PLAGUE and FIRE

Battling Black Death and the

1900 burning of Honolulu’s Chinatown

James C. Mohr

OXFORD

University Press

2005

Copyright 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

Hardbound, New, 235 pages includes CONTENTS, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, PROLOGUE, NOTES and INDEX, measures approximately 6 ¼" x 9 ½.

The jacket displays the artwork of a painting that is a part of the Hawaii State Archives. The price is intact on the inner flap and it has been placed in an Archival Quality clear Mylar jacket cover to prevent future wear.

The exterior is covered quarter-board fashion with green paper to the surfaces and red cloth to the spine. Titles are blind stamped in gold on the spine only. Both in and out this book is free of wear or indications of use.

"A little over a century ago, bubonic plague—the same Black Death that decimated medieval Europe—arrived on the shores of Hawaii just as the islands were about to become a U.S. territory. In this absorbing narrative, James Mohr tells the store of that fearful visitation and its fiery climax—a vast conflagration that engulfed Honolulu’s Chinatown."

"Mohr tells this gripping tale largely through the eyes of the people caught up in the disaster, from members of the white elite tp Chinese doctors, Japanese businessmen, and Hawaiian reporters. At the heart of the narrative are three American Physicians—the Honolulu Board of Health—who became virtual dictators when the government granted them absolute control over the armed forces and treasury. The doctors soon quarantined Chinatown, where the plague was killing one or two people a day and clearly spreading. They resisted intense pressure from the White community to burn down all of Chinatown at once and instead ordered a careful, controlled burning of buildings where plague victims had died. But a freak wind whipped one of those small fires into a roaring inferno that destroyed everything in its path, consuming roughly thirty-eight acres of densely packed wooden structures in a single afternoon. Some 5000 people lost their homes and all their possessions and were marched in shock to detention camps, where they were confined under armed guard for weeks." - Oxford University Press

The presence of the bubonic plague and the complete burning of Chinatown is an event little know by most Hawaii residents of today, even most visitors to modern Chinatown are unaware. The author presents a limited number of photos that stand as visual record plus an in-depth text of this disaster than occurred right in downtown Honolulu.

Truly a well done documentation, PLAGUE and FIRE presents a fascinating story of particular interest to Honolulu residents and a certainly should be included in any historic Hawaiian collection. USPS Priority Mail Delivery, securely packed to prevent shipping damage, Insurance Recommended, USPS International Priority Mail Delivery in the economical Flat Rate Packet to 180 countries worldwide. Flat Rate Boxes available for large orders or Standard International Priority shipping rates by the pound/kilo. Standard GE tax applicable on sales to all residents of the State of Hawaii.

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