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BN: Today is April 23, 2012, and we're here at the Tea House at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. And I wanted to start by asking you about your parents, if you could tell me a little bit about...

SI: My parents?

BN: Yeah, their names and...

SI: Okay. My father's name is Ryoki Kashima. My mother's name is Fumi Kashima.

BN: And where were they from, where were they born?

SI: They're born Okinawa, same village.

BN: Which, the name of the village is?

SI: That's Kanegusuku Ahagon, that's Shimajiri, that means north side. They're born same village, my mother and father. They know each other when smaller school time, they know each other. Actually, they are related also. [Laughs]

BN: Which was pretty common at that time. What did their families do?

SI: They was farmer, making the vegetable and potatoes and have a rice spot. So when I was small time, I was also helping. Those days we had to put on the head, carry to the breakfast, lunch, and early in the morning, give to them breakfast and send to the farm, whatever they plant the what you call, rice, and I had to cook at home and carry those for workers lunch, put on the head, carry to the, how many miles? Maybe one mile carried to bring to that for their lunch.

BN: How many workers were there?

SI: Maybe about ten, around there. The families and friends, relatives, they're all helpers.

BN: So it's a lot of lunches.

SI: Yes. [Laughs]

BN: How big was the farm? How big was the farm that your family had?

SI: Gee, kind of big, though, acres... not all one place there, different place. Maybe one place, three, four acres, they moved to the other side, not all any one place.

BN: I see. Where were you in the birth order with your brothers and sisters?

SI: We are same village there, my brothers, same village, I born same place at my mother's, my father's same place, same village.

BN: And how many brothers and sisters did you have?

SI: I have six brothers and two sisters.

BN: And where were you in the order?

SI: Above the... my big sisters, two big brothers. I'm next to them, and bottom... so three brothers, and my nephew's also together, living together.

BN: So you're kind of in the middle.

SI: Yes, I was, below my sisters.

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