Steadfast survivor

Harris United Methodist Church started out 125 years ago as a place of solace, where many of Hawaii’s first Japa­nese immigrants sought respite from the plantations’ backbreaking lifestyle.

The church was "a true caretaker of others," particularly the downtrodden, founded on July 15, 1888, on the belief that "every human life has meaning," according to Ray Oki­moto, co-chairman of the 125th-anniversary celebration committee.

The downtown Hono­lulu church was rebuilt and relocated several times, once because it was destroyed in the Great Chinatown Fire of 1899, and at other times due to urban renewal projects of the mid-1950s.

"Our church has undergone a series of difficult events that would have discouraged many others, but only left us stronger," Oki­moto said.

The inherent resilience of Harris can be attributed to longtime parishioners like Oki­moto, the organist and choir leader for 56 years. About a fourth of the 300 members, now in their 80s and 90s, are still following in the footsteps of their parents, he said.

Harris’ claim to fame is that it was the family church of Hawaii’s favorite son, recently deceased U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Ino­uye, whose mother, Kame Ima­naga Ino­uye, was listed as one of its "pillars of faith" for 65 years.

With the theme "Reflect, Celebrate and Embrace the Future," the celebration will be held July 14 at 20 S. Vineyard Blvd., where the church has stood since 1962. Bishop Minerva Carcano will speak at the 10 a.m. worship service, the new Peace Bell Tower will be dedicated at 11:30 a.m. and a bento lunch will follow at noon.

"The bell tower is the manifestation of our church’s long history of working for peace and justice," Okimoto said about the project, 40 years in the making.

His wife, Annette, is chairwoman of the committee that carried out the wishes of the late Isabel Kennedy, a religious education director in the 1940s, to replace the church bell that was stolen during a relocation. When she died, Kennedy bequeathed about $10,000, and the bell fund slowly grew to $38,000 — finally enough to build a tower and purchase a 27-inch, 640-pound bronze bell.

One of the fund’s regular contributors was Hisa­shi Tanaka, who "remembered as a child ringing the bell, so he wanted us to have a bell," Annette Oki­moto said. "Unfortunately, he passed away one month ago. It’s really sad. He wanted to see it before he died, and he kept teasing me about it. He was on the committee, so he knew it was on its way." Tanaka was 87.

She said old-timers stay involved at Harris because "it’s a very caring church," adding, "It’s our extended family for most of us. That keeps us going. We believe in what the church does. Our mission is to make a difference in the community and the world as we seek to follow Jesus Christ."

Ray Okimoto said the shared hardships in the church’s history "kept the old-timers together," adding, "But the new crop of leaders we have coming up are going to be able to keep the church alive."

Church historian Ted Tsu­ki­yama said the congregation has become a lot more multiethnic since the 1960s, with only about half of its members of Japa­nese ancestry today. "We welcome it," he said.

Leaders recognized that the church needed to reach beyond the Japa­nese community and extend a hand to youth, young families and more recent waves of immigrants, he said.

Tsukiyama, a Honolulu attorney and veteran/historian of the legendary all-Japa­nese 442nd Regimental Combat Team, has written four history albums celebrating Harris’ milestone anniversaries. His family traces its membership back to 1894.

His father, Seinosuke Tsu­ki­yama, a 67-year member and perennial treasurer, mortgaged his home to pay the minister’s salary during the Depression. His father also translated into English an album, "35 Years of Methodism in Hawaii," written in Japa­nese in 1923, he said.

In 1888 the church started out with 34 Japa­nese immigrants who were converted to Christianity by a minister from Japan, the Rev. Kanichi Miyama, in an Old Vineyard Street building.

According to the album commemorating Harris’ 120th year, "Rev. Miyama came to Hawaii on Sept. 30, 1887, on a mission to comfort and uplift exploited immigrant Japa­nese workers who were leading lost and wasted lives. … Rev. Miyama was a powerful persuasive speaker with great charisma who quickly inspired and convinced hundreds of immigrant workers to give up their drinking, gambling and wild living."

Under Miyama’s leadership, a Japa­nese YMCA was established, which has survived as the Nuuanu YMCA, and a Japa­nese Women’s Mutual Aid Society, the forerunner of the present Kua­kini Medical Center.

From 1889 to 1893, Harris was called the Japa­nese Methodist Episcopal Church after efforts to merge with the Congregationalists were resisted. A church was built on River Street in 1894, but four years later it was ravaged by the Chinatown fire, and rebuilt in 1904.

In 1925 a larger church was built to accommodate its growing congregation on the corner of Fort and Vineyard streets. It was renamed Harris Memorial Methodist Church in honor of Bishop Merriman C. Harris of the California headquarters, who had sent Miyama to Hawaii.

In 1951 the "church received the catastrophic notices" from the city and territorial governments that it would be displaced by an urban renewal slum clearance project and the widening of Vineyard into a major thoroughfare, the album said. It purchased the former First Korean Church property on Fort Street as its relocation site but a year later was advised the site would not be available because it would be in line with a new Pali Highway route. From 1956 to ’59 members repaired the dilapidated Korean building to make it usable as a temporary church; during this time "church spirit, loyalty and solidarity of this church was never higher," the album said.

For six "homeless and nomadic years" from 1959, Harris held worship services at Queen’s Hospital while its school classes were held at Central Intermediate School and the Nuuanu Y, Oki­moto said. At one memorable board meeting in 1957, Harris members could have voted to relocate to the suburbs and be rid of the trials of urban renewal but overwhelming voted to stay so its members could serve the heart of the city.

The current church at Nuuanu Avenue and Vineyard Boulevard was built in 1962 for $800,000, then a staggering amount, most of it raised locally. Tsu­ki­yama wrote: "By the providential grace of God, Harris Church had finally returned home to the site of its original roots" on Vineyard.