<Begin Segment 34>

TI: Okay, so let's, before we go on that, I just wanted to follow up something we talked about earlier. Your father, right when Pearl Harbor was bombed, he was able to get the money to someone who hid it. Whatever happened to that money after the war?

MK: After the war? In 1945 he came back. He left the money there with that person, making sure that he still had it. Then 1946 found out that the property was on lease and had to be bought from the plantation owners, so he, they negotiated that and they bought the land for the church. Once they bought the land for the church, almost half of the money that he had collected since 1945 was depleted, so then he had to start raising money again. And by 1950 -- 1951, yeah, 1951 when I graduated high school and I was leaving for New York -- they had broken ground to build the church with that money. With the money they collected plus the money that he had hidden.

TI: So he finished his...

MK: He finished the church. The church, yeah.

TI: So he did what he set out to do way back in the, in the '30s.

MK: Thirties. '38.

TI: Interesting. And so people were very honest. I mean, people were holding on to all this money all the way through the war without really telling anyone.

MK: Nobody knew.

TI: And nobody knew. And I'm guessing a lot of people, during the war, were worried about the money.

MK: Oh yeah. Definitely.

TI: They thought that --

MK: I would imagine they were worried. "What the heck happened? What happened to the money that Reverend Kitajima had?" I suspect that some of this was, came about... that was part of the reason why that they were digging up the house and stuff like this. Because somebody...

TI: And so it's a great story that that money was kept. Someone was very honest and kept their word. The money was still there and it helped build the church.

MK: Well, you know, in those days, also, when you trusted a person you trusted the person. You never questioned.

TI: Yeah, well, that's still a big, big trust for that all to happen.

MK: Yes, it is.

<End Segment 34> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.