<Begin Segment 2>

TI: So when they were married, you know, by proxy, was your father still working with the newspaper at this time?

YI: Yes, I think he was but, I mean, there wasn't enough to support a family I think, you know. So they decided to go and work in the pineapple field because the work in the pineapple field was little lighter than working in the cane, sugar cane field. So they both worked I understand until my mother became pregnant with the first child. And I guess they must have worked a while there, maybe five, six years in the pineapple field. Then they felt that my older sister needed to go to school and then they decided to move, you know, closer to all the other amenities. Then he came to work for Oahu Sugar Company.

TI: Oh, so that's when they started working at the sugar company.

YI: So he must have started in the 1920s.

TI: Okay. So let me ask you about your brothers and sisters. So your oldest sister, what was her name?

YI: My oldest sister, Toshie, and I think she was born in about (1918), I think. And the sister above me is Tomoe and I'm the middle child, I have a brother Takeo and a younger sister, Sumie, there are five of us.

TI: And they are all... okay, so your oldest sister wasn't born at the plantation. Was the second one born at the plantation?

YI: No.

TI: So you were the first one born at the plantation and then your brother and sister also?

YI: Yes, also.

TI: So let's talk a little bit about just the plantation. I'm curious about how large was the, you know, the plantation?

YI: Oahu Sugar was I think was considered the largest sugar plantation in this island. Well, let's go back... when I think my father came to work for Oahu Sugar (Company) I think he came to work as a painter, you know, they need to maintain the plantation, I think he said he was a painter when he came to Oahu Sugar and later he became a custodian at the plantation office. And then he was asked to do all kinds of things because he can read and write, he used to read the other employees' letters, they were illiterate, you know. Most of the immigrants that came because of kind of conditions they had to leave to Japan, you know, they had very little schooling. So my father would read the letters for them and write the reply for them and that was part of his job, aside of doing the custodial work.

TI: Okay, and so his position was higher than just the laborers or about the same?

YI: I guess he was classified custodian but, I mean, you know, they let you do all kind of thing. Actually, he's always very regular, he went to work about four-thirty in the morning, open up the office, you know, because what they call a plantation, the lunas or the superintendents come to work early and get ready for work. And then he would open up the place and he would come home. And then he'll go, before lunch he'll go and he'll go to the post office, he runs the errands for the office, go to the bank, go to the post office, bring back the mail, sort the mail, and then the employees would come if they had letters from Japan or something like that.

TI: I see and if they needed help reading it then he would read it?

YI: If they needed help, he would read for them and then write the letters for them. And then he'll go back about four o'clock, you know, about closing time and that's when he really did custodial work, you know, clean up the place and then he'll be the one to close up and come home. So he always, what you call, he worked in shifts during the day.

TI: But it was like a combination job too. The custodian work was almost like a clerk type of work almost it seems like, you know, the post office and the letters.

YI: Yeah, I guess, you know, the office wasn't that big and I guess they didn't need a full time custodian. And I think earlier they didn't have any female working in the office. It made the work a little easier, you know, with only one restroom to clean or something like that.

TI: I see.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.