A Recent History of the Amberjack Fish

Blog Post

Author: Richard Ho

Driving around my neighborhood, I noticed most people tend to have a big garden with flowers, green trees, and palms. Stone fences, walls, and green shrubs encircle each house. During the day, the neighborhood has a beautiful and peaceful atmosphere. However, during the night, the quietness evokes an atmosphere of enigma and loneliness. I suspected that it might be the lack of street lamps that cause this huge contrast between the daytime and nighttime. Most notably, upon entering the neighborhood, one would either feel right at home, or an outsider, completely alienated, as if entered a secluded sanctuary in paradise.  

Aside from the environment of my neighborhood, I also notice the age group of the people that predominantly live in the neighborhood are a lot older than the students on campus. Most individuals strolling on the sidewalk are wearing their elegant silver hair and warm smiles, greeting every person they past by. Walking along side the beach next to my neighborhood, I see a lot of luxurious mansions that stand over 3 stories tall with an open view of the ocean.

My neighborhood’s history is fairly recent compared to other places in Hawaii. Hawaii isn’t a place that has set boundaries or borders that bound each region of the island. Because of this, my neighborhood has always been under the term, “Waialae”. This term given to the region affected many of the local infrastructures, which gave rise to the Waialae Country Club, Waialae Post Office, and Waialae Beach Park.

It wasn’t until approximately 100 years ago, when the people in Hawaii decided to give my neighborhood it’s new name, Kahala, referring to it as the coastal region of Waialae, and the fish, “amberjack”. Unfortunately, as the year progresses, the meaning of Kahala soon changed into an icon of the rich and wealthy, forgetting its recent history and it’s “innocent beauty”.