Jikoen Hongwanji has deep and longstanding connections to Okinawa and Okinawan communities in Hawaii and around the world.
Okinawan Roots: Hawaii United Okinawa Association and Jikoen
The new temple and social hall on School Street became the headquarters of the Hawaii United Okinawa Association (HUOA) for many years until the new kaikan was built at its present site in Waipio.
Okinawan Roots: Jikoen and the Okinawa Relief Effort
Following the end of the terrible battle of Okinawa and after a three month assignment in Korea, I came home on December 23, 1945. Soon after I got back I received several phone calls from the late Rev. Jikai Yamasato wanting to know what it was like in Okinawa during the nearly three months of terrible fighting.
Okinawan Roots: Oral History of the Rev. Jikai Yamasato
By the time the first Okinawan immigrants (our ancestors) came to Hawaii, there were already an estimated 60,000 immigrants from other prefectures in Japan in Hawaii.
Okinawan Roots: Coming to Hawaii
Coming to Hawaii By 1899, Kyuzo Toyama began to see Hawaii as a better prospect for future emigration of the Okinawans than Formosa. At that time Hawaii was still hardly known to them in spite of the fact that… emigration from Japan to Hawaii from the southwestern prefectures of Japan had been in progress for […]
Okinawan Roots: Life on the Plantation for the First Arrivals
Life on the Plantation for the First Arrivals They were all sent to Ewa Plantation. Soon, these men found life on the plantation extremely hard, in spite of their youthful vigor. Long, continuous hours of work – 10 hours a day-except for a 30 minute break for lunch. (Though the work was hard), it was […]