<Begin Segment 26>

TI: Now, when you first started the Hawaii Hochi, did you think that you would be working here for fifty years?

PY: [Laughs] No, no, no. I thought, you know, maybe three or four years. I used to, I used to go see my brother Ralph so often, and they had one secretary, Ruth. And Ruth used to tell me, "Hey, what you doing now? What you doing now?" Every time when she see me, I have a different job those days. So she used to ask me what I was doing, that was my, greeting to me. So I thought I would be in some other business.

TI: So what was it about the Hawaii Hochi that made you stay all these years?

PY: Well, I guess Mr. Oishi, Shizuoka Shimbun... Shizuoka Shimbun bought the Hawaii Hochi in 1960, '61, somewhere around that area, age. And he appoint me as the president of this company in '67. And I thought, you know, I was just a regular employee. And then one morning he called me. He used to stay every, about three months over here from December to March. He called me one morning and he said, "From tomorrow, you run the business." I was all, I was all shook up, and then I told Mr. Oishi, "In America, normally you have to give me one day. I'd like to talk to my wife." So that's what I did to him. But I didn't talk to my wife, I went to see my brother. And he said, "Oh, if you're going stay, you might as well stay," I mean, "be able to run the business. Take the job." So that's how I took the job in 1967. And then, well, once I knew... those days, the other Japanese newspaper, Hawaii Times, was bigger paper than Hawaii Hochi. They had more circulation, they were bigger paper. But I thought now it's my responsibility, I got to do something. So I put my effort in the printing business.

TI: And that's been a profitable side of the business.

PY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TI: But going back to that decision, when Mr. Oishi made you president, why did he select you? You said you were one of many employees, but he chose you. And so why do you think he chose you?

PY: I don't know. I don't know. We had, we had those, plenty employees, young people, too, but I don't know why he chose me. I don't know.

TI: So why do you think he chose you?

PY: Huh?

TI: Why do you think he chose you? There must be something about you that he saw that said you would be a good president. What do you think it is?

PY: [Laughs] Well...

TI: I know it must be hard for you, but just, I mean, if someone else were to talk about you...

PY: Well, I guess, I came from Japan and I have a good education, I graduated from Waseda. And I was still young. Because he never interviewed me. He never interviewed me. But suddenly he told the staff that was attending the meeting, "Call Yempuku," and then they called me, and then he told me, "From tomorrow, you run the business." Those days, we had a vice president and many other old-timer. But some of the other old timer refused because they don't want to be a president and then Hawaii Hochi bankrupt and go down. And they thought that Hawaii Hochi don't have any long life anymore. Why they got to take the job, responsibility, and suffer? So like one of the vice presidents, Mr. Yoshida, used to tell us he doesn't want to take over, even Mr. Oishi tell him to run the business, he doesn't want to take over because he doesn't feel that Hawaii Hochi going to last that long. So in fact, I took over the risky job. But, well, like my brother said, "Well, if you're going to stay there, might as well do whatever you can, so that's how you gotta operate."

TI: But he made a good choice, because by choosing you, you were younger, you had more ideas, you sort of diversified, you started the printing business.

PY: Yeah.

TI: And that has helped, really, the Hawaii Hochi survive all these years, by having these other, other streams of revenue coming in. So he probably chose you because he thought you'd be a good businessperson.

PY: Huh?

TI: He probably chose you because he thought you'd be a good businessperson, too. Don't you think?

PY: [Laughs] Well, maybe so, but... I'm getting old, and I guess I have to... you know, when you get old, it's very hard to go into new things. I think printing business as-is, this is too old the way we do. We have to get into a new area, and I don't know whether I'm able to do that or not.

TI: So in the future, who do you think is gonna, what type of person do you think would be successful?

PY: Well, we have a vice president now, Derek Yamashiro. I'm recommending Derek to take over my place when I retire, yeah.

TI: And so he's younger and has more...

PY: He's younger and he's a UH graduate, yeah.

TI: Yeah, so it's a whole new world, kind of. Well, so Paul, I finished all my questions, and so I'm wondering, is there anything else that you wanted to share or maybe something that I didn't ask you that you would like to talk about at the end here?

PY: No. I guess, I guess I said everything. Yeah.

TI: Okay, good. This was a fabulous interview.

PY: Oh, yeah?

TI: I really enjoyed it, I learned a lot. Your life is very interesting. So thank you so much for taking the time.

PY: Thank you, thank you.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.