That meant that every second wave was in phase with the motion of Hilo Bay so that the sloshing of the bay built up. I assume here you are asking if a seiche generated by seismic waves could counteract any tsunami generated by the earthquake. The first reason is timing. Any seiche excited by earthquake waves will have died down before the tsunami arrives. The second reason is frequency of oscillation.
Tsunamis tend to have periods of five minutes to as much as an hour.
The word was introduced to science by the Swiss seismologist F.A. Forel in 1890. The word had apparently long been used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland to describe oscillations in alpine lakes.