Interviews

1. Growing up in Waikiki

2. Working at a first aid station on Oahu after December 7

3. Under suspicion after Pearl Harbor

4. 442 soldiers visiting U.S. concentration camps

5. Teaching at the military language school during World War II

6. Devastation in Tokyo after World War II

7. Change in attitudes after World War II

8. Lesson learned from community college faculty

9. Rewards of teaching

Richard Kosaki

(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i

Growing up in Waikiki

I didn't grow up in a plantation town like many of my brethren did. And I didn't live in, you know, there were many enclaves of ghettos, where they had strong Japanese presence, like in Moiliili or Palama and so forth. But Waikiki was very cosmopolitan. My neighbors were, my immediate neighbors, after we moved on Cartwright Road with the Rasmussens and the Ornellas, I guess of Portuguese descent, and quite well-to-do. And on the other side was the Donnelly, who was a German. So it was a very mixed group. There were scatterings of Japanese around, and most of the Japanese who lived in Waikiki, as my parents did, worked in the hotels, and it was the Moana Hotel, the Royal Hawaiian and the Halekulani. Those were the three big hotels, maybe the only hotels in those days. And my dad worked in all of them.

Hawai'i Honolulu hotels identity Oahu racially mixed people United States Waikiki

Date: March 19, 2004

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Mitchell Maki

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

Interviewee Bio

Dr. Richard Hiromichi Kosaki (born September 14, 1924) was raised, educated, and has lived most of his life in Honolulu, Hawai`i. During World War II he served in the Military Intelligence Service, first as an instructor, then for several years in Japan as an interpreter during the Occupation. He graduated from the University of Hawai`i in 1948, then received his Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Returning to the University of Hawai`i to teach political science, he embarked on a distinguished career there that included positions as Vice President for Community Colleges, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Chancellor of the West Oahu College, Acting Chancellor for the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, and President of Tokai International University in Honolulu. Along the way, he helped found the East-West Center, and was the architect of the University of Hawai`i’s community college system. His favorite maxim is the cornerstone of his educational philosophy: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

Dr. Kosaki is married to Mildred (Doi) Kosaki. Their son Randall was born in 1962. (March 19, 2004)

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