Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Genro Kashiwa Interview
Narrator: Genro Kashiwa
Interviewer: Brian Niiya
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: February 20, 2012
Densho ID: denshovh-kgenro-01-0004

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BN: Was the area you lived in... I mean, was it segregated by ethnicity, pretty much everybody was Japanese?

GK: Oh, yes. Yes. And then we had the other camp where the Portuguese lived. And we didn't call them Portuguese, it was "Portogee."

BN: Among the Japanese who lived there, were they mostly, was there a dominant group in terms of where they were from in Japan?

GK: Not that I remember. But there was one place called the section camp, and that was where the people lived that took care of the railroad tracks of Oahu Railway. And that camp, I remember, were all from one prefecture, Kumamoto-ken. And they speak a different kind of Japanese. But I remember that from that camp, they used to take care of the tracks. And they used to have a small car that ran on the track. In the beginning, it was a car that you had to pump, hand. And later on, they got a gasoline car to do that.

BN: Where did you go to high school?

GK: Oh, I went to Waialua High School until my senior year. And for my senior year, I went to McKinley High School.

BN: Why did you switch over?

GK: Well, according to what my brother told me, was that if I go to Waialua High School and graduate there, I won't be able to go to University of Hawaii. I don't know why, but that's what he said. So for my senior year, high school, I went to McKinley and I lived with my brother. But that wasn't the reason why I had to go to McKinley. I believe that my mother had a hard time raising all the children, so I was sent out to live with my brother.

BN: Where did your brother live?

GK: Kaimuki. Nineteenth Avenue.

BN: Which brother was this?

GK: The eldest, Shiro. He was, by then, an attorney. He graduated University of Michigan, I think.

BN: So you graduated from McKinley High in what year?

GK: Huh?

BN: What year did you graduate?

GK: 1939 or '40.

BN: And you went on to the University of Hawaii.

GK: Yes. And I was in the second year, I think, the war started.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.