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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Garden Island (Lihue, Kauai, H.T.) 1902-Current Garden Island war daily

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About The Garden Island (Lihue, Kauai, H.T.) 1902-Current

In 1902, Japanese immigrant Sometaro Sheba published the first newspaper on Kauaʻi. Based in Lihuʻe and appearing in two editions (English and Japanese), the Garden Island, has continued to cover life on Kauaʻi to the present day. In 1903, prominent Kauaʻi citizens Mason Fay Prosser, Edward DeLacy, Johan Ludvig V. Hjorth, and Frank Crawford formed a corporation to purchase the Garden Island. Sheba continued to serve as the publisher and editor, producing English and Japanese language editions until 1904, when the editions were separated into two. The Japanese edition became the Kauai Shinpo. The Garden Island was published weekly from 1902 to 1964, then switched to twice a week from 1964 to 1976, when it was published three times a week. Presently it appears daily.

In its first decade, the Garden Island presented local, national, and international news; as well as editorials, regular columns, sports news, fiction, advertisements, legal notices, and the schedule for the Garden Island steamer. Local news included crimes on plantations, deaths, and arrivals of new immigrant plantation workers. Regular column topics included poultry care, library new book lists, Sunday sermons, and “Our Little Boys and Girls,” which featured 500-word short stories by children on Kauaʻi.

During World War I while the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and Wailuku’s Maui News expressed extreme anti-German sentiment, the Garden Island was more moderate toward local Germans. The December 25, 1917 edition stated, “Bitterness and enmity may find an inevitable place on the battlefield; in rural communities such as ours, far removed from the scenes of war, it can do no good on either side to foment strife and stir up bad feeling … that will continue to bear an evil harvest when the actual war is over and peace should reign again.”

Hawaiʻi was under martial law for most of World War II. Five days after the Pearl Harbor attack, the “Governor’s Proclamation” under General Order No. 14 went into effect, allowing only a few newspapers to continue publishing. One of these was the Garden Island. From December 10, 1941, to January 14, 1942, Charles “Charlie” Fern, owner of the Garden Island and civilian defense director of Kauaʻi, distributed the Garden Island War Daily as a daily supplement, with a circulation of 5,000 copies.  During the war, the newspaper published columns in two Filipino languages, Tagalog and Visayan, and in Japanese. The Garden Island was the only establishment paper to defend Japanese Americans in Hawaiʻi, who were under suspicion after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Ownership of the Garden Island changed several times. In 1965, after 44 years at the Garden Island, Fern sold the paper to the Scripps League and Hagadone Newspapers of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Fern’s son Mike continued as publisher until 1966. In 1977, the partnership between the joint owners ended, leaving the Scripps League as the exclusive owner. In 1996, the Pulitzer Publishing Company acquired the newspaper. In June 2005, Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa, purchased the Garden Island, along with other Pulitzer papers. Today, the Garden Island continues to serve Kauaʻi as its major daily newspaper, with a print and an online edition (including news of the privately owned island of Niʻihau).

Provided By: University of Hawaii at Manoa; Honolulu, HI

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Garden Island (Lihue, Kauai, H.T.) 1902-Current

Other Title

  • Garden Island war daily

Names

  • Willard, John D.

Dates of Publication

  • 1902-current

Created / Published

  • Lihue, Kauai, H.T. : Garden Island.

Headings

  • -  Kauai (Hawaii)--Newspapers
  • -  Hawaii--Kauai
  • -  United States--Hawaii--Kauai--Lihue

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  4 issues per wk.
  • -  Began in 1902. Cf. Mar. 5, 1976 issue.
  • -  "Independent." Cf. Ayer, 1978.
  • -  Editor: 1904- J.D. Willard.
  • -  Daily supplements, partly in Japanese, called: The Garden Island war daily, issued Dec. 10, 1941-Jan. 14, 1942.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  In English; some Hawaiian.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 1, no. 47 (Dec. 5, 1904).

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations ; 60 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn82015411

OCLC Number

  • 8807785

ISSN Number

  • 0744-4028

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Garden Island Lihue, Kauai, H.T. -Current. (Lihue, HI), Jan. 1 1902. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn82015411/.

APA citation style:

(1902, January 1) The Garden Island Lihue, Kauai, H.T. -Current. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn82015411/.

MLA citation style:

The Garden Island Lihue, Kauai, H.T. -Current. (Lihue, HI) 1 Jan. 1902. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn82015411/.