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ASD Staff

Daily Smile

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Smile 26 9 23

<title>Daily Smile: Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026</title>

Daily Smile: Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026

 Show us a new video of a puppy and a springy door stop thing and we&#039;ll watch it every single time...

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

Crime & Courts

The University of Hawai‘i must pay nearly $500,000 in a civil settlement with the federal government over allegedly misappropriated grant funds.

, announced last week, stems from criminal investigations into Stacy Higa, the former Executive Director of the Hawai‘i Commission for National and Community Service, who pleaded guilty in 2021 to embezzling grant funds awarded by AmeriCorps, a federally funded network of service programs.  

 reportedly authorized false contracts and purchase orders paying out more than $38,000 in AmeriCorps funds to companies under his control. He then used those funds on personal expenses; the U.S. Department of Justice reported in 2022 that at least $20,000 of the embezzled funds were used on “elective aesthetic dental care.”

Higa’s embezzlements also involved Hanalei Aipoalani, the program administrator for Honolulu’s coronavirus relief programs in 2020, and his wife. Higa and Aipoalani reportedly conspired to embezzle $845,000 in covid relief funds, and Aipoalani, along with his wife, pleaded guilty to embezzlement in 2021 as well.

While the Higa case is over — he was sentenced in 2022 to nearly four years in prison — his actions represent a failure by the University of Hawai‘i, which administers the Hawai‘i Commission for National and Community Service, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

As Higa was carrying out his scheme, UH was submitting regular reports to AmeriCorps certifying that the grant funds were being used properly. Those reports, of course were false; the DOJ contends that they were knowingly untrue.

“The egregious crimes committed by [Aipoalani] and Higa could have been mitigated by the University with proper oversight of AmeriCorps programs and HCNCS staff,” said Michael Pritchard, whose job title is AmeriCorps’ Official Performing the Duties of Inspector General.

Submitting fraudulent reports to the government is a violation of the False Claims Act, which can incur a penalty of up to three times the damages caused to the government.

The settlement, therefore, resolves the DOJ’s allegations without admitting whether UH is legally liable for the fraudulent reports.

Under the settlement’s terms, UH must pay $499,950 to the U.S. within 60 days.

“By requiring the University to pay half a million dollars, this settlement underscores a clear message: institutions that receive federal grant money have a responsibility to ensure proper oversight and to report the use of those funds honestly and accurately,” said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

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<title>UH to pay $500,000 in settlement over mismanaged funds</title>

Public officials embezzled federal grant money. UH could have stopped it, the DOJ alleges.

UH to pay $500,000 in settlement over mismanaged funds

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Arts & Entertainment

Aloha Spirit

When Matt Catingub was just 15 years old in September of 1976, he took the stage at the 

 His mother, Mavis Rivers, known as Polynesia’s First Lady of Song, 

was singing at a jazz festival and asked him to conduct.

Over his career, he has been a conductor, composer, musical arranger, big band leader, pianist and saxophonist, and singer. Catingub was also a longtime conductor of a pops series for the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, which preceded 

“When I became the pops conductor, I wanted to have a Hawaiian artist in the first half of every concert we did,” he said. “And then that started to evolve. If I can really turn the time back, one of the artists we had was Pure Heart, but that was 

 before he became as popular as he is.”

Other featured entertainers included Raiatea Helm, Na Leo Pilimehana, and more.

Now 50 years later, he will take the stage for a one-night-only performance of “Matt Catingub: From Samoa to Sinatra” at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall.

Catingub recently spoke with Aloha State Daily while traveling through Montana on a tour with his band.

“ʻFrom Samoa to Sinatra’ is my recording that I had put out a couple years ago to celebrate my mother, and she is on the recording, as well,” he said, referring to the album released in 2023, which also features 

His mother died in 1992, as previously reported by 

, but her recorded voice is part of the 2023 album and will be featured as part of the upcoming performance in Honolulu, he said.

The musical tribute explores his roots in Samoa — he was given the Samoan chief’s title of Laʻauli by King Malietoa Tanumafili II — as well as the big band and jazz sounds that shaped his career.

“My mom says I started picking out music when I was seven years old,” he told ASD. “I’d go to the piano and start playing everything by ear.”

She encouraged him to start playing clarinet in school.

