Waikiki, OahuHawaii

The Japanese Invasion of Hawaii


Waikiki Half Moon
Panoramic view of Waikiki Bay.
Brief Dry Lesson
Vacationers receive a surf lesson on Waikiki Beach.
The Stupid Factory
Waikiki passersby contemplate a window of "The Stupid Factory"
byodo-in
Facade of the Buddhist temple of Byodo-in, an expression of the strong Japanese presence in Oahu and Hawaii in general.
Waikikki Surfers
Surfers practice in the tranquil sea off Waikiki Beach.
Longboard fleet
Succession of longboards, popular surfboards on Waikiki beach.
Waikiki coastline
Excerpt from Waikiki Beach, in the Hawaiian capital of Honolulu.
Outgoing bathers
Bathers leave the seductive Pacific Ocean that bathes Waikiki.
Forest of bathers
A crowd of mostly Asian bathers, entertained with buoys and mattresses.
overcrowded sea
A conglomerate of mostly Asian bathers, entertained with buoys and mattresses.
Hawaiian at ease
Dock Island Cafe Maid poses for a photo.
A Flowery Recognition
Statue of Duke Kahanamoku, Father Hawaiian Surf, filled with wreaths placed by his admirers.
kendo pose
Kendo practitioners hold an exhibition in the garden of the Byodo In Buddhist temple.
A Bath in the Pacific
Waiki beach goers bathe in the (very) Pacific ocean off to the sea.
Colorful and communal vacations
Waikiki tourists enjoy themselves in the gentle Pacific ocean over there.
in good company
A bather is photographed next to the statue of the Father of Hawaiian surfing Duke Kahanamoku.
Honolulu skyline
The bright skyline of Honolulu, the Hawaiian capital and one of the largest cities in the heart of the Pacific.
Decades after the attack on Pearl Harbor and from the capitulation in World War II, the Japanese returned to Hawaii armed with millions of dollars. Waikiki, his favorite target, insists on surrendering.

We got used to appreciating expressions of the unbreakable Japanese group spirit, on trips through Japan and other places where we came across its people on vacation.

Still, the one we discover when we reach the beach in front of the Royal Hawaian Hotel leaves us awestruck.

On a stretch of the Pacific Ocean that looks more like a swimming pool, hundreds of Japanese bathers have fun floating and splashing around.

Oahu: The Japanese Gathering Island in Waikiki

Several wear wet white t-shirts, but even more strange is the splash of sea on their mattresses and buoys, all green or pink.

Bathers, Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii

Waikiki tourists have fun in the Pacific ocean there and then smooth.

We walked along the beach. We almost only see faces and bodies from the Far East, too white to fit the bathing and semi-tropical scenery.

They do everything possible to forget the 355 days a year of social submission, of rules and regulations that straddle the Emperor's land.

A couple imitates the teachings of a native instructor and balance on boards parked a few feet from the water.

Surf Lesson, Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii

Vacationers receive a surf lesson on Waikiki Beach.

In the opposite direction, closer to the road, others feed the cult of photography vice versa and line up next to the bronze statue of Duke Kahanamoku, king of surf teachers and sportsmen in the archipelago.

statue Duke Kahanamoku, Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii

A bather is photographed next to the statue of the Father of Hawaiian Surf Duke Kahanamoku.

We're on Oahu, the island that Hawaiian mythology called the reunion, and despite their somewhat alien presence, these tourists seem to do the gods' will.

By 1885, Japan was a rural nation and part of its population faced extreme poverty. For some time now, the prospect of emigration has enticed families from various regions and Hawaii, full of sugar cane and pineapple plantations to which the first workers – many, Madeirans and Azoreans – did not give an answer, was revealed to be the preferred destination. .

The "Infamous" Nippon Aggression of Hawaii

Even against the will of the Emperor – who was concerned about the degeneration of their race – the Japanese continued to leave and, in 1920, they already constituted about 43% of the population of the territory, which had since been annexed by the United States. But Japan industrialized.

It became heavily militaristic with expansionist ambitions that spanned the dominance of Asia and began with the infamous surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, one of the largest US naval bases, also located on Oahu.

