Plague and Fire
Page 27
7. Fire had swept the district in 1886, so most of the buildings standing in 1899 were of relatively recent construction. See Clarence E. Glick, Sojourners and Settlers: Chinese Migrants in Hawaii (Honolulu, 1980), 12-134-
8. MBH, December 14 and 15, 1899,107-10; PCA, December 14, 1899, 9•
9. For an estimate of ten thousand people, see the remarks of Dr. F. R. Day quoted in a letter to the editor of PCA, December 18, 1899, 1; Dion-Margrit Coschigano, "Chinatown: A History of Change," http://www.chinatownhi.com, accessed March 3, 2003.
io. Data on employment and economic status can be found in Glick, Sojourners and Settlers, 102-6o; and Paul Kimm-Chow Goo, "Building Hawaii's Prosperity," in [Overseas Penman Club], The Chinese of Hawaii (Honolulu, 1929), 13; in 1894, the Hawaiian Star had estimated the number of vagrants in Chinatown at eight hundred. See Tin-Yuke Char, The Sandalwood Mountains: Readings and Stories of the Early Chinese in Hawaii (Honolulu, 1975), Appendix G, 288.
i i. Yansheng Ma Lum and Raymond Mun Kong Lum, Sun Yat-Sen in Hawaii: Activities and Supporters (Honolulu, 1999).
12. Chung Kun Ai, My Seventy-Nine Years in Hawaii (Hong Kong, ig6o), 189-91.
13. The thick file of Yang's correspondence with the Board of Health, for example, is overwhelmingly concerned with matters of business and trade. See HBH, Series 334-26; Gu Jinhui [Gu, sometimes Goo, Kim Fui], Tan Dao Ji Shi [The Historical Record of Hawaii] (Shanghai, 1907), 148-58-
14. For an example, see IND, March 2 1, 1900, 4; Char, The Sandalwood Mountains; Glick, Sojourners and Settlers; Li, Ling Ai, Life Is for a Long Time: A Chinese Hawaiian Memoir (New York, 1972).
15. Ernest K. Wakukawa, A History of the Japanese People in Hawaii (Honolulu, 1938), 84-111; Gary Y. Okihiro, Cane Fires: The Anti Japanese Movement in Hawaii, 1865-1945 (Philadelphia, 1991).
16. Morita Sakae, Hawaii Nihonjin Hatten Shi [History of Japanese Development in Hawaii] (Waipahu, Hawaii, 1921); Wakukawa, Japanese People in Hawaii, 99-123-
17. Soga Yasutaro, Gojunenkan No Hawaii Kaiko [My Fifty Years Memoirs in Hawaii] (Osaka, 1953), 82.
18. File from the Japanese consul, HBH, Series 334-26; YS advertisements for 1897, which include the prominent Drs. Ogawa, Mori, and Uchida already in practice; licensure letters from the Board of Health to Drs. Soga, Ota, Yanagihara, Haida, and Katsuki, in HBH, Correspondence, Vol. 2 3, Outgoing letters; Soga, Gojunenkan No Hawaii Kaiko, 94-
19. Accurate numbers for Hawaiians in Chinatown are hard to determine. White sources generally offer vague estimates that appear on the low side. The numbers used here are extrapolated from figures in KAA, February 3, 1900-
20. Soga, Gojunenkan No Hawaii Kaiko, 83-
2 1. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Twelfth Census of the United States, Vol. i (Washington, D.C., 1901), 613; for reference to "a Spaniard," see PCA, December 27, 1899, 13; for the name and identification of Nakauaila, see KAA, December 16, 1899, 2.
22. C[lifford]. B. Wood, "A Brief History Medicine in Hawaii," Transactions of the First Annual Meeting of the Hawaiian Territorial Medical Association (Honolulu, 1926), 22. The numbers, and hence the magnitude of the problems he faced, seem to have been inflated a bit as Wood grew older.