“And that led me to saxophone, which was my original first instrument,” he said. “Then, I really started becoming more of a piano player and a singer. It's evolved.”

By the time Catingub was 17, he was sharing an original big band composition at the Monterey Jazz Festival. He also 

traveled and performed around the world with his mother

, including for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip at the Royal Variety Performance in 1983.

After high school, he joined the big bands of Louie Bellson and Toshiko Akiyoshi as the featured lead alto saxophonist. At 21, he had formed the Matt Catingub Big Band, with his mother as the vocalist.

In 1995, he became a solo artist and made his solo singing debut as part of the Frank Sinatra Celebration at Carnegie Hall, alongside Linda Ronstadt. His career includes writing and performing music for the George Clooney film “Goodnight and Good Luck,” where he also appears on screen.

For the upcoming concert with HSO, Honolulu listeners can expect a range of music, according to Catingub.

“I'm celebrating — as much as I can in an hour, literally — 50 years of being in the business,” he said. “But I'm of course focusing on my time with the symphony and the ʻFrom Samoa to Sinatra’ pieces.”

The upcoming performance will also celebrate the 25th anniversary of when Rosemary Clooney recorded a live album with Catingub, his band the Big Kahuna and Copa Cat Pack, and HSO at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall. Released after her death, it was called “The Last Concert (Live)” and the music was 

Matt Catingub

<title>ʻFrom Samoa to Sinatra’ gives one-night-only performance in Honolulu</title>

Matt Catingub, who previously conducted a pops series for the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, will be back on Oʻahu this Saturday, Sept. 26, to celebrate 50 years in the industry and pay homage to his late mother and vocalist, Mavis Rivers. He will take the stage at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall, where he once recorded a live album with Rosemary Clooney.

ʻFrom Samoa to Sinatra’ gives one-night-only performance in Honolulu

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

Business & Tourism

Fun fact: Selling homemade cinnamon rolls was not 

While the business is currently known for its warm, fluffy rolls, Jasmine “Jaz” Milam, who co-owns Hele Rolls with Brittany “Kawai” Lopez, remembers she started out with doughnuts.

“It was doughnuts to begin with; I’m no good at doughnuts and I already knew that, but I think she (Lopez) really likes doughnuts,” Milam says. “After a couple weeks, I was like, doughnuts are not working.”

Milam, who always loved baking, remembers making homemade cinnamon rolls regularly when she was deployed.

“I was making homemade cinnamon rolls every Sunday to share with my fellow service members,” she says. “It became a tradition that brought everyone together, and seeing how something as simple as a warm cinnamon roll could create that sense of comfort and connection has always stayed with me.”

Milam suggested featuring cinnamon rolls for Hele Rolls’ main product and, long story short, they quickly became a hit.

“Cinnamon rolls felt like the perfect fit,” she says. “They’re nostalgic, comforting, and have a way of bringing people together, which is exactly what we hope every customer experiences when they enjoy one of our rolls.”

Hele Rolls officially launched last June, shortly after Milam’s father died. The business was created as a way to honor his legacy and the values he believed in, especially the idea of food having the power to bring people together.

The business’s name pays tribute to Hele Nui, the food truck Milam’s father previously operated.

“Everyone says it (the business name) should be Jaz’s cinnamon rolls, and I didn’t want my name on it,” Milam says. “All of a sudden, it came to me — his food truck’s name was Hele Nui, so what about Hele Rolls? It’s using his name, but kind of paving my own path, carrying his legacy forward.

“Now, I tell everybody, this started off as a side hustle, but it’s turned into so much more,” she adds. “I have a legacy that I’m trying to continue with my dad. It’s more than just making cinnamon rolls for some extra cash; it’s making him, my family and my community proud.”

The family-operated business accepts pre-orders and pops up at various events across O

ahu, such as the Taste of Aloha Night Market at NEX and What the Truck?! in Waikele. The business’s first What the Truck?! market was recent, and Hele Rolls sold out of its cinnamon rolls in 45 minutes, according to Milam.

“I had about 220 to 240 rolls at What the Truck?!,” she says. “Taste of Aloha was the most I’ve done at a market; it was a little more than 300.”

All cinnamon rolls are handmade in small batches, according to Milam, who says the business focuses on creating that soft, fluffy texture and homemade frostings.

