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Roy Sakuma and Divine Intervention: Da Kine Story of Hawai‘i’s Legendary ‘Ukulele Mentor

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In Hawai‘i his name stay synonymous with da ‘ukulele. At 78 and still going strong, Roy Sakuma oversees da four locations of his Roy Sakuma ‘Ukulele Studios, which he’s been operating with his wife Kathy for ova 50 years. Togeddah dey also run their ‘ukulele record label, Roy Sakuma Productions. Plus it too, dey also lovingly organize da Annual ‘Ukulele Festival, “the largest of its kind in the world, boasting crowds of thousands.”

If you eva get da chance for talk story with Roy Sakuma, he going come across as da happiest guy on Earth. You would nevah guess how traumatic his childhood wuz. Luckily whenevah he seemed for be at his lowest point, da right car, da right person, da right song, would appear and help him on his path.

* * * * *

Lee Tonouchi (LT): What school you went? What year you grad?

Roy Sakuma (RS): I attended Roosevelt High School, but just for a little while [laughing].

LT: You mean you nevah graduate den?

RS: See, I had a congenital birth defect when I was born. My right ear is real small and I cannot hear well in that ear. So you can imagine growing up with a deformity, the kids tease you so you don’t want to go to school. And that’s why I started smoking at seven. I started drinking at 11. I ended up in detention home for a little while. I got into so much different troubling situations. I never hurt others, but I was always hurting myself.

One day the principal called me to his office and he says, “Roy, one of us has to go. And it’s not me.” So I said, “Thank you” and I walked out.

LT: How you identify as? Local Japanese? Japanese American? Nikkei?

RS: Japanese American. My mother Ayako was born in, I believe it was Hiroshima. But my father Warren Sakuma, if I’m not mistaken, he was born in Hawai‘i. And he was a member of the MIS [Military Intelligence Service].

A teenage Roy Sakuma discovers the ‘ukulele.

LT: What area you grew up in?

RS: I grew up in an area called Makiki, which is in Honolulu. We had an old house on Liholiho Street in the 1950s. But what was so neat about our old house is that there was an enclosed porch with a two-and-a-half foot stone wall. And so it could easily fit 15 to 20 kids. So every day, every night, there would be kids from the neighborhood on my porch playing cards, listening to the radio, playing the phonograph. So there was always kids around, which was kind of really neat, you know. And what was beautiful is that we had every ethnic background you can think of. Samoan, Hawaiian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Spanish.

Yeah, it was really great. I had my struggles, but I kept those hidden so no one could see them. So I enjoyed whenever there were kids around, I was really happy to be around them. That’s how I learned to play cards, to play for money just a little bit, you know, five cents. It taught me how to gamble because then later I would go to Vegas. I have a cute story I wanna tell you about Las Vegas.

LT: What? You wen wipeout one casino before?

RS: So I didn’t realize until years later, but what helped me in life is that I found out I have a photographic memory. So when I see the music, I just get it. That skill carries over to cards as well. I actually closed the table in blackjack one day in Vegas. I was just winning so many hands in a row. I wasn’t cheating, but I can, just by watching all the cards come down, process of elimination, I kind of know what’s left in the deck. So, you know, sometimes I stand on seven.

The funniest story is I actually was kicked out of a major hotel. I was approached by the manager of the hotel and he says, “Mr. Sakuma, you are no longer welcome at our hotel.” And I says, “Why?” He says, “You are winning too much.” You know what I was winning, Lee? I was not winning their money. I was winning their stuffed animals. I loved winning tons of animals to bring home so my wife and I could give them away to children.

LT: Hahahaha. Das nice of you, but NOT nice of dem! Okay. So how come you tink you wen gravitate to playing da ‘ukulele?

RS: The interesting thing is I was never into music because my hearing wasn’t so good. I didn’t even listen to the radio because of my upbringing and our family was very dysfunctional. But one day I happen to be riding a friend’s car and I was almost 16 years old and there was a song that came on. It was an ‘ukulele song called “Sushi” recorded by a gentleman named Herb Ohta, and his professional name was Ohta-san. That song just caught my attention. It was an ‘ukulele instrumental, and it was a Bossa nova beat, which I learned later on. I was so fascinated. I wanted to learn that song!

Well, coincidentally, about three weeks later, my best friend says, “Hey, Roy, look in the newspaper, in the classified ads. Learn from Ohta-san.” It was a sign. So I went to see him, and he said he would teach me. He really changed my life.

LT: How so?

RS: He kept me out of trouble. When I started learning from Ohta-san, I was so fascinated in learning. I actually practiced all day into the nighttime. So when my friends would call me and say, “Hey, Roy, let’s go out. Let’s go,” I wouldn’t go. And they would get into trouble. But I stayed home practicing. And I did that every single day. I stayed home and practiced. I was working a little bit, maybe three hours a day at a food center. And the rest of my time, I was always practicing my ‘ukulele.

Roy Sakuma (left) having an ‘ukulele jam session with his mentor Herb Ohta (right) in 1976.

LT: How has da perception of da ‘ukulele changed from da time you first started till now?

