Interviews
Great grandfather working in Hawaii
My great-grandfather was a sugar worker and in those days you were a contract worker. You not only had to pay for your transportation to Hawaii but you also had to pay for your rent and food and all that good stuff before you actually got net pay. I’m not exactly sure how long his contract was for, but at least three to five years I believe. He actually was working on the Big Island.
After whatever time it took for him to pay off the transportation part of it, he left the plantation because he knew that was too difficult a way of making a living. He then was a stowaway on a boat from the Big Island to Maui.
When he was there on Maui he went to the old hotel called the Pioneer Inn and somehow convinced the owner to hire him and train him as a bartender. He actually started as a bartender there and he learned most of his English there and he got to see how people interacted and got to overhear a lot of interesting conversations, especially in a bar where people say things where they wouldn’t say anywhere else.
Date: April 25, 2018
Location: California, US
Interviewer: John Esaki
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Picture brides and karifufu
An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.
Clothes of plantation workers
An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.
Kibei schoolchildren in Hiroshima, Japan
(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.
Change in attitudes after World War II
(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i
Working at a first aid station on Oahu after December 7
(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i
Mother's immigration to U.S. as a treaty merchant
(b. 1927) Japanese American Nisei. Family voluntarily returned to Japan during WWII.
Chose to go back to Japan
(b.1924) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Interpreter for British Army in Japan after WWII. Active in Japanese Canadian community
Coming to America
(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.
The reason for coming to Japan
(b. 1967) Hawai`i-born professional fighter in Japan
Treatment of Japanese Paraguayans during World War II (Spanish)
Nisei Paraguayan, Researcher
Reason to come back to Canada in 1954
(b. 1922) Canadian Nisei who was unable to return to Canada from Japan until 1952
Starting work at five years old
(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation
Not relating to Japan Americans' experiences on the mainland
(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation
Being accepted as biracial family
(b.1944) Founder of Kobayashi Group, LLC
Father's role in starting the Wailea Milling Company
(1925 - 2018) Nisei educator from Hawai‘i