<Begin Segment 3>

MA: So, Larry, you went to Japanese language school for nine years?

LK: Nine years.

MA: Was the school near your house?

LK: Well, yeah, language school is near from my place, but from English school to grade, language school is three miles. So that's what helped me when I went in the service, because every day from grade school to language school, I run on the, they used to have a railroad track. Now, the railroad track, we used to pace my running. Then to strengthen up my legs, I run in the beach. It's all sand now, soft sand, it sinks. It's not solid sand, it sinks. Anyway, so all the time I was... what do you call it, going to graduate language school -- not only that now -- from the language school to home, there's a park, a baseball park. But now, in that baseball park, it's a horse track. The horse runs around one, one mile. So that I used run, twelve miles a night. Five o'clock.

MA: How long would it take you to run the twelve miles?

LK: I don't know. But anyway -- [laughs] -- it wasn't too long. Anyway, every night, I used to run twelve miles. And then, if I make the twelve miles, I'll go home. Now, to top off that, Dad was raising chickens, okay. So we all had our projects when we were kids. Me, I was chicken. See, my next brother used to have a rabbit, next one had a goldfish, and next one had a pig, a duck, and geese. So we always had -- and then my youngest one used to mow the lawn, so we always had a project. So my major project was chicken, and my minor project was sugar cane. So then when that was under the FFA.

MA: What did you have to do with the chickens?

LK: Huh?

MA: What did you have to do with the chickens?

LK: Sell the eggs. So now, that's how I got strong, because chicken feed weighs hundred pound. And imagine that, I used to carry one here, one here, that's two hundred pound on my shoulders. And I can't believe it. [Laughs] So then I had a friend, he's a professional, and he's a weightlifter. And you know, he can -- I think fertilizer weigh 120 pounds, he used to carry that thing over the, you know that, what do you call, boxcar on the train? He carried it over the boxcar. Amazing. And you know that nail, spike? He'd pound that with his hands. Amazing. And you know telephone book? He's just tear 'em apart. So he and I, we used to be nice, I mean, good friend, and so... that's the life, yeah.

MA: So it sounds like you got pretty strong from carrying the, the bags.

LK: Yeah. So when I went in the service, that all helped me. I was surprised that a lot of people couldn't carry the duffel bag. And my daughter carried the duffel bag. She's only four-feet-eight. Four-feet-eight, and she'd carry the duffel bag. And then she trained, what you call, obstacle course and stuff, same as the soldiers. So I can't, I wasn't surprised. Even my wife is four-feet-five, and she used to carry two shopping bags. [Laughs] So I don't know. I guess, amazing family. [Laughs]

MA: Larry, you said you also worked with sugar cane?

LK: Yeah.

MA: What did you do with the sugar cane?

LK: Well, we used to call that... well, we used to weed it, you know. So yeah, we used to hoe, they used to, they called it "hoe hana." Anyway, we had so many rows to complete, and see now, Hawaii is so hot, so everybody wanted to get home before two o'clock, so we always help each other out. Weed all the bad grass, so we can go home early. Otherwise, you know, that sugar cane leaf now, that's, cut your arm. So if we, if the sun hits you, I mean, it hurts. It hurts. So we always help all the slowpokes, you know. And amazingly, the mule is a stubborn thing, isn't it? But when it comes to going home, he know when to go home. Now, if they say two o'clock, he go home two o'clock.

MA: And this was on the plantation, the sugar cane plantation?

LK: Yeah. Yeah, that's another -- in the country, at least. So Dad used to take us, what do you call, to the plantation, so...

MA: Were the workers on the plantation all Japanese people?

LK: No, we got Filipinos, Chinese, no, all, oh, we used to have a lot of kids. Well, actually, it's a school project. That school is... yeah, all the schoolkids help each other out. This is what you call combination, that project is all combined about getting a job down. See, because if you're slow, I mean, they're slow one. So we always help the slow ones, you know. So every one of them go home a certain time, and that's what we do; we always help somebody out, so we go home let's say about eleven o'clock. See, now, we work, work about five o'clock in the morning. Actually, we're not supposed to, we work six o'clock, but we work five o'clock in the morning so we can go home early. So we all agreed that we want to go home early, so we worked early, and nobody grumbled about it.

MA: How long were your, you worked from five in the morning until when?

LK: Huh?

MA: You worked from five in the morning until what time?

LK: Eleven o'clock.

MA: Eleven? And then did you go to school after that?

LK: Yeah. But that is, all the plantation is during the summertime, you know, when school is out. Yeah. We never worked school days, always -- not only that, yeah, that's right. Like Saturday and Sunday, yeah, when school is out, we work.

MA: I see. So in the summertime, you worked on the plantation.

LK: Then, yeah, when we get that school vacation, yeah. That's when we'd, actually worked when the... school vacation.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.