<Begin Segment 31>

TI: So you take this ship and you land in Honolulu?

MK: Uh-huh..

TI: And then, so you come and I don't think your parents have much money or anything --

MK: [Laughs] Exactly.

TI: -- so what do you do in, what do you do in Honolulu?

MK: We came back, we came back to Honolulu, and I know somebody from the church came and picked us up. And my dad said we got to go find money, so we stayed in Honolulu, I think two weeks, until he saw some friend and got some money and bought us... think about it... I think the first time I flew in airplane. We flew from Honolulu to Kauai on Hawaiian Airline, on a seaplane.

TI: Wow, that was a extra surprise, or extra...

MK: Extra... yeah, I imagine that cost a lot of, a lot more money than was on the ship. And went home. So he must've owed that money to somebody.

TI: Do you know why he chose to go by plane rather than a ship?

MK: I have no idea. I, it just came to my mind right now that we did fly home. The first time I ever rode an airplane.

TI: That's interesting. And so you fly into Kauai.

MK: Yeah. Into Hanapepe, I think. Port Allen. I think that's where we flew into.

TI: And you returned back to the church and your original home?

MK: Yes.

TI: And so what was it like when you returned?

MK: Well, the church, the church was... after we had left, one of the church member's family who had been renting someplace else elected to go to the church and live there because was offered to them to be caretakers of the church. They take care of the church and the cottage and the facility, because it's really the members' church. So they took care of the church, and knowing that we were coming back, cleaned it up, and the place was all open for us to move in. Of course we had no furniture or anything by that time, so people donated furniture and we went back to normal, civilized living.

TI: And during the war, did they have services at the church?

MK: No.

TI: So it would, they just, it had stopped. Everything had stopped.

MK: Everything stopped.

TI: And what was the welcome back from the church members? Now their, their minister is now coming back, what was, how would you describe the welcome back?

MK: Most of 'em came, I remember them coming individually by families to see my mom and dad. They used to come, they'd come in by... right after, one after the other practically, to welcome in my, and bringing gifts over for them coming home. And we were really welcomed home.

TI: And so things just start up again, just like before?

MK: Yeah, just like, just like before.

TI: And for you, you're, what? About...

MK: Seventh grade.

TI: Yeah, so you're about twelve years old, eleven, twelve.

MK: Twelve. Twelve, yeah.

TI: And so you're starting seventh grade, and so I'm curious, in terms of the schooling you received, what, four years you're gone... I mean, so how was it?

MK: Horrible. Disastrous. [Laughs] I, before I went to... well, in the third grade, fourth grade I was not top class. I came back and I was in seventh grade and I went to a low, low class. The lowest class you could go. The D-minus, F-plus class. I'd never learned English and basic language and skills, nothing. I didn't know how to write. The only thing I knew was mathematics. I knew mathematics, and to this day I use the same mathematics I learned then, which I find out now is Kumon.

TI: And where'd you learn this? In the, in Tule Lake? Or...

MK: In Tule Lake.

TI: Oh, so you learned kind of the Japanese style.

MK: Math -- yeah, the Japanese style mathematics. Kind of interesting. I didn't even know this until my granddaughter took Kumon. I said, "What..." I had a look, I said, "That's what I learned when I was a kid."

TI: Interesting.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.