Densho Digital Repository
Katsugo Miho Collection
Title: Katsugo Miho Interview II
Narrator: Katsugo Miho
Interviewers: Michiko Kodama Nishimoto (primary), Warren Nishimoto (secondary)
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: February 9, 2006
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1022-2-7

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MN: And your parents came from Hiroshima-ken. In terms of their relationships with the Japanese community, was it just with Hiroshima-ken people or with all kinds of...

KM: Oh, everybody. Although in Maui, I think Hiroshima Kenjinkai was a big organization. Today, I think Hilo has a bigger, more active kenjinkai than Honolulu. Honolulu Hiroshima Kenjinkai, one of the bigger ones, but their basic activity was only their annual dinner and a picnic and their activities.

MN: In your dad's and mom's time, what did the Hiroshima Kenjinkai do?

KM: One of the primary functions in that generation was to get involved with funerals. Even for many years after World War II in Honolulu, if you remember the Hiroshima Kenjinkai, the kenjinkai people basically handled the funeral arrangements for, especially the first generation people. That was one of the primary functions of the kenjinkai. Not only gathering and picnics or annual dinner, but it was very much involved in the funeral arrangements. That was the primary role of the kenjinkai. The first-generation people especially was strong ties with the people who came from. So Hiroshima Kenjinkai in Honolulu after World War II, you had a very strong. And then you had, within the Hiroshima, you had subgroups like I used to belong to the Fujisaki group, which was my suburbs in Hiroshima. There were five suburbs in Hiroshima where most of the Hiroshima immigrants came from. This was, they call it Nihonmachi like the area of Waikiki, and then within the Waikiki you had Homura, you had Ooko, Danna, Fujisaki, Hyuna. So these five different subgroups also had a sub-kenjinkai and I used to be active in the Fujisaki Kenjinkai.

MN: And what other organizations were your mom or dad involved in? You have the kenjinkai, he's the educator...

KM: You also had the fujinkai.

MN: The women's group.

KM: Yeah, the women's group was strong. The women's group did not involve too many of the camp ladies, was more the merchant level groups, I think.

MN: In those old days, were there any equivalent to a merchant's group?

KM: There were, like my dad was a member of the... I don't know what they used to call it, hotel association made up of all the hotel people in Maui, which was Hamada across the street from us, and Wailuku had Kutsunai, I think, and then the leaders of this group was Yamashiro Hotel and Kobayashi Hotel from Honolulu. Nakamura Hotel. So my dad was a member of this strong hotel association. Besides the Japanese educational associations, which was statewide as well as islandwide.

WN: Was there an equivalent of a chamber of commerce?

KM: Well, Japanese chamber.

WN: There was a Japanese chamber.

KM: In Honolulu it was a big...

WN: What about on Maui? You know, with just the merchants?

KM: I don't know if Maui... because it was not my time. Maui, my basic time in Maui was high school. 1940, I graduated from high school. 1941 I worked one year at Maui Pineapple, and then in 1941 I came out to Honolulu to go to the University of Hawaii. So my time, my basic growing up time was up to 1941, and then for one year -- no, after the war started, I stayed back one year before I joined the 442. I was working as a carpenter, defense work.

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