23. AHW, December 16, 1899, 6; PCA, December 16, 1899, 2.
24. PCA, December 15,1899,14; "Aole no i Loli ae ke Kulana-Eia no ke Pahola mai new; Kapu no Alanui [No Change in Status-Spread Still Seen; Streets Restricted] " KAA, December 16, 1899, 2, in which KAA announces the suspension of Ka Makaainana and the quarantine-induced efforts of Nupepa Kuokoa to relocate outside Chinatown and publish on a temporary basis until the quarantine could be lifted; "Oili Hou ka Mai Bubonika [Another Occurrence of the Bubonic Plague]," KAA, December 16, 1899, 2; IND, December 14,1899,4-
25. PCA, December 16, 1899, 2; MBH, io8.
26. EBU, December 27, 1899, 1.
27. AHW, December 6, 1899,8; Gu, Tan Dao ji Shi, 141-42
28. "He Hana Pahaohao [Incredible Acts]," KAA, December 23, 1899, 5; "Ache Oiaio oia man Lono [No Truth to the Reports]," December 23, 1899, 5-
29. IND, December 29, 1899, 4, and January 8, 1900, 4; PCA, December 13, 1899,14-
30. Morita, ed., Hawaii Nihonjin Hatten Shi, 585; Wood to Saito, April 22, 1900, FO and EX Files, Local Officials, HBH.
3 1 - Jerome J. Platt, Maurice E. Jones, and Arleen Kay Platt, The Whitewash Brigade: The Hong Kong Plague of 1894 (London, 1998), 71; Charles F. Craig, "The Bubonic Plague from a Sanitary Standpoint," Pacific Medical Journal, Vol. 43 (1900), 588.
32. Most European Americans were well aware of the Chinese antipathy to cremation. See Anna Leadingham to unknown, n.d. [ca. December 30, 1899, on the basis of internal evidence], Manuscript Collections, HHS; Platt et al., The Whitewash Brigade, 51; EBU, December 13, 1899, I.
33. PCA, December 13, 1899, 1; Leadingham to unknown, n.d.; Forrest J. Pinkerton, "Rat Menace Started Public Health Projects," reprint from Hawaii Magazine, July 17, 1943, MAM.
CHAPTER 6
i. PCA, December 16, 1899, 1; IND, December 14, 1899, 4-
2. Technically, McGrew refounded the Hawaiian Medical Society, since a moribund precursor had been established in 1856.
3- John Strayer McGrew File, MAM.
4. PCA, December 13,1899,3; December 14,1899,13-
5. IND, December 16, 1899, 4; Henri Goulden McGrew entry, "In Memo- riam," at http://hml.org/mmhc/index.html. Henri admitted that he could not recognize the diseases he was supposed to be addressing.
6. For a trenchant editorial on this point, which again sarcastically cites the valiant "little guinea pig," see IND, December 18, 1899, 4; EBU, December 18, 1899, 1; IND, December 18, 1899, 1.
7. PCA, December 18,1899,13; McGrew File, MAM.
8. [Polk's] Husted's Directory of Honolulu and Hawaiian Territory, igoo/o1 (Honolulu, [1901]), 62; IND, December 15,1899,4; PCA, December 19, 1899, 12.
9. PCA, December 14, 1899, 16.
1o. PCA, December 18, 1899, 4; EBU, December 19, 1899, 4; December 20, 1899, 4; IND, December 19, 1899,4; MBH, December 12, 1899, 109; PCA, December 16, 1899, 3-
i i. "He Hoopalaleha na Ona Waiwai [Land Owners Remain Indifferent]," KAA, December 23, 1899, 5-
12. PCA, December 18, 1899, I.
13- PCA, December i9, 1899, 1; Sakae Morita, ed., Hawai Nihonjin Hatten Shi [History of Japanese Development in Hawaii] (Waipahu, Hawaii, 1921), 587-
14. "Ke Kaikamahine Ma'i Geramania o Iwilei [The Sick German Girl of Iwilei]," KAA, December 23,1899,5-
15. PCA, December 20,1899,14-
16. PCA, December 23, 1899, 3; Anna Leadingham to unknown, n.d. [ca. December 30, 1899, on the basis of internal evidence], Manuscript Collections, HHS.
17- MBH, December 20, 1899, 112-13; PCA, December 21, 1899, 4, 5-
18. See, for example, the editorial comment in PCA, December 2, 1899, 4; IND, December 22 and 23, 1899; MBH, December 25, 1899, 115•
19. PCA, December 26, 1899, 1, 3-
20. PCA, December 26,1899,3-
2 1. IND, December 27, 1899, 4•
22. PCA, December 26,1899,3; "Paa ke Kulana ... [City Under Quarantine ...] KAA, January 6, 19oo, I.
2 3 - PCA, December 27, 1899, 13; MBH, December 25, 1899, 118.
