After collecting spooky stories for more than 25 years, it’s interesting to note that a ghost story from Japan is one of the most popular tales in Hawai‘i. But how did it get here, you ask?
In the late 1800s, the first contract laborers from Japan began arriving in Hawai‘i to work on the sugar and pineapple plantations. Later, the influx of immigrants from Japan, China, the Philippines, Korea, and Portugal, particularly during the Hawai‘i plantation era, resulted in a unique interethnic society. Thni-evirdehTe settlers brought with them their families, food, culture, and sense of community. They also brought their religions, superstitions, and ghosts.
Yōkai are a class of supernatural beings deeply rooted in Japanese spiritual traditions. Although there are a number of different expressions for ghosts, spirits, and monsters in the Japanese language, the modern use of the term “yōkai” in Hawai‘i and the Western world has come to represent a broad category of various supernatural entities.
The legend of the faceless ghost, known as noppera-bō in Japan, is a yōkai that resembles a human with no face. The creature is often mistaken for mujina, the badger or tanuki (raccoon dog) ghosts, who are shapeshifters and often appear as noppera-bō. Mujina are tricksters said to enjoy tormenting wicked people.
The true noppera-bō is an entity that looks like a regular person but has no face. They are usually harmless and are primarily known for frightening people. In some legends, the noppera-bō appears as an ordinary human being before its eyes, nose, and mouth disappear, leaving a blank sheet of skin where its face should be. When this yōkai touches the face of an unsuspecting victim, the victim’s facial features disappear, causing them to become noppera-bō.
Over the years, Hawai‘i has had its own sightings of the faceless ghost in places like the Waiākea Villas in Hilo, an intermediate school in Kailua, and the Moanalua school campus.
In May 1959, several children at a middle school in Pālolo told their parents about a faceless woman roaming the halls. The rumors spread quickly to other students and faculty, and the police department received frantic calls from parents to investigate. The principal at the time stated that the stories must have been greatly exaggerated by the students and asked for the parents’ help dispelling the rumors.
Just four days later, a newspaper editorial described sightings of a faceless woman at the Wai‘alae Drive-In Theatre in Kaimukī.
According to one version, a young woman entered the restroom around midnight to put on fresh lipstick. In the mirror, she saw a figure behind her with half a body, long hair, and no face. She turned around quickly, but no one was there. The restroom door slammed shut by itself and locked. The girl screamed and fainted, ending up in the hospital.
Another story states that a woman went to the restroom and noticed someone standing in front of the mirror, combing her long, black hair. The woman moved closer to the hair-brushing stranger and spoke to her. The person in front of the mirror turned slightly toward the woman. She had no face. The woman was so frightened, she ended up in the hospital with a nervous breakdown.
As most people know, the drive-in used to sit next to the Kāhala Cemetery, also known as Ocean View Cemetery. According to a map published in 1929, the cemetery stretched from where it is now, all the way to where 20th Avenue met Hoku Avenue before the Lunalilo Freeway was built. At some point, the burial grounds were cut in half, and the theater was built on the ‘Ewa side of the lot. Today, a storage facility sits atop the old drive-in site, and there are houses along the mauka and ‘Ewa borders, but the rest of the cemetery is still there.
As for the faceless ghost, she hasn’t disappeared with the theater. She’s reportedly been seen several times just across the street. People claim to have encountered her in the mall bathroom and the aisles of a nearby grocery store.
A person approached me about a crazy incident in the shoe section of a department store in that mall. It was the start of a sale, and the department was filled with shoppers looking for deals on the clearance rack that had been marked down again. But suddenly, people started dropping their shoes on the floor and leaving the area, as if they were avoiding something.
The store employee went to check it out and saw a strange woman in a red dress with long, black hair, grabbing shoes off the racks with one hand and piling them onto her arm. She was creating a mess as boxes and shoes fell to the floor. The woman’s body seemed to be shaking with tension.
The saleswoman approached the lady from behind and called out, “Excuse me?”
The stranger didn’t acknowledge the saleswoman, so she called out again, louder this time. Suddenly, the strange lady froze, holding an empty shoebox in her hand. She crumpled the box like it was a piece of paper, let out a horrible scream, and then threw the shoes she was holding to the ground.
The saleswoman said that when the lady in the red dress turned around, she had no face.
“I left,” she said, “I didn’t go upstairs to clock out. I didn’t even talk to my manager. I just left. There’s no way I’d ever go back in that store.”
Have you seen the faceless woman?
The authors can be reached at hawaii.mysteries@gmail.com
For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.
