When I told mom that I had written about her father on my blog she was very happy because she said he was not given the credit he truly deserved. Apparently a later priest recorded that the Americans of Japanese Ancestry Hall in Kalaupapa had been built by the Buddhist headquarters. He neglected to mention who spearheaded the project. As for my grandfather, he didn't care. It wasn't important. But it was important to my grandmother who dearly loved her husband.
Grandmother told mom that she needed to correct this in Hawaii. Well...Mom really didn't want to make a fuss. She was embarrassed and told her mother that it wasn't necessary. My grandmother, however, was not at all pleased.
Mom says that my putting the truth out on record into cyberspace must be making my grandmother smile.
I'm recording the following from my mother's memories and the memoir her mother wrote.
My grandparents arrived in Kaunakakai, Molokai in 1928.
They began a Japanese language school along with his duties as the new Zen Buddhist priest at the Rokuonzan Guzeiji Temple in Kaunakakai which is the largest town on Molokai.
Soon after, he went to visit the Hansen's Disease (leprosy) colony in Kalaupapa where there were 47 Japanese victims.
When he arrived there, grandfather was startled to be met by patients so grateful to have a priest of their own religion that they burst into tears.
He quickly learned that the patients were missing the foods they were familiar with so grandfather went back to Kaunakakai and got his congregation to put together food donations of things like mochi and tofu to bring down every month. Three men went down into the Kalaupapa peninsula with him to help carry the food.
They also wanted to see Japanese movies so grandfather went to Honolulu to pick up silent films to bring back to Kalaupapa. Since they were silent movies, grandfather apparently did the speaking parts.
The patients then told grandfather that they would dearly love a Clubhouse of their own. It would have been nice if they could have joined the other patients helped by Christian priests but this was 1928. They probably couldn't speak much English and their culture/religion were very different.
Grandfather went to Honolulu and advertised at the Hawaii Hochi and Hawaii Times, Ltd. Japanese language newspapers. Many years later when mom went to work at the Hawaii Times, Ltd., the reporters told her that they had a lot of respect for her father. He had taken the reporter/s down to Kalaupapa to show them what was needed. Mom said she was always treated kindly because she was her father's daughter.
At the main Zen Soto Mission temple at Nuuanu on Oahu, grandfather met Principal Misawa of the Tsurumi Girls High School from Japan and told him of this project. Mr. Misawa went back to his high school and his students collected enough money for a famous sculptor named Koun Takamura to carve a beautiful Kannon Buddhist statue for the new building.
One of the 47 Japanese patients at Kalaupapa was a carpenter by trade and soon organized the building of the new Clubhouse.
It is now called the AJA Hall (Americans of Japanese Ancestry) and is being preserved and used as a bookstore.
The meeting hall/clubhouse served as a movie theater, meeting place, sewing group area, temple, etc. The Kannon statue and other Buddhist artifacts would bring comfort to the patients. There grandfather gave sermons and prayed with his Kalaupapa congregation.
It was quite an amazing feeling to imagine my grandfather as a young priest walking about this room.
This lady manning the bookstore told us that she may know more of the history of the AJA hall. She has my e-mail. I hope that some day she'll find something she can share with me.
It's hard to know how accurate history can be. So much depends on the perspective of the researcher/writer. I'm recording what my grandmother and mother know as the truth.
I'm picturing my grandmother's happy smile. And my grandfather? I still don't think the recognition for his efforts mattered much to him. What gave him satisfaction was in helping those who needed it. In that, I believe he was satisfied. For me... I'm just content that this legacy can be passed down to my cousins and our children.
Grandmother told mom that she needed to correct this in Hawaii. Well...Mom really didn't want to make a fuss. She was embarrassed and told her mother that it wasn't necessary. My grandmother, however, was not at all pleased.
Mom says that my putting the truth out on record into cyberspace must be making my grandmother smile.
I'm recording the following from my mother's memories and the memoir her mother wrote.
They began a Japanese language school along with his duties as the new Zen Buddhist priest at the Rokuonzan Guzeiji Temple in Kaunakakai which is the largest town on Molokai.
Soon after, he went to visit the Hansen's Disease (leprosy) colony in Kalaupapa where there were 47 Japanese victims.
When he arrived there, grandfather was startled to be met by patients so grateful to have a priest of their own religion that they burst into tears.
He quickly learned that the patients were missing the foods they were familiar with so grandfather went back to Kaunakakai and got his congregation to put together food donations of things like mochi and tofu to bring down every month. Three men went down into the Kalaupapa peninsula with him to help carry the food.
The patients then told grandfather that they would dearly love a Clubhouse of their own. It would have been nice if they could have joined the other patients helped by Christian priests but this was 1928. They probably couldn't speak much English and their culture/religion were very different.
Grandfather went to Honolulu and advertised at the Hawaii Hochi and Hawaii Times, Ltd. Japanese language newspapers. Many years later when mom went to work at the Hawaii Times, Ltd., the reporters told her that they had a lot of respect for her father. He had taken the reporter/s down to Kalaupapa to show them what was needed. Mom said she was always treated kindly because she was her father's daughter.
