Item Detail
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31188
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2
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0
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English
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A Vow Remembered : Lawrence Judd and His Pledge to Kalaupapa
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The Hawaiian Journal of History
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2016
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50
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Honolulu, Hawai'i
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University of Hawai'i Press
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1-31
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"LAWRENCE RACED DOWN Nu'uanu Avenue on his bike, eager to gawk at the newly arrived U.S. Navy transport ships at the Honolulu harbor. Other activities involving celebrations, parades or royal visits had reached this waterfront in times past, but this was a different scene. As he slowly coasted closer to the pier he saw a crowd of Hawaiians of varying ages, mostly barefooted, was huddled behind an odd white picket fence awkwardly erected on the platform above the gangplank, intended to keep a separation between loved ones. Some of the people clung to the fence as they wept and howled. A young girl, cheeks glistening from tears, looked up and met the eyes of Lawrence. He felt her pain and searched for an explanation. Lawrence rode to a uniformed man to ask what was happening and who these unfortunate people were. The man explained that the bereaved souls were family and loved ones of victims of leprosy who were being transported now to the Kalaupapa settlement. A large carriage van arrived, and a health department officer led the patients out and onto the platform to say their last goodbyes to their families, who stood on the other side of the whitewashed fence. The wails and cries accelerated. All were careful not to draw near each other or touch. Brief tearful exchanges were made while health officials unloaded the patients' meager belongings from the van and placed them onto the cattle boat. Lawrence watched intently as the sorrowful procession of passengers walked slowly down the gangplank and found a place on the unpretentious, dirty inter-island cattle boat. Young and old waved their last farewells as they sailed toward their new lives of uncertainty and loneliness. It was, at once, an unforgettable moment frozen in time, burned into the psyche of an impressionable young man. The scene of misfortune and heartache witnessed that day fashioned a rudder by which Lawrence would steer the rest of his life. Imaginations of becoming a celebrated naval captain dissolved, and a new vow took root in his heart. Somehow, some time, he would help these people of Kalaupapa. " [Author]