While the business’s original cinnamon roll continues to be a bestseller, it also offers specialty flavors which change every month, according to Milam. Previous specialty flavors include strawberry shortcake, chocolate haupia, ube and Oreo. In July, the business featured Oreo and lemon blueberry cinnamon rolls.

“We love keeping our menu fresh with rotating flavors inspired by Hawai

i, classic desserts and seasonal favorites,” Milam says. “One of our favorite things is challenging people’s expectations of what a cinnamon roll can be. They can be familiar, nostalgic and comforting — or completely unexpected.

“Lemon blueberry had our housemade blueberry compote, our icing, homemade whipped cream, fresh blueberries, lemon zest and blueberry shortcake, which is like cookies with freeze-dried blueberries,” she adds. “The Oreo one was like a cookies and cream. Our menu rotates regularly, so there’s always something new to discover. We put a lot of heart into everything we make.”

At markets, customers can buy individual cinnamon rolls or get sample packs, which include two original rolls and two specialty flavors. If customers pre-order, only packs are available. At markets, original cinnamon rolls cost $6 each; specialty flavors cost $8 each.

When asked about her favorite cinnamon roll flavors, Milam says she likes her kūlolo one — “I still need to perfect it a little bit more” — and also recommends the haupia flavor, which features original icing, toasted macadamia nuts and coconut shavings. 

Besides pop-up events and accepting pre-orders, the biz also offers catering for private parties, corporate events and celebrations. Customers can opt for the full-sized cinnamon rolls or the business’s Cinni-Maninis, or bite-sized cinnamon rolls.

Hele Rolls wasn’t even a year old when the biz was asked to participate in Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race.”

“One day, we were making cinnamon rolls; I was in the kitchen, and Kawai yelled my name,” Milam remembers. “It wasn’t a panic yell; it was more of an excited yell. I came to her, and she said, ‘Look at this.’ It was a casting agent who reached out to us through Instagram. Obviously, like everyone else, we thought it was Spam.”

“We thought it was Spam for sure, but we were like, ‘Who knows, let’s just take a chance,’” Lopez says.

Hele Rolls responded to the message, the agent got back to them, and from there, “it just snowballed,” according to Milam.

That was earlier this spring; Hele Rolls left to compete on “The Great Food Truck Race” in April. Hosted by Tyler Florence, this season follows eight food truck teams from across the country, as they travel through the Great Smoky Mountains. The winning team gets a $50,000 grand prize. Previous show episodes can be viewed on HBO Max.

Keeping the competition a secret was a huge challenge, especially since Hele Rolls has regular customers.

“We couldn’t tell anyone,” Milam says. “On Instagram, we said, ‘This is our last pick-up and preorder until further notice;’ we didn’t know how long we were going to be there. Our regular customers were like, ‘What are you doing? Are you done?’ It was crazy to see all of that play out.”

The current season of “The Great Food Truck Race” premiered on July 26. The teams started in Nashville, according to Milam, who still remembers the first day of filming.

“We were so starstruck because we knew what we were doing there; everybody was looking at us,” she says. “It was insane; I will never forget that feeling.”

Hele Rolls usually pops up in tents at events; the business currently doesn’t operate out of a food truck, though that’s a future goal. Creating new friendships with other cast members and competing teams was one of the highlights of being on the show, according to Lopez.

“Though it was a competition, at the end of the day, we respected one another and cherished that experience as a whole,” she says. “We got a lot of different advice from everybody, their companies and their brands. A lot of them were more experienced in business; we’re freshly new in business. It was a lot to soak in, and also a chance for us to really be OK with being ourselves.”

[{"type":"text","text":"For Milam, being on the show instilled a newfound sense of confidence."}]

“This show has given me the ability to see the worth in ourselves,” she says. “All these people believed in me and believed in us. Being selected to compete on Season 19 of Food Network’s 

has been an unforgettable experience and an incredible opportunity to represent Hawai

“We continue to stay humble, but we’re so proud at the same time,” Lopez adds. “I think the best thing to do is to take a chance on yourself. You never know what can come out of any experience.”

As the business heads into its second year of operation, Milam and Lopez are focused on new goals for Hele Rolls. Milam — now running Hele Rolls full-time — says they would eventually love to own their own food truck and have a storefront.

“We’ve done so much in year one that we never thought was even possible,” Milam says. “We’ve been so blessed in one year — all these things that happened to us.”