Kendo Exhibition, Byodo-in, Oahu, Hawaii

Kendo practitioners hold an exhibition in the garden of the Byodo In Buddhist temple.

As time left behind the painful Japanese capitulation in World War II, resentment toward the Americans faded and Japan resumed the family and ethnic ties that linked it to the middle of the Pacific. Shortly thereafter, the advent of jet aviation boosted tourism in the Hawaiian archipelago.

Now, already enriched, many Japanese once again could not resist the journey of their lives.

Some still let themselves be seduced by the climate and the freedom felt in Hawaii and, despite the different reasons, they moved there trying to unburden their existence. Even if only partially.

Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii

Excerpt from Waikiki Beach, in the Hawaiian capital of Honolulu.

We returned from the center of Honolulu tired and decided to replenish energy in a greedy way in an eccentric frozen yogurt shop. The establishment is sophisticated and creative.

Japanese Presence, Japanese Mentality

For this reason, as we fill the glasses with flavors and extras with which we compose the meal, we can't resist photographing part of the crazy design, something that makes the almond-eyed cashier run from her post anxiously and warn us with as much diplomacy as possible. : “Stop, stop. You can't take photos in here!”.

Our commercial interest in the place is below zero as the frozen yogurts that we devoured but still aroused fears of industrial espionage inherent in the lady's high-tech motherland that neither the sun nor the incredible landscapes and Hawaiian culture had relaxed.

Cafe Maid Dock Island, Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii

Dock Island Cafe Maid poses for a photo.

If Japanese emigrants find it difficult to divorce their habits, those who land on the island for just a few days feel even more so. Waikiki offers them the beach and exoticism that arrives but saves them from too sudden changes.

Av. Kalakaua: The Hawaiian Way of Rapprochement among USA and the Japan

After walking around it over and over, we confirm that the long Kalakaua avenue is more than the favorite haven of Japanese visitors. It is also a symbol of the close collaboration between Japan and the United States in the 80s that allowed Hawaii in 2010 alone to have 1885 million Japanese visitors (six times more than all immigrants between 1941 and XNUMX) .

The Stupid Factory, Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii

Waikiki passersby contemplate a window of "The Stupid Factory"

Most of the boutiques, hotels and other businesses that delimit that main artery belong to Japanese corporations and even the Yakuza mafia.

Accordingly, a considerable part of passersby reveal themselves as Japanese consumers who rejoice at being able to buy with the refinement of Ginza or Omotesando (Tokyo's high-profile commercial zones) locked in by the rising value of the yen against the dollar.

They are honeymoon couples who are just as passionate about the couple as they are about the luxurious windows. And families of salarymen with enviable incomes.

We see them enter stores in a disciplined manner, often greeted in Japanese with the heightened delicacy and reverence one appreciates across lands of Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu: “irasshaimaseeee!”, the necessary greeting is repeated over and over again by the thoughtful maids.

But the “Nipponizing” of Waikiki and Hawaii in general is far from everyone's satisfaction. Once we return to the beach, we get into conversation with native surf instructors who are resting in the shade of coconut trees and one of them ends up venting indignantly: “These islands belong to us but we are increasingly forced to leave.

Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii

Panoramic view of Waikiki Bay.

The real estate speculation in Honolulu and Waikiki is such that normal Hawaiians can only live many tens of kilometers from the city center, which forces us to spend a lot of money traveling. But the worst thing is that we also find ourselves cut off from jobs.

After bringing the business here, the Japanese started sending employees. What's left for many of our families is moving to the mainland. Las Vegas, for example, is overflowing with Hawaiians.”

As far as we can see, it didn't happen that the local community had imposed itself in numerical terms. The number of Nikkei Hawaiians has even declined, and immigrants from the remaining 49 US and Philippine states have arrived for decades.

But the Japanese presence gained great relevance and opened the doors to massive investment. Non-Japanese Hawaiians are more aware than ever of the Japanese invasion.

And, in beach and coffee conversations, they play with the situation and repeat, between uncomplexed laughter, that the Rising Sun has returned to finish in peace what it had started to do in Pearl Harbor.

