WAILUKU » Termites have eaten portions of the Maui Jinsha Shinto Shrine. Years of rain and sun have weathered one side to a charcoal hue.

But the shrine continues to hold services and stand as a reminder of the thousands of Japanese immigrants who came to work as contract laborers in the cane fields on the Valley Isle in the early 1900s.

“;It's very much a part of the culture and history,”; said Kiersten Faulkner, executive director of the nonprofit Historic Hawai'i Foundation.

The building, listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, has been named by the foundation as among the most endangered places in Hawaii.

TEMPLE MEMBERS constructed the building, mainly wood joined by wooden dowels, under the guidance of a master carpenter from Japan.

With its gently flowing curved roof of wooden shingles, the temple exhibits the traditional form of a Shinto shrine and has a design typical of more rural Japan areas, according to the foundation.

Faulkner said the building is the last Shinto shrine on Maui and one of the last in the state.

She said her group estimates the structure needs $750,000 in repairs and $80,000 in restoration work.

The building, dedicated in 1915 and originally located near the fairgrounds in Kahului, took considerable fundraising to complete, including promotion of a mural depicting horses. Each contributor's name was written on the saddle of a horse for a $1 donation, more than a day's wages for Japanese laborers at the time.

The mural, with some 1,014 horses and saddles, painted by artist Seppo Sewada of Wailuku, still stands above the entrance to the temple.

The shrine was built to commemorate the ascension of Japanese Emperor Taisho to the throne. At the time, Japan had good relations with the United States and served as an ally during World War I.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Rev. Masao Arine, the Jinsha Shinto priest—an American citizen born on Maui—was incarcerated by the U.S. military.

His wife, Torako, born on Oahu, said Arine was held at the 4th Marine Division camp in Haiku for about a year.

Under martial law, the military closed the Maui Jinsha Shinto Shrine, and the two cottages where the family lived were removed from the church property, forcing the Arines to live in the temple.

Torako Arine said she used the family's savings to support herself and her three children while her husband was incarcerated.

She said her husband forbade her from accepting any help from the federal government during the war.

“;He was kind of angry he went to jail,”; she said.

ONCE RELEASED, Masao Arine, who did not drink alcohol, went to work as a bartender at a hotel in Wailuku.

Torako Arine, 94, said that after the war there was little support for continuing the temple because of public opinion against Japan.

“;Everybody was scared. We had a hard time,”; she said. “;I don't blame them.”;

She said her family was told the landowner wanted the temple removed or destroyed.

So the family purchased land in Paukukalo from Wailuku Sugar Co.

Every day after work at the hotel, Masao Arine borrowed a fish market owner's truck to go to the temple in Kahului, Torako Arine said.

There he, his family and members of the congregation would take pieces of the temple by truck to the current site for reassembly.

The relocation of the temple took more than a year and was completed in November 1954.

“;I cannot forget we struggled so hard,”; she said. “;We started again. Nobody bother us after that.”;

The Maui Jinsha became the repository for religious objects from four other Shinto shrines that closed on the Valley Isle in the 1950s and early 1960s.

MASAO ARINE died in 1972, and after some studying in Japan, Torako Arine became a priestess and took over the responsibility of the shrine.

Torako Arine, who had five sons and two daughters, said the congregation has shrunk to some 15 members, many in their 70s.

She said she keeps active, helping with fundraisers and making and selling sushi.

She also reads newspapers in English and Japanese daily.

“;You just have to keep reading. It keeps your head going,”; she said.

Donations toward maintaining and restoring the shrine may be sent to Maui Jinsha Shinto Shrine, 660 Kunu Place, Kahului, HI 96732.

Historic Hawai'i Foundation's endangered places

Eight other places in 2008 put on the “;endangered places”; list by the Historic Hawai'i Foundation include:

» Ewa Marine Corps Air Station on Oahu was established in 1925 as a Navy field for dirigibles and later converted to an active airfield by the Marines during the buildup to World War II. Nearly 50 aircraft were destroyed and four Marines killed by Japanese fighter pilots on Dec. 7, 1941. The foundation said the Navy recently leased the parcel including the main airfield to a private developer without a historic resource inventory requested by the state.

» St. Sophia Church in Kaunakakai, Molokai, built in 1937, served the growing population of Filipino plantation workers. The foundation fears the building could be demolished under expansion plans being developed by the congregation.

» The IBM Building on Oahu, designed with a distinctive grille by Vladimir Ossipoff in 1962, would be demolished under a master plan submitted to the Hawaii Community Development Authority by its owner, General Growth Properties. The foundation said the authority could approve the plan with a condition calling for the building's preservation.

» Fort Kamehameha, built in 1916 as an Army coastal artillery post, contains 33 homes at Hickam Air Force Base. The foundation said the Air Force proposed destruction of the homes by the end of 2009, and the state has made an offer of a long-term lease for use by its Historic Preservation Division.

» 'Auwai of Nuuanu Valley on Oahu served as a system of elaborate ditches and water diversions to irrigate taro and breadfruit in the late 1800s, but maintenance of the system has become erratic under smaller property owners. A group is educating property owners about how to repair and maintain water features.

>> Kalauhaehae Fishpond in Niu Valley on Oahu was once King Kamehameha's taro patch but has been stagnant since a road development. Advocates want state transportation officials to transfer the pond to a steward that can restore and use the fishpond as an educational resource.

» Four buildings in the Engineering Quad, near the campus center and among the oldest at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, could be destroyed to make way for a fitness center and gym. The foundation said feasibility studies commissioned by the university show that the new uses could be incorporated into the old structures.

» Coco Palms Resort in Wailua, Kauai, was constructed in 1953 on a site that was a favorite center for Hawaiian monarchy, including High Chiefess Deborah Kapule in the mid-1800s. The hotel was shuttered after Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

More details about endangered places are available at the Historic Hawaii Foundation Web site, www.historichawaii.org