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MN: You know, going back to your childhood time, when your dad, having been a principal of a Japanese language school and being involved in the Maui Kyoikukai, I guess, would you know what his stand was on Japanese language schools in Hawaii?

KM: Well, let me tell you what I know of why he quit teaching. This is, earlier I told you something about the Okinawan community and Naichi community. Well, as a teacher in Maui, the Maui community Japanese schools always had a contest annually where the outstanding Nisei student would be recognized within the Maui Association of Japanese Schools, you had this recognition once a year. And the year that my dad was still teaching, one of his students he considered exceptionally outstanding was an Okinawan boy. In the contest, he came on second and my dad was so mad about it that he made a real big, big fuss about it trying to overturn the decision, this and that. But because the thing had been announced and the winner was declared, he got so disgusted he quit teaching Japanese school and excused himself from the Japanese teaching. But he still was a member of the education association. And later on, turned out that his student became a biochemist and he was the biochemist for Kuakini Hospital from the very beginning. And Kuakini Hospital was then known as the Japanese Hospital in Honolulu. But Mr. Chine, longtime employee and biochemist at Kuakini Hospital, was my dad's student.

MN: He was the boy?

KM: He was the boy. So my dad was very, very liberal-minded. I can relate to that, too, because when my brother Paul got married to Ruth, when did they get married? 1941? No, he got married 1942, I think. Even at that time, for an interracial marriage, it was very unusual.

MN: And Ruth is Caucasian?

KM: Ruth is of Danish, from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was rather forward-minded.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.