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TI: Tell me a little bit about your parents. Where did they come from?

FM: My dad came from Kumamoto, and my mom was from Fukushima. They somehow got together and, you know. Picture bride, or whatever you call it, in those days.

TI: So your father was here first on Molokai?

FM: I don't really know whether they came together, or they were... I don't know that part.

TI: What was your relationship with your parents? I mean, do you remember like with your father, what was your father like?

FM: Oh, he was a real hard-working man. He took good care of us. He used to be a dairyman. So he took good care of the cows, and the milking of the cows and all that kind of stuff.

TI: Okay. And then who were his customers? When he got the milk, did he...

FM: Oh, he worked for a senator in the island of Molokai. There was a Senator George P. Cook, and he had a community there. They had about four or five families working for him.

TI: Okay. So your father was the dairyman for the senator?

FM: Yes.

TI: So all the milk that they got was for the people that worked for the senator, and the senator?

FM: Uh-huh. It wasn't for resale or anything like that.

TI: And how about your mother? What did she do?

FM: Oh, just a homemaker. Stayed at home and took care of us kids.

TI: Most of the other Japanese on Molokai, what did they do? What kind of work?

FM: Oh, mostly plantation. They work in the plantations.

TI: I see, that's interesting. Any interesting -- can you... growing up, did you have jobs with the senator also, or, what kind of things did you do?

FM: No, no. We didn't have any work at all, no. All we do, we go to school, come back, and play around.

BK: How many siblings did you have?

FM: We had eight.

BK: Eight in your family?

FM: In the family.

TI: No, eight in the family, or, so you had...

FM: No. Five boys and three girls.

TI: Okay.

BK: And then in terms of birth order, where were you?

FM: Fifth. No, [Laughs] sixth, sixth.

BK: Sixth.

FM: I had two younger brothers.

BK: I see.

TI: What was it like, having so many brothers and sisters?

FM: Oh, we used to have a lot of fun. Yeah, playing together. Even now, when I think about those days when we were little, you know, playing around. We had to go into furo like that, yeah. We were all there playing, everything splashing around, having a great time.

TI: Do any of your siblings still live on Molokai?

FM: No. I have some nephews, nieces out there, but most of them already moved to Honolulu.

TI: Now what... people who live on Molokai, it seemed like all your siblings moved away. What were the reasons for moving away from Molokai? Why did people leave Molokai?

FM: I guess jobs. We can't get any decent jobs in Molokai. So they all go to school in Honolulu or come up to the mainland, go to school, and then find jobs in Honolulu, mostly.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.