Looking back: Kimchee making in 1937

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November 22 marked two occasions, according to a report by KHON2, “the grand opening of Hawaii’s first kimchi museum also commemorated the state’s first-ever Kimchi Day.”

KHON went on: “The state legislature passed a resolution designating Wednesday, Nov. 22, as Kimchi Day. Now they’re working on a bill to make it official every year to honor Korean culture.”

Fair enough.

But it sidestepped a big question: is the spicy cabbage concoction properly called Kimchi or Kimchee? It’s a question with historical and political roots.

An Associated Press story appearing in the Los Angeles Times in 1995 and reprinted more recently by the Kimchee Girl blog, was direct: “South Koreans Say It’s Kimchee or Tasteless Misspelling.”

According to the LA Times story:

South Koreans insist it be spelled kimchee, instead of kimchi or kimuchi, which many consider to be Japanese variants of the Korean name.

The difference may be insignificant to foreigners, but not to Koreans, many of whom still remember the harsh Japanese colonial rule of 1910-45.

During that period, Korean language was banned in schools, and books and cultural artifacts were burned. Many people were forced to abandon their Korean names for Japanese ones under an assimilation program. Those who refused faced harsh retribution….

“It’s our last point of pride,” said Lee Sung-woo at the government’s Patent Bureau, which is spearheading the campaign to standardize the spelling as kimchee.

“It’s our food, passed down from generation to generation, and we have to make sure that it’s called by its rightful name,” he said.

Another recent food blog post weighed in with a similar take.

Kimchee is actually the national food of Korea. And, it should be noted that the proper spelling of kimchi is “kimchee.” In this post, I occasionally refer to it as kimchi, but that is the Japanese spelling for this beloved Korean dish.

But whether its properly kimchee or kimchi, here’s a look back to the 1930s and how it was being made in Korea at the time.

The late Professor Carey D. Miller, a well-known University of Hawaii nutritionist, visited Japan and Korea during a trip around the world in 1937.

She brought back a number of photographs depicting the making of kimchee in Korea. A note on one page indicates the photographs were “made in Korea in 1937 by Dr. Boots especially for CDM”. The final photo refers to Ewah College, probably a misspelling of Ewha Women’s College in Seoul, Korea.

After Miller’s death, my mother, who served as executor of her estate, took possession of the photos. After her death, I donated them to be archived along with other Miller papers in Hamilton Library (after scanning them for my own records).

You can view the photos in this earlier post about Miller’s 1937 trip.

NYT profile of Brenda Lee triggers a faded memory

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The New York Times ran a profile this week of Brenda Lee by writer Lindsay Zoladz.

Lee’s voice was nimble: She could excite teenagers with rockabilly hits like “Sweet Nothin’s” — Presley’s favorite Lee song, which was many years later sampled by Kanye West — and win over their parents by crooning ballads like “Emotions.” Her ability to straddle the worlds of pop, rock and country made her a constant fixture on the hit parade. Lee had the fourth most chart hits in the 1960s (47), surpassed only by Elvis, the Beatles and Ray Charles. She was the first woman to be inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The headline, and the story, caught my eye because I remember Brenda Lee’s appearance at Honolulu’s old Civil Auditorium many years ago.

I immediately sent a copy to Roy Yempuku, who was my best friend during my last year or so at Kahala Elementary School, and then through our years together at University High School, the university lab school. His dad, Ralph Yempuku, was an active, well-known, and well-regarded Honolulu promoter.

…[I]n the 1950s he worked as a promoter with a budding young disc jockey who had an ear for rock ‘n’ roll,” according to a story by Rod Antone in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin at the time of his death in 2002. “‘He taught me the business,’ said promoter Tom Moffatt. ‘We brought in Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Frankie Avalon.’”

And Brenda Lee.

Those were the years that Roy invited me to attend concerts, wrestling matches, and roller derby where, courtesy of his dad, we were always seated close to the action.

I thought we were about 12 when we saw Brenda Lee perform. But a quick online search turned up the date of her appearance at the Civic–December 9, 1960. I was a tall (over 6 feet), skinny and shy 13-year old, and Roy and I were almost half-way through our 8th grade year at the time.

To tell you the truth, I don’t remember anything specific about Brenda Lee’s performance. But what I do recall vividly is that after the show, we were with a small group that stopped for a late night meal at McCully Chop Suey. I seem to recall that we went upstairs and sat at a standard round table that probably seated 10. There could have been two tables, but I don’t have a clear recollection. It was a small setting, not small enough to be intimate, but certainly intimidating!

I can’t speak for Roy, but I sat in fear and trembling, wondering how to act when across the table was a touring rock & roll star just a couple of years older than we were. I probably just sat in awe and absorbed the moment.

It’s just one of many moments when, looking back, I wish I had paid more attention to details that might be recalled 60+ years later.

The forecast is for a wet Feline Friday

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But the cats don’t care. They now live 100% indoors. That wasn’t always the case. They once lived out in the elements, part of a cat colony at the top of Aiea Heights, supported by volunteers who tried to feed and fix them all. These three caught the eye of one of the caretaker, who cajoled us into adopting them, one at a time. How lucky it is that we said “Yes!”

