1940

The population of Hawai’i is 422,770. The part-Hawaiian population is 64,310.

1940 September 2

Kamehameha School for Boys leaves Kaiwiula for a new campus at Kapaläma beginning with the 1940-1941 school year. Dr. Homer Barnes in the Ka Mo’i yearbook, 1941

1941 May

The baobob tree planted by the first graduating class of Kamehameha School for Boys in 1891 is moved from the Manual School at Kaiwiula to  Kapälama across the road from Päki Hall. Eleven members of KSB Class of 1891 are present for the replanting.

                 1944

The population of Hawai’i is 422,770.  As the Pacific war escalates, 250,000 troops stationed in Hawai’i  swell the population by over a third and create many local small business opportunities.

1945

1940 January 6

EDWIN MURRAY, KSB 1909, is the first Kamehameha Schools graduate to be named Trustee of the Bishop Estate. Ka Mo’i newspaper, 1940

1944

1940 June

WILFRED LEE KSB 1940 is the first graduate awarded a Territorial scholarship to attend the University of Hawai’i.

       1941 December 7 

The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. officially enters WWII.  Haumana see the bombing from the campus. Everyone has a personal story. Martial law is declared.

      1941 December 8

All Hawai’i school close by order of the military governor.  Eleven Kamehameha Boys enlist. Some join the Home Guard.

1941 December 11

Army Provisional General Hospital #1 is established at the Boys School for women, children and enlisted men with minor wounds.  Kamehameha Schools students help. 

1942

1942 January 12

Adjusting to wartime,  Kamehameha Schools reopens for classes.

1942 June

PAULINE FREDERICK, Ph.D.  becomes the Principal of Kamehameha School for Girls when MAUDE SCHAEFFER resigns.

1942 September

The Army takes over the entire Girls School campus as a branch of Tripler Army Hospital.  Girls share facilities with the Boys until June 1946.

1942 November

The dress code at the Boys School is revised to allow open neck shirts in class.  Boys may also wear them to town if they are not “wild or loud.

1943 September 6

The Preparatory Department reopens on McNeil Street on the site of Toyo Gakuen, a former Japanese school at 621 McNeill Street as a co-educational day school. Principal LELA BREWER has 320 students.  Tuition is $60. Annual report, 1943-44.  The Hawai’i Supreme Court orders the reopening. Ka Moi, Sept. 1943.

• The Boys School curriculum places students in three separate programs: college preparatory, commercial business, the trades.

• Malalo Field is coverted from the wartime victory garden into a playing field.

• 1944 March 6. President and Boys School Principal Homer Barnes resigns and Teacher CHARLES PARRENT is Acting Principal-in-Charge.

• 1944 December 19. The Girls School observes the 50th Anniversary of its founding.

•J .R.O.T.C. is reactivated after closing since 1941 during World War II.

• 1945 April 15. 100 cadets are the honor guard at the funeral of Princess Abigail Campbell Kawananakoa.  The Glee Club performs.  She is the last ali’i interred at Mauna ‘Ala.

               1945 September 2.

General Douglas McArthur signs the peace treaty with Japan in Tokyo Bay ending U.S. participation in World War II.

1946 July

LEONARD CALVERT is Boys School principal.

1946 August 1

HAROLD W. KENT, “Colonel Kent,”  is  Kamehameha Schools President from 1946 to 1964.

               1946

Aloha Week is established by the Hawai’i Visitors Bureau.

1946 October

Reverend STEPHEN DESHA, Jr. KSB 1903,  teaches ‘ōlelo Hawai’i at the Boys School. He tutors President Kent, who  becomes proficient.  In 1949, he creates the Kamehameha Deputation Team to serve Neighbor Island churches. KSB 1951 classmates, DAVID KAUPU, JAMES MERSBERG and WILLIAM KAINA became ordained ministers as a result of their participation.

1947 January 24

The entire student body takes the final train ride from ‘Iwilei around Ka’ena Point on the O’ahu Railway and Land Company line before it closes.

1947 March 8

Kamehameha School for Boys Alumni Clubhouse opens at 2290 Liliha Street with a lu’au and more than 3000 guests.

1948 January 26

The Boys and Girls Schools are admitted and accredited by the Northwestern Association of Secondary and Higher Schools. There are 1000 students at the three Kamehameha Schools campuses at Kapälama.

1947 September 1

JEAN KELLEY is the first student from Ni’ihau.

1947 November 4

A record album, Songs of Hawai’i, by the Boys and Girls Schools is recorded on the 60th anniversary of the founding of Kamehameha School for Boys.

1949 November

Konia classrooms are dedicated.

               1948

The last Hawaiian language newspaper, Ka Hōkū  O Hawai’i, goes out of business in Hilo.

1949 January

New tennis courts are dedicated.

1949 February 11

Kamehameha Schools Press publishes a book of Hawaiian legends, Pikoi by MARY KAWENA PUKU’I and Kumu CAROLINE CURTIS. Student RICHARD GOINGS, KSB 1950, is the illustrator.

1949 September

Kumu ALLEN BAILEY becomes Boys School Acting Principal.  He becomes a beloved and influential Principal.

HENRY JUDD teaches ‘ōlelo Hawai’i at the Girls School.

            1949

Longshoremen’s dock strike and the rise of the ILWU

...By 1949 the Big Five felt ready for a showdown. They provoked a strike by holding out against the Hawaii longshoremen's demand for wage parity with their mainland counterparts... Hawaii longshoremen struck May 1, 1949 over equal pay for equal work - and fought on to preserve the unionism that the 1946 sugar strike had established in the Islands.

The 157-day strike tested every segment of the union's organization in Hawaii. The ILWU membership fought and prevailed against enormous odds: the power and wealth of the Big Five; the employers' refusal to go to arbitration; official government scab-herding and strike-breaking; innumerable arrests and court actions; and even opposition from within the labor movement...

http://www.ilwu19.com/history/the_ilwu_story/organization_in_hawaii.htm

Bishop Hall, near Bishop Museum, was reconditioned for use by grades 4,5,6,7...Cottage F ...use by the arts and crafts department. A one-bedroom cottage..so that someone could live on the campus. Annual report, 1943-44.

1940

1941

1941

1943

Ka Moi September 1943 headline:

The Hawai’i Supreme Court orders the reopening.

1946

1947

1948

1949

Polynesians                     Preparatory and Girls        1925-1939          1960ʻs             1990ʻs            2005-06         2010-11

Kingdom of Hawaiʻi         A U.S. territory                    1940ʻs                1970ʻs              2000-02         2007-08        2012-13

Founding and Boys          1910-1924                          1950ʻs                1980ʻs              2003-04        2008-09         2013-14