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MN: And I know it's a long time ago, but what do you remember about your teachers? Any memorable ones who made an impact on you?

KM: Oh yeah, I remember one... one of my teachers by the name of Izumi, I think it was Izumi, he was my math teacher. And the statement that I recall by him, made by him was that Bing Crosby was a frequent visitor to Maui. And it was at the height of his popularity. He came because Maui was the center of polo. The plantation managers, Baldwin families, basically, their expertise polo play because they were the only ones who played polo, or could afford to play polo. But within the islands, I think Maui was the center of polo play. And so I remember Bing Crosby would come and play polo. Who else was that flier, the airplane pilot that got killed in Alaska crash? He died in an Alaska crash, world famous flier. But anyway... Wiley Post, I think it was. I think it was Wiley Post. They would come, and one year I remember Bing Crosby came as one of the guests. And there was a big, everybody would go down to the pier and see them come in and where he was going to go, and we'd all go down to the pier to say goodbye to him. And so it was at the age when Izumi started... although he was a math teacher, he happened to talk about what you wanted to be as you grew up and what kind of future you wanted. And so they were talking about different levels of professionalism. I distinctly remember him telling us, "Don't be a singer, it's just a temporary profession. You don't know when you're going to lose your voice." This is exactly what he said, this is exactly what I remember. He said, "There's no future in it." I keep thinking, all those years afterward, "Gee, when is Bing Crosby's future going to end?" [Laughs] That's why I remember it, because Bing Crosby lasted so long afterwards that what Izumi said way back then, I keep remembering, I can't forget it: "Don't be a singer because there's no future in it. You don't know when you're going to lose your voice." If you ask me what I remember of grammar school, that's about the most outstanding thing I remember in grammar school.

MN: What did Mr. Izumi say to become then? He told folks, "Don't become a singer," but what then should you become?

KM: He didn't delve into what if you become a school teacher, or even at that point, I think, it's not farfetched when you're forced to become doctors and physicians, dentists. He spoke of the professions, he spoke of other professions.

MN: Like Mr. Izumi is second generation AJA. At Kahului Grammar, what kind of backgrounds did the other teachers come from?

KM: I had another favorite teacher of mine was a Chinese background, married to a Japanese. She was Chinese but she was married to a Japanese man. She was one of my favorite teachers. Other than that, I don't remember, there were some real nice, pleasant Caucasian teachers, very nice teachers, I don't remember anything in particular outstanding other than that. They were very pleasant.

MN: Did those teachers come from local Caucasian families?

KM: They were local families. These people were very local. The ones at grammar school level were very local. There were wives of people who were working on the railroad. Other than that, I don't have clear recollections of their background.

MN: And what do you remember most about your studies there?

KM: I had the most difficult time with mathematics. That was my worst subject, mathematics. All the other classes I don't remember too much about, but math was the worst.

MN: If you evaluate yourself as a student in grammar school, how were you?

KM: Well, you know, I did not realize it at that time, but my classmates were from the camps, so to speak, most of them were having a bad, hard time financially. They were really... gradually when I got to the high school level, most of the boys were already dropouts. They were already working to make a living. So from my grade school through high school from my class, there were one of about three or four boys who went up to high school. And the rest, I guess they just got into stevedoring.

MN: Did any of them go into, like, the trade school that you mentioned earlier, or was that at a later time?

KM: I don't know, but I'm sure, because right next to our grammar school was this trade school. And some of my classmates went to trade school instead of high school. Well, you lose track. Once you're in high school and thereon, you lose track. Other than socially we get together and all that, but you lose track. So my recollection is very vague in that regard.

MN: For your, was that a given that you would go to high school?

KM: Oh, yes. There was no discussion or anything, it was just a natural step for me to be taking. Even going to the university, there was not talk about whether I'd go to work or what, but in my family, after high school, all of us worked at least one year to get the nest egg before we went to, came out to Honolulu to go to University of Hawaii.

MN: Why was it that way in your family, do you think, that you folks all went into higher education?

KM: I don't recall any serious discussion on whether what I would do or not. But it was a natural progression from grade school to high school, high school to the university. And that was, I guess, expected of me. Although my recollection after high school that I had no idea what I wanted to do, and I had absolutely no idea. But my brother had gone, my other sister didn't go because she went to Japan. But for me, Paul, Katsuaki had all continued on. Without any question, I was just to follow suit.

MN: And financially your family could do it?

KM: Somehow, the one year work was to build up a nest egg. But somehow we managed to send everybody to school, but we all did part-time work. All of us did part-time work.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.