HILO — Yoshito Takamine, a longtime Hawaii Island labor and political leader, died Oct. 27 at his Honokaa home. He was 89.
The eldest son in a family of 14 children raised by a plantation worker and his picture bride, both from Okinawa, Takamine went to work for the former Honokaa Sugar Co. after his 1944 graduation from Honokaa High School. He became a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and later a business agent for the ILWU in 1950. He was a union division director when he retired in 1986.
Takamine was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1958, when Hawaii was still a territory, retiring in 1984. His son, Dwight, then won election to the seat and held it until 2009.
“Working hard was one character trait he taught us by example,” Dwight Takamine said Wednesday. “His sense of the community and what we receive from the community, his life was about giving back to the community.
State Rep. Mark Nakashima, who now represents District 1, which stretches from Hamakua to Hilo, said the elder Takamine “was a very serious person” about legislative issues.
“He was very much supportive of agriculture, especially in the Hamakua area, and did a lot to ensure that agriculture remained a mainstay on Hawaii Island,” Nakashima said.
Nakashima said Yoshito Takamine’s ability to secure projects for his district touched his family personally.
“We lived in the middle of a cane field in Kalopa,” he recalled. “There’s a small paved road that goes down there, and I remember my grandmother telling me, from a very young age, that Yoshito was responsible for getting that road done for (his family). There are so many stories like that, where Yoshito was able to provide resources for the residents living in the Hamakua area. I think a lot of his legacy is the resources that we enjoy in Hamakua and along the Hilo coast that speak of his ability to provide for his constituents.”
As longtime chairman of the House Labor Committee, Yoshito Takamine helped to push bills through the Legislature that would protect and advance the interests of Hawaii’s working people, including the state’s worker’s compensation law, temporary disability insurance law and collective bargaining law, which gave government workers the right to organize.
He also was instrumental in the creation and enactment of the landmark Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act in 1974, making Hawaii the first state in the nation to set minimum standards of health care benefits for workers.
“I think my father was about people and it was about working together to improve the quality of life for everyone,” Dwight Takamine said.
Yoshito Takamine is also survived by his wife, Kimiko. Other survivors and funeral information can be found in today’s obituary section.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.