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MN: Okay. Today is Thursday, July 29, 2010, we're at the Centenary Methodist Church in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. Dana Hoshide is on video, we have Aiko Tengan Tokunaga, and I will be interviewing, and my name is Martha Nakagawa. Okay. Let's start with your grandfather that went to Kauai. What was his name?

AT: Kamesuke Yabiku.

MN: And your grandmother who married Yabiku-san?

AT: Kama Yabiku.

MN: What was her --

AT: Kama Arakaki.

MN: Arakaki. And what prefecture were they from?

AT: They're from Okinawa.

MN: And how many children did the Yabiku, your Yabiku grandparents have?

AT: Six. Three girls, three boys.

MN: And where was your mother among the siblings?

AT: My mother was the oldest of six.

MN: And what was her birth name?

AT: Her birth name was Yabiku Sachiko. Sachiko Yabiku.

MN: And which island, which Hawaiian island was she born on and what year was she born?

AT: She was born on Kauai, Koloa, Kauai, May 27, 1920.

MN: Now, you said your Yabiku grandmother had six children and then she also worked on the plantation. Can you share with us some of what life was like having six children and having to work?

AT: I assume everybody was in the same situation where your main support is to work in plantation alongside your husband. And I don't know exactly what they did as a woman, but I've heard her telling me that they had to take all the younger siblings and put them in the, like a chicken coop, linked fence, where they would leave the children there. And during the mealtime, they would go there and breastfeed them. That was during lunchtime. She was talking about, she used to tell us even rain or shine, that's where they had to work, so like a hat, papali, she said rain can come down from the hat, just dripping, and still had to feed the baby. [Laughs]

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.