Interviews

1. Going back to Hawaii

2. 1920 labor strike

3. Picture brides and karifufu

4. Racial make-up of plantation camps

5. Clothes of plantation workers

6. Surviving after father's death

7. Washing for Filipino bachelors

8. Kids working hard

9. Bombing of Pearl Harbor

10. Helping soldiers

11. Brother leaves for war, survival

12. Okinawan discrimination

13. First day of school

14. Doing chores

15. Eating cold rice

Kawakami,Barbara

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

Bombing of Pearl Harbor

While we were talking, we saw the Japanese plane with the hinomaru, the “rising sun” insignia, and the American plane. And we thought, your Aunty thought it was a maneuver, but it got so dangerous when the shell started falling on the ground from the anti-aircraft. She thought, “Gee, the maneuvers are dangerous. You better rush home.” And so, when I left her gate and went out, and 20 feet away, one of the shell fell right near me—about 20 feet away—and it opened a huge crater in that haole—we call it haole—haole house in the backyard. And so, I jumped up. Just the impact made me jump, you know, the vibration. And so, that’s when I ran down the hill, and since my brother was pruning the grapevine, and I was telling him the story. Just then, two planes—one with the red insignia and one American plane—they were just shooting each other. And one of the shell hit the next door roof. And if that neighbor was taking a nap that morning, he would have been killed. But, the shell ricocheted through my mother’s laundry room, she was doing laundry, and it missed her just by a couple of inches. So she ran out because it just shook her. She ran out and all the neighbors ran out. And then, we thought it was so real. So the next door neighbor came and told my brother that, “Oh, Kazuma, this is real. They just announced over the radio that this is real. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

Hawaii United States World War II

Date: February 19, 2004

Location: Hawai'i, US

Interviewer: Lisa Itagaki, Krissy Kim

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

Interviewee Bio

Barbara Kawakami was born in 1921 in Okkogamura, Kumamoto, Japan, in a feudal farmhouse that had been her family’s home for more than 350 years. She was raised on the Oahu Sugar Plantation in Oahu, Hawai’i, and worked as a dressmaker and homemaker before earning her high school diploma, Bachelor of Science in Textile & Clothing, and Master of Arts in Asian Studies—after the age of 50.

In her senior year, she began to research the clothing that immigrants wore on the plantation for a term paper. Finding there was relatively little academic research in this area, Barbara embarked on a project to document and collect original plantation clothing as well as the stories behind the ingenuity of the makers. Over the course of fifteen years, Barbara recorded more than 250 interviews with aging Issei women and men and their Nisei children. She captured their lives, the struggles of immigration, and conditions working and living on the plantation. Importantly, she documented the stories behind the ingenuity of these Issei women as they slowly adapted their traditions to suit the needs of plantation life. Her knowledge of the Japanese language, having grown up on the plantation, and her extensive background as a noted dressmaker, helped many Issei women feel comfortable about sharing the untold stories of their lives as picture brides. From her extensive research, she published the first book on the topic, Japanese Immigrant Clothing in Hawai‘i 1885-1941 (University of Hawai‘i Press, 1993).

A noted storyteller, author, and historian, Barbara continues to travel to Japan as well as throughout the United States to give lectures regarding plantation life and clothing. She is widely recognized as the foremost authority on Japanese immigrant clothing and has served as a consultant to Hawaii Public Television, Waipahu Cultural Garden Park, Bishop Museum, the Japanese American National Museum, and to the movie production of Picture Bride. (February 19, 2004)