<Begin Segment 21>

BN: Well, you're obviously staying busy. Are there other things that you're working on?

JK: Well, I help with the Hiroshima Heritage Study Group, research and things like that, presentations. I used to be active in my educational sorority, but it got to the point where I could not do all kinds of things. Because for one thing, I do not drive too much, and so people would have to pick me up. So I dropped that. So I'm concentrating only on this and the (...) Hiroshima group things.

BN: Why do you think that it's so important for people to know about this story that's told in here and the book?

JK: Well, we take so much for granted, for one thing, that we're so privileged people now. And the Japanese as such have had to build from nothing. They were low men on the totem pole, pay-wise and even (with) respect. And now we're way up high, and there's a lot of work that went on to get to that point. And I feel that kids, other people need to know that, especially our young people. And that was my commitment, to share the experience of the Japanese in Hawaii. And every ethnic group has such stories to tell. But as an example of how these early people built up the community to what we have today, we enjoy today, that was my commitment. I hope it's doing its job. [Laughs] But I have all kinds of memories that bombard me, so I may talk not like this. But I remember a (...) lady from Japan, and I had taken a group on tour, and she came up to me later with tears in her eyes. She held, gripped my hands, both hands, and she told me, "I hope that when our Japanese people, students come from Japan, that you will tell them. Because your story, and particularly the virtues that you stress," she says, "we don't have them in Japan and we have to learn from you." Just tears streaming down her eyes, it was an older lady. So all that kind of (experiences) make it, oh, it was worth working on. It's being appreciated. Then when people say, "Oh, you mean my great-grandfather" -- this picture here?

BN: The Yamashiro Hotel?

JK: Yeah, the picture, but the man standing there. And we took that, we took that man out of a photo that we had and he was standing like that on a ship. (A fellow) said, "That's my grandfather." You know, there are moments like that. It was my dentist's father. [Laughs] But you know, it just makes it more meaningful to have it like that. And we have little secrets. Tsuneda's store, for example, was (for) our carpenter. Got to name something for him. And then Tom writes this on the board here, "By Sachiko." (That's my name). [Laughs] We have little secrets here and there. The barbershop is named after Stan's family.

BN: That's my wife's family, too.

JK: Yeah. So, you know, we've got our own little secrets around the place.

BN: You have to write a behind-the-scenes Okage Sama De book.

JK: But we enjoyed it.

BN: We can tell. It has that.

JK: But I think the biggest, the thing that had the most effect on us at the early stages was the fact that we wanted this in the form of a Japanese garden. So that when you go to one place and see one scene, and you turn the corner, you see another scene. And that was the principle that motivated us. So I've made a lot of friends, had a lot of experiences, and I'm grateful.

BN: Very nice interview. Is there any other, anything else that you would like to add before we finish up?

JK: I've said pretty... you know, I just talk from the top of my head. [Laughs]

BN: It was very well thought-out.

JK: But you know, even today when people call me and ask me (about the Japanese in Hawai'i), I think, "Oh, I'm not put out to pasture yet." [Laughs] And I'm grateful. "Thanks for calling." But it's been my pleasure, and if somebody can get something out of my experiences, I would consider it worthwhile.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.