Today, I'm continuing with the story of The Cherry Blossom Saimin Stand. In the last post, I told the story of the Hirasaki family--the deaths of Amy, age 2, Robert , age 3, Jackie, age 8 and Jitsuo, age 48. I mentioned that Hirasakis' cousin, George Jay Manganelli (also known as George Aiyama), age 14, was also in the shop.
George was a student at St. Louis College [the former name of St. Louis High School.] On Sunday mornings, he'd hang out in the saimin stand because it was popular with CYO young boxers.(There was a gym at Our Lady of Peace Cathedral then and on Monday nights there was CYO boxing.)
Among the boxers there that morning was twenty-one year old Masayoshi Higa. Masayoshi was also known as "Ha-ge" ("Cheerful") but most people called him "Freddy."
Higa, like most of the boxers at the stand, was from Waiakea Sugar Mill's Camp on the Big Island. He was cousin of the well-known Hawaiian fighters Charley and Rocky Higa.
Freddy's sister, Kimuri Higa recalls that her brother hung out with his friends at the saimin shop on the weekends. That morning, Freddy and James Koba were among those who were scheduled for a weigh-in for the Monday, December 8, 1941 boxing card.
When the saimin stand was hit, Eishin “Toy”Tamanaha, a professional bantam weight fighter, remembers that Higa and Koba were eating Popsicles and playing the pinball machine. It was about 9:40 a.m. All three men were taken to Queen’s Hospital. Higa lost an eye and an arm; Koba had his legs amputated. Both Higa and Koba were expected to survive but both men died later that day. Their bodies were cremated and their cremains sent back to their families on the Big Island.
James Koba was also known as Takao Takefuji,age 20. Takefuji was born at Honokaa,(about fifty miles north of Hilo). His father (Takefuji) died when he was seven, and his mother subsequently moved in with a man named Koba, who then informally adopted Takao and his siblings. (Informal adoption [hanai] was and to some extent is still common in Hawaii.)
From an early age Koba showed promise as a boxer. He often worked out, ran, jumped rope and got his older sister Mitsue (Mitsue Yoneoka)to help him do sit-ups. It was on the Big Island where Eishin "Toy" Tamanaha first met Koba. "Toy" was an amateur boxer from Piihonua. So, when Tamanaha and fellow boxers Charley and Rocky Higa (Freddy Higa's cousins) left the Big Island for Honolulu in 1936, Koba dropped out of school, moved with them and worked as a stevedore on the Honolulu docks.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Toy Tamanaha was taken to Queen’s Hospital. He was declared dead; his body was put in the morgue. A morgue attendant heard moaning and searched through the bodies and discovered Tamanaha to be alive. Tamanaha was sent to surgery. He lost two legs and an arm, but survived.
PHOTO: On the left is "Freddy" Masayoshi Higa. On the right is James Koba. The photos were posted by the Journal of Combative Sports at http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth1_1200.htm
RESEARCH NOTE: The best source of information I've found about the CYO boxers is from the Journal of Combative Sports. (http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth1_1200.htm) The bibliography is excellent. There are interviews with relatives of the boxers at the COH, but this article consolidates and cites a bulk of the information that has been published.
0 comments:
Post a Comment