Koloa: An Oral History of a Kauai Community

  • Collection DOI:
    Principal Investigator:
    Warren S. Nishimoto
  • In 1984, members of the Friends of Koloa Public/School Library began researching their community's history for a commemorative publication, marking the sesquicentennial of commercial sugar cultivation in Hawaii.

Interviewee Collection Sort ascending Description Interviewer Date of Interview Location of Interview Affiliation
Edene Naleimaile Vidinha Koloa: An Oral History of a Kauai Community

Edene Vidinha was the youngest of three children and only girl born to Maurice Smith and Emma Wohlers Smith in 1905. After Maurice Smith died, Edene was raised by her mother and stepfather, John Naleimaile, Koloa Plantation policeman, who later became a Kaua'i county policeman in Koloa.  Edene and her family lived in a home adjoining the courthouse in Koloa, where her stepfather worked. She first attended Koloa School, then transferred to Kawaiahao Seminary in Honolulu.

Iwalani Hodges Omao, HI University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Center for Oral History
Masako Hanzawa Sugawa Koloa: An Oral History of a Kauai Community

Masako Sugawa, eldest of three children, was born in 1911, in Halehaka, Kaua'i. Her father, Yoichiro Hanzawa, immigrant from Miyagi-ken, Japan, was a rice farmer in Halehaka; her mother, Kesa, also from Miyagi-ken, died at age thirty-three in 1919. Masako helped her father care for her sister and brother.

Michi Kodama-Nishimoto Koloa, HI University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Center for Oral History
Vivian Leilani Vidinha Souza Koloa: An Oral History of a Kauai Community

The youngest of eight children who survived childbirth, Vivian Leilani Vidinha Souza was born January 14, 1918 in Koloa. Her father, Antone Vidinha, Sr., was Portuguese born in Mana, Kauai and eventually became the sheriff of Koloa. Her mother, Alohakeau Hale Vidinha, was Hawaiian born on Niihau. Vivian's brother, Antone Vidinha, was a former mayor of Kauai. Vivian, a lifelong resident of Koloa and Poipu, completed the eighth grade at Koloa School.

Iwalani Hodges Poipu, HI University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Center for Oral History
Eric McD. "Iki" Moir Koloa: An Oral History of a Kauai Community

''Iki" Moir is the only child of Hector Moir and Alexandria Knudson Moir. Hector Moir was the manager of Koloa Sugar Company from 1933 to 1948; he stepped down when Koloa Sugar Company merged with Grove Farm. Alexandria Knudson Moir is a descendent of the Sinclair, Gay and Robinson families who owned Ni'ihau and parts of Kaua'i.

Warren Nishimoto Poipu, HI University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Center for Oral History