Lucky for them, and lucky for us!

There wasn’t much sun this week, although I did get one picture of Kinikini enjoying afternoon sun.

And I had to go on a last-minute hunt for photos of Ms. Kali, who spend much less time out and around the house during the last few rainy days. She spent her time napping on the futon in our front room, and I ended up having to follow her around with camera in one hand and dangling cat toy in the other, all in quest of a few photo to balance out the week’s offering.

Luckily, it worked. So without more blather, here come the cats.

Feline Friday 12-1-2023

When elephants battle….

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Yesterday I posted a correction regarding the arbitration decision on a grievance filed seeking to overturn the Honolulu Police Department’s dismissal of Sgt. Al Lee, who had gotten squeezed by conflicting pressures and interests during the active investigations of Mike Miske and then HPD Chief Louis Kealoha.

Remember the old adage, “When elephants battle the ants perish.”

Today I’ll share a little more information from the arbitration decision itself.

In the early morning hours of November 17, 2016, Sgt. Lee’s police department subsidized vehicle crashed along Lunalilo Home Road, damaging a Hawaiian Electric facility and knocking out power in the area.

The accident, and Lee’s actions, were subjects of both a civil and a criminal investigation by HPD. Results were reviewed by a departmental Administrative Review Board, which concurred with the recommendation that Lee should be fired.

On May 18, 2018, Lee was discharged after then Chief Susan Ballard determined there was sufficient evidence Lee had been driving under the influence of an intoxicant at the time of the crash, and that had made “untruthful statements” to investigators at the scene, and in subsquent interviews. Ballard also found Lee had violated department rules by speaking to the news media without prior authorization.

A grievance was filed on Lee’s behalf by SHOPO, the police officers union, and eventually an arbitration hearing was held on February 17-18, 2021 before arbitrator Audrey B Eide.

SHOPO argued the department’s internal investigation was neither fair nor thorough, because the department’s investigator “ignored Detective Lee’s expressed concerns that the civil and criminal investigations were done internally by the department, under the supervision of Chief Louis Kealoha and the Prosecutor’s Office where Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha worked.”

During the arbitration proceeding, Lee disclosed for the first time that he had been threatened by both Miske and Katherine Kealoha.

“At the time of the crash Detective Lee was cooperating in an investigation with the FBI which included the Kealohas and the notorious crime boss Mike Miske,” according to the arbitrator’s opinion. “The investigation was to be kept confidential. Detective Lee testified at the Arbitration he was threatened by Miske and warned by Prosecuting Attorney Katherine Kealoha to back off on a warrant he had out for Miske’s arrest. He was very frightened for his and his family’s safety and under a lot of stress.”

Lee also disclosed he was under a “gag order” until the FBI investigation was concluded, and asked that the department suspend his case until the gag order expired. The department declined. The existence of a gag order has not been independently verified.

SHOPO argued the department’s investigation had not pursued the question of whether Lee had been drugged, nor his belief he had been “targeted” because of his cooperation with the FBI’s investigation of Miske, and his testimony before a federal grand jury about the alleged illegal activities of Katherine and Louis Kealoha.

HPD’s internal investigation of the accident reportedly took about 5 months to complete. Louis Kealoha stepped down as chief in January 2017, well before the investigation was completed, although his wife, a deputy prosecutor and division chief went on leave from her position in April 2017. Despite Lee’s concerns, it’s difficult to tell whether the couple would have had much influence remaining during the months of the investigation, or the subsequent administrative review.

The department noted that Lee had “changed his story” several times from the night of the accident through the course of the investigation, and held that at least some of his statements were untruthful. SHOPO argued Lee had consistently said he did not remember who was driving at the time of the accident, until finally concluding that the evidence did show he had been driving, and at that point he accepted responsiblity for the crash, the arbitrator found the department’s position reasonable.

The department’s position during the arbitration was straight forward.

The Employer on the other hand, at page 16 of their brief argue that the role of the
Arbitrator is limited. In a discharge case the Arbitrator is to review and not redetermine
management’s decision or substitute their judgment for that of the Employer. They further argue that the proper standard for evaluating the Employer’s decision is whether the decision to discharge the employee was arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable. If the Employer’s decision was not arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable, or based on mistake of fact, its decision should stand.

Although SHOPO argued that the arbitrator should be lenient and impose discipline short of dismissal, the arbitrator noted “that leniency is the prerogative of the Employer rather than that of the Arbitrator….” And in this case at least, HPD declined to accept a lesser punishment.

In the end, the arbitrator concluded the department’s actions were not arbitrary or capricious, and “the grievance must be denied.”

See:

The Miske Files: An Officer Gets Caught In The Crossfire, Civil Beat, November 28, 2023.

“Do you believe in coincidences?,” iLind.net, April 14, 2019

“Attorney alleges prosecutors retaliated against HPD officer for businessman’s arrest,” iLind.net, April 13, 2019.