When the landmark memoir Sugar Town was first released in 1995, it was hailed as the quintessential book of record of a Hawai‘i plantation community—a loving retrospective of the days when cane was king. Set amid the billowing canefields of the Big Island’s Hilo
Coast, Sugar Town is the heartfelt, carefully detailed memoir of the late Yasushi “Scotch” Kurisu, who lived the plantation life for more than seven decades—including 45 years’ service with three sugar plantations—from cutting cane to sitting on the board of directors.
Now Watermark Publishing has reintroduced this long out-of-print volume to a new generation of readers, as a timeless reminder of the lessons learned and the values forged by Hawai‘i’s plantation communities. “We started by planting the seeds for a cash crop,” Kurisu writes in Sugar Town, “and ended up putting down roots for an entire culture. We worked hard, played fair, and built a future for our children and grandchildren.”
Against a backdrop of bustling mills and tidy plantation camps, Sugar Town: Hawai‘i’s Plantation Days Remembered is an overview of plantation life told through rich personal anecdotes and archival photographs, a story that helps preserve the unique spirit of this
bygone era.
Yasushi “Scotch” Kurisu was a lifelong resident of the Hilo Coast in the sugar towns of ailea, Hakalau and Pepe‘ekeo. He retired from the Hilo Coast Processing Co. as a machinist journeyman and later farmed his own 26 acres as an independent grower. He was also an officer or director of Hilo Coast Processing, the United Cane Planters Cooperative, the Honomu Hongwanji Mission, the Hawai‘i Island ILWU, the State Environmental Council and many other community organizations.