At the main Zen Soto Mission temple at Nuuanu on Oahu, grandfather met Principal Misawa of the Tsurumi Girls High School from Japan and told him of this project. Mr. Misawa went back to his high school and his students collected enough money for a famous sculptor named Koun Takamura to carve a beautiful Kannon Buddhist statue for the new building.
It is now called the AJA Hall (Americans of Japanese Ancestry) and is being preserved and used as a bookstore.
The meeting hall/clubhouse served as a movie theater, meeting place, sewing group area, temple, etc. The Kannon statue and other Buddhist artifacts would bring comfort to the patients. There grandfather gave sermons and prayed with his Kalaupapa congregation.
This lady manning the bookstore told us that she may know more of the history of the AJA hall. She has my e-mail. I hope that some day she'll find something she can share with me.
It's hard to know how accurate history can be. So much depends on the perspective of the researcher/writer. I'm recording what my grandmother and mother know as the truth.
I'm picturing my grandmother's happy smile. And my grandfather? I still don't think the recognition for his efforts mattered much to him. What gave him satisfaction was in helping those who needed it. In that, I believe he was satisfied. For me... I'm just content that this legacy can be passed down to my cousins and our children.
it is all wonderful...the history, the love, the new blog header with your mother's smile.
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying your family history-I would make it into a book and donate to public libraries in your state and historical societies. Then it's truly published....
ReplyDeleteKay, I think your Grandfather was smiling down the day your Mom used Skype to chat with her siblings in Japan. I'm still thinking a movie might be good. DrumMajor
ReplyDeleteSince you know a lot more of the story, I can agree with you that mom's life is definitely the stuff of movies. It's always amazed my brother and me.
DeleteI think that Lin above has a great idea about you making this history into a book. It is all very interesting. Your grandfather was truly a wonderful and selfless man.
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky to have such a rich family background. Thinking about all this and how much difference quiet and modest people like your grandfather can make.
ReplyDeleteHi Kay, I think you should write that book about your Grandfather. Besides the print version you should also make it an electronic version. Folks borrow the electronic versions of the books in the library these days. They don't even have to go to the library to pick it up. While you at going thru all the work you may as well distribute it for sale on the sites that sell books like Amazon and in local bookstores. You definitely should have it up for sale in the bookstore in AJA Hall. It is part of the history of the place. See if you can get it into the librarys, it would be good reading for the children studying Hawaiian history. The more places you have them the better chances future generations will remember the mostly unknown group at the settlement.
ReplyDelete~L.
Opps... I mean see if you can get your book into the librarys at schools in Hawaii.
ReplyDelete~L.
G girl had a great idea. You are so blessed to have had such wonderful parents. I know you appreciate it very much. Dianne
ReplyDeleteThis narrative with pictures would make a super duper Holiday gift card/booklet. The things they can do now are amazing. I am currently having some of my paintings made into Holiday cards at Tom Terrific's print shop in Manoa.
ReplyDeleteAhhhhh.... perhaps someday, Hank. My son has told me the same thing.
Deleteyou know there is online publishing, you do such good and thorough posts.
ReplyDeleteWonderful new picture of your mom, I love it. Your grandfather stands just like mine did. Mine was a zoologist, and was also looking first for knowledge and second to help others. I know he visited Hirohito to consult on some biology matters in teh thirties. o thank him, the Emperor gave him some delightful prints, a Korean plate and a large vase. I still have them.
ReplyDeleteOh Wow, Mage! That is just so very fabulous! I just told mom about it and she said that yes, the previous Emperor and current one are interested in biology. Current one is most interested in fishes apparently. The gifts are truly legacies to pass down the generations.
DeleteImagine grandfather on that bus! You can be sure from his history that the vehicle would be moving forward steadily. Nice remembrance.
ReplyDeleteIs your father's picture anywhere in the AJA Hall, at the very least? WWII must have erased a good deal of Japanese national involvement from our recorded history and collective memory I'm sure. My great grandmother was so terrified of the war that she took her youngest child and returned to Japan before the war broke out, leaving behind her two oldest adult children, one being my grandfather. It was a difficult period for the Japanese citizens remaining, no doubt I'm sure...much of what your grandfather did was not recorded or even remembered due to the war.
ReplyDeleteL....w
I do believe there's a whole lot of truth to what you say. Because my grandfather was a priest of influence, my brother found his name on an Internment List by General McArthur two years before the start of the war. I don't know if it's all true, but I did see it which was a real shock. It opens up all kinds of cans of worms. The other thing is that my grandfather was Buddhist and there wasn't much interest in religions that were not Christian, I believe.
DeleteThe picture of your grandfather is so startling....why I don't know. It is as though he is looking at us presently.
DeleteHe eased the pain of patients most suffering...and went out of his way to do his missionary work, let alone risk contracting the disease himself