Intrepid worker helped build state Capitol, young Hawaii

Someone else may have hoped for a land-hugging nickname like “Turtle” or “Cat” but Richard Nakamoto’s nickname is “Crow,” so it just fit that his job during the construction of Hawaii’s state Capitol would have him perched 100 feet in the air.

The soaring ribs of the Capitol’s roof are made of concrete with reinforcing steel rods running from top to bottom.

It was Nakamoto’s job to stand on top of the wooden form and pull together the rebar as it was pushed up the mold.

“My job was to hold the the rebar at the top of the curve. I was the smallest, so I was at the very tip holding the rebar together and a big Hawaiian guy would push the bars up and I would tie them off,” Nakamoto said in an interview.

And that nickname?

“They call me ‘Crow’ because they thought that bird could fly.”

Happily, Nakamoto, 77, never took any unexpected flights during his 43 years as an ironworker in Hawaii.

When he read reports in this column about how the state was redoing the Capitol’s roof, he wrote to say not only was he there when the first roof went up, he had the pictures to prove it.

In 1965 when Nakamoto started working on the building, he would sometimes take along a home movie camera. The 8mm film adds a fascinating glimpse (808ne.ws/CapitolConstruction) into how the Capitol was built 50 years ago.

Construction on the Capitol started before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was created in 1971, so the film shows safety issues were not as strenuous as they are today.

“Back in those days, we had no railings or anything,” Nakamoto said, adding that tie-offs or safety harnesses were also not required.

Nakamoto’s career in construction in Hawaii mirrored the growth of the young state and he can literally say he helped build Hawaii. He was working the rebar used to put together the first First Hawaiian Bank building on South King Street; he watched the implosion of that structure and then worked on building the second bank building. Nakamoto also was there for construction of the first sections of the Ala Moana Shopping Center, the Sand Island bridge and many hotels across the state.

He started out with the Ala Moana project at $1.65 an hour and is now retired from the building industry, but has discovered a new discipline: gyotaku, or fish printing.

Nakamoto adds a special touch to his prints, by painting in the colors of the fish after making a black ink print. The finished print then becomes not just a copy of the fish, but a new piece of art.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.