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SG: Today, we're, on May 1, 2003, we're here with Mrs. Atami Ueno. Mrs. Ueno, can you tell me where you were born?

AU: I was born in a little town called Ola'a, and they had changed the name to Kea'au now. It's on the Big Island of Hawaii about nine miles from Hilo towards the volcano.

SG: What year were you born?

AU: 1927. I was born there, and as I was growing up, my mother used to run a little barber shop. She had a little barber shop. And as I can remember, she always had some ladies there that she was training when they get out of high school and wanted to be a barber, so we always had young girls staying at our house. And then Mother would train them for a year or two, and then they would go elsewhere to work. And so when I was little, because in those days, they never closed shop at five o'clock or whatever. So from early in the morning, she used to have the shop open until about eight, nine o'clock at night so that people after work can come, whatever. So she couldn't keep me around as a baby, so she had a Japanese old lady, I remember her name was Mrs. Ogata that used to take care of me. She used to take her to her house, and she'd keep me there during the week, and then she'd bring me home on Saturday mornings, and then my mother would have me for the weekend. And then on Sunday evening, then she'd take me back again until, I don't know, probably as I can remember, maybe, for about three years or so until I, you know, that she didn't have to be by my side constantly. And so I can remember her, and she was a very nice lady. That's where I was born. And then of course, I went to school in Ola'a, they used to call it the Ola'a School. And we had, if I don't speak very much pidgin, it's because I had a very good teacher who used to make us speak English. And every time you use a pidgin English, we had to put a nickel in the jar. And unlike these days, whenever, she made us be responsible for everything. And I remember one time that there was some kid that did something wrong and when she asked who had done that, nobody confessed to it, so we all had to take responsibility. The whole class were kept after school. So I think it was a good way of, you know, teaching that whatever you do, you had to be responsible for it or there will be a consequence.

And at that time, we did have a Japanese school that was separate from the English school. And there was a class every day, Monday through Saturday that, after the regular class, after the regular school, then from about 3 o'clock or so for an hour each day during the day, Monday through Friday. And then on Saturday, we had a Japanese class in the morning, and it was attached to the Japanese Buddhist Church, and we had teachers from Japan that were there teaching. And we had, if I can remember, there were about five or six teachers that were there that were teaching different classes. And besides reading and writing, we used to have a class called shuushin which taught you morals and things like that and how you should be respectful to others, how you have to be respectful to your parents, and how you should behave yourself in the community and all those things. Then it was called shuushin, and that's how we were kind of brought up. And because my mother was busy at, working all day and even through the evening, that it was always my father that used to put me to bed. And he always used to read me stories, Japanese stories, and he used to tell us stories. So when I first started going to the Japanese school which is in kindergarten and the summer school that I remember one day the teacher, we had an assembly and the principal said, "Well, who can, you know, tell us a story, who wants to come up here and tell us a story?" And I raised my right hand and I went in front and I told the story about Momotaro-san, you know, the Peach Boy, and I told exactly like my father told me. And my sister, who is seven years older than I am, was so embarrassed. [Laughs] She was so embarrassed because everybody was teasing her, "Oh, is that your sister?" But that's how we grew up, and it was a very nice community. And in Hawaii, we did not experience any discrimination or things like that even in those days, the old days, so it really didn't register in my mind about discrimination until much later after I went to Japan. And when I was in high school and there were some girls that came back from the States and when they were talking about, well, how they could not teach in public schools and obtain a government job and things like that, I just couldn't understand at first because in Hawaii, we were like everybody else. We were treated, you know, you can go as far as you want to if you were capable. So in that sense, I think I was very fortunate that we never experienced that.

SG: You mentioned shuushin, learning. Do you remember some specific things you learned about how to --

AU: Yes. There is a Japanese saying like "Nara no kannin, suru ga kannin," meaning even if it's hard, you feel you can forgive a person, that you should forgive that person, and by doing so, that you would be a greater person, things like that, and how that you should treat your parents, elderly, not to talk back to them, you know, you be obedient. And there's another saying that says, "Makeru ga kachi," to lose is to win. And always that sometimes you think that if you push further that you can win, but you should always be able to understand and forgive that person, and that person will understand, and that's your real victory, and you've won. You did not lose the fight. And there are very interesting things in which probably has helped me as I grew and, you know, became an adult, and little things like that would have helped me. And of course, those sayings were kind of taught at home too.

SG: It really had an impact, affected how you, what kind of person you became.

AU: Yes, uh-huh. You'd be more forgiving. You are more patient and maybe that would, this had help me in the later years. But of course with the work I had, with working with the immigration service where you were in a position to be listening to people's problems and trying to help them, and people always used to say how patient I was. But then I think listening was part of the, great part of the communication that's helped me, I think, from my childhood days as you're, we're kind of educated in that way.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.