Member of hui that colonized islands for U.S. witnessed Pearl Harbor attack

George Hawae Kahanu Sr., one of the last survivors of a Hawaii group called upon to colonize islands in the Equatorial Pacific for the United States prior to World War II, died Nov. 25 at his daughter’s home in Wailuku. He was 98.

Kahanu was among 130 young men from Hawaii sent by the U.S. from 1935 to 1942 to occupy five islands in the Line archipelago in the Equatorial Pacific: Jarvis, Howland, Baker, Canton and Enderbury.

Born and raised in Kalihi, Kahanu was a junior at Kamehameha School when he volunteered with three other men in 1936 to live for three months on Jarvis Island, about 1,500 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands.

Three of the 130 volunteers died, one of appendicitis and two others when a Japanese bomber attacked Howland Island on Dec. 8, 1941, a day after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

The group, known as the Hui Panala‘au, or band of colonizers, made it possible for the United States to extend its sovereignty into the Equatorial Pacific, according to a U.S. Senate resolution passed in May.

The 130 young men, the subject of a TV documentary, “Under a Jarvis Moon,” were honored at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl in May.

Most of the men were Native Hawaiians and recent high school graduates.

The group’s last survivor is believed to be Paul Phillips, a retired Hawaii Army National Guard lieutenant colonel who spent eight months on Jarvis in 1941-42, said Noelle Kahanu, a granddaughter of George Kahanu.

She said her grandfather later worked at Pearl Harbor as a ship welder and was there during the attack on the naval base by the Imperial Japanese Navy. He moved to Maui in 1980, after retiring from his work at Pearl Harbor and working for several years as a supervisor at Pacific Marine Co.

Kahanu is survived by companion Leilani Zinsman, son George H. Jr., daughters Ellen Raiser and Kahaulani Nakamoto, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Visitation on Maui is set for 9 a.m. Monday at Ballard Family Mortuary-Kahului, followed by services at 11 a.m.

Visitation on Oahu is at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at Kaumakapili Church, followed by services at 11 a.m. Burial is at 3 p.m. at Hawaiian Memorial Park. Aloha or casual attire.