Hanzawa’s family ties end

HAIKU – After 95 years, Hanzawa family members will give up operating their famous community store on Nov. 24.

Hanzawa’s Variety Store will not close. Neighbors Dana and Sue Klingman and Dana’s sister, Mollie, will reopen the store Dec. 1.

The store was started by Taichiro Hanzawa in 1915.

On Thursday, Sandy Daniells, granddaughter of Taichiro Hanzawa’s brother, Tetsuji, said she was having a hard time thinking of life without the store. She had intended to stay.

But five years of frustration trying to rezone the store and realign it for changing times had driven her and her husband, Matt, to the decision to lease the store.

Also, Matt’s parents and her mother are elderly, and they will be taking care of them. Sandy Daniells was a nurse before coming home from Oahu to take over the store when her uncle, Ralph Hanzawa, died in 1988.

“I really wish we had gotten the support we needed when we needed it,” she said.