Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Paul Yempuku Interview
Narrator: Paul Yempuku
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: June 4, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-ypaul-01

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TI: So you mentioned your father first went to the mainland, came back, married your mother, and then they went to the, to Hawaii. So where in Hawaii did they go?

PY: Well, I really don't know exactly where. I guess he landed in Honolulu, but Ralph was born in Papaikou, Big Island. And then I don't know where Donald was born. I think Donald was born in Papaikou, Big Island, too. Toru was born, I think Toru was born in Kahuku, Goro and... three of us born in Kahuku. But other older brother was born in different place. So I saw one time my father used to ride a horse and go to the next village and this and that and ask for donations, and put a small little temple and moved to the next village. And before that, a new priest used to come from Japan to run the temple. So he used to go here and there, area to area, for the Japanese community. And then the last place was Kahuku.

TI: And he stayed there.

PY: He stayed there.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. But he went from horse, by horseback to these different communities, would set it up and then a priest would come and he would go to the next one.

PY: Yeah. But Kahuku was a little unusual for my father, because before my father went to Kahuku, they didn't have no priests over there, temple or priest there. When he went to Kahuku, I guess the Kahuku plantation asked Hongwanji to send one priest because, for the Japanese labor. If you have a Buddhist temple, it's a, they feel more happy and peace. So that's how they asked the Hongwanji to send one priest, and he was hired by the plantation, not Hongwanji. So he got paid from the plantation, not the Hongwanji. So when he got sick and went to Japan, he used to get a what you call pension from the plantation.

TI: Oh, interesting.

PY: Yeah.

TI: And so when you say that sounds unusual, did that make it easier or harder when the plantation was your, was kind of your employer?

PY: No, I think that was a big help for my father. And the plantation was still very, a successful plantation right up to the wartime. So when he got sick, he went Japan, but he used to get retirement payment or pension or whatever from the plantation.

TI: That's interesting.

PY: So I think Donald or Toru went to college with that money, yeah. But, so he lived 'til... actually, I don't know exactly when he died, but he lived 'til after the war. And then one time, I think my father asked Ralph to check with the plantation. Because during the war, he didn't get the money. So whether he can get the money now, even after the war, but it was a different plantation at that time already, so he couldn't get anything. But I found out that he did ask Ralph to check with the plantation.

TI: Oh, interesting.

PY: Yeah.

TI: So while your father was a Buddhist priest, what did your mother do?

PY: Oh, she was a schoolteacher at... those days, all the temple in the countryside, even in Honolulu, too, they used to have a, they used to run a Japanese school. Most of the temple has a Japanese school, and then she was one of the teacher at the Japanese school, teaching Japanese.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.