Tai Sing Loo
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Tai Sing Loo (1886 - 1971) was a photographer of Pearl Harbor and many sporting events in Hawaii.
From 1919 to his retirement in 1947 he served as an official Navy photographer. In that capacity, he photographed the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and the battleships, and recorded VIP visits and recreational events. He also photographed for the Interisland Steamship Company and was an accomplished landscape photographer. Some of his well known photographs include many of Duke Kahanamoku, Pearl Harbor before and after the bombing, celebrities and presidential visits to Hawaii. The US Navy honored Tai Sing Loo with a Calendar chronicling his career in 1984. Tai Sing Loo also helped to break the Japanese Codes that were put into false newspaper advertisements that detailed when the attack would occur and the formations of the planes for the attack.
He was married to Florence Loo and had two sons Franklin Ting Fai Loo (1934 - 2002) and Robert Ting Ho Loo and one daughter Evelyn Loo(Lee).
Tai Sing's father was Loo, Sam Choy arrived in Hawaii in the 1880s almost contacted Yellow Fever on the Ship Cassandra. Family came from Kwangtung China, Chung Shan (Koon sheoung Doo Society). Sam Choy Loo was a Gold Leaf Sign Painter. Tai Sing had two brothers Tai Chung, Hoon (Cowboy), three Sisters names not known. Sisters married into the Choy family, Young/Lum family (Broom Factory). One daughter never married as is in a pot at the Pauoa Chinese Cemetery. Parents and Brothers are buried in Manoa Chinese Cemetery. Tai Sing grew up in Honolulu in what is now foster gardens. First listing of family in 1908 Honolulu City Directory and 1910 Census. Tai Sing's Mother used to prey for people at Kwan Yin Temple on Vineyard Blvd and River Street. The only Christian of the Loo family, the others practiced Daoism, and Buddhism and honored Kwan Yin. Tai Sing lived on the mainland in 29 palms. Moved to Manoa Marquis Lane. Tai Sing and Hoon were isolated from the rest of the Loo family due to christianity and his fathers traditional ways. Hoon was disowned from the family because he married a Hawaiian woman.
