My Grandparents

Oji-san and Oba-san

Turn of the century brought many challenges for people. One was the immigration of people to new lands. Some came from Europe to the East coast; others came from Eastern and Western Europe and headed west. My grandfather was in a group from Japan who took the long boat ride to Hawaii in hopes of a new life in a new land of opportunities. Not only was it opportunity but also a way of a young man's adventure.

The travel from Japan to Hawaii was long and tedious. My grandfather, "Oji-san", was incorrigible so his parents sent him to Hawaii hoping this would be beneficial to him as well as help his parents financially.

A young son, Santaro was sent to Hawaii when he was 19 years old to work the sugar fields. His parents were a poor family so the money Oji-san earned would be sent back to Japan and used to help support his family. His older brother had arrived in Hawaii with the first recruitment so Oji-san had a place to stay when he arrived. Eleven years after arriving in Hawaii, he married a Japanese "picture bride." A picture bride id a young girl whose marriage is arranged with the use of a picture sent to a young unmarried man. Eventually a boat load of picture brides arrived in Hawaii where they met their prospective grooms and were married to start a new life together. Oji-san's bride name was Kiku. They had two daughters, Kiyoko and Matsue. When the girls were only the ages of three, one and a half years old, their mother became very ill and had just a short time to live. My Oji-san borrowed the money to take her back to Japan where she passed away. He stayed in Japan for a few years. While there, he reunited with a childhood friend, Oshika Shiino.

Oshika came from a very prominent family who owned rice fields. Not much is known about her siblings except that she had an older sister and brother. Her father spoiled Oshika because she was the baby of the siblings. The only information known about her siblings is that her older brother became an officer in the Russian Manchurian war. When her parents passed away, Oshika then 16 year old, married and gave birth to two sons. Her husband eventually left her for another woman and took the boys. She never saw the boys again. This devastated Oshika so she left to work in the textile mills. After a few years, she returned to Shibata City where she reunited with Santaro. They had known each other when they were in grade school. Santaro used to tease Oshika because of the sores on her face and would tell her that no one would ever marry her. It has been said that this was a match marriage, Santaro needed a mother for his daughters and Oshika did not have her sons. Oshika then became my "Oba-san", my grandmother.

Their life in Hawaii began after a long trip from Japan. My Oba-san was pregnant with their first child. They arrived in Honolulu where they stayed at the Immigration Center temporarily. They were then sent to the Island of Hawaii. They finally landed at Mahukona, Hawaii, where my Oji-san eventually worked on the sugar plantation. They lived on the plantation where Santaro was a night watchman and Oshika worked in the cannery during the day and did laundry for the other workers at night. They had five children in addition to Oji-san's two other daughters. Oba-san could not stay home during the day so she made small packages of goodies wrapped in paper for her children when she left for work in the morning. In 1931 the plantation closed and my Oji-san and Oba-san moved with their seven children to Camp Five in Hawi.