Key West, USA

The Tropical Wild West of the USA

We've come to the end of the Overseas Highway and the ultimate stronghold of propagandism Florida Keys. The continental United States here they surrender to a dazzling turquoise emerald marine vastness. And to a southern reverie fueled by a kind of Caribbean spell.
Maui, Hawaii

divine hawaii

Maui is a former chief and hero of Hawaiian religious and traditional imagery. In the mythology of this archipelago, the demigod lassos the sun, raises the sky and performs a series of other feats on behalf of humans. Its namesake island, which the natives believe they created in the North Pacific, is itself prodigious.
Morro de São Paulo, Brazil

A Divine Seaside of Bahia

Three decades ago, it was just a remote and humble fishing village. Until some post-hippie communities revealed the Morro's retreat to the world and promoted it to a kind of bathing sanctuary.
Melbourne, Australia

An "Asienated" Australia

Cultural capital aussie, Melbourne is also frequently voted the best quality of life city in the world. Nearly a million eastern emigrants took advantage of this immaculate welcome.
napali coast, Hawaii

Hawaii's Dazzling Wrinkles

Kauai is the greenest and rainiest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is also the oldest. As we explore its Napalo Coast by land, sea and air, we are amazed to see how the passage of millennia has only favored it.
Big Island, Hawaii

Searching for Rivers of Lava

There are five volcanoes that make the big island of Hawaii grow day by day. Kilauea, the most active on Earth, is constantly releasing lava. Despite this, we live a kind of epic to envision it.
Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Mauna Kea: the Volcano with an Eye out in Space

The roof of Hawaii was off-limits to natives because it housed benevolent deities. But since 1968, several nations sacrificed the peace of the gods and built the greatest astronomical station on the face of the Earth.
pearl harbor, Hawaii

The Day Japan Went Too Far

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor military base. Today, parts of Hawaii look like Japanese colonies but the US will never forget the outrage.
Masai Mara Reservation, Masai Land Travel, Kenya, Masai Convivial
Safari
Masai Mara, Kenya

A Journey Through the Masai Lands

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Faithful light candles, Milarepa Grotto temple, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 9th Manang to Milarepa Cave, Nepal

A Walk between Acclimatization and Pilgrimage

In full Annapurna Circuit, we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). we still need acclimatize to the higher stretches that followed, we inaugurated an equally spiritual journey to a Nepalese cave of Milarepa (4000m), the refuge of a siddha (sage) and Buddhist saint.
Sculptural Garden, Edward James, Xilitla, Huasteca Potosina, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Cobra dos Pecados
Architecture & Design
Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, Mexico

Edward James' Mexican Delirium

In the rainforest of Xilitla, the restless mind of poet Edward James has twinned an eccentric home garden. Today, Xilitla is lauded as an Eden of the Surreal.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Adventure
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
drinks entre reis, cavalhadas de pirenopolis, crusades, brazil
Ceremonies and Festivities
Pirenópolis, Brazil

Brazilian Crusades

Christian armies expelled Muslim forces from the Iberian Peninsula in the XNUMXth century. XV but, in Pirenópolis, in the Brazilian state of Goiás, the South American subjects of Carlos Magno continue to triumph.
Back in the sun. San Francisco Cable Cars, Life Ups and Downs
Cities
San Francisco, USA

San Francisco Cable Cars: A Life of Highs and Lows

A macabre wagon accident inspired the San Francisco cable car saga. Today, these relics work as a charm operation in the city of fog, but they also have their risks.
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Meal
Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, The Nation That Does Not Lack Bread

Few countries employ cereals like Uzbekistan. In this republic of Central Asia, bread plays a vital and social role. The Uzbeks produce it and consume it with devotion and in abundance.
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Culture
Tabato, Guinea Bissau

The Tabanca of Mandinga Poets Musicians

In 1870, a community of traveling Mandingo musicians settled next to the current city of Bafatá. From the Tabatô they founded, their culture and, in particular, their prodigious balaphonists, dazzle the world.
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Competitions

Man: an Ever Tested Species

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Traveling
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Buy Flights Before Prices Take Off

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Early morning on the lake
Ethnic

Nantou, Taiwan

In the Heart of the Other China

Nantou is Taiwan's only province isolated from the Pacific Ocean. Those who discover the mountainous heart of this region today tend to agree with the Portuguese navigators who named Taiwan Formosa.

