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TI: Okay, so then tell me what he did when he came to Honolulu?

AO: Well, on the basis of his book, what he wrote in his book, he was able to contact other people that had come from his same village. And in as much as it was not too easy to find housing, through contacts with the other people that had come from his village he was able to stay with others that had come from the same village. So he was able to live with them for a while.

TI: And then so he's here for a while then what did he start doing for work?

AO: Well, what he did was he felt that in order to, well, to succeed in life, he'd have to learn the language of the country he was in so he felt he had to learn English. And so he sought work in a so-called American-owned store selling, I don't know for exactly, I cannot remember exactly what kind of product it would be. So as a double dose, in a way he moved over and he stayed as a houseboy in someone's house, an American I think, and at the same time he went to work in this particular store as an apprentice more or less.

TI: And so in some ways he was forced to learn English by being first a houseboy and then where he lived and then like retail, he needed to be able to --

AO: Correct, to some extent, yes.

TI: And so he was pretty adventurous, or pretty courageous to put himself out there?

AO: I would think so. Even when he was trying to come to Hawaii to buy his ticket from the immigration station so to speak, in Yanai city, I understand and this I got from his book, he tried to buy the ticket and he couldn't get a ticket to get on board the ship to go from there to I think it was Kobe and from Kobe to Yokohama and then to Hawaii. But he had a heck of a time trying to buy his ticket and then he kept on going back often to the so-called immigration station and I think those are the people that handled the selling of the tickets for transportation. But he was refused so many times so one day I think he asked those people, "How come you won't accept my offer to include me as one those people going to Hawaii?" And then he was told, "You represent only one fare," and most of the people that were coming in couples and he would rather get two fares than one. So my dad says, "Well if that's the case, I will offer you, even though I want to go by myself, I will offer you the equivalent of two fares in order to, so that I could go to Hawaii." So I think that falls in line with what you were just trying to say, you know. Of course, some people don't agree with me but to my way of thinking, I thought that that was quite enterprising on the part of my dad to even think about something like that.

TI: So it sounds like he's a pretty good problem solver, you know, once he kind of knows what he wants, and when there are obstacles he'll figure out ways to figure it out.

AO: Correct because when he was getting such a hard time in between there, he even thought about going to Korea because the talk was that some people were also going to Korea and doing well as well as going to Hawaii. But his basic desire was more to go to Hawaii so this is why he tried so hard to come to Hawaii rather than go to Korea and by that means he finally, to make a long story short, he got to come to Hawaii.

TI: That's a good story. So he's in Honolulu, he's learning English as a houseboy and then also working in a store, then what does he do?

AO: But eventually he moved over with people from the same village, you know, to be among his own kind, so to speak, and then eventually he started working in a small trading store, a Japanese owned trading store selling various dry goods I guess. Initially I understand he was selling, going around trying to act as a salesman, selling goods here in Honolulu but I think there came a time when the manager or owner of the store had him go over to Maui, to the other island and tried to get some sales over there. So he went to Maui and started selling goods there and the means of transportation when he got there was either horseback or something to that effect. But he had a hard time but eventually he made sales and to make a long story short, when he came back to Honolulu he discovered that the store people weren't willing to pay for his work, for his wages and acting as a salesman selling their products so he left the company and went into something else which was peddling fish.

TI: So let's talk about that then. So because in some ways he felt cheated by this store.

AO: He was unhappy, yes.

TI: Unhappy so he decides to go into fish selling business.

AO: Yes.

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