<Begin Segment 6>

KN: And so by the time you folks had arrived in Kauai. Then you actually met, for the very first time, your two older sisters and your grandmother, who had moved from Okinawa. Can you describe their reunion and how did that happen? I mean, I don't think it could be that here's your father, "Oh, here are your two sisters and your grandmother that you've never seen before." Do you remember that?

MY: We knew we had sisters and (...) had photos of them, so it wasn't a surprise. The only thing, my sister Eiko (from Okinawa) was bossy and would... I don't know why, she got into this cleaning the ear thing, and she'd just clean our ear 'til it's, I felt like it was raw. And to this day, she's still... what's a nicer word for... I guess bossy. But we're on a good, loving terms.

KN: So here are your sisters coming over, and your grandmother, and now all of you are now a family of eight, plus your grandmother's nine. And you folks were all in a sense working or going to school. And your father, you mentioned, was insistent on you guys doing well in school. He wanted you to go to kindergarten. And you mentioned something about the first grade, you just automatically went into first grade, or you did actually return to school. But your father was very interesting in the fact that he encouraged you, as you mentioned, all of you to do well in school. Can you describe, why did your dad feel this way? What was the system that you folks had set up that one would go to school and support the others?

MY: Oh, yeah. My mother graduated from high school in Okinawa, which was equivalent to college. She went to an all-girls school. So it was kind of automatic, after we graduated we'd go to college. But the way they did it was interesting because we thought everybody did it. All the money that I earned, I was a newspaper boy delivering newspaper, all that money, cannery money, went to the family kitty. And when the oldest one went to college we would help. I was in the middle, so they helped me going to college. And when I graduated from college, I sent my money to the ones below me, the two youngest. And we kind of, like a leapfrog. And it worked out really good. We all managed. Of course there was, one sister was a smart one so she had scholarships. So that helped. But we kind of played leapfrog.

KN: All eight children graduated from high school?

MY: Right, right.

KN: As a Nisei family.

MY: Yeah. That was kind of automatic that we did that.

KN: So what, can you describe what your siblings or sisters did, so they go on to college, and what did they become or what did they do?

MY: That was interesting. Because my mom wanted everybody to be schoolteachers. To this day -- I'm sorry, she passed away, but she wanted me to be a schoolteacher. So the oldest one, Kimiko, is... what was she?

[Interruption]

MY: Yeah, so she became a part-time, well, she graduated from La Sierra University.

KN: Where was that?

MY: La Sierra University in California. And she became a schoolteacher basically. And the second one, she worked for TRW, a computer company in California. And the third one graduated from Chico State college, became a teacher. And I went to University of Hawaii, then Rosa attended University of Kansas and is an occupational therapist. And the next one, University of Hawaii med tech. Second from the last, Margaret, Washington State University, schoolteacher, and the last one, University of Hawaii, schoolteacher. (Three) married schoolteachers.

KN: Fulfilled your mother's dreams.

MY: Right, right.

KN: And was your wife a schoolteacher?

MY: That's right, she's a retired schoolteacher. So I made my mom happy.

KN: So imagining, looking at your family, that's so impressive. Your mother and father must have been so proud by the accomplishments of all the children. I mean, they went to high school, they graduated from college, they've done well professionally, and you were describing their names, that's so interesting. Some of them had Japanese names because they were born in Japan, and then there's a middle group of you folks that had Spanish names, and then the last two that had more American, Mary and Margaret.

MY: Portuguese names.

KN: Portuguese names. And you said your name was...

MY: Manuel.

KN: Right. And how did that change to Maurice?

MY: Well, that's a little touchy story, but...

KN: Oh, sorry, sorry.

MY: No, no, no. Basically, they said if I go to California, I had an uncle, so-called "Americanized uncle," American uncle, that gave a scary story to my dad that if I go to California for college or work, they would consider me a "wetback." At that time I didn't know what was a "wetback." And I wouldn't be able to get a job, this and that, so put an American name. So I had an uncle Morris Shinsato who was judge, who was a lawyer and became a judge on Kauai. So my dad said, "Oh, so change your name to, like Uncle Morris and change to Morris so you become smart like him." So I didn't want to spell it M-O-R-R-I-S at the time, had Morris the Cat, you know, TV commercial?

KN: Yeah, the black and white cat.

MY: So I changed the spelling to M-A-U-R-I-C-E, Maurice, which I think got more laughs from my classmates: "Maurice, what kind of name is that?" But anyway, so that's why my dad changed it to Maurice.

KN: But does he call you Maurice or Morris?

MY: Oh, Morris. Actually, it's Morris.

KN: He does call you Morris?

MY: Yeah.

KN: Okay, so you folks are living on Kauai, and then eventually, you mentioned that every so often, though, because you folks were considered "illegal aliens," you had to check in?

MY: Every year we had to come to Honolulu, which cost my parents money, and we had to register in the immigration office and then fly back to Kauai.

KN: And eventually, though, your parents adopted or embraced American citizenship?

MY: Oh, they were very, very proud to be American citizens. And like I said, they always said, "blessing in disguise," and they've been to Peru a couple of times.

KN: And have the rest of you also returned?

MY: Well, I've been there twice, I'm very glad.

KN: How was it?

MY: I'm very glad I live in Hawaii. The more I travel, the more I enjoy Hawaii. How was it? Interesting because the country, (Peru), the rich are very rich and the poor, very poor. And the poor population seems to be growing. I hope it turns around, it should be turning around.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.