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KN: And so once the war ends, and do you remember anything else about your parents saying anything about what they were gonna do, what was gonna happen to you folks, what were the choices?
MY: No, nothing at all. It seems like we were just traveling. Maybe that's why I love to travel. [Laughs] But it seems like just an excursion going here and there.
KN: So there were other Peruvian Japanese who were there, and as you mentioned, many in fact did go to Seabrook Farms up in New Jersey. And your parents didn't want to do that because...
MY: Too cold.
KN: Too cold, because they had grown up in the temperate climate of Okinawa and Peru. And other people had gone to parts of Chicago and tried to make it to the West Coast. And so your parents, and they didn't have a lot, they didn't want to go back to Okinawa. So can you tell the story of why or how they came to Kauai?
MY: Well, actually, it's because of my auntie, Matsu Tengan, that's my dad's younger sister, lived in Kauai. And she told us to come over, and that's where we were so grateful for all the sponsors like Kuhio Grill, Charlie Miyashiro's family.
[Interruption]
KN: So I'm imagining... so you mentioned sponsorship. So to come, because your parents were technically characterized as "illegal aliens"...
MY: "Illegal aliens."
KN: They really had kind of a limited areas or opportunities where they can actually go. So your father's sister was already here in Hawaii on Kauai. And she organized sponsors, sponsorships?
MY: No, she had to find somebody with money, financially stable condition, to sponsor us. So the Charlie Miyashiro family of Kuhio Grill became our sponsor.
KN: So they were willing to sponsor two adults and six children.
MY: Right.
KN: Oh, no, wait. Four children
MY: Four, that's right, four.
KN: Because two were later born on Kauai.
MY: Right, right.
KN: And so imagining your aunt, and could you explain again how she came to Kauai because in your family, she was actually number four out of five?
MY: No, she was the second oldest.
KN: Oh, okay, so she was in between.
MY: Right.
KN: And I guess I'm amazed that so many children actually kind of immigrated to different places.
<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.