RS: In the 90s there was a shift. My wife Kathy and I, we produced a group called the Ka‘au Crater Boys. I think they, along with Iz [Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole] really changed the perception of the ‘ukulele with the types of Hawaiian reggae songs they were doing. Until the early 90s, the majority of the students that came to our studios were younger kids. Once they reached 12 or 13 years old, they would stop with ‘ukulele and switch to learning guitar instead. But when Iz and Ka‘au Crater Boys came out, we had so many calls from teenagers who wanted to learn from us. So they stopped playing the guitar, and the ‘ukulele became their focal point. That was a big change in Hawai‘i to see the ‘ukulele just go to a higher level. And taking it even further was one of my prize students Jake Shimabukuro. His style of playing just revolutionized it entirely.

LT: How come you decided for be one teacher rather than one performer yourself?

RS: At first I didn’t know if I could teach, but Ohta-san got me started with his students because he was a big star. He was traveling all over performing with the ‘ukulele so he needed someone to take over for him. When he came back, he says, “Roy, how did you like teaching?” I said, “I loved it.” And he says, you can take over all my students and that’s how I got into teaching because of him. This was way back when I was like 19 years old. Eventually, he would tell me move on my own and to open up my own studio. I realized later on in life that the one area where I think I can excel against anyone in the world is the ability to teach. I can always find a way to teach anyone.

LT: Who you most grateful to in helping you on your path?

RS: I think the first person that I’m really grateful for is a gentleman who helped me start the Annual ‘Ukulele Festival. When I was working as a parks keeper in Waikīkī, I was 21 years old and I was the lowest guy on the totem pole. But that was my job. So I would eat lunch at the bandstand at Kapi‘olani Park, and I would have this dream of putting on an ‘ukulele festival there. So one day I went to City Hall, and they directed me to Information and Complaints, where I met Moroni Medeiros. He was so amazed at what I wanted to do, so he helped me. And it was a success! He was an incredible mentor. Just how he treated people, it was always very beautiful.

The second is Ohta-san, who really taught me discipline because I grew up in a dysfunctional family, very dysfunctional. And it was through meeting Ohta-san that I found a pathway that changed my life. And that’s the beginning, I believe, of how I was able to get through all my struggles. Because my brother became mentally ill. He tried to take my life. Luckily, I escaped from that. My best friend became mentally ill. My other friend was shot in the head when I was 14 years old. So my life was totally a disaster. But I’m so grateful I made it.

Moroni Medeiros (left) and Roy Sakuma (right) plan another Annual ‘Ukulele Festival in 1975.

LT: I wen recently find out that YOU wrote da song “I Am What I Am.” Da song get such one powerful and important message about acceptance. You can try explain what prompted you for write that song.

RS: In 1970 I was still going through a lot of struggles. You know... I didn’t want... to live. I wanted to leave this planet. And one day, I went in the backyard with my ‘ukulele because the ‘ukulele gave me some peace. And I always picked. I never sing because I tried once with my friends and they said, “Roy, you're singing flat. Don’t sing.” So I don’t sing. But as I was picking, I stopped and I started strumming. And just out of the clear blue sky, I sang that song. It just poured out of me. I was so shocked. I ran in the house, grabbed a paper and pencil, and I wrote down the lyrics to what I just sang.

I am what I am. I’ll be what I’ll be.
Look can’t you see that it’s me, all of me.
I am what I am. I’ll be what I’ll be.
Look can’t you see that it’s me.

That was the chorus and there were three verses. Those lyrics, eventually what it told me is that I’m okay. That, you know what? That we are all special. And this is the message I share in schools, that we’re all special. But many times we get teased, we get hurt, and we start feeling we're not, but we are. And that really helped me. And so I published that song in 1971.

In 1994, I was playing that song for one of my best friends. He says, “Roy, that’s a beautiful song.” I say, “Yeah, I wrote it.” He says, “No, you didn’t. Roy, that came from divine intervention.”

“I Am What I Am” has brought so much healing, Lee. I can show you thousands of letters that I’ve gotten from kids that wrote how the song had embraced them and it helped them through tough times in their lives. And even to now, I get an email once in a while. So I don’t take credit for the song now. I just thank the Lord for giving me this song to share with the world.

 

© 2025 Lee A. Tonouchi

education Hawai'i Honolulu Kapiolani Park Lee Tonouchi musical instruments music teachers Oahu teachers teaching ukulele United States
About this series

In this series, acclaimed author "Da Pidgin Guerrilla" Lee A. Tonouchi uses the language of Hawai‘i Creole, a.k.a. Pidgin, to talk story with accomplished and up-and coming Japanese/Okinawan Americans from Hawai‘i. Interviewees discuss their passions, their triumphs, as well as their struggles as they reflect and express their gratitude to those who have helped them on their journeys to success.

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About the Author

Lee A. Tonouchi, Okinawan Yonsei, stay known as “Da Pidgin Guerrilla” for his activism in campaigning for Pidgin a.k.a. Hawai‘i Creole for be accepted as one legitimate language. Tonouchi stay da recipient of da 2023 American Association for Applied Linguistics Distinguished Public Service Award for his work in raising public awareness of important language-related issues and promoting linguistic social justice.

His Pidgin poetry collection Significant Moments in da Life of Oriental Faddah and Son: One Hawai‘i Okinawan Journal won da Association for Asian-American Studies Book Award. His Pidgin children’s picture book Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos won one Skipping Stones Honor Award. And his latest book stay Chiburu: Anthology of Hawai‘i Okinawan Literature.


Updated September 2023

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