<Begin Segment 18>

JD: So, after the war, after your family's back on your farm, how did you compensate Felix for what he'd done for you all?

FK: Well, I know my dad said he was really grateful that he had taken care of our property and all that and all the years he'd worked for us. So he said he was gonna sell him an acre of land and sold it to him for a dollar to make it official. And that's where Felix built his house. And, and I think that's probably the most overt thing that they did as far as doing that. But you know, he was just like family. I mean, if my mother had a problem with something and needed some help, she would talk to him and, and he would give his advice. Or if, if something was going on in their family that my mom thought she could help with, then she was there. So, it was, it was really like family.

JD: Were there any other situations that you knew of where the Japanese Americans coming back actually created problems for Filipinos here? That opposite kind of a situation?

FK: Uh-huh. Yeah. I know one of the families that came back couldn't get the Filipino family off their land. And, and struggled and struggled with that for a long time and finally ended up selling it to them 'cause they couldn't get them to move. So... but, you know, there are isolated stories like that. There was one family in family in Kingston who gave their Caucasian neighbors power of attorney on their property in case something happened, and they sold the land without... didn't give them any of the money. So you know, those kind of things happened, but they were isolated. And most of that... there were Caucasian families on the island who looked after farms like the Rabers looked after the Kouras' and there were people who -- because you couldn't own land unless you were a citizen and your kids weren't old enough to own land yet -- would carry the contract for them until one of the kids got old enough to put the property under. So it just varied from situation to situation, and I think in most cases though, here on the island, there were just a lot of supportive people. And, and anything that happened that shouldn't have happened was pretty isolated. I know Kay talks about her family coming back to their house and they couldn't get the Caucasian renter out of their house. And that every time she was supposed pay the rent, she would write and tell them she had to repair this or repair that and would never pay her rent. So when they came back, she refused to leave, so the family finally moved into the basement. And this person refused to leave upstairs and so one day, she said one day her father decided he was gonna cook as many Japanese foods as he could that smelled awful. And he did that for a few days and she left. [Laughs] So, there's always a way to do something, I guess.

JD: The Japanese way to get somebody out of your house...

FK: Yeah, right.

JD: I have a question here about, after Felix came back from the Philippines with his bride, your mother helped her learn about American culture. Can you tell us something about the ways she, that she helped her?

FK: Well... I think it was probably a combination of my mother wanting to help her because my mother was so irritated, probably. [Laughs] I guess one of the examples they used was that she told her that when she answers the phone she's supposed to say hello. And that was because she was answering the phone by saying, "Who's this?" [Laughs] So, it was more a case of my mother probably trying to teach her courtesy-type stuff, you know, rather than... so, but you know, my mom was, was probably somebody that Cion could, could rely on and ask for advice if she needed some, some information on doing things.

JD: Did Felix and Cion have kids and were they kind of like part of your family?

FK: Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, the kids were... let's see, how many kids did they have? They had, I think, five kids. How many, six? Six, yeah, six. And, I remember the kids growing up, they were just really neat kids and stuff. And of course, Felix was older when he, when he married Cion, so he, I mean, he just was all excited about having a family and all that. So, but it was, it was really nice, yeah.

JD: So he lived on this acre of land that he'd gotten from your dad and they built a house and they were raising their family there and he was working in the shipyard mainly?

FK: Yeah, but he also bought some property on the island and started running his own berry farm and stuff. And, and was going to Alaska every summer. You know, he'd, he'd go there maybe for two or three months and probably make more than he would raising berries all year, so, as a foreman. I know he had his kids go up and he also had my sister's kids go up, you know, and work there. And I know my nephew Jon met his wife, Connie, there. [Laughs] So, he laughs about being a matchmaker. So, you know, he's just.... there's just something about him quality-wise that made people trust him to become foreman.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.