1899 –Nov-March 1900 — Bubonic Plague, especially Honolulu, Hawaii — 61

— 61  Kohn. Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence… 2001, p. 137.

— 61  Narr, Isaac. Sep 9, 1902 letter, Honolulu HI, to J. H. Mitchell, Chair, Investigating Com.[1]

 

Narrative Information

Amazon.com description of Mohr’s Plague and Fire:[2] “A little over a century ago, bubonic plague–the same Black Death that decimated medieval Europe–arrived on the shores of Hawaii just as the islands were about to become a U.S. territory. In this absorbing narrative, James Mohr tells the story of that fearful visitation and its fiery climax–a vast conflagration that engulfed Honolulu’s Chinatown.

“Mohr tells this gripping tale largely through the eyes of the people caught up in the disaster, from members of the white elite to Chinese doctors, Japanese businessmen, and Hawaiian reporters. At the heart of the narrative are three American physicians–the Honolulu Board of Health–who became virtual dictators when the government granted them absolute control over the armed forces and the treasury. The doctors soon quarantined Chinatown, where the plague was killing one or two people a day and clearly spreading. They resisted intense pressure from the white community to burn down all of Chinatown at once and instead ordered a careful, controlled burning of buildings where plague victims had died. But a freak wind whipped one of those small fires into a roaring inferno that destroyed everything in its path, consuming roughly thirty-eight acres of densely packed wooden structures in a single afternoon. Some 5000 people lost their homes and all their possessions and were marched in shock to detention camps, where they were confined under armed guard for weeks.

“Next to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Chinatown fire is the worst civic disaster in Hawaiian history. A dramatic account of people struggling in the face of mounting catastrophe, Plague and Fire is a stimulating and thought-provoking read. (Book description on Amazon.com

Cunningham: “In June 1899…plague arrived in Hawaii aboard the merchant ship the Nippon Miru. Though authorities sent the ship to the local quarantine island, the rodents aboard made their way to land. Beginning in September, massive numbers of dead rats turned up, especially around Honolulu’s Chinatown district. Local health authorities declared a local man dead of plague on December 11. Two days later, the newspapers announced the disease had arrived in Hawaii.

“In 1899, Hawaii was a territory of the United States, and a small National Guard unit handled emergencies. Regulations banned travel in and out of Honolulu, and authorities quarantined Chinatown. Guardsmen set up barricades and lines of men around the part of Chinatown under suspicion of harboring infection. The quarantine held in a population that included Chinese, Japanese, and native Hawaiians. Hardship followed for those quarantined. Food ran short. Businesses suffered. Honolulu’s shipping slowed because workers were not available to unlad cargo.

“When plague seemed to disappear, Hawaii’s health officials faced criticism that they had done too much. Chinese and Japanese called the quarantine racist. Businessmen wanted to get back to making money. Officials, faced with pressure, lifted the quarantine.

“Plague resurfaced by the end of the month. The quarantine went back into effect, and the guardsmen returned to keep it in place. Clifford B. Wood, a physician with the Board of Health, soon went public with a new anti-plague strategy. ‘[A]ll wooden buildings in which a case of plague occurs, and all wooden buildings [nearby]…[would be] burned as soon as possible.’

“Those inside Chinatown resented the policy. Some of those outside, however, pushed for even more extreme measures when plague killed Sarah Boardman, a suburban woman. Health officials fought off demands to burn all of Chinatown.

“Wood and his colleagues stuck to their original policy. On January 20, 1900, firefighters began a controlled burn of shacks suspected of harboring plague. The controlled burn became an inferno and fire blazed through Chinatown. Volunteers outside of Chinatown rushed in to help residents evacuate. But a large group of armed men also set up a line to prevent residents from leaving for fear they would spread plague. Chinese leaders and government officials, however, managed to calm the situation. The fire left 6,000 people homeless.” (pp. 87-89)

HawaiiHistory.org: “By 1900, Chinatown – bustling as ever – was jammed with dilapidated and flimsy wooden structures, plagued by poor sanitation, periodic flooding, dense living conditions and rat infestations. Such conditions practically invited an outbreak of bubonic plague. December 12, 1899 You Chong, a bookkeeper for Wing Wo Tai’s business on Nu`uanau Avenue, died of the plague. By the end of December, nine more cases of plague were reported.

