was not dependent solely on strength or weight, for small clever men could vanquish a much bigger man without much trouble. The expenditure of energy was tremendous, for in matter of two seconds to three minutes on the average, an opponent was usually disposed of.
Torao considered himself a good village wrestler, but he soon discovered that in such company there were many who had aspired to becoming professionals in either Osaka or Tokyo, but had failed to make the grade. These failures of the metropolitan sumo wrestling stables were formidable in Hawaii, and were destined to become either semi-professional wrestlers or bouncers and body-guards for gamblers and racketeers.
In groups of twenties and thirties, these recruits were at last shipped to sugar plantations on Oahu or on different islands. Considerable luck accompanied this distribution, for sooner or later they were to find that there was a great difference in the topographical characteristics of the different islands, and more important, the management of the different plantations. Indentured labor of three years, chained to a bleak existence, overrun and driven by merciless slave drivers at the end of a horse whip, was veritable hell. On the other hand, under merciful management in which humanity was a consideration in the achievement of efficiency, life was bearable even though the work was hard under a scorching midday sun. Trade winds eased the burning sun, and cool tranquil nights all the year round assuaged the loneliness of a transplanted life.
Torao's turn came. His companions were mostly made up of fellow voyagers of the SS China and among them were Okawa and Hirano who came from his native village. Twenty young men with their willow trunks were transported to the deck of the SS Kinau. This steamer was a three thousand ton luxury liner of the Inter-island Navigation Company, but in the rough waters of the channels between the islands, the rolling was terrific. Even good sailors fell victims to mal-de-mer and the peasant farmers could not lift themselves from the hard deck on which they were sprawled. Food was out of the question, and perhaps just as well, for there was none available for the passengers. A barrel of poi covered by a gunny sack stood near the stairway. Burly, good-natured seamen with pieces of salt salmon in their left hands, came to dip two fingers of their right hands into the barrel for the pasty substance and deftly slid the food into their mouths. This constituted a snack for them when they returned from their rowing assignment at the way stops. The voyage lasted eighteen hours.
At Lahaina, Maalae, Mahukona, and Kawaihae the steamer stopped to load and unload passengers and cargo. About five in the morning, the Kinau lowered her anchor off Laupahoehoe to disgorge some of her passengers. The Emigration Company official awakened the twenty men to get ready for the whaleboat that was being lowered. The side hatch was opened. Waves were high and with each billow the boat rose and fell. The crest of the wave was utilized to let a passenger step into the craft.
In contrast to the sun-parched Diamond Head and Punchbowl that confronted them at Honolulu, the northeast coast of the island of Hawaii was dripping with moisture and verdure. The half dozen waterfalls that emptied from the gulches of Papaaloa added a beauty scarcely dreamed of even by this group of boys who came from a country that was full of trees.
"What beautiful, gorgeous scenery!"
"It is beautiful and wild all right. Look at the white waves battering against the black rocky shoreline. I hope there is no mishap in our landing."
"Don't worry. Look at the muscles of these native oarsmen. They are big too. I bet they could easily join the professional sumo stables if they were in Japan."
"No, I don't think they could. I heard that these people have weak legs. Without strong legs and a tough back, you can never attain the makuuchi class." This meant the upper strata of professional wrestling.
The boat was deftly steered into a cove where a boathouse was built to receive freight from the boats. Laupahoehoe was a promontory, a tongue of lava flow jutting out into the ocean; a picturesque little fishing village with many coconut trees planted along the roadside and gardens.
A pock-marked little man about five feet two inches with flashing gold teeth, gold rimmed glasses, and well over forty, was there to greet these recruits. He wore a suit in contrast to the majority of Orientals who were in blue jeans. A sparse mustache and his asthenic stooping stature marked him as a scholar rather than a man from a pioneering community of coarse men.
"I am Yamada, from the Waipunalei Sugar Company. You are welcome. Your voyage must have been trying. All these trips are hard because of the small steamers. Anyway, you will not have to take another boat ride for a long time. Two wagons are awaiting you and we shall soon be on our way."
His mild manner and good standard Japanese (Mr. Yamada came from Yokohama), impressed these country bumpkins. In his youth, he was employed by foreign firms in that seaport town in menial capacities and gradually picked up sufficient English to get along. He next boarded a sailing vessel as mess boy and went around the world. As he got along in years, he became tired of sea-life and elected to settle somewhere. Of all the ports he had touched in his wanderings, he felt this mid-pacific station most ideal to spend an easy-going life's eventide. While loafing a few months in Honolulu, he was approached by the sugar planters' association to interpret on some of the plantations. Proficiency in the English language was scarce and commanded a premium. Of all places, however, this gentleman had to be assigned to Waipunalei, the worst of the plantations. It was not an enviable position to be a witness to brutality and then mediate, to settle affairs in the way his employers' wanted, at the expense of his helpless countrymen.
CHAPTER 10
Escape from Waipunalei
THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY WAS majestic in spite of the fact that this was an island—just a speck of land on the map of the Pacific. The highest mountain in the world for an island, the snow-capped Mauna Kea towered in the center of the island and sloped gently towards the sea. Numerous lava flows must have occurred in the formative stages of the geological past for the slopes were cut by deep ravines accentuated by the subsequent effects of erosion. Being on the windward side and exposed to the constant northeasterly trade winds, the coast line was very wild. Precipitous cliffs about five hundred feet high rose abruptly above the water's edge making it almost impossible, or at best extremely hazardous, for the fishermen to clamber down the narrow trail.
The sea was always rough. The plantation was situated at the junction between the North Hilo and Hamakua districts and at this part of the island there was no water-bearing stratum in the ground and the crops had to depend on rainwater for moisture. It rained frequently and no matter how clear the day a shower was in the offing at unexpected moments and in order not to be caught unawares a raincoat or an umbrella had to be carried all the time. The saying went, "Even if you forget your lunch box, do not forget your raincoat." All drinking water came from rainwater collected from roofs of houses and stored in underground cisterns or huge tanks.
Usually there was enough rainfall to ensure a good crop of sugar cane and supply the needs of men and beasts. When there was no rain, drought continued for two or three months. It was then that the sugar cane turned yellow, roads became dusty, and the people suffered from lack of drinking water and had to go for weeks without taking a bath.
The Douglas Plantation was a private enterprise run by Mr. Douglas who was a well-to-do man having holdings not only in this sugar plantation but also in a gold mine in California. He was of Scottish descent like most of the Hamakua coast planters and his overseers, called "luna," were mostly from Scotland too. Apparently the plantation was not a very profitable one because the success of the crops depended so much on the uncertain weather, which could be very finicky. Because water was not abundant, the cane did not grow as tall, and compared to the neighboring plantations in the Hilo district, the transportation cost of cane to the mill was high. In the latter region cane was transported to the grinding mill by a flume. Miles and miles of this conduit would extend from the fields to the mill and sugar cane cut to about two foot lengths would flow to its destination.
At Waipunalei this convenient and cheap mode of conveyance could not be utilized and a train had to be used. But here again, because land was not flat like that on the Oahu plantations another method was used. An ingenious device called the "wire rope" was invented to transport cane from the fields to a railway track which coursed the shoreline.