24- MBH, December 25, 1899, 118-19; PCA, December 27, 1899, 4-
25. IND, December 27, 1899, 4; PCA, December 27, 1899, 13-
26. Li File, MAM; IND, December 29, 1899,4-
27- PCA, December 28, 1899, 13•
28. Gu Jinhui, Tan Dao ,Ji Shi [Historical Record of Hawaii] (Shanghai, 1907 [reprint 1988]), 142.
29. Mitamura File, MAM; EBU, December 28, 1899, 1; PCA, December 28, 1899, 13; HGZ, December 15, 1899, 4-
30. PCA, December 28,1899,13-
31 - "Pioo ke Kulanakauhale-Paa Hou no Alanui i ke Kiai is e no Koa-Hookapu is na Poe o ka Apna e Hoomalu Mua is Aole e Puke Iwaho-Eia no ka Ma'i ke Pahola mai nei [City in Panic-The Streets Once Again Closed and Guarded by Troops-People within the Quarantined Area Restricted from Leaving-The Disease Spreads]," KAA, December 30, 1899, 3-
32. EBU, December 28, 1899, 1; December 30, 1899, 1.
33. EBU, December 28, 1899, 1; PCA, December 29, 1899, 5•
CHAPTER 7
i. PCA, December 30, 1899, 9.
2. MBH, December 25, 1899, 120.
3. FRI, Vol. 58, No. i (January 1900), 3-
4. These and subsequent quotes, unless separately noted, are taken from a detailed discussion of this meeting that appeared in PCA, January 1, 1900, 19.
5. The piece Thurston had read was almost certainly A. Shadwell, "The Plague in Oporto," The Nineteenth Century, Vol. XLVI duly-December 1899), 833-47•
6. EBU, January 1, 1900, 1.
7. MBH, December 30, 1899, 121.
8. PCA, January i, igoo, i9.
9. Many letters addressed to the Marine Hospital Service in Washington attested to the continued debate over the efficacy of various vaccines and prophylactic serums. See Correspondence, Box 645, MHS; PCA, January 31, 1900; Radhika Ramasubban, "Imperial Health in British India, 1857-1900," in Roy Macleod and Milton Lewis, eds., Disease, Medicine, and Empire: Perspectives on Western Medicine and the Experience of European Expansion (London and New York, 1988), 54-55; United States Public Health Service scrapbooks, "Bubonic Plague, No. 1," 75, PHS; Alfred Harburld [?], Special Agent of the Government of Hawaii, to Surgeon General Walter Wyman, January 21, 1900, with endorsements from Wyman's staff; and Major Blair D. Taylor, Surgeon, U.S. Army, to Reypren, February i, i9oo; both in Correspondence Files, Box 645, MHS.
10. On this point in general, see "Discussion of Calvert and Kinyoun on Plague," Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 42 (1904), 2 38-39, in which speakers point out how much more the medical profession knew about plague in 1904 "than it did even two or three years ago."
i i. Honolulu Board of Health to the Board of Health of New South Wales, January 31, 1900, Outgoing Correspondence, Vol. 23, HBH, discusses some of the early disinfection experiments with sulfuric acid and formalin; "The Plague: Action of Gaseous Disinfectants on the Plague Bacillus," British Medical Journal (1899), 433-34; E. Klein, "Experiments on Disinfection of Bacillus Pestis with `Cyllin,"Absolute Phenol,' and `Formalin,"' Public Health (London), Vol. 16 (1903-04), 563-66.
12. PCA,January 1, 1900, 19.
13. MBH, December 30,1899,121-22.
14. PCA, December 30, 1899, 4; January 1, 1900, 19.
15. Jerome Platt, Maurice Jones, and Arleen Platt, The Whitewash Brigade: The Hong Kong Plague of 1894 (London, 1998), 77-78-
16. FRI, Vol. 58, No. 1 (January 1900), 3.
17. Honolulu Board of Health to the Board of Health of New South Wales, Jan. 31, 1900, Outgoing Correspondence, Vol. 23, HBH; MBH, March 3, 1900, 318; PCA, May 17, 19oo; Herbert P. Williams, "Honolulu's Contention with the Plague," Sanitarian (1900), 327. The effort to find alternative disinfectants continued for many years. See, for example, Blair D. Taylor to Surgeon General, December 29, 1899, and Edward Browaert, Consul-General of France in New York City, to Surgeon General, January 13, 1902, both in Box 645, MHS.
