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[{"type":"text","text":"Now let's all enjoy a baby playing with a baby..."}]

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<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026</title>

Now let's all enjoy a baby playing with a baby...

Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026

 Now let&#039;s all enjoy a baby playing with a baby...

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Columnists

Small waves lap at the sand. A 15-year-old boy lies face down, unconscious, and a group of young men take turns kicking him in the head. Then a shirtless man runs into the frame and punches one of the assailants in the side of the head.

The shirtless man is Kekoa Tamale, a 23-year-old lifeguard. By his account, he was 

 when he saw the beatdown, and he intervened to save the 15-year-old’s life, giving the boy a chance to escape. Then the group turned on him.

One clip shows Tamale seated, one hand pressed to his eye, while someone wrenches his head back by the hair. In another he is lifted off his feet and slammed into the shorebreak. A third, poorly lit, seems to show two men soccer-kicking him in the surf.

This all happened on the night of May 30 at Waialeʻe Beach on the North Shore of Oʻahu, at a spot locals call Dead Man’s Curve. By now, hundreds of thousands of people have viewed clips of the affair on social media.

Some facts are settled. Honolulu police have arrested five juveniles, and prosecutors have 

 each with attempted assault in the first degree. A 

 for the two victims has passed $100,000. But the kicks at the shoreline were not the night’s only footage.

 shows a different scene: a moonlit stretch of sand, Tamale and a young man trading blows with five other young men, one of them in a gray balaclava, the fight ending with no clear winner. Tamale himself 

 he had a run-in with this group earlier in the evening.

Look at the edges of the clips and you see a larger crowd. More than a dozen people follow the fight with their phones raised. Girls shriek obscenities in shock. One tells the boys to stop, but nobody moves to stop them.

Afterward, Tamale and his companion flex for the camera. A bystander celebrates their triumph against lopsided odds in language I won’t print. During that celebration, a girl holds out a sphere of alcohol, cap off — by appearance, the berry cherry limeade flavor of BuzzBallz Biggies, 15 percent alcohol by volume.

A photo said to be from that night has made the rounds since: a dozen girls posing on the sand. One sticks out her tongue and raises both middle fingers, with what appears to be a champagne bottle in one hand. Three more raise their middle fingers, each using a hand to shield their face from the lens. When the violent clips went viral, one of the girls took to Instagram to explain that they had only come to the beach for a birthday party, and that they were not present for the beating.

A second photo circulated, this one of the alleged suspects. Pages like 

crowdsourced their names. Sleuths posted their home addresses, then the names of their parents. The watching crowd at the beach never went home. It got bigger.

The comment sections offer two cures. Many say the boys need more lickins at home. Others say lock them up and lose the key. They’re right, up to a point.

Parents should parent. A 15-year-old has no business drinking on a beach after curfew. And punishing assault is the first and plainest duty of government — even those who want a small state would like it to enforce justice. In this case, prosecutions should be vigorous and penalties real.

The sword of the state is a terror to bad conduct, and the belt corrects behavior at home. But neither can supply what was missing on that beach. A young man who joins a mob to kick an unconscious boy in the head does not need adjustment. He needs regeneration.

That is the old Christian word for it. Scripture says we were dead in our “trespasses and sins,” following the course of this world, “by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” It is by God’s grace that we are saved through faith.

How does God change a heart? Not by handing down better rules. Through the prophet Ezekiel, He promises to take out “the heart of stone” and put in “a heart of flesh.” That is a transplant, not a tune-up. And His ordinary instrument for it is almost embarrassingly humble: people carrying His Word to other people, until the Spirit makes them live.

The boys who threw the kicks need Christ. So do the ones who filmed, laughed, or ran. So do the ones who shared, and sleuthed, and scrolled. Stricter parents and longer sentences can change what a man does, for a time. But they have never once changed what he loves.

Hawaiʻi has been here before. In the early 1820s the islands were ravaged by disease, drunkenness and dissolution. Out of that disorder, the Christian chiefess Kaʻahumanu, governing as kuhina nui, and the young king Kauikeaouli — Kamehameha III — advanced laws against drunkenness, gambling and violence.

Meanwhile, an awakening of Christian faith moved through the Islands. The laws did not produce the awakening. The awakening produced the laws.

I do not know how the courts will sort out the night of May 30, and neither does anyone posting about it. I do know what the beach is called. And apart from Christ, man is dead.

