Hawaii’s Backyard: Chinatown

Carter Churchfield rates her WWII Red Light District Tour "R" for its eyebrow-raising content and occasional raw language, so be warned: It is not the best choice for young children, and it might offend adults with delicate sensibilities. That said, many people give her candid look at Honolulu’s scandalous past an "R" for riveting.

The 90-minute, mile-long walk focuses on bars, bordellos, tattoo parlors, strip clubs and other places that spotlight the seedy side of Chinatown in the 1940s. Many of the buildings that once housed those businesses still stand, recalling the days when drunken sailors, transvestite entertainers and enterprising madams and ladies of the night were familiar figures in the 36-acre district bordered by Nuuanu Avenue, Nimitz Highway, River Street and Beretania Street.

When Churchfield moved to Honolulu from Seattle in March 2014, she started getting acquainted with the city, including reading about its World War II era. What she discovered about Chinatown fascinated her.

"The deeper I dug, the more interesting stories I discovered," Churchfield said. "Chinatown proved to be a veritable gold mine for sensational history. When you know how to ask the right questions and not accept whitewashed history, you uncover things that are hilarious and appalling at the same time."

She had guided close to 1,000 historical tours in Seattle, so she knew what it would take to launch a similar activity in Chinatown. After devoting hours to research and logistics, moving ahead with the tour seemed to be a slam-dunk decision. But every time she mentioned Chinatown to the concierges at Waikiki hotels, a look of confusion and horror appeared on their faces.

"I was warned several times — ‘You don’t want to take visitors there!’ — but I came to the conclusion that Chinatown doesn’t get the love it deserves," Churchfield said. "It still has a lot of history that hasn’t been bulldozed to make way for high-rise condos. And with its vibrant arts scene, multiethnic population and fantastic restaurants, to me there are few places as captivating as Chinatown."

Nine stops are made on the WWII Red Light District Tour, including Old Ironside Tattoo at 1033 Smith St., where Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins, hailed as America’s most notable tattoo artist, worked from the 1960s until his death in 1973. Although there were more than 30 tattoo artists plying their trade in Chinatown during the war, Sailor Jerry was the busiest, and he could charge top dollar — $3 (or about $45 in today’s money) for a small arm or leg tattoo — because his style had mass appeal.

"He was a major force not only in popularizing tattoos on American servicemen, but also in creating the iconic pinup girl that we associate with pop art in that era," Churchfield said. "He was also quite a character: I came across accounts saying he dragged unconscious drunks off the street to practice tattooing on them. When we stop at Old Ironside, I point out original color sketches of tattoos in the window that were drawn by Sailor Jerry. He was so versatile; his designs included snakes, ship anchors, knives and guns, bottles of booze, birds of prey and the American flag."

Meanwhile, some 20 "boogie houses," or brothels, with seemingly respectable names such as the Eagle’s Nest and the Pacific Rooms, were also flourishing in Chinatown. According to Churchfield, there were 375 men for every woman in Honolulu during the war, and it was widely known that any "hotel" or "rooming house" that had a Chinatown address was not actually providing accommodations.

The New Senator Hotel, formerly located in the building at 121 N. Hotel St., was a favorite of author James Jones, who wrote the novel "From Here to Eternity." Some scenes in the book and the 1953 movie of the same name take place in the New Congress Club, which was based on the New Senator Hotel and its residents. The movie won eight Academy Awards, including best picture and best supporting actress for Donna Reed’s portrayal of prostitute Alma "Lorene" Burke.

"It’s interesting that the police force and elites tolerated a red-light district when they were so opposed to vice," Churchfield said. "They were convinced that they needed the district as a buffer between members of the armed forces and the ‘respectable’ women of Hawaii."

Prostitutes had to abide by strict regulations: Among other things, they could not have a steady boyfriend, own a car, go to golf courses or, curiously, ride a bicycle. Still, by servicing up to 100 customers a day at $1 for locals ($14 in today’s money) or $2 for servicemen ($28 today) per trick, they could make a very good living.

The book "The First Strange Place: Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii," by Temple University history professors Beth Bailey and David Farber, reports prostitutes were making about $25,000 a year — equivalent to more than $350,000 today. Madams were pulling in $150,000 a year, now about $2 million.

Honolulu’s wartime prostitution industry brought in a staggering $4 million ($56,700,000) per year — enough, it has been estimated, to replace the loss of tourism-generated revenue during that period. And the madams and their women paid $200,000 ($2,834,000) in income taxes annually on their illegal professions. According to Churchfield, one of the madams even received a letter from Henry Morgenthau, U.S. treasury secretary, in 1942, commending her for selling $132,000 ($1,874,000 today) in war bonds.

"The assumption is that she sold them to her girls," Churchfield said. "War bonds were a safe way for them to invest their earnings, because many banks wouldn’t do business with them. So boogie-house money was helping to fund the war effort. These are the types of insights that make my tour different from any other tour in Hawaii. It’s history that isn’t taught in schools — but it’s significant history nonetheless."

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.