Sabas T. Jamito
Kalihi: Place of Transition
This project features life history interviews with present and former longtime residents of Kalihi, a multi-ethnic working-class district located west of downtown Honolulu, which has a long history as a home of island immigrants.
Sabas T. Jamito, Tagalog, was born in Camarines Norte, Philippines on January 12, 1912. At the age of five months, he and his family immigrated to the Big Island of Hawaii. Until 1922, when the family moved to Hilo, Sabas lived on various sugar plantations: Papaaloa, Paauilo, Ookala, and Olaa. While in Hilo, Sabas helped his father in the sugarcane fields and earned money as a shoe shine boy. He attended Kapiolani School, Hila Union School, Hilo Intermediate, and Hila High. In 1929, Sabas began his boxing career in Hilo, making five dollars a fight. Around the same time, he loaded fertilizer onto boxcars for Pacific Guano and Fertilizer Company. In 1931, he started work as a longshoreman, loading sugar on ships for C. Brewer and Company. In 1940, Sabas became a longshoreman for McCabe, Hamilton, and Renny Co. in Honolulu. He and his family moved to Hau Street in Kalihi. Sabas resumed his boxing career, appearing in places such as Honolulu Stadium and Civic Auditorium, making as much as $800 per bout. Today, Sabas still lives in Kalihi, and enjoys playing music and billiards.
Scope and Content Note
A seventy-two-year-old retired longshoreman talks about the various jobs he has held and about his boxing career.
Keywords: Hawaii, Honolulu, Plantation Life, Sports, Strikes, Working Conditions
Program Note:
This interview is part of the Center for Oral History's project Kalihi: Place of Transition. Interviews from this project are available in the Center's ScholarSpace open access repository.
The Center for Oral History (COH), in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, collects, documents, preserves and highlights the recollections of Native Hawaiians and the multi-ethnic people of Hawaiʻi. It produces oral histories and interpretive historical materials about lifeways, key historic events, social movements and Hawaiʻi’s role in the globalizing world, for the widest possible use.
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