Back in the Saddle
Ranch hand, WWII vet Akira Ishikawa will be parade grand marshalBy ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer
Article Photos
Akira Ishikawa remembers horses better than he does some people.
The Maui horseman, whose career earned him the nickname "Jockey," paged through photo albums of his mounts, stopping to admire one of his favorite mares, Alice Bird. But asked to name the young man holding her bridle, he shrugged.
"Some haole boy," he said, turning the page.
Ishikawa, a World War II veteran and professional jockey who also worked as a caretaker for the horses of the Baldwin family, will be the grand marshal in the annual Makawao Paniolo Parade on Saturday, held in conjunction with the Fourth of July Makawao Rodeo.
Ishikawa, who grew up on Ulupalakua Ranch, said his father taught him how to ride a horse.
"I didn't like it, but I had to do it," he said. "After a while, I loved it."
As a teenager, Ishikawa started working for the ranch dairy, then soon moved to the horse stables. When he was 19, he started riding for Harriet Baldwin as a jockey.
"We used to travel island to island," he said. "Hilo to Honolulu, then back to Maui for the County Fair."
Racing horses was dangerous work. Ishikawa recalls one horse falling on a slippery track, and throwing him into the rail. Another time, he was kicked in the head.
"I was out - black," he said.
He also had to work at keeping his weight down. Ishikawa tried to maintain a weight of 112 pounds, sometimes using a steam bath to sweat out those last few ounces.
"Man, you get weak," he said.
But Ishikawa loved the racing scene.
"It was a lot of excitement - and we bet a lot of money!" he recalled.
Longtime friend Moses Medeiros said that in the heat of the race, Ishikawa always kept his cool.
"He was calm - really good with horses," he said.
Working for Harriet "Haku" Baldwin, founder of the Maui Horse Center, gave Ishikawa access to some of the best mounts on the island, Medeiros added.
"He rode good horses," he said. "Beautiful animals, she used to bring in."
During World War II, Ishikawa was drafted into the Army, joining the 100th Infantry Battalion, and served in North Africa, before joining the Allies' advance in Italy at Sorrento.
"War is danger," he recalled. "One push, you get how many guys make (dead)? Oh, terrible."
While cranking the generator for a company radio, Ishikawa was caught in a hail of German shells, earning a Purple Heart for a "shrapnel wound in the butt."
When he was reassigned, his background working with horses got him placed as a mule skinner, delivering supplies up the mountain to troops on the front lines.
"Those days, never had helicopters," he said.
After his tour of duty, Ishikawa returned to Maui and the racing circuit, where he also cared for the string of horses ridden by Maui's polo team, with legendary island polo players including Richard Baldwin, Gordon Von Tempsky and Harold "Oskie" Rice.
"Those days, never had trucks," he said. "So we used to ride the horses from Ulupalakua to the fairgrounds. Ride one, lead one."
Ishikawa continued racing until he was nearly 50 years old.
"I don't know how many races I ran," he said. "So many races - lose and win."
Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com.
