A historic cemetery in Ninole was vandalized this week, with more than 40 decades-old gravestones overturned and broken.
Robert Nishimoto, a member of the Honohina Hongwanji in Ninole, said that between Sunday and Tuesday, 45 of the hongwanji cemetery’s 142 headstones were pushed off their pedestals, with two of them broken irreparably.
“It looks like someone just went straight down a row and pushed them all over,” Nishimoto said.
Nishimoto had last seen the cemetery undamaged on Sunday. However, on Tuesday, a fellow church member discovered the damage.
No other damage or vandalism has been discovered so far, Nishimoto said.
Most of the headstones can be repaired, as they were simply not fastened to their pedestals and tipped over. But the two that were broken represent a lost piece of dwindling Hamakua history, Nishimoto said.
The first burial in the cemetery took place in 1899, with the most recent occurring in 1954, Nishimoto said. Members of the hongwanji, including Nishimoto, regularly maintain the site, which also served as the hongwanji’s monthly service site during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s not much left of this history around here,” Nishimoto said.
Since the Hamakua sugar industry began to wane in the 1960s, Buddhist temples along the coast have gradually closed down. The actual Hinohina temple closed down in 1969, and the hongwanji moved to a plantation home that, as of January, also serves as the home of the Papaaloa Hongwanji.
Hamakua police Capt. Reynold Kahalewai said this is the first such vandalism incident he has heard about in his more than two decades of service.
“There’s not much traffic there, so we’re hopeful that somebody might have noticed something,” Kahalewai said, adding that, so far, nobody has reported any suspicious activity in the area between Sunday and Tuesday.
Kahalewai said that although the headstones can weigh hundreds of pounds, they could feasibly be knocked over by a single person, and that because of the remoteness of the area, the perpetrator or perpetrators likely drove there.
“I don’t want to guess about their motives,” Nishimoto said. “But around here, people keep to themselves and don’t ask questions, so nobody’s said anything.”
Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact Officer L. Watkins at 965-2716.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.