Place Information
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Aiea is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Honolulu County, . As of the 2000 Census, the CDP had a total population of 9,019. At 41.41% of residents reporting the ancestry, Aiea contains the largest concentration of persons of Japanese heritage in the United States. Some residents of Aiea claim that their town is the only town in the world spelled entirely with vowels. This claim may or may not be valid, depending on whether or not one regards the to be part of the name "Aiea". Because the okina is considered a consonant in the Hawaiian language, this claim is technically incorrect. However, when people outside of Hawaii speak of Aiea, the okina is typically omitted. In this context, the claim that Aiea is spelled only with vowels is true. However, there are many other towns in the world spelled with only vowels, including but not limited to Ea, Spain and Aue in Germany, several towns in Norway and Sweden named Å, and a village, forest and valley in Scotland called Ae. There is also a village named Y in France. The U.S. postal code for Aiea is 96701. History
Aiea was originally the name of an , or Hawaiian land division. It stretched from Aiea Bay (part of Pearl Harbor) into the mountains to the north. At the end of the 19th century, a sugar cane plantation was opened in the district by the Honolulu Plantation Company. As Aiea has several miles of shoreline on Pearl Harbor, the focus of the 7 December 1941 attack by the Japanese on military installations there greatly impacted the town. For example, one damaged ship, the USS Vestal, beached at Aiea Bay to prevent sinking. Many photographers photographed the battle from the hills in Aiea. After World War II the plantation shut down and the mill was converted into a sugar refinery. Meanwhile, developers started extending the town into the surrounding former sugar cane fields. In the years since then, Aiea has grown into an important suburb of Honolulu. The town's sugar history came to a close in 1996, when C&H Sugar closed the refinery. Then in 1998, the 99-year old sugar mill was torn down by the owners, amid protests from town residents and the County government. Research Tips
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