<Begin Segment 16>

BN: So are you happy that you came to Hawaii?

SI: Yeah, so that's what I think for visit to this and that, I didn't think about my homesickness and that kind of. I never had feeling that it was.

BN: And then you mentioned after fifteen years or so, you sold Violet's, then your husband retired, then he started helping his friend at Eagle, New Eagle Cafe.

SI: Eagle, yes.

BN: What did you do after that?

SI: Him?

BN: No, what did you do after that?

SI: I was still working.

BN: Oh, you're still working for Ala Moana.

SI: Yeah, I'm still I was working for that, because he go. And then when I finished work, he waiting for the bus stop, I pick him up. And after that, "Oh, okay, we'll go each lunch over there then." Used to have the split, half in the morning, four hours. You know hotel, the jobs that, most of the split kind of. And then eat lunch and then, oh, I had to go back to work, you know, and go back to work another four hours. I did enjoy that banquets.

BN: What did you, what did you do?

SI: Banquet, that kind. Banquet waitress, you know, they have meetings, sometimes, any kind, wedding.

BN: Well, we have that right here, so... so serving food and buffet.

SI: Yes. Sometimes attorney meeting, any kind.

BN: When did you retire?

SI: I retired... I think...

Off camera: Was it early retirement because my dad had a stroke, so she...

SI: No, not early.

Off camera: It was not an early?

SI: No. That time I was sixty-five already.

Off camera: Because she was still taking care of him between the job.

SI: But after the, but still I was going in to take care of him. Oh, that's right. No, yeah, that's right. Still I was working, take care of him and then working. That's right. That's right. 1990. 1990 I retired.

BN: And then you mentioned your husband had a stroke.

SI: Yes. That time, oh, he said, "I'm strong, I'm strong." I have to go take him go the doctor's, nobody home, and steps, I going help you, so we're going doctor, you know. Okay.

Off camera: He was pretty much wheelchair-bound.

BN: So you had to take care of him.

SI: Seven years.

BN: Seven years?

SI: Seven years.

Off camera: So Matthew, now you know why she's... I was telling Brian how she can be so impatiently so hard-headed. It's that survival instinct.

BN: Which is a virtue in many situations, many difficult situations.

SI: [Inaudible] Everybody, not only myself, everybody involved that.

BN: What do you do now? What do you enjoy doing today besides Las Vegas?

SI: Oh, we going to the friends, call each other, go sometimes lunch out. I'm busy, you know. They call. [Laughs]

BN: That's good, you want to be busy.

SI: But most of the time out.

BN: That's good. So before we finish up, is there anything else you want to add about your life or your experience that you want to pass on to people like, young people like Matthew, or maybe great-grandchildren that aren't even born yet who might see this and they want to know something about your life?

SI: Sou ne, tokubetsu ne, nani iute ika ne, mada. I think I got to think about it, from now, I got to put on, and oh, I have to go put this onto for them. I got to think about that.

Off camera: How, you described the change --

BN: That's right, we didn't talk about that, yeah, how your name, how you changed, the family name change.

SI: Oh, name change. Oh, that one is because when to the, old people went to the Sokai, to the Japan, or then were pushed down to them for Fukuro, and Mamebukuro, Nankenbukuro, they pushed on us, so we got to go have the, change our name, you know. We have all group, all together, we have to change everybody. Who the name, which one, everybody asking for the, what kind of namae we're going, this and that meeting. So I don't know whose idea that one was. Oh, mean one is we got to take out the Fukuro. We got to keep 'em, the Shima, keep 'em the one, not take out the everything, keep 'em the Shima, take out the Fukuro. So what are we gonna do? Okay, if we're going to be, take out the Fukuro, it's better, which way, which way? I think this is, you know, shigin, my big brother's side, I think. Kashima then, we're going to put Kashima, and then everybody had me, okay, so we changed the name. Oh, those change the name time, anyway, Okinawa have the all the name, book is all gone, no more already, so good chance to change the name too. Was easy to do it than the name, change the name, because never have the, all burned already.

BN: How old were you?

SI: The time?

BN: Yeah, at that time.

SI: Oh, I was school age that time, going to school, teenage I was.

BN: So after the war.

SI: Yeah, after war. So high school age. Maybe sixteen, seventeen.

BN: And then a lot of other families were doing the same?

SI: Oh, all the Shimabukuro, all change that. Never have the Shimabukuro now. Some of 'em was Shimane. They all take the Shima, but only thing, take out the Fukuro, everybody. Shimane and Kashima, and what other one was? Oh, one was, yeah, Hidata. Oh, never have the Fukuro. Completely change the Hidata. Well, our village, nobody have the Shimabukuro now.

BN: Then you come to Hawaii and you're surrounded by Shimabukuros again.

SI: Yes. I was, oh, my goodness, yeah. Come to Hawaii, all Shimabukuro. "Oh, my goodness." I was so surprised that. Because Okinawa, all the change our village, all, nobody have the Shimabukuro.

BN: And then you got married, so the name changed again, which is a very unusual name.

SI: This is, they never changed. This is from before.

BN: That's unusual.

SI: Not too many.

BN: No, I don't think I've ever... it's like my name. Okay. Anything else? Well, thank you for doing this. You've had a very interesting life, considering where you started and where you ended up.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.