“The Board of Health established a quarantine station in Kaka`ako with military guards enforcing victims’ isolation. To clear contaminated areas, the Board set 41 controlled fires, cleaned and disinfected buildings, burned garbage, filled old cesspools and dug new ones.

“On January 20, 1900, another planned fire cleansing was begun at Beretania between Nu`uanu and the old Kaumakapili Church. This time wind gusts spread the fire to the church and from there flames leapfrogged all the way to the wharf. The huge fire burned 17 days, destroying 38 acres and 4,000 homes (mostly Chinese and Japanese). After the disaster was brought under control, the Board of Health successfully set an additional 31 controlled fires. Four months later, Honolulu was deemed plague-free.

“The 1900 fire had a major impact on Chinatown’s demographics. Many Chinese residents, made homeless by the fire, left and settled elsewhere. Most businesses continued to be owned by Chinese, but many business owners did not return to Chinatown as residents.”  (HawaiiHistory.org. Library. “Chinatown fire of 1900.” 2013.)

Kohn: “Hawaiian Plague of 1899-1900 — Epidemic of plague that killed 61 of 71 people infected, beginning with Hawaiian Asians, between November 1899 and March 1900, as part of the third plague pandemic reaching toward the New World…

“In November 1899, two ships from Hong Kong carried bubonic plague victims into Honolulu. One of the ships, the S.S. Nippon Maru, arrived with two human corpses and rats infected with plague. Hawaii first discovered it had plague when a Dr. George Herbert treated the first fatally ill patient in December; shortly thereafter, four Chinese (three clinically diagnosed) died of the disease. Because the plague first took root among Hawaiian orientals, Honolulu/s Chinatown was quarantined and searched for more plague victims. Despite the lifting of the quarantine and pronouncements that the plague was gone, the disease persisted, killing 36 of 44 patients within the next month….

“The epidemic continued to rage in Hawaii in 1900, despite a major fire in Honolulu that the destroyed the homes and possessions of many Chinese; the fire began when the fire department’s burning of a plague-contaminated house went out of control in Chinatown. More than 5,000 people were left homeless and without possessions. Rats were thought to be plague carriers, which was evidenced in folklore among oriental Hawaiians, and burning houses was thought to kill them. As new cases appeared regularly in Oahu and later in the other Hawaiian islands, Asians were the first victims. Ships brought the plague infection again and again to the islands.”[3] (pp. 137-138)

Naar letter: “During the week ending the 16^th day of December, 1899, a case diagnosed as bubonic plague was discovered in this city, and was followed by 70 other cases of a similar character. The last case was received at the detention hospitals in the latter portion of March, 1900, and in all 61 of the unfortunates died….The bubonic plague afflicted only 18 natives and 7 whites, while 46 Mongolians felt its terrific grasp.” (Letter of Isaac Naar to Hon. J. H. Mitchell, Chairman of Senatorial Investigating Committee of Honolulu, Hawaii, September 9, 1902, Honolulu, Hawaii, pp. 188-189 in U.S. Congress, Senate.)

 

Sources

Cunningham, Kevin. The Bubonic Plague. Edina, MN: ABDO Publishing Co., 2011. Google digital preview accessed 9-12-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=qhZ6AgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

HawaiiHistory.org. Library. “Chinatown fire of 1900.” 2013. Accessed 1-19-2013 at: http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=548&returntoname=year%201900&returntopageid=184

Kohn, George Childs (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence From Ancient Times to the Present (Revised Edition). NY: Checkmark Books, 2001.

United States Congress, Senate Committee on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico. “Bubonic Plague,” Beginning at page 188 in Hawaiian Investigation Part 3: Exhibits, Memorials, Petitions, and Letters Presented to the Subcommittee on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1903. Google digitized. Accessed 9-12-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=DrDvFQD4FqEC&dq=bubonic+plague+hawaii+1899&q=plague#v=onepage&q=plague&f=true

 

[1] Mr. Mitchell was Chairman of Senatorial Investigating Committee of Honolulu Hawaii, in U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico, GPO, 1903.

[2] Mohr, James C. Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu’s Chinatown. NY: Oxford University Press, 2005.

[3] Suggests further reading: Ackerknecht, History and Geography of the Most Important Diseases; Gregg, Plague: An Ancient Disease in the Twentieth Century.