Mike Foley | University Advancement | 29 March 2005

Members of the Mormon Pacific Historical
Society met March 25 to hear a David O. McKay biographer report on
his 1920-21 world tour of missions, a BYUH alumna's paper on why Mormon
missionaries were so successful among New Zealand Maori, some new information
on whether there was an attempt to bomb the Hawaii Temple on December
7, 1941, and reminiscences of Laie during World War II.

Before the reports, Vice President of Academics Keith Roberts welcomed the
MPHS members, who convened on campus as part of BYU-Hawaii's 50th anniversary
Golden Jubilee celebration. "We're really happy to have you here," he
said. "BYU-Hawaii has been a supporter of this organization since its
inception [in 1980]. We think it's unique, because it's an organization that
has academics and regular rank-and-file members who are interested in Church
history in the Pacific."

Dr. Mary Jane Woodger, an associate professor of history at BYU in Provo,
delivered the keynote address entitled David O. McKay's World Tour: A
Fulfillment of Promises. She explained that Church President Heber J.
Grant asked Elder McKay, a member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since
1906, to undertake the trip, which was originally supposed to take about
three months. He ended up taking a little over a year to cover 62,000 miles,
in Asia and the Pacific visiting Japan, China, Australia, Java, Singapore,
India, New Zealand, Tahiti, Rarotonga, Samoa and, of course, Hawaii where
on February 7, 1921 he observed the children at the mission school in Laie
raising the U.S. flag.

"He found that each culture possessed unique characteristics," she
said. "In Japan he found courtesy and consideration, in China wonder
and inspiration, and above all, he found the Polynesian people had a depth
of love he had never before experienced."

In what Woodger described as the "climactic experience of his tour" in
Apia, British Samoa, Elder McKay in a dream saw a "white city," a "great
concourse of people approaching the city" led by the Savior, Jesus Christ.
The Savior impressed upon McKay that the people were "they who have
overcome the world and truly been born again."

"Receiving that vision changed David O. McKay's life forever," she
said. "Likewise, the world tour created an indelible impression... He
encouraged the Church to establish schools, temples and stakes of Zion in
the South Seas; however he would not be able to fully act on those for almost
30 years," Woodger said.

For example, soon after he became President of the Church in 1951, President
McKay launched the labor missionary program in the Pacific, authorized schools
to be built, dedicated the New Zealand Temple in 1958 and almost immediately
after established the Auckland Stake — the first international stake
beyond North America [the Oahu Stake, organized in 1935, was the first outside
the U.S. and Canada].

"Subsequently, President McKay's efforts as a prophet, seer and revelator
continued to bless thousands of Latter-day Saints in the Pacific," Woodger
said.

Next, recent BYU-Hawaii graduate Lindsey Yamauchi Leeworthy presented her
paper, Descendants of Israel: Intimate Interactions Between the New Zealand
Maori and the Early Mormon Missionaries. In it she pointed out that the
missionaries' practice of living among the people and speaking their language
and similarities between parts of the Book of Mormon and some of their
own traditions — coupled with dissatisfaction with Christian groups
and a series of Maori prophecies — led to tremendous growth for the
Church.

She concluded there was a connection between "the missionaries living
and becoming active participants within the community and the appreciation
and love of the Maori people."

Dr. P. Alfred Pratte, the retired BYU communications professor who has been
editing the 50-year history of BYU-Hawaii, turned up new evidence in support
of a story some people feel is an "unverified miracle":

Briefly, the story goes that the late Robert Kahawaii, a Laie resident, saw
a Japanese dive-bomber try to attack the Hawaii Temple on Pearl Harbor Day,
December 7, 1941. Sixteen years later, a Japanese man tracted out by missionaries
in Matsumoto City, Japan, got very excited when an Elder Stout showed him
a picture of the Temple, and then told how he was the pilot that morning.
Having one bomb left, he attempted several times to drop it on the obviously
important building, but was unable to release the bomb. Next he tried to
strafe the temple, but his guns wouldn't fire. He even thought of crashing
into the building, but his controls wouldn't work. Flying back out to sea,
he successfully tested his guns, so he made one more
pass . . . but just as before, nothing would work. He ended up dumping his bomb in
the ocean in shame and returned to his aircraft carrier.

Space here does not allow a detailed discussion, but MPHS co-founders Drs.
Ken Baldridge and the late Lance Chase each wrote papers on the purported
incident, basically questioning whether it really happened for a variety
of reasons, but they also left the door open for further research.

Enter Pratte, who found several new pieces of evidence bearing on the story
while researching — but not related to — the BYU-Hawaii history:

Namely, additional witnesses in Laie have since been identified; and a "significant
portion" of the reaction from Elder Stout's mission president, Kaneohe
resident Paul Andrus, was inadvertently edited out of the published papers,
giving the impression he didn't believe Stout. "The fact was just the
opposite," Andrus told Pratte.

"He [Andrus] fervently believed the attack occurred and he has so believed
since he read Stout's journal in 1983," Pratte continued. Andrus also
believed the account told by Kahawaii who, "in later years, was saddened
that something he believed in and had held so privately was not taken seriously."

a Japanese airplane on December 7, '41, in no way detracts from its sacred
purposes. Rather, it emphasizes the importance of the work being done there.
Moreover, this account in no way effects the validity of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints one way or the other," Pratte concluded. "To
dismiss the account...as a myth or folklore is probably a rush to judgment.
It is premature, excessive and undeserved."

 

In the final presentation of the MPHS conference, "Uncle" Joe and "Aunt" Gladys
Ahuna "talked story" about growing up in Laie during World War
II. She told how because her father was the local telephone supervisor with
a fenced-in yard to secure equipment, the Army took over their back yard
as a command post "within 24 hours" of the Pearl Harbor attack.

Later, she said the command post moved to Poohaili but a barracks remained
in the back yard, and every time the guard changed they would challenge the
girl who wanted to get in after school.

"Uncle" Joe explained he was in Honolulu for a family birthday party
on December 7, "and ran into the street to see what was happening. We
could see the fright in everybody's face," he said, adding he could
also "see the black smoke and planes in the distance."

Ahuna said, however, it wasn't all bad: "All through the second World
War a lot of us local people made a good life and living for ourselves. My
father had 2,000 pigs we raised and sold to the soldiers. Our feed came right
from the military camps. A lot of people were employed and made good money
during the war."