18. MBH, December 31, 19001124-
19. FRI, Vol. 58, No. i (January 1900), 3; MBH, January 2, 1900, 127-
20. PCA, January 1, 1900, 14, January 2, 1900, 4; FRI, Vol. 58, No. i (January 1900),3-
21. HGZ, January 5, 1900, 4; "Is the City Quarantined?" AHW, January 20, 1900, 4; EBU, January 1, 1900, 4; January 2, 1900, 3, 4; January 4, 1900, 1; IND, January 3 and 5, 1900-
22. Bishop Estate to the Board of Health, January 9, 1 goo, and February 2, 1900; Achi and Johnson, attorneys for Hawaii Land Company, Limited, to Board of Health, January 18, 1 goo; Jas. McLean, agent for Mrs. M. A. Gray ["who resides in San Francisco"] to the Board of Health, January 18, 1 goo, in "Incoming Letters: 1900, Fire Protests," Series 334-27, HBH; Report of "Mr. Bolte for the Silvera estate" in MBH, January 5, 1900, 128; Cecil Brown, attorney for John Ena, lessee of the property of L. L. McCandless, to the Board of Health, January 18, 1900, in "Incoming Letters: 1900, Fire Protests," Series 334-27, HBH.
23. Enoch Johnson to the Board of Health, January 11, 1900; Achi and Johnson, attorneys for Hawaii Land Company, Limited, to the Board of Health, January 18, 1900; W. W. Ahana to the Board of Health, January 12, 1900; attorneys for A. V. Gear and Fred Harrison to the Board of Health, January 13, 1900; and Charles H. Rose to the Board of Health, January 18, 1900, all in "Incoming Letters: 1900, Fire Protests," Series 334-27, HBH.
24. Mitamura File, MAM; "Hooweliweli is na Kauka lapana Japanese Doctors Threatened]," KAA, January 13, 1900, 1; EBU, January 15, 1900, 1, January 8, 1goo, I; protest from the residents of block 4 to the Board of Health, January 15, 1900, in "Incoming Letters: 1900, Fire Protests," Series 334-27, HBH.
25. Exhibit F, File for Japanese consul Saito, "Incoming Correspondence," Series 334-26, HBH.
26. IND, January 13, 1900, 4; January 11, 1900, 4; "Laweia no ka Homalu ana [Taken Under Quarantine]," KAA, January 6, 1900, 1.
27. HGZ, January 5, 1900, 3; IND, January 13, 1900, 4. In Thos. G. Thrum, compiler, Hawaiian Almanac and Annual for 1go7 (Honolulu, 1900), 99, is a reference to "not a few concealed cases of sickness" occurring among Hawaiians. But that is the only such reference I came across, and the Board of Health never alleged any such cover-ups or lack of cooperation among Hawaiians. See also the entry for January 29, 1900, in "Outgoing Letters," Vol. 2 3, HBH; KAA, January 13, 1900, 2.
28. EB U, January 2, 19oo, i; Tan ShangXin Bao Longji [Hawaiian Chinese News], January 5, 1900; Yang Wei Pin to the Board of Health, January 2, 1900, "Incoming Correspondence," Series 334-26, HBH.
2 9. See C. Q. Yee Hop, Pang Chong, Pang See, and Ehun Yong to the Board of Health, January 18, 19oo, in "Incoming Letters: 19oo, Fire Protests," Series 334-27, HBH. The files contain many other letters of a similar nature from Chinese property owners.
30. Petition from block 7, January 15, 1900, in "Incoming Correspondence," Series 334-26, HBH.
31. MBH, January i, 1900, 125-26.
CHAPTER 8
1. MBH, January 4, 1900, 130.
2. MBH, January 3, 1900, 129.
3. N. B. Emerson to "Sister Dora and Bro. Joe," January 4, 1900, Emerson Papers, HUN.
4. MBH, January 3, 1900, 128-29; FRI, Vol. 558, No. 2 (February 19oo) later reported the amount drawn as $270,000-
5. HGZ, January 9, 1900, 7; PCA, January 4, 1900, 5; EBU, January 3, 1900, 1. The change of Board presidents had been cleared in advance with the Dole administration, which also agreed to urge the United States to incorporate an independent Board of Health into "the form of government to be adopted for the Hawaiian Islands."
