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

Barbara Kawakami

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

Helping soldiers

On the grass outside, there weren't even enough blankets for the soldiers. And so all the casualties were lying down on the grass. And one man I remember vividly, he was a young guy, a blond soldier. He must've been 18 or 19. And I was looking after him and he had asked me to write a letter to his mother. So, with only eighth grade education, I couldn't do much. But, he dictated. So I did write the letter for him and he gave me the address to mail the letter. The next morning, I went back to him and he was gone. He passed away that night.

And so, funny how we were really just exposed to all the wartime things. The Army trucks just park in front—our plantation camp was filled with all the trucks and everything. So it scared us, we couldn't go out.

And then, what's funny, two weeks later, I received a letter from Washington D.C. from the Army Department. They had checked our background. They found out that I was an alien. And so they said, We appreciate your support and everything, and You did a good... I still have the letter, you know. And so then, being an alien, I'm sorry but that's about it, you know. And they didn't want me to help anymore. And so I think all my friends, I think, were eliminated from helping. But, that was kind of sad. So, because we grew up during wartime, I think it made it kind of difficult, too. I was considered an alien, I couldn't go out after 6 pm. I couldn't work near Army post. And so, it was kind of difficult for me.

discrimination Hawai'i interpersonal relations 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)