Son of immigrants reached
the pinnacle of business

Hung Wai Ching / Aloha Airlines founder

SEE ALSO: OBITUARIES

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By Pat Gee
pgee@starbulletin.com

In his 96 years, businessman Hung Wai Ching, along with his brother Hung Wo Ching, helped found Aloha Airlines. He was also a University of Hawaii regent and held directorships with Liberty Bank, Pacific Insurance Co. and Pacific Management Co. and was a general partner in Pacific Land Hui and Oahu Homes.

But Ching's greatest contribution was "his outspoken affirmation of the loyalty" of Japanese Americans during World War II, says Ted Tsukiyama, veteran and historian of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Ching died of cancer Saturday at St. Francis Medical Center.

Tsukiyama, who will deliver a eulogy tomorrow at his funeral, said Ching "grew up in the slums" around the Nuuanu YMCA as one of six children born of Chinese immigrants. He went to school and played with people of different races and ran programs at the YMCA in his neighborhood.

"(This) accounts for his position. He needed no convincing whether these guys (the Japanese) were loyal Americans or not," Tsukiyama said.

"Who knows if we would've had a 442nd if it wasn't for all the things Hung Wai did."

Ching was known as the "father of the Varsity Victory Volunteers," a group of UH ROTC students who were discharged from the Hawaii Territorial Guard in 1942 because they were Japanese, an event that sowed the seeds for the formation of the 442nd.

Ching was appointed to the Council on Interracial Unity's Morale Division, a liaison group of civilians and the military, and used his position to prevent the detention of Japanese in Hawaii or have them released, Tsukiyama said. He persuaded Army intelligence not to fill its daily quota of indiscriminate arrests, he added.

Ching also worked tirelessly for their orderly return to civilian life after the war, Tsukiyama said. That is why Ching was one of the first to become an honorary member of the 442nd Veterans Club, he added.

Eddie Yamasaki, a 442nd veteran who is collecting memoirs for a book to be released, said, "He made a difference in how the military and the FBI looked at us."

Ching graduated in 1924 from McKinley High School. Among his classmates was the former Elsie Tong, whom he married in 1934. He graduated from UH in 1928 with a degree in civil engineering and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary and a master's degree from Yale Divinity School in 1932.

Soon after becoming a real estate broker in 1945, Ching helped found Aloha Airlines, serving as a director for 25 years. He was on the board while his brother, Hung Wo Ching, was board chairman, and was elected a director emeritus when he retired from it in 1971 at age 65.

Ching was president of the advisory board of St. Francis Hospital and held trusteeships with Honolulu Academy of Arts, Leahi Hospital, Hawaii Veterans Memorial Fund, United Church of Christ Foundation and the University of Hawaii Foundation.

He was a member of the board of governors of McInerny, the Hawaii apparel chain, and president of Hawaii Motors.

He is survived by wife Elsie, sons King Lit and Sai Lit, daughter Su Sun, sister Bessie Loo and nine grandchildren.

Services will be held at 4 p.m. tomorrow at the Community Church of Honolulu; call after 2:30 p.m.

Aloha attire and no flowers are requested.