The History of Pearl City

Hunter Garrett
Post #11

        While traversing through Pearl City, I mainly see side street after side street of homes.  The area itself is mainly a residential area that is occupied by the older generation, and it is really not lively at all at any given time.  The neighborhood is also very quiet, but given how the homes are built in extremely close proximity to each other, I can hear what anybody says or does all the way down each and every street.  Pearl City is elevated 89 feet above sea level making it one of the highest residential areas on the island.  I am able to see a good majority of the island in certain spots.  Simply looking out of the window of my house alone allows me to see the Honolulu airport.  It is also the area near the historic Pearl Harbor which is a major tourist destination.  Through the entrance of Ford Island, one can visit the historic decommissioned Battleship Missouri which the empire of Japan surrendered on marking the end of World War II.  It was where the Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Emperor and Government of Japan.  U.S. general of the Army Douglas MacArthur signed the Instrument of Surrender four minutes later on behalf of the allied powers as Supreme Commander.  The battleship serves as a memorial as part of Pearl Harbor's fascinating array of historical exhibits of the era of World War II.  One can also visit the USS Arizona memorial where one can observe the destroyed remnants of a submerged battleship that was destroyed in the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 7, 1941 as part of their surprise offensive attack that started World War II.  I am actually able to see Pearl Harbor clearly and frequently in the area, and from one road, I can see the massive naval ships docked in the harbor.
        There are also some shopping centers such as the Pearl City shopping center, the Pearl Highlands shopping center, and Pearlridge.  This gives the area multiple restaurants, fast food places, and tons of other retailers.  There is also the usual stores in the area that only take a few minutes to get to such as Long's Drugs, Foodland Supermarket, Walmart, Sam's Club, and Home Depot.  The area itself is actually over four ahupua'a, or traditional Hawaiian wedge-shaped land divisions that run from the mountain to the sea situated around a central stream.  The four ahupua'a are:  Waiawa meaning "from the towering mountains to the brilliant sea;" Manana meaning "bitter water;" Waimano meaning "an area where lava flows meet;" and Waiau meaning "swirling beautiful waters."  Originally at the time of King Kamehameha I, the harbor which at that time was known as Pearl River, contained bountiful oysters and their pearls.  In 1815, the King ordered the Spaniard Francisco de Paula Marin to lead the Pearl trade in the region.  Pearl City itself used to be mainly rice patties and fields in the mountain areas which people used to raise cattle and water buffalo to help plow those fields.  However, the livestock destroyed the forests and mountains which caused the oyster population in Pearl River to rapidly decline.  Later on, the businessman Benjamin F. Dillingham wanted to convert the lush western areas including Pearl City into crop producing lands.  This would eventually become the start of the successful sugar industry in the early 1900's up until World War II which led to their downfall.  He made Pearl City the final stop for Benjamin Dillingham's O'ahu Railway in the early 1880's, and patches of land in the area went on sale in 1889 soon after its completion.
         History is something that always interests me, so after learning about the history of the area, I have found it to be very fascinating.  They are all things that I wouldn't have really known about unless I have had the desire to research the location.  I normally don't go around my neighborhood examining everything and trying to find the history behind the land itself and everything that exists there, but I have found the discoveries that you can get can be quite fascinating.  Pearl City and its nearby surroundings definitely has a rich history since the days of early westerner contact that the name itself hints at.  While its history is only going to expand as time progresses and the landscape changes, the knowledge of it will always exist regardless of how hidden away it is.