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TI: You mentioned earlier the Kagoshima-ken. Do you remember any, before the war, Kagoshima-ken gatherings like picnics or anything?

MI: Oh, yeah. Kagoshima-ken people, we always had picnics. They had... and then whenever somebody got married or something, it'd be a big gathering.

TI: And so how large was these Kagoshima-ken gatherings?

MI: Oh, even to this day, you still have Kagoshima-ken.

TI: And so like a Kagoshima-ken gathering, where would they hold that if the whole ken got together?

MI: They usually used to have a, go to a restaurant to have a party. That, I can't remember.

TI: How about the picnics before the war? Do you remember any of those?

MI: Well, they say that we used to go to Kubota Gardens.

TI: Oh.

MI: For picnics.

TI: Because was the Kubota family Kagoshima-ken?

MI: No. But all the... whenever a kenjinkai had a party, they used to use Kubota Gardens.

TI: And so when you mentioned Kagoshima-ken, who were some of the families in Kagoshima?

MI: Well, there was the Manakitas, Kodamas, Hamadas, I mean, there was a whole mess of Kagoshimas. Kagoshima was a poor village that a lot of 'em immigrated.

TI: And what's the significance of being from the same ken? So if you knew a family, you mentioned like the Hamadas who were Kagoshima-ken, in the day-to-day life, what did that make you think or feel when you knew that someone was from the same Kagoshima ken as you?

MI: Well, like Kagoshima, they had a different dialect. And then like the Koriyamas and whatnot, they were one of the better... when they talked to my mom, you don't know what they're talking about.

TI: Oh, because their ken was just, the dialect was so different?

MI: The dialect was so distinct, yeah.

TI: And when you heard a Kagoshima-ken dialect, what did that make you think?

MI: Well, I mean, I grew up with it. Like they always greet each other as omansan.

TI: Instead of, what would the more proper...

MI: I don't know.

TI: So it's more colloquial almost.

MI: And then, like, when you say, "Arigato," you'd say, "Arigato gowashita," and that's Kagoshima dialect.

TI: Because growing up, you always mentioned Kagoshima as being more country?

MI: Yeah, it was the country, yeah. Ibusuki was really country.

TI: So when I think of that, I think of the United States, when we say someone's from the country, we think it's more kind of rural and maybe not as educated, things like that.

MI: Well, as far as I know, Dad was a teacher, but he was a second son. And then Japanese, everything goes to the first son. And so I think that's one of the reasons why. And as long as they were struggling in Japan at that time, he immigrated in 1907.

TI: Okay, so he was fairly well-educated?

MI: Well, he was a teacher, Japanese teacher.

TI: Now your dad, I call him Jiichan, always came across as somewhat regal. I mean, he's very, always good posture, always dressed well.

MI: Well, that's because he had to work at Rainier Club.

TI: Right.

MI: And then he kind of practiced his English, so he knew some English.

TI: That's good. So we talked about the... going back to the Kagoshima-ken, so I wanted to ask a little bit more. So when you see someone from the same ken, does it make you feel like you could trust that person maybe more, or you feel like if you were to do business with them...

MI: Well, I mean, I don't know what ken you were, other people were, but a ken, they have close relationships. And then like the Ikeda side, they were from Takamatsu, and that was a rich colony. So you didn't have too many people from Takamatsu.

TI: So that's my dad...

MI: Ikeda side.

TI: Ikeda side.

MI: So when Junks was in Seattle, they said there were about four families that were from Takamatsu. Then Louise Kashino, Tsubois were from Takamatsu, and they were about the only strong Takamatsu people.

TI: That's what I remember Dad saying. So they could do the ken party with just the two of them.

MI: Two of them. [Laughs] They take turns being president, so they could figure out what party they were going to have. So Junks knew the Tsubois real well, because they were from the same ken. Whereas Kagoshima, man, there was a whole slug of them.

TI: No, I remember growing up, always the Kagoshima-ken kind of...

MI: You remember the picnics they used to have at Lincoln Park.

TI: And then the annual dinner, right, they would do a dinner and things like that.

MI: So there were enough of us to have a party.

TI: Yeah, there seems to be... even though you called it country, there seems to be a lot of pride being from Kagoshima, at least, that's what I grew up with.

MI: Well, Kagoshima was a poor city, and then Ibusuki was a country, real...

TI: But, we're going a little bit out of sequence, but after the war, you traveled to Japan and visited Kagoshima. And I know that Kagoshima, because it's very south, it was kind of like the..

MI: It was the bottom of the hill.

TI: Bottom of the hill, bottom of the...

MI: Island.

TI: Island. But it was also like a sending off point for, like, the kamikaze pilots, it's close to Korea, so it's also like a...

MI: It was close to that -- I forgot the name of the place -- but they used to send off the pilots.

TI: Right, the pilots there, there was almost like a warrior class there because of its proximity to Korea.

MI: Kamikazes, and they knew they weren't going to come back. They just had enough gasoline in the airplane to bomb a battleship and sink the battleship and then die there.

TI: But I just remember you talking about the area and how there was almost like this, almost like a warrior mentality in terms of the...

MI: Gosh, I can't remember names of families. But that family, airfield that all the airmen left. It was real interesting.

TI: Yeah, I remember you talking about this, it was fascinating.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.