'Aiea, once a plantation town built around the 'Aiea Sugar Mill, is the focus of an oral history project that aims to capture memories of the town's longtime residents.

The Aiea Community Association and others recently began the project, which will collect recorded interviews with residents.

Much of the history of 'Aiea is going to be gone soon "unless we start documenting it," said association president Claire Tamamoto, adding that the community used to be rich in agricultural lands and freshwater springs.

"One of the things we can do to help promote a sense of place for the community is to give it an identity, and part of that identity is its history," she said. "It's important for our community, (which has) now been established for over 100 years, to start looking at things to help document where we came from and what we're all about. ... There is so much to learn from the older people."

'Aiea Public Library branch manager Arlene Ching, the primary interviewer for the project, decided to volunteer her time following the death of longtime community taxi driver Hamilton Kupper late last year.

"His passing as a taxi driver just really signified the end of the way this town was," Ching said. "People who don't know about growing up in 'Aiea wouldn't know that there were these services that served generations of people.

"For me personally, it was 'Gosh, I always meant to meet Hamilton and talk to him,' " she said. When he died, "you realize we really have to do something."

"People have these memories to share."

More than 40,000 people live in the 'Aiea ZIP code area, and about 24 percent of residents are at least 55 years old. Japanese immigrants were the first to settle in the area in 1900 to work at the sugar mill, which was demolished in 1998.

Despite 'Aiea's rich history, the library doesn't have any books that document 'Aiea's past, Ching said. She said the project will involve interviews with people from various ethnic groups and different time periods. She is also taking inventory of school history projects about the community.

Ching and others are beginning to interview some long-time 'Aiea residents, including a woman who attended 'Aiea Elementary School in the 1930s and who learned how to hand-sew kimonos at one of the Japanese temples in the community. Another subject is a woman who knew Alvah Scott, the former Honolulu Plantation Co. manager in 'Aiea and namesake of Alvah Scott Elementary School.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.