What it is changed from the cloth to the pattern and with the Issei (original Japanese) it meant exactly a woven checkered pattern of dark blue and white like their summer kata’s were made of back home.
Palaka’s definition is an ever changing one and that gives it a home in many Hawaiian’s hearts, but the conotations of what palaka is and means are ever changing.
The pre-Hawaii Years
According to research by Alfons Korn, a retired UH English Professor, palaka dates back to the time of King Kamehameha the great, when explorers were infrequent visitors to Hawaiian shores. The pattern made it’s way in the late 1900’s when Americans ordered tons of checkered-patterned thick cloth from England to make the uniforms for the field workers. Originally a pattern type in England for the sailors, it was seen as plain and therefore cheap. The cloth of Nelson’s navy and Yankeedom’s clipper wasn’t known by any name until the Hawaiians and Issei (first generation Japanese immigrants) named it after the Hawaiian work for ‘frock’ which was also a mistranslation for “checkered.” Interestingly, the sailors decendents moved to New England and a popular style of furnishing cover can be found in much of the local upholstery.Peter Youn Kaeo (1836 – 1980), an inmate of the leprosy settlement at Kalapapa, reported in a letter to his cousin Queen Emma, dated November 4, 1873, that he recently visited the settlement store and there bought several yards of cotton twill “to make me some frocks palaka” this is the first known use of the word palaka to describe the style of clothing: Short cuts with no tail and meant to be worn outside of the pants.
Remember that at this time, people were still wearing top hats, so imagine how laid back Hawaii seemed when you had no intention of even tucking in your shirt. The workers began to wear the cloth knowing that it was a white people invention, however unaware of how that would soon change.
The plantation years (1885 – 1941)
At one point, Hope, in his book, estimates that nearly every single man, woman and child in Hawaii wore and had a piece of palaka clothing. It’s hard to imagine because today the closest thing to that saturation-level is the surf shirt. However, the surf shirt is made by many different brands with multiple colors and cuts. In that sense, we are just talking about surfer themed T-shirts, but with palaka, everyone had one and they were all the same color.
A young man by the name of Zempan Arakawa, saw a need for the workers to find cheaper and faster pieces of clothing. He saved up $5 to buy a sewing machine and began to make different styles of cloth. His store began making a majority of the long sleeve work shirts out of their Waipahu store.
According to the 1932 Industries in Hawaii survey, palakas, “have their place in the wordrobe of every islander. — Boys and girls wear them to school, to play, to football games, to parties, the younger set war them to house parties, to coctail parties and beach parties; and one of Hawaii’s most charming matrons, going to the mountains on her honeymoon, wore a palaka with riding breeches and boots as a going-away costume at her wedding.
Palaka began to dip into popularity with the advent of the Hawaiian shirt by Musa-Shiya Shoten Limited, on South King Street which began advertising the “radiant” colors and freedom of the aloha shirt.
This is also when the largest and most well-respected mass-producer of palaka clothing emerged. Goro Arakawa was just a baby when he remembers people in the village begging for the repairs and custom palaka clothing from the end of the Arakawa’s family sewing machine. Up until its closing in 1995, Arakawa sold thousands of palaka clothing and mainstreamed the use of different colors. It is for this reason that he is both reviled and respected in the Hawaiian community.
Margaret S. Young in an open letter to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1980, remembered when everyone she knew wore a long-sleeve, dark blue and white palaka shirt. “We wore them, long sleeves and all, for picnics and hikes.” she said
The Silver Screen years (1945 – 1960)
There was a time when palaka was as in demand as the aloha shirt to tourists. According to a transcription by Bob Ebert, a photographer who took pictures of the Hawaiian clothing styles over the years, for a time palaka’s authenticity was just as appealing as the bright and color saturated aloha shirt.
“I don’t know what they called’em, was part of the uniform and the aloha shirt, every tourist that has ever come to Hawaii usually ends up with a shirt or wore one.”
According to Alfons L. Korn a researcher for the book, “Hawaiian Shirts: frock, shmock-frock, block and palaka,” palaka was already riding its second surge of popularity in 1950. palaka was thought of as a standard piece of clothing and patterning too closely associated with field work for the younger Hawaiians; and the popularity of the aloha shirt in Hawaii in 1930, meant that after hours, workers would change into their aloha attire instead of a palaka-styled cloth. While in the fields, palaka was being rejected in favor of overalls and jeans since it kept workes more protected. But, palaka would become popular once again after it became associated with one of our nations biggest tragedies.
Pearl Harbor brought a greater focus on Hawaii from Hollywood. Moonlight in Hawaii (1941) or Hawaii Calls (1938) were just a few examples of movies that were made to captialize on Hawaii-mania. There were movies that capitalized on the war (“From Here to Eternity”), musicals (“Blue Hawaii”),. and multiple movies that encouraged people to, “go Hawaiian” just like Gidget (“Gidget goes Hawaiian”).
With these movies, Hawaii began to move away from being culturally represented and move closer into the realm of fantasy. The wave began in 1938 when the first photo of a man wearing an aloha shirt was photographed for Pardise of the Pacific. Soon after, movie stars began to wear the fad. By 1940, officials of the Territorial and City and County governments were allowing their employees to wear aloha shirts, at least in warm weather. These would be one of the first death-nails into palaka’s reign as the official shirt of the Hawaiian kingdom. It’s appeal was beginning to be eclipsed by the aloha shirts appeal to both tourist and locals both due to its fresh style as well as rayon being cooler than the thick draping of cotton from palaka.
by hawaiipalaka | Read more:
Image: uncredited
[ed. I grew up next to the canefields in Waipahu, and we did all our shopping at Arakawa's. The best word I can use to describe the store is "overstuffed". It was fun going there and just looking for treasures under all the piled goods (you had to really do some digging). I don't remember palaka being anything special, it was just what everyone wore in the fields back then.]
[ed. I grew up next to the canefields in Waipahu, and we did all our shopping at Arakawa's. The best word I can use to describe the store is "overstuffed". It was fun going there and just looking for treasures under all the piled goods (you had to really do some digging). I don't remember palaka being anything special, it was just what everyone wore in the fields back then.]
