<Begin Segment 16>

TI: So we had just finished your time in Japan where you felt like the Japanese military men were following you. And so you decided to go back to the United States. So let's pick up the story there. So from Japan, where did you go?

KK: Well, we had to go on the boat. And when I went to buy the ticket, the man, I said, "Well, I need to go and stop over in Hilo." And he said, well, they have a boat that goes to Hilo on the way to South America. But he didn't say that they never had any passengers. So he sold me a ticket to go to Hilo, which meant that I would go to Honolulu and stay on the boat, stay overnight, and get off at Hilo. Well, it turns out that soon after I bought my ticket, somebody else from Hilo wanted to go to Hilo. So he sold that girl a ticket to do the same thing. So we were the first two passengers to ever take that boat to South America.

TI: Well, first, I mean, from Japan to Hilo, and then from Hilo to South America?

KK: Yeah. Well, it went through Honolulu, stayed overnight -- [clears throat] -- stayed overnight, and the next morning, we were in Hilo.

TI: But you were able to get off at Hilo.

KK: Yeah. Well, then when we got to Honolulu, they looked at my passport, and the man said that, "Oh, this is no good." I said, "Why?" And I had to have a birth certificate to get the passport. So when I had left San Francisco, I had said, "Well, then I don't need to carry birth certificate, do I?" And he said, "No, you put that in your safe deposit box and leave it in California. So that's what I did. But when I got to Honolulu then, on the return trip, he said, "Well, that's no good." He said that somebody had made a lot of bogus passports and sold them that year to somebody else. So they were cancelling out, or being suspicious of anybody that had that. So he said I couldn't get off at Honolulu, so I spent the day on the boat waiting to go to Hilo. They said they would process the thing and find out what to do with me. The other girl had the same problem.

TI: So I'm curious, when you said the ship didn't have other passengers, what kind of ship was it? What did it carry?

KK: Oh, I guess it carried, it carried passengers to, where this...

TI: Oh, okay. So it was primarily to go to South America, but it had one stop in Hawaii just for the two of you to get off.

KK: To go to Hilo. So we, anyway, they had to finish their promise to take us to Hilo, so they did. Well, they never had any baggage inspector in Hilo. So when we went, they had to have the baggage inspector come to Hilo and set up shop there on the wharf with all the, all the deckhands and all the populace and whatever was around there watching them go through our baggage piece by piece. So we were the laughingstock because I had packed everything real tight, you know, filled all the holes with the small underwear and that kind of stuff. That was very embarrassing. [Laughs]

TI: So he would just like take it out and everyone could see how packed --

KK: Yeah, they'd hang it up and then they threw it back in, you know. It was awful. But anyway, they could find nothing to say that, "This person is no good." So they finally let us pass, and they went away. We went to my sister's place. And he said that, well, they took my passport, and they had to fly it to San Francisco to verify it. So it would take a few months, but he said, "Well, maybe by Christmas. In the meantime, they had no provisions for anybody, so I was lucky I had my sister there, so I stayed there. So anyway, that was my introduction to Hilo.

TI: So eventually you got your passport back.

KK: Yeah, but it came around the springtime, so I was staying in Hilo all that time. Well, just at that time, my sister was teaching high school chemistry, and so at that time the baby was two, almost three years old, and had to have a babysitter, naturally, 'cause she was only in school, Tom was busy with his practice. Even though the practice was based in the house there, but he couldn't watch her, too. So I stayed and watched her, took care of that business. That's right. Tom's sister, Umeyo, had been watching, but Tom's father got sick so she had to go back.

TI: So for the family, it was really fortunate that you were there.

KK: Yeah. So I felt like, well, that's not too bad. But I had to wait until the passport came, I could make no plans whatsoever. So I just stayed there.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.