Nagasako family serving Lahaina for more than 120 years comes together once again to serve up aloha
By Kristen Consillio
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HAWAII (KITV) — One by one, Nagasako family members carefully rolled each SPAM musubi just like they’ve done for decades.
And one by one, keiki lined up for their favorite comfort food — made with aloha.
“It’s just unbelievable how people took to those little SPAM musubis,” said Karen Nagasako, whose family runs the Nagasako General Store and Okazu-Ya Deli. “To see the joy in their face this weekend was very humbling.”
For the first time since the devastating Lahaina fires, the Nagasako family gathered together to make 700 musubi, handing them out to community members, including first responders who helped save lives that fateful day.
“Everybody was so happy to be there to do this for our community,” she said. “We appreciate the support and everywhere we’ve gone the most popular thing they would say is we miss our musubis.”
And for their grieving friends and family — “they just came up and hugged the family and thanked the family over and over.”
“It was the only place they really had left that belong to the locals,” she added.
Along with thousands of others, the Lahaina fires burnt down their Nagasako General Store and Okazu-Ya Deli. They also lost generational homes for more than two dozen family members.
That left the Nagasakos with a heart-wrenching decision: their Nagasako store would not rise from the ashes.
“We miss our town. To drive back is very emotional because we see the devastation,” Nagasako said. “But our commitment to rebuild is very strong.”
And seeing the hope in the little eyes of the next generation brings strength and light in these dark times.
“This is the consensus of the local population, ‘We’re not going to give up,’ so they’re going to continue to ask please reopen so they have something to hang on to from the past,” she said. “And so you just never know.”
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