She remembers when one of her first goals — in the business’s early days — was just to “have a line.”

“That’s all we wanted — two to three people,” she laughs. “A line means people are willing to sacrifice their time to stand in line for us and for our product. Having a storefront would be (amazing) because I know I can pump out more for them and it would be better quality; that’s always the goal.”

Being involved with the community is also important to the Hele Rolls team, who is always looking for ways they can support Hawai

“We want to be known not just for cinnamon rolls; we want to be known as a business that’s supporting our community,” Milam says. “If somebody needs something, I want Hele Rolls to be in the front of people’s minds. It’s literally about family, food and community.”

No matter what the future holds, staying true to themselves and maintaining the brand’s mission is essential, according to Milam.

“Beyond the cinnamon rolls themselves, I think what truly makes Hele Rolls unique is the experience,” she says. “From the very beginning, we’ve wanted every customer to feel like they’re part of our ‘ohana. That sense of connection is just as important to us as the product we serve.”

“We’re incredibly grateful for the support our community has shown us over the past year,” Milam adds. “As a women-owned, LGBTQ+-owned and family-powered business, it means so much to see people embrace not only our cinnamon rolls, but also the story and values behind Hele Rolls. We wouldn’t be here without our amazing ‘ohana and community, and we can’t wait to share what’s next.”

For updates and information, follow the biz on 

Hele Rolls The Great Food Truck Race credit Food Network 080526

<title>Oʻahu-based family business is 'on a roll'</title>

Hele Rolls, known for its homemade cinnamon rolls, started its business last June. The biz regularly pops up at events across Oʻahu and accepts pre-orders. Hele Rolls is also competing on the new season of Food Network’s "The Great Food Truck Race," which premiered on July 26.

Oʻahu-based family business is 'on a roll'

Arrasmith Portrait

Perry Arrasmith

Columnists

Preparations are currently underway for former Governor George Ariyoshi’s funeral service. On April 19, 2026, he passed away at the age of 100. 

When he was born on March 12, 1926, Hawai‘i’s population stood at less than 368,000 people. By the time he passed, an additional million people lived in the Islands.

Besides population, Hawai‘i’s transition in his century of life was dramatic across economic, political, environmental, and socio-cultural bounds. In that time, Ariyoshi served three full terms as Governor between 1973 and 1986. With his predecessor, he was also the second part of a Democratic consensus that ruled Hawai‘i for nearly one-quarter of a century. 

To be clear, he was controversial. That’s only natural when you govern the State of Hawai‘i for more than a decade. He was quiet and distant, methodical and consistent. His politics were backdoor and incremental, neither immediate nor explosive. An independent with a penchant for irritating opponents, his stoic and steady style does not fit today's politics. 

Many readers don’t know Ariyoshi, or they’ve never heard of him. That’s honestly too bad. You won’t understand contemporary Hawai‘i if you don’t know George Ariyoshi. 

Raised in Honolulu, Ariyoshi graduated from McKinley High School. He was part of a generation trained in public schools to be citizens of a better society. Kids learned to debate the importance of elections and local political institutions and were members of clubs and other social organizations. There was a sense of societal responsibility tied into this identity. 

While still a student, he bore witness to the suspicion borne against Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJAs) following Imperial Japan’s attacks on the United States in December 1941. After serving in the U.S. Army as an interpreter, he ventured off to school in Michigan before returning home to Hawai‘i in the final decades of its territorial period. 

The young lawyer was recruited by Jack Burns to run as a Democratic candidate for the Territorial House in the 1954 elections. In the following year, he married Jean Hayashi. Hayashi became his political partner for the next three decades of his public service. Her influence over Ariyoshi was a model of a political partner, as outlined in her own 2004 

He was part of the Democratic coalition that overthrew the Republican Party’s control over the Territorial Legislature for the first time in the Territory’s history. As a member of the Democratic majority, Ariyoshi served as a check on Gov. Sam King, a Republican appointed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Within the Territorial Legislature, he served alongside such rising leaders as Daniel K. Inouye, Patsy Mink, Nelson K. Doi, Frank Fasi, Nadao Yoshinaga, and Oren E. Long — several became his political enemies.

