and directed him to where her body lay. After he pulled her from the shallow grave, he brought Kahalaopuna to his home in Kamō‘ili‘ili. Mahana’s brother, a powerful kahuna, and their two spirit-sisters were able to once again restore the young maiden to life.

When the truth of her murder was revealed before the ruling ali‘i, Kauhi confessed to his actions. Justice followed, and Kahalaopuna was freed from her betrothal and allowed to choose her own future. She married Mahana, who had shown her love and loyalty.

Yet their peace did not last forever. In time, Kauhi returned in the form of a shark and claimed Kahalaopuna’s life as she was swimming just off the shore at Kaimana Beach. With her passing, her parents returned to their elemental forms as the Wind and Rain of Mānoa. Their presence, it is said, still brings the valley its gentle showers and brilliant rainbows — everlasting reminders of Kahalaopuna.

Mānoa Valley was known as a place favored by aliʻi, including King Kamehameha I, King Lunalilo, Princess Ke‘elikōlani, and Queen Lili‘uokalani. Its cool winds and steady rains made it one of the most fertile and desirable regions on Oʻahu. Queen Ka‘ahumanu kept her home in the valley and passed away there in 1832. 

Extensive loʻi kalo spread across the valley floor, fed by numerous streams descending from the mountains. The valley also contains significant travel routes that connected Mānoa to Waikīkī and other parts of O‘ahu. Through generations of use, the trails running through Mānoa became associated with processions of high-ranking individuals and their attendants. In later years, these ancient routes would be recognized in stories of the huaka‘i pō, the ghostly processions said to retrace the footsteps of aliʻi and warriors.

Even today, many believe Mānoa remains under the watch of its ancestors, particularly in the back of the valley in the area known as Paradise Park. Visitors and caretakers have long reported unexplained whispers, quiet chanting, shadowy figures, moving pōhaku, and the unmistakable sense of being watched by unseen eyes.

Paradise Park has welcomed visitors to its botanical and zoological garden since 1968. Many of us remember the tropical gardens and mazes, but we’ll never forget the birds! People walked past the aviaries with their huge collection of tropical birds, such as flamingos, macaws, and cockatoos, while others lined up to have their picture taken with the parrots on their shoulders. After walking the grounds, visitors converged on the Kamehameha Amphitheater to watch the birds perform circus tricks, like riding a miniature bicycle across a tightrope. In its later years, the park featured a dinosaur exhibit that set many a child’s imagination wild. Upstairs in the main building, Treetops Restaurant hosted quiet dinners with a beautiful and extensive view of the back of Mānoa Valley.

A significant decline in visitors, coupled with rising operational costs, caused the park to close its doors in 1994. The dinosaurs were packed up, and aside from a few escapees, the birds were sold to zoos and other aviaries. For a time, only the restaurant and offices remained.

If you want to understand why Mānoa Valley is filled with spirits and strange occurrences, consider that even the beauty of its endless rainbows has a dark side in the tragic story of Kahalaopuna, the famed “Rainbow Princess” of Mānoa.

Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 3, 2026

ASD Staff

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Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 3, 2026

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