Historically, ʻAiea was an ahupuaʻa, or area of land ruled by chief or king and managed by the members of the ʻaliʻi "ʻAiea" was originally the name of an ahupuaʻa, or Hawaiian land division. The name was derived from a species of plant in the nightshade family, Nothocestrum latifolium. It stretched from ʻAiea Bay into the mountains to the north. At the end of the 19th century, a sugarcane 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 sugarcane fields. In the years since then, Aiea has grown into an important suburb of Honolulu.