<Begin Segment 8>

TI: And so when people don't have much money, if something happened where, if someone got sick or maybe a funeral or they wanted to do a celebration, how did they afford it? What would happen when a family that doesn't have much, they needed a little extra money or help? What would happen?

SO: So every family had to give koden, that was one dollar per family, used to give in an envelope. And then whenever there was a funeral, all the communities organized kumiai. So with the kumiai's help, they were able to perform a funeral procession. Or if you had weddings, they used to help. So, and those days, didn't have restaurant where you can go places, so you had to borrow a tent, put up a tent, and put up a table, one by twelve lumbers, and then that was the seating that they used to install. And then all the cooking was done with the help of the community. So not much, but still, everybody enjoyed whatever took place. Because that's the best we can do. And for transportation, it all used to depend on whoever could put up a car for a funeral procession or other things. So kumiai was a big help. So wherever you go, there's still kumiai yet. And then now, the other nationalities are getting interested, and they're joining the Japanese kumiai, too. So they do participate whatever they can.

TI: So to this day, there's still that same kind of feeling and help?

SO: That's right. Except today, you have all the different facilities, so you don't have to do as much cooking like before, because now you can cater. So things have improved a lot since the olden days.

TI: Now, when you talk about the community, how large was the community? How many people, you know, when you say the community? And I'm guessing it's Japanese community you're talking about?

SO: Yeah, communities used to be about half a mile, one mile away, depends on the group. And then that's how they used to form the kumiai. So whenever, today, they have a Kona Civic Club, Kona Japanese Civic Club, where they help the kumiai, and the kumiai in turn would help the civic association with whatever activities took place. So they can help whenever a Japanese ship comes in, or like earlier, when emperor came to Kona, so (Kona Japanese) Civic Club went out to help to organize everything, prepare everything.

TI: And so when you have a big event like that, how many people come to it?

SO: It's amazing that normally, on the road, you don't see too many Japanese. But when they have an occasion like that, all come out. Even at the, whenever they have a funeral, you wonder where they all came out from. So they all tried to come over and help each other. So it's a good thing that they started.

TI: So like a funeral, would it be hundreds? Like maybe more than two hundred, or about how many, do you think?

SO: It depends on the deceased person, how active he was. The more active that he is, more gonna attend his funeral. So that's how you can decide. Today, the church is all overgrown. So a lot of time when they have a service, lot of people are outside standing because the church cannot accommodate. And in Kona, we don't have any funeral homes, so they all gather at the church, whatever church you belong to.

TI: And so for a big funeral, about how many people?

SO: Oh, you can see with the line that's formed to pay respect to the person who passed away. So the more popular you've been, the longer the line, and you can see there's a long line going on for maybe one hour, hour and a half.

TI: So it sounds like, maybe, wow, so maybe hundreds of people. Hundreds? Several hundred?

SO: Oh, maybe five hundred.

TI: Five hundred, okay.

SO: Yeah. Amazing how they all come out. Normally you don't see them on the roadside.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.