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MA: So today is June 3, 2009, and I'm here with Grace Sugita Hawley in Honolulu, Hawaii. So thank you so much for doing this interview with us.

GH: Well, I hope it will be useful.

MA: It will, for sure. So I wanted to start by just asking some basic questions. When were you born?

GH: September 28, 1931.

MA: And where were you born?

GH: In Honolulu.

MA: What area of Honolulu?

GH: I'm not too sure. I think... we lived in Kalihi, so that must have been where I was born.

MA: And is Kalihi, where is that in the city? You said it was near...

GH: Today, it's... today, it's an industrial area. It's a little past the pier, I don't even know how to describe it.

MA: You said it was closer to, it was close to Pearl Harbor?

GH: Yes, it's that end of town.

MA: And...

GH: Almost going to Sand Island, almost, that's right.

MA: And what about your parents? Can you tell me their names and where they were born?

GH: Uh-huh. My father was Saburo Sugita, and he was born in Kauai. And my mother was Shizuno. She was born in Aiea here, that's another area outside of the city.

MA: And what do you know about your grandparents, about their story and why they came to Hawaii?

GH: I don't know that much, really. But my grandfather on my father's side came, and he worked on, in the plantation, as they all did. Worked in the plantation, and that's how they grew up.

MA: And this was on Kauai.

GH: In Kauai, uh-huh. And so I guess he started his family. And then, as his situation got better, improved, he was able to -- because he was, I guess he was like a foreman because he came so early. And then he decided to open a store, grocery store. So he left the plantation and opened a grocery store, which was a general store, the old days they just carry everything. And then also somewhere along there, my father said he started a Japanese school. He felt that they needed a language school there, so he started a Japanese school. And then, in those days, the story I got was that they didn't have marine insurance. So everything came by ship from the mainland, all the goods from the store, and the ship sank. [Laughs] The ship sank. He lost all his, everything. He lost everything. And so for him to start all over, it was going to be a struggle, so they went back to the plantation. But he didn't give up, my grandfather was an entrepreneur. He said, "We're gonna start again, and so we'll go back to the plantation." And so they had to leave school and go back and all work and save enough money to go into business again. And I forgot what else he did. He was into all kinds of businesses until he decided to move to Honolulu. So that's how they grew up. When they were adults, I guess, the sons, he sent two of them first to Honolulu, and then that's how they looked into the bakery business and decided that they'll open a bakery. My grandfather wanted to open a bakery. And he had... how many sons he had? Five sons. But the oldest son was married to a Japanese woman from Japan, rather, not local woman. And he wanted to go back to Japan because she's lonely. So he never got active in a business, he didn't want to get into the business.

So my grandfather started a cotton factory, also. He decided they needed the cotton factory for futon and zabuton. In those days, they were the only ones that did that. And then he had some connection with a cotton grower in the Big Island, and he had some in our backyard there behind the factory. The factory was next door to our house. So he had ladies working there. The machine did almost all of the baling, and it would come out zabuton shape, you know, imagine. It would go through, cotton would go through and come out into squares. And then they had the futon sizes, and so they had deliveries made and all that, so they were doing quite well. That's the one my uncle managed. That was his speed. I guess he said that's, he didn't want to get involved with the bakery, so my grandfather said, "Okay, you take care of that."

MA: And this was the uncle who was married to the Japanese woman?

GH: Yes, uh-huh.

MA: And for the cotton factory, who were the, was it just in Honolulu where they sold the...

GH: Uh-huh, the people in Honolulu. So they were very busy with that. Because everybody, all the Japanese households had zabuton and futon. They needed, they needed the cotton for it. So anyway, eventually, at some point, my uncle decided to go back to Japan, so he went to Japan with my grandfather. And then, so they all had to pitch in and, I guess, manage the cotton factory. And the ladies, the wives, were helping in there, and they hired some ladies to take care of it, too. They had one driver, one truck with a driver to deliver.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.