6. MBH, January 5, 1900, 131.
7. EBU, December 13, 1899, I.
8. MBH, January 5, 1900, 132-33•
9. PCA, December 3, 1899, 3•
i o. HGZ, January 9, 19oo, 1; EBU, January 8, 19oo, 6.
u. PCA, January 8, 19oo, 1, 3. HGZ, January 9, 19oo, 1; EBU, January 8, 19oo, 6.
12. IND, January 8, 1900, 4-
13 - PCA, January 8, 19oo, 1; HGZ, January 9, 19oo, 6.
14. EBU, January 8, 19oo, 1.
15. HGZ, January 9, 19oo, 6.
16. PCA, January 9, 1900, 4-
17. PCA, January 9, 1900, 4-
18. HGZ, January 9, 1900, 4; PCA, January 10, 1900, 2.
19. See John F. Colburn to the Advertiser, reprinted in HGZ, January 12, 1900, 2.
20. PCA, January 11, 1900, 3.
2 1. PCA, January 13, 1900, 14.
22. HGZ, January 9, 1900, 1; PCA, January 1 1, 1900, 7.
2 3 . IND, January 1 1, 1900, 4-
24. MBH, January 7, 1900, 136, January 10, 1900, 145; Honolulu Board of Health to Alexander Young, January 12, 1900, Correspondence, Outgoing Letters, Vol. 23, HBH. For the number of carpenters, see Honolulu Board of Health to Board of Health, Sydney, New South Wales, January 31, 1900, in Vol. 23, Correspondence, Outgoing Letters, HBH.
25. MBH, January 7-10, 1900, 136-63; Honolulu Board of Health to Board of Health of Sydney, New South Wales; MBH, January 8, 1900, 144; P
CA, January 13, 1900, I.
CHAPTER 9
i. "Lawelawe Oolea o Kauai [Strict Orders on Kauai]," KAA, January 6, 1900, z; PCA, January 15, 1900, 3, January 17, 1900, 4, and related stories that week.
2. IND, January i1, 1900, 1; MBH, January 7, 1900, 136, January 1o, 1900, 16o, and passim; PCA, January 12, 1900, 9, January 17, 1900, 4-
3. Journal of N. B. Emerson, entry for January 2 8, 1900, HUN. This problem proved troubling and ongoing. See IND, February 15, 1900, 4-
4- IND, January 9, -1900,4-
5. See C. B. Wood to Dole, January 9, 1900, HBH.
6. For an example, see IND, March 3, 1900, 4.
7. Exhibit F, File of the Japanese Consul, Incoming Correspondence, Series 334-26, HBH.
8. "Na Hana Kikua Hou a ka Ahahui Kokua Manawalea Hawaii [Other acts of the Aid by the Hawaiian Relief Services Association]," "Ka Hui Kikua Manawalea Hawaii [Hawaiian Relief Services Association]," KAA, January 20, 1900, 3-
9. See, for example, letters to the Hawaiian Relief Society, the Chinese consul, and the Japanese consul on February 8, 1900, authorizing money for relief efforts, in Outgoing Correspondence, Vol. 23, HBH; KAA, January20, 1900, 3, also expressed gratitude to the Board, because they "heeded the pleas of the Association."
i o. HGZ, January 9, 1900, 2, January 27, 1900, 4; EBU, January 1o, 1900, I, January 15, 1900, 1, January 17, 3, 6.
i 1. J. P. Cooke to Dole, January 11, 1900, HBH.
12. "He Ku Maoli i ka Walohia [Sadly ...]," KAA, January 6, 1900, 4; "Na Make o ke Kulanakauhale nei [Death Toll in the City]," January 6, 1900, p. 7--
13. See, for example, George Manson to W. W. Carter, Esq., complaining about a Portuguese named Domingos Ferreira, who was caught breaking and entering in the name of the Board of Health. Incoming Correspondence, Series 334-26, HBH; IND, January 13, 1900, 4; EBU, January 18, 1900, 4.
14. EBU, January 15, 1900, I.
15. "He Oiaio Anei hoi Keia? [Is This True?]," KAA, January 20, 1900, 2.
16. EBU, January 15, 1goo, i; Soga Yasutaro, Gojunenkan No Hawaii Kaiko [My Fifty Years Memoirs in Hawaii] (Honolulu, 1954), 82; Sakae Morita, ed., Hawai Nihonjin Hatten Shi [The History of Japanese Development in Hawaii] (Waipahu, Hawaii, 1921), 594-