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TI: And so where was your father based? I mean, where did they send him in Hawaii?

MK: When he first came, he... this is kinda... my uncle was in Ookala, and in May or April or May, somewhere thereabouts, after being in Ookala for about ten years, he was appointed to the Kohala Church in Kohala, Hawaii. So this created a vacancy as a Sunday school -- no, not a Sunday school, but a Japanese language school -- and church combination at the Ookala plantation, so they, then he was offered that job until such time that the Betsuin could find him a suitable church. So that's why he was able to come to Hawaii in 1932, to replace my uncle's position.

TI: Okay, and this is where you were born.

MK: Yes.

TI: So he got there in 1932, late, and then you were born in 1933.

MK: '33, yeah.

TI: So did he come over with your mother?

MK: Yes.

TI: And do you know how the two of them met?

MK: Yes, after he got, after he graduated, after he was ordained... my mom tells me that he, she had met my dad through family associations sometime when they were in high school, and when, she had not known him as Shoyu Masao, and just that he was one of the sons of the Kitajima family. Then, my mother being the firstborn in the family, Tashiro family, had no, really had no interest in anybody other than the fact that she knew that she was obligated to marry somebody to take over the Tashiro line, the Tashiro line. Three girls, no boys in the family, so then they had to intermarry with another minister someplace and to continue the line of the Tashiro family.

TI: So the Tashiro family was also --

MK: A minister, yes. They still exist today, and my uncle, my aunt and my cousin still run the church over there in Saga. Anyway, they, when my dad graduated from college and he had been given word that he may be able to go to Hawaii, he had, he felt that he had to have somebody with him in order to come to Hawaii and create the atmosphere where he could comingle with all the people there, so he started looking for a wife. Then, I guess somebody within the Kitajima family knew the Tashiro family, and they said there was an eligible lady in the Tashiro family that may be a good candidate. So they met, and Mom tells me that she liked my dad, so she said would accept that if her sister would take the family line and marry somebody else. Because she knew that once she married my dad my dad was going to come to Hawaii, so then there was nobody left in Hawaii, in Japan to continue the line. So she asked her sister Toshiko if she would be willing to accept the responsibility to continue the family line.

TI: Interesting. So it was a little complicated.

MK: It is, yes.

TI: So your mother was expected to marry someone to become a Tashiro, to carry the line.

MK: Yeah, expected to marry a minister and then have the, whoever the husband was, to be adopted by the Tashiro family and change his name to Tashiro and continue that line, which my aunt did, late, after that.

TI: Okay, but did your father ever consider maybe staying in...

MK: No.

TI: So he was pretty clear on --

MK: By the time he had met her, the appointment to Hawaii was already set, so that was not a consideration at that time any longerl.

TI: Okay, so the Tashiro family had to make some concessions. They had to, with their oldest daughter.

MK: That's right.

TI: And what was your mother's first name?

MK: My mother's first, Kamechiyo.

TI: Kamechiyo.

MK: Kamechiyo Kitajima. She was born 1910, I think. My dad was 1908.

TI: So they both came to Hawaii as, pretty young. Your, your mom was about twenty-two and your father was about twenty-four.

MK: Twenty-four, yes.

TI: So a young couple.

MK: They had... well, Mom tells me that they got married, they had a week together there on the train, and within a week of that they were on the boat, sailing across the Pacific.

TI: And then all of a sudden in Hawaii setting up their own little congregation.

MK: Yeah. Well, there was a congregation there, but they had get adjusted to the church, to the people there, they're all plantation workers. They said they were very well treated, and to this day we have very close family friends that still come from Ookala.

TI: I'm thinking about your mother, and then within a year she had you, so all of a sudden she has a family, she's in a different country, she's married...

MK: Yes. [Laughs]

TI: And she's only twenty-two years old. Wow.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.