From that entire bloc, he was also the last member of that generation of leaders to pass away. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Fresh New State Smell"}]

When Hawai‘i was admitted into the Union in August 1959, State Senator-elect Aryoshi was thrown into the minority when Republicans briefly retook the Legislature’s upper chamber. However, the Republican majority was slim (a margin of 14 to 11), and Ariyoshi had a chance to cast some pivotal votes. 

Ariyoshi, for instance, recalled a 1961 vote for the confirmation of Sam P. King to the state’s First Circuit Court. At least one Republican planned to kill King’s nomination in a bid to stymie Republican Gov. William Quinn. Ariyoshi provided a Democratic vote and showed that he would readily proceed as an independent within the Democratic faction. 

Democrats were back in control by 1962. With Democrats in power, Ariyoshi ascended up the leadership ladder. 

He once again emerged as a critical vote during a debate over land reform in 1963. During this period, a major piece of the Democratic Party’s agenda was the forced conversion of leasehold land managed by major landowners (often plantation owners) to small, fee-simple parcels for residential land ownership. A bill to do that looked poised for passage that year. 

Many of these leasehold properties were held by residents without access to opportunities to purchase property in fee-simple. Ariyoshi believed such forced conversions would be disastrous in Hawai‘i, and his stance benefitted the pro-market inclinations of then-Gov. John A. Burns. 

Burns took note of Ariyoshi’s independence. With three Democrats, he joined 10 Republicans to kill the bill. A 

 eventually passed in 1967, but Governor John Burns avoided its enforcement. When Ariyoshi became Governor, he began to enforce the 

During a later leadership fight between two major Democrats in the Senate, Nadao Yoshinaga and Nelson K. Doi, Ariyoshi also stayed neutral in 1966. The act alienated many Democrats. The move temporarily cast Ariyoshi into the political wilderness, but he still remained part of the Democratic establishment. 

By the late ’60s, he had served as Senate Majority Leader and Chair of the Committee on Ways and Means. In the meantime, he also served as a 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Rise of the Executive"}]

In the 1970 gubernatorial election, Ariyoshi ran for lieutenant governor as the Burns-backed candidate. During his campaign, the young journalist Tom Coffman followed around Ariyoshi, capturing a speech whose legacy followed Ariyoshi for the rest of his career.

As part of the Burns administration, Ariyoshi outlined a grand vision for Hawai‘i, one for “a Hawaii that will lead the Pacific basin in medicine, law, research, technology, oceanography, the humanities, culture and the arts and in the way we treat people in this community.” 

It was here that the haole Coffman heard a particular Japanese phrase: 

. “Properly translated,” Ariyoshi explained in 1970, “it means, ‘I am what I am because of you.’” 

The phrase, bounded by a sense of obligation to previous generations and the general community, framed the thinking of a new generation of eager Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJAs) whose political influence over the islands was rapidly emerging. 

This generation was grateful for a new Hawai‘i where economic opportunity was more readily available to the sons and daughters of stevedores and plantation workers. Ariyoshi was one of their emerging leaders.

George Ariyoshi’s Hawai‘i was never fixed or stable. It was always dynamic and subject to evolutionary forces floating inward from beyond its shores. Its people were also changing, with automobiles, car-choked highways, and massive suburbs replacing railroads, tight-knit villages, and walkable towns. The 

 and the plantation were becoming the stuff of nostalgia. 

Ariyoshi was finding these problems before he even served his first term. While Gov. Jack Burns had angled for Ariyoshi to serve as his successor, a cancer diagnosis in his last term meant he needed to step down earlier than planned in October 1973. Ariyoshi, as Lieutenant Governor, became the Acting Governor of Hawai‘i. 

Ariyoshi was immediately saddled with navigating Hawai‘i’s first recession. Caused by the 1973 OPEC crisis, the resulting shortage of oil discouraged travel to Hawai‘i and raised shipping and transportation costs among residents. 

With an emerging budget shortfall caused by falling tax revenues, Ariyoshi was charged with implementing austerity measures that froze the size of state government. Through it all, managing good relationships with public-sector labor helped avert strikes.

While reckoning with this crisis, Ariyoshi recalled the need to avoid 

, or wasteful spending. It became a mark of his political brand of fiscal conservatism. Such a brand, according to his 

, resulted in a massive budget surplus of nearly half a billion dollars by the time he left office in 1987. 