My prayer is that everyone on that sand — the beaten, the beaters and the watchers — would come to know Christ, and that His ambassadors on the North Shore would do what ambassadors do, and beg them to be reconciled to God.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Cross over beach Firefly Gemini Flash 843996

<title>No law can raise the dead</title>

Maybe police crackdowns or stricter parental discipline might've prevented the now infamous North Shore beatdowns, writes ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa, but at heart, the cruelties of that night are evidence of a deeper spiritual crisis in Hawai‘i.

No law can raise the dead

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

, serving made-to-order tempura and udon bowls, recently opened in Waterfront Plaza. The business can be found at Aloha Mamacita’s takeout window (level 2F, up the stairs near the security office and Building 4 parking elevators).

The concept has been in the works since January, according to Ryne Shimabukuro, who co-owns the business with Marc Kumai.

“Marc’s my oldest brother’s friend,” Shimabukuro explains. “He was working at Sakura Terrace, as well as at other Japanese restaurants, for a long time, specifically making tempura. He called me one day, saying he wants to do that (make tempura) as his job.”

Shimabukuro was working at Totoya at the time, but is no stranger to running a business. He previously operated his udon business, Shima-Ya, as a pop-up at fishcake Honolulu in Kakaʻako.

When Shimabukuro and Kumai were looking for potential spaces for their tempura business, they were connected with Kevin Nguyen, business owner of Aloha Mamacita.

“We’re really happy that Aloha Mamacita let us share their home with them,” Shimabukuro says.

Right now, Tempura Man is open from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays. Operating hours are subject to change, according to Shimabukuro. The business accepts walk-in orders only.

[{"type":"text","text":"“‘Tempura man’ is what my niece calls Marc,” Shimabukuro says."}]

Customers can opt for pre-set tempura boxes or order from the a la carte menu. So far, the chef’s choice box ($18.50) — comprising three shrimp, pumpkin, eggplant, zucchini, sweet potato and mushroom tempura over rice — and seafood box ($22.50) have been customer favorites. The latter includes two shrimp, two ika (squid), kakiage (tempura fritter made from a fried carrot and onion mix) and two chikuwa (Japanese fishcake) tempura over rice. All boxes include a choice of ten-don or tentsuyu sauce.

“The tentsuyu sauce is going to be a more traditional Japanese dipping sauce, with daikon and a little bit of ginger on top,” Shimabukuro explains. “The ten-don sauce is going to be a little sweeter with a hint of ginger inside.

“What normally happens in Japan is you put the rice, then tempura on top, and you pour the sauce on top,” he adds. “Since this is for takeout, right now, the sauces are packed separately.”

The a la carte menu includes options like shrimp ($3.50), nori-dusted chikuwa ($3.50 for two pieces), pumpkin ($2.50), zucchini ($2.50) and sweet potato ($2.50) tempura. A la carte tempura come with complimentary Japanese salt on the side.

“The tempura has a crispy texture,” Shimabukuro says. “He’s (Marc’s) been doing it (making tempura) a long time. The crispiness of it, the freshness, how it comes out hot but not doughy — that’s what I like about it.”

The business also offers tempura udon ($11) — which includes two pieces of shrimp and one piece of pumpkin tempura — beef udon ($13) and gyu-don ($14.50), or Japanese-style beef bowls with rice.

Shimabukuro encourages customers to enjoy the tempura immediately, since it’s served hot and fresh.

“But, if you don’t eat it right away, you can always take it home; air-frying it is probably the best way to re-heat it,” he says. “If you come visit us, eating it right away is probably the best way to have it.”

As for his Shima-Ya udon business — known for its handmade noodles — Shimabukuro says “that dream is still alive.”

“I don’t have the space to do udon, as well as the right equipment to do a large quantity of it,” he says. “But hopefully, while we get this ready and this becomes profitable, I can hopefully get my own brick-and-mortar (in the future).”

[{"type":"text","text":"The business validates customer parking at Waterfront Plaza. "}]

Open from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays

Tempura Man lunch spread 060226

<title>Tempura Man offers udon and tempura bowls in Kakaʻako</title>

The new business is located at Aloha Mamacita’s takeout window at Waterfront Plaza. The menu features made-to-order tempura bowls and udon; tempura is also available a la carte.

Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026

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Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026

Authors

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