Tons of stories await at 'Camp' reunion
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Today's first Chun Hoon Lane reunion of 100 former residents of Liliha's "Sumida Camp" at Kauluwela Elementary School's cafeteria promises to be a nostalgic affair.
Courtesy of Kunio Honda
Jimmy Matsunaga, 61, flew in yesterday from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands for the event, which he says is a dream come true.
A watercolor portrait of Sumida Camp in Liliha includes the public bathhouse and chicken coop in the center.
"We were like one family in the camp," said Matsunaga, a transportation manager in his 37th year on Kwajalein. "Some of us haven't seen each other for 50 years but it goes back to our childhood and we all have memories."
The scheduled three-hour reunion, which includes a catered lunch, starts at 10 a.m. If this event is anything like last July's two-day Pepe'ekeo camp reunion on the Big Island, the tears and stories will flow well past the allotted time.
"I think we've always wanted to do one but we never had anyone to spearhead it," Matsunaga said.
That was resolved last October when Marilyn Okuda and Jessie Matsunaga, Jimmy's sisters, formed a committee with Lea Kashiwa, Sadie Tateishi, Diana Inouye and Barbara Britos to plan a reunion. In several months, they were able to contact many former residents.
Chun Hoon Lane was a narrow roadway between North School Street and Vineyard Boulevard where the 'A'ala Street overpass is now. Obatake Store marked the entrance to the lane leading to Sumida Camp, a cluster of 35 duplex and single-family homes. The houses were owned by Toichi Eki, who emigrated from Japan in 1908 and founded T. Eki Cyclery three years later.
The housing project built in 1915 had no official name but became known as "Sumida Camp" because it was managed by Naosuke and Asa Sumida, Okuda said. Longtime residents had surnames such as Kanakuri, Shimabukuro, Toguchi, Fukuda, Uyeda, Uemura, Hiramatsu, Ishimaru, Oishi, Fujiwara, Yamasaki, Iyoki, Sakamoto, Higa, Ogawa and Fujishige.
All the families shared the same address, 1511 Chun Hoon Lane. The street also was known in its early years as Chung Hoon Lane.
"There was only one mailbox," said Kashiwa, whose family moved from "Sumida Camp" to Manoa in 1949. "It was sitting on a fence right in front of the Sumida house. It was a wooden mailbox and I remember it because I corresponded with a pen pal from South Carolina and used to check it regularly."
Okuda recalled the camp featured a furoya, or bathhouse, and a chicken coop.
"Both were right in the center of the camp," Okuda said. "The duplexes had a kitchen, bedroom and living room. Our whole family slept on the floor. But there was no bathroom.
"I think the chicken coop was for the cockfights," she added.
Okuda recalled her parents paid about $14 rent a month for their house but that it had increased to $41 a month by the time the family moved to Nu'uanu in April 1967.
Her brother Jimmy recalled the camp's back yard was Kauluwela Park next to the school. The school's current cafeteria, its outdoor stage and two monkeypod trees were there when he was growing up, Matsunaga said.
"We had the best place to play hide-and-seek," Matsunaga added. "In fact, the best escape artists in town came from our camp. The cops used to chase after us after curfew but once we entered the camp, they could never find us because there were so many places to hide."
Anyone who grew up in "Sumida Camp" can come down and talk story today. There is a $10 fee for lunch.
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Correction: The former Chun Hoon Lane also was known in its early years as Chung Hoon Lane.
