By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
A 12-foot-high obelisk memorial at Makiki Cemetery, built in
memory of the first Japanese contract workers to Hawaii, will be
the site of an annual obon service this week. The service honors
289 immigrants from Japan who are buried in a common grave.

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Obon service
honors Japanese
pioneers

The tradition of respecting
ancestors expands to include
graves of childless immigrants

By Michelle Cournoyer
Star-Bulletin

Kiyoto Saiki was in poor health and in his mid-80s when he last walked to Makiki Cemetery to care for the neglected graves of Japanese pioneers to Hawaii.

"He felt so strongly that these Japanese pioneers deserved better," said his son Ken.

The elder Saiki had finished his trip to the cemetery, carrying his rake, sickle and weeder a half-mile uphill to his home. He died of heart failure the next day.

Saiki said his father's belief in Japanese tradition may have been stronger than his heart.

On Wednesday, Saiki will attend the 12th Annual Imin Yosebaka Obon public service at Makiki Cemetery to honor 289 Japanese immigrants buried in a common grave.

Ministers from local Buddhist temples, members of their congregations and individuals from the United Japanese Society of Hawaii will offer chants, prayer and incense in the obon tradition. Obon festivities take place in July and August in the Japanese community to honor and respect the dead.

Saiki is a member of the society and vice chairman of its Imin Yosebaka Obon Service Committee, which is responsible for the annual service.

His father was in the society and on the Oahu Kanyaku Imin Centennial Committee, formed in 1984 to mark the 100th anniversary of the arrival in Hawaii of the first contract Japanese immigrants. He had helped raise money to construct the common grave and a 12-foot obelisk memorial honoring the pioneers. They were some of the first contract workers brought to Hawaii in 1885 by King David Kalakaua to work on sugar plantations. The committee used some of the funds to build the King David Kalakaua statue at the park dividing Kuhio and Kalakaua avenues in Waikiki.

"King Kalakaua was the one who made it possible for hundreds of immigrants to seek a better life in Hawaii," said George Takabayashi, Centennial Committee chairman.

Many of the contract Japanese immigrants were second sons who would have struggled to survive in Japan, said Dennis Ogawa, author of "Kodomo no tame ni," which traces Japanese social history in Hawaii. He said Japanese custom dictates the first son receives the family inheritance.

For years, the Saikis and many UJSH members had been maintaining grave sites of Japanese immigrants as part of their annual obon season tradition.

"We saw many graves not being cared for because these muenbotoke, or people who died without descendants, had no one to care for them," Takabayashi said. "The graves were all overrun with weeds. . . . It just wasn't right, so we decided to correct it."

The idea to build a common grave spread throughout the local Japanese community and resulted in the Centennial Committee's fund-raising campaign, which Saiki's father had worked on.

Kiyoto Saiki came to Hawaii as a 14-year-old Japanese immigrant in the 1920s and instilled in his children a reverence for Japanese culture, especially oyakoko -- respecting your parents.

"My father taught me to work hard at whatever I do," said Saiki. "He is an example of what his generation was like, and I hope that I am an example of what my generation is about.

"It is because of my father that I belong to the Japanese Society," he said. "It doesn't matter whether he is alive or dead; I know he would be happy knowing I am carrying on the tradition."