Portfolio, Got2Globe, Best Images, Photography, Images, Cleopatra, Dioscorides, Delos, Greece
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

The Earthly and the Celestial

Goiás Velho, Legacy of the Gold Fever, Brazil
History
Goiás Velho, Brazil

A Gold Rush Legacy

Two centuries after the heyday of prospecting, lost in time and in the vastness of the Central Plateau, Goiás esteems its admirable colonial architecture, the surprising wealth that remains to be discovered there.
Ruins, Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia
Islands
Discovering Tassie, Part 2 - Hobart to Port Arthur, Australia

An Island Doomed to Crime

The prison complex at Port Arthur has always frightened the British outcasts. 90 years after its closure, a heinous crime committed there forced Tasmania to return to its darkest times.
Reindeer Racing, Kings Cup, Inari, Finland
Winter White
Inari, Finland

The Wackiest Race on the Top of the World

Finland's Lapps have been competing in the tow of their reindeer for centuries. In the final of the Kings Cup - Porokuninkuusajot - , they face each other at great speed, well above the Arctic Circle and well below zero.
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida, United States
Literature
Key West, United States

Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
Rainbow in the Grand Canyon, an example of prodigious photographic light
Nature
Natural Light (Part 1)

And Light was made on Earth. Know how to use it.

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Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Ijen Volcano, Slaves of Sulfur, Java, Indonesia
Natural Parks
Ijen volcano, Indonesia

The Ijen Volcano Sulphur Slaves

Hundreds of Javanese surrender to the Ijen volcano where they are consumed by poisonous gases and loads that deform their shoulders. Each turn earns them less than €30 but everyone is grateful for their martyrdom.
Puerto Rico, San Juan, walled city, panoramic
UNESCO World Heritage
San Juan, Puerto Rico

The Highly Walled Puerto Rico of San Juan Bautista

San Juan is the second oldest colonial city in the Americas, after the Dominican neighbor of Santo Domingo. A pioneering emporium and stop over on the route that took gold and silver from the New World to Spain, it was attacked again and again. Its incredible fortifications still protect one of the most lively and prodigious capitals in the Caribbean.
Heroes Acre Monument, Zimbabwe
Characters
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The Last Rales of Surreal Mugabué

In 2015, Zimbabwe's first lady Grace Mugabe said the 91-year-old president would rule until the age of 100 in a special wheelchair. Shortly thereafter, it began to insinuate itself into his succession. But in recent days, the generals have finally precipitated the removal of Robert Mugabe, who has replaced him with former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
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Beaches
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Monumental Tropical Granite

Beaches hidden by lush jungle, made of coral sand washed by a turquoise-emerald sea are anything but rare in the Indian Ocean. La Digue recreated itself. Around its coastline, massive boulders sprout that erosion has carved as an eccentric and solid tribute of time to the Nature.
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Religion
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The Mother Island of the Gulag Archipelago

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Train Kuranda train, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
On Rails
Cairns-Kuranda, Australia

Train to the Middle of the Jungle

Built out of Cairns to save miners isolated in the rainforest from starvation by flooding, the Kuranda Railway eventually became the livelihood of hundreds of alternative Aussies.
Australia Day, Perth, Australian Flag
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Perth, Australia

Australia Day: In Honor of the Foundation, Mourning for Invasion

26/1 is a controversial date in Australia. While British settlers celebrate it with barbecues and lots of beer, Aborigines celebrate the fact that they haven't been completely wiped out.
Visitors at Talisay Ruins, Negros Island, Philippines
Daily life
Talisay City, Philippines

Monument to a Luso-Philippine Love

At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
Hippopotamus in Anôr Lagoon, Orango Island, Bijagós, Guinea Bissau
Wildlife
Kéré Island to Orango, Bijagós, Guinea Bissau

In Search of the Lacustrine-Marine and Sacred Bijagós Hippos

They are the most lethal mammals in Africa and, in the Bijagós archipelago, preserved and venerated. Due to our particular admiration, we joined an expedition in their quest. Departing from the island of Kéré and ending up inland from Orango.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
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The Fjords of the Antipodes

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