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MN: And then I don't know if you know, but how was the hotel business for your family? Was it okay or struggling?

KM: I think we just barely survived, we just barely survived. Because already my brother Katsuro had already -- you see, he left for Utah out of high school, I think. So his expenses was heavy on my parents, I think. He had to work his way through Utah, too, and law school, all that. But he left rather early. So Tsukie worked as a secretary for Maui Soda Works after high school, and then left Hawaii to go to Japan and live in Japan. Then Fumiye started to go to University of Hawaii. So there was this outside-of-the-island expenses. Katsuro was still in school. Fumiye followed him. Paul was then on a high school level. So it was rather difficult. I don't know how my parents were able to do it, but I do know that in those days, tanomoshi was a very important part of the financial involvement. I used to remember that my mother always used to say that, well, there was a tanomoshi day was coming or going or whatever. I got to know what it was all about or realize what it was all about, the significance of tanomoshi. In my early years, I did not have any idea. But as I grew up, I became aware that financing at that time, tanomoshi was a integral part of family financing.

MN: And in those days, who were the people that were in their tanomoshi groups?

KM: I don't know the particulars but I would assume basically it was town, different merchants. Within the merchants, they had their own. Camp people had their own, I think. But I don't remember the camp people being too involved with tanomoshi. Basically, it was the town people.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.