Having seen how a two-pound rooster can disrupt the tranquility of a neighborhood, it's easy to understand why Kahala residents are nervous about the ruckus being created by a Japanese billionaire with an apparent chip on his shoulder.

Genshiro Kawamoto last week gave low-income Hawaiian families free leases to three Kahala Avenue homes each worth more than $2 million as part of his plan to turn eight homes in one of O'ahu's priciest neighborhoods into a "mission" for the needy.

The problem is that while Kawamoto talks a lot about honor, his previous dealings in Hawai'i real estate have been less than honorable. He presents himself as humble, then boasts of the wealth that enables him to buy mansions with "pocket change."

With this track record, Kahala homeowners have every right to worry that he's messing with them and their property values just because he can.

At the same time, you have to feel happy for the few families that are getting a chance for a better life as a result of whatever game Kawamoto is playing and nearby residents risk appearing snooty if they take out their irritation with Kawamoto on his tenants.

It was disturbing to hear one real estate broker quoted as saying, "If these people do not maintain the properties, he will have the full force of the neighborhood coming down on their heads."

The families moving into the Kawamoto properties seem to be good, working people who fell into homelessness and other hard luck as a result of an over-inflated housing market caused in part by outside land speculators like Kawamoto.

The families say they'll maintain the properties and be good neighbors, and they deserve to be treated with respect unless they prove otherwise.

Lyn Worley, an 'Ewa Beach school employee whose family got one of the houses, hit the right note when she said, "I know they paid a lot of money and worked really hard, but so do we. Timing and circumstances bring people to where they are in their life."

While the tenants deserve the benefit of the doubt, the same isn't necessarily true of the landlord, Kawamoto.

The tycoon first made a splash in Hawai'i in the 1980s when he cruised around Kailua and Hawai'i Kai in a limousine pointing at properties he wished to buy.

He acquired some 200 homes and condos, helping to drive local real estate to record highs, and drew harsh criticism for failing to maintain the properties after renting them out.

In 2002, he sold his properties to cash in on another real estate spike, evicting some tenants on short notice, and was blamed for contributing to a rental shortage that put the squeeze on folks like his new Kahala tenants.

With this history, Kahala homeowners were rightfully suspicious when Kawamoto bought 20 properties on Kahala Avenue for a total of $115 million.

Neighbors believe his "Kahala Avenue mission" was hatched out of a desire to stick it to them for their cool welcome. Many believe his goal is to drive down property values so he can buy more Kahala homes at cheaper prices and profit from resales.

It's clear that Kawamoto intends for now to change the face of a quiet neighborhood. He's favored big families, and encouraged them to hold big parties with lots of music.

He's torn down the fences on the properties to put his deeds on full display, in some cases exposing children in the homes to busy street traffic.

We can hope for a happy ending for the Hawaiian tenants and their neighbors, but Kawamoto's record is that his dealings end badly for everybody but him.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.