Morning at Manoa Chinese Cemetery

Moses Kealamakia, his wife Lesley and I spent Saturday morning (April 25) up at the Manoa Chinese Cemetery looking for the grave site of his great-grandfather Yim Yau On. My friend remembered being at the grave site back in the 1970s and early 1990s with his Dad. Years have passed and he has forgotten where the grave is.

Yesterday's excursion to the cemetery was like looking for the proverbial "needle in the haystack." There are thousands of grave sites at this place, many of them with worn and flattened headstone markers. The type and information on many of these have simply faded away and vanished with time. This makes it difficult for people to find their loved ones and ancestors.

While we spotted a small number of Yim grave sites, we did not find the marker for Yau On, nor his wife. After about 2 hours there we went to the cemetery's office to see if they had information on where the sites were. Unfortunately the office was closed. Moses and his wife who flew in from the Big Island of Hawaii on other business will have to try another time.

Manoa Chinese Cemetery is the largest Chinese cemetery on Oahu and possibly the state. The view of the surrounding mountains and valley in Manoa are quite spectacular. Look for yourself by clicking on the big arrow to activate the slideshow in the graphic at the top.