<Begin Segment 8>

TI: So I want to kind of now move to the Puuloa farm and how that all happens.

HM: Okay, one day, this was in 1941, early part of the year, my father said, "Okay, girls, sit down," and we had no furniture so we had to sit on the floor Japanese style and we had to sit, so we sat and he said, "We bought, have a property in Ewa Beach." Now, people those days didn't own their own property, and down Ewa Beach. I was very happy we were gonna move down to Ewa Beach. And those days only haoles or white men had the beach homes in Ewa Beach, so I was very proud, and I went bragging that we were going to move down to Ewa Beach. So then my friends would say, "Wow, your father's rich," but I didn't know where the money came from and now that, that was beside the point. Well, we were gonna, so when, then my dad owned a car -- a rumble, we had a rumble seat, Ford with rumble seat -- then here again, very few people owned a car, so we got in, hopped on the rumble seat and we went down. We chugged along Ewa Beach Road, no cars those days, every, all sugarcane on both sides. Then we went, and I remember distinctly he made a left turn, and I thought that's a funny way of going to, down to the beach, because I knew... so I thought maybe we were headed for Pearl Harbor way down to the beach so I didn't say anything. Then when I looked in the back of the car; the dirt that the car was turning up, just like watching a cowboy movie, all that, then we went along, then he stopped. He said, "This is it, girls." And the kiawe bushes were so thick you weren't able to stick your thumb through. So I must've made a real smart remark here again, and then, wham, came the... and it still hurts today. And he said, "This is it, girls." So, but I didn't think anything. Boy, the kiawe bushes were so thick you wouldn't believe it.

TI: So describe the whole area, so your place was lots, lots of bushes. Was that, like, everywhere?

HM: It was like that all over.

TI: So very undeveloped. There was no one else there.

HM: We were pioneers.

TI: And how close to the beach were you?

HM: Far. [Laughs] But Pearl Harbor was very close. You could smell the salt air, so we were pretty close. Okay, they bought that property.

TI: And again, this was early 1941?

HM: Yeah.

TI: So like in January, February?

HM: Yeah, he, I think it was about January he bought the, then I was looking at the paper. He bought, we had nine acres of land and it was about seven thousand dollars.

TI: Oh, so that was a lot of money back then.

HM: Yeah.

TI: And he bought it, or he paid for it all?

HM: No, loan.

TI: Okay.

KN: What did he hope to do with the property?

HM: Okay, my father is a railroad man now. The property was so that we were supposed to be a farmer. That was a farmland. My dad's a railroad man now, so I told him, "Dad, you don't the difference between a hoe and a hammer." Here again, the smarty pants. But this is what I, I said, "Why is he buying?" but actually, when I think back, it was kodomo no tame ni, for the sake of the children. He bought nine acres. There were three of us, right? Three times three is nine, so his intention was giving us three acres of land. I didn't think about it at that time, but that's the reason why he bought that.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.