Like later governors such as Benjamin Cayetano and David Ige, Ariyoshi's stint as Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means alerted him to the importance of strong fiscal constraints. It's among the most important committees in Hawai‘i and serves as a pragmatic check on all other committees. 

Maintaining solvency, studying financial plans, and quizzing bureaucrats on spreadsheets is not the stuff of social media posts, but it's the stuff of true governance. For later governors, Ariyoshi articulated that template.

Vestiges of his Japanese culture influenced his leadership style. “When I became Governor, I was very conscious of the obligation that I had to the citizens of this community to do the best I can as Governor,” he 

 to Leslie Wilcox in 2012. “But I was very mindful of something that my father used to talk about. The word is a Japanese word; it’s 

, shame. Don’t bring shame on your friends, your family, to anybody. Be honorable in everything that you do.”

, Ariyoshi further believed in a sense of 

, which is sometimes understood as a sense of obligation. In his context, it was a sense of civic, or societal obligation.

He was obligated to govern a society in a state of economic transition. Hawai‘i’s agricultural sector was in a state of collapse. 

Attempts to bail out struggling agricultural industries in regions like Kohala on Hawai‘i Island, Kaua‘i, and Molokai proved additionally meddlesome. Ariyoshi’s values informed his approach to the pressures of these crises. Many were international in scope, caused by falling crop prices and emerging foreign supplies of pineapple and sugar. 

Other notable efforts included his decision to acquire the communities of Waiāhole Valley on O‘ahu, where 888 acres remain under state ownership today. He also sought to control urban growth with the establishment of the Hawai‘i Community Development Authority (HCDA) in 1976, setting the stage for the emergence of Kaka‘ako and other designated districts.

These crises required close cooperation with local corporations and businesses, many of whom who still maintained their headquarters in the Islands. His close ties to financial institutions like First Hawaiian Bank and leaders like Walter Dods harken to an era where such businesses were organic, aggressive, and attentive bastions of civic activity. 

Time and time again, Ariyoshi hoped that Hawai‘i could truly diversify its economy away from agriculture because its post-statehood economic paradigm was not sustainable. “Federal dollars and tourist dollars came into the State. But our economy is very fragile. We have little control over those Federal and tourist dollars.” 

“Consequently,” he explained, “I feel the need to create an economy over which we have a greater degree of control, and one which will better reflect the environmental needs of our community. We need to create jobs, but I feel that we should create them in the right areas – for example, agriculture, oceanography, international trade.”

One resulting effort was the formation of the 

 (NELH) in the summer of 1974. The NELH was the precursor to the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai‘i Authority (NELHA), which still exists today on the Kona side of Hawai‘i Island. 

Regardless of these efforts, his position remained politically tenuous. Ariyoshi was subject to fraught relationships with most of his lieutenant governors. He ended up engaged in a bitter three-way primary with former Lt. Gov. Tom Gill and Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi in 1974. 

Another one, Nelson Doi, quit in 1978 and became a major critic of the administration. Ariyoshi himself then won in a rematch against Fasi by less than one percentage point. In 1982, Lieutenant Governor Jean King once again challenged Ariyoshi in the primary. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"He won every time. "}]

While Burns was there in the prosperous ’60s, it was Ariyoshi who navigated the ascendance of the Hawaiian Renaissance, the rise of the environmental movement, the clash between 'locals' and recent transplants, a growing hostility towards development, and a general desire for a more explicit identity among residents in Hawai‘i. 

He desired a sustainable path for navigating these conflicts. Grand projects like the 

, even if impossible to implement, were so promising. Finalized as 

 in the 1978 Legislative Session, the effort influenced many of the delegates who were later called to serve at a Constitutional Convention that convened just a few months later. 

The resulting 1978 Constitution created a political mandate that Ariyoshi needed to implement, largely at the behest of the state legislature. In 1979 alone, Ariyoshi oversaw the establishment of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the recognition of ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i as an official language. 

At times, his approach was naturally contradictory and controversial, simply because no route was without contradiction or controversy. 

 in the Hawaiian Islands that barred migrants from both the continental United States, Asia, and the Pacific. This came despite the fact that Ariyoshi’s father was an immigrant who jumped ship at Honolulu in 1919. 

Hawai‘i, if it was still a single society, was dividing against itself. Non-Hawaiian locals, kama‘āina haole, and Kanaka Maoli were facing migration from Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and the Continental United States. The demographic face of Hawai‘i was changing. Hawai‘i needed a cohesive identity to tie everyone together.

There was also a reckoning with land and power in the Hawaiian Islands. Towards the end of Ariyoshi’s time in office, George Cooper and Gavan Daws published 

, an investigation of how the Democratic Revolution of 1954 had enabled a new era of development led by locally-based Chinese, white, and Japanese Americans.

An entire chapter of the book was dedicated to Ariysohi, who sat for an interview with the authors. Communities in poorly located areas like the Royal Gardens subdivision of Puna, which had retained Ariyoshi as an attorney while Ariyoshi served in the State Senate, were later largely destroyed by volcanic eruptions in 1983 while Ariyoshi was Governor. 

Coopers and Daws did not write the book to criticize directly Ariyoshi. Neither did many critics write their pieces to directly condemn Ariyoshi as a person. Instead, they were framed as investigations into a new generational establishment and Hawai‘i’s new political environment. Ariyoshi, naturally, became a symbol of both this establishment and environment. 

Despite these criticisms, Ariyoshi still tried to fit all the pieces of a ‘New Hawai‘i’ together. He became a political symbol of a murky and unrealized consensus, even if detractors perceived some attempts at planning Hawai‘i’s future as shallow and nebulous. Ariyoshi knew this work was not concrete. He was always trying to subject the evolving consensus to stable definitions.

The era’s chaotic nature was suited for his patience and temperament. He did not rise to points of fiery anger. He avoided alcohol and worked the long hours of a diligent administrator. He did not lash out at opponents. 

Ariyoshi, it seems, lived to preside over the evaporation of the early post-statehood consensus that had unified the Democrats of 1954 and presaged an 'end of history.' 

By 1986, Ariyoshi was term-limited due to a two-term limit instituted by the 1978 Constitutional Convention. He stepped down, with his last lieutenant governor (John D. Waihe‘e III) rising to become Hawai‘i’s first elected Native Hawaiian governor. 

It's in that domain where reform parties stagnate. Hawai‘i's Democratic Party looked lost by 1986. Then-Lieutenant Governor Waihe‘e, U.S. Representative Cecil Heftel, and former U.S. Representative Patsy Mink fought a bruising primary for the soul of that party in 1986. Republicans nearly took back the governorship. 

Through documents like the 1978 Constitution, the

 generation led by Waihe‘e inaugurated a new wave of Democratic leadership.

Following his time as Governor, Ariysohi became an elder statesman for regional affairs. The East-West Center, which had been 

 as a corporate non-profit organization under Ariyoshi’s leadership in 1975, became a vehicle for such efforts. 

As Governor, Ariyoshi worked with regional leaders, including Fijian Prime Minister Kamisese Mara, to create the 

 (PICL). He also created the Pacific Basin Development Council (PBDC). He built on these efforts in the following decades. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Fixation on the Future"}]

I never met Governor Ariyoshi, but I met people who believed in him. Alongside the late Tom Coffman, Ariyoshi invested a lot of time in trying to create a unique philosophy for the people of the contemporary Hawaiian State. 

More than any other Hawai‘i governor, Ariyoshi worked hard to formulate his political legacy. An exhaustive effort at the University of Hawai‘i’s Center for Oral History (and its long-time Executive Director, Warren Nishimoto) resulted in the 

, a major tome records the history of his administration. 

, which in my opinion is far too short and selective, was released in 1997. A far longer and more exhaustive historical overview of Ariyoshi and his times is overdue, although it is unlikely to ever happen. 

 on the evolution of Hawai‘i reached tens of thousands of public school students in elementary and secondary school across the State, including myself. It’s a work that made me think a lot about my own role in society. "Hawai‘i’s Future," his final 

 published in 2020, tried to further refine these ideas for a general audience.

As a planner, much of Ariyoshi’s agenda was left unfinished by the end of his term. By design, that was deliberate. In his own estimation, Ariyoshi was always focused on the future. His work focused on building out policies that would outlast his own life. 

ASD political history columnist Perry Arrasmith takes a deep dive into the career, accomplishments and legacy of the late Gov. George Ariyoshi. His last year in office was 1986 but, as Arrasmith explains, the social and political tensions Ariyoshi navigated remain with us to this day.

Daily Smile: Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026

ASD Staff

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Daily Smile: Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026

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