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Community advocate,
former Big Isle Councilman
Muneo Sameshima dies

OBITUARIES

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By Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

Former Big Island Councilman Muneo "Moon" Sameshima of Waimea died Sunday in North Hawaii Community Hospital. He was 82.

Sameshima bashed conventional wisdom by upsetting veteran Ikuo Hisaoka for the North and South Kohala Council seat in the 1976 primary election, going on to defeat a Republican opponent that November.

A maverick Democrat, his platform was that property taxes were too high. But his political fortune waned in 1980, and he lost his bid for re-election in the Democratic primary to Spencer Kalani Schutte.

Comeback attempts failed in 1984 and 1990 as he lost in County Council primary elections.

"He was a good guy," said Dante Carpenter, former Big Island mayor. "I liked him. I know he was a very active guy in the Lions Club and a whole bunch of other things. I guess that's when I first met him, a very strong community advocate as I recall, a very strong-minded individual. When he made up his mind to do something, he did it."

Carpenter recalled he was in the state Senate when Sameshima was on the County Council.

Sameshima, a Realtor and motel operator, was the owner of Moon Enterprises. He was a member of the Kamuela Hongwanji Mission and the American Japanese Civic Association.

He is survived by wife Yuriko; sons Jarret, Victor and Kevin; daughter Joanne Sameshima; sisters Yoshiko Chung, Eiko Murakami, Teruoko Martinson and Natsuko Ryusaki; sister-in-law Rose Sameshima; and four grandchildren.

Services over the ashes will be held at 4 p.m. tomorrow at Kamuela Hongwanji Mission. Call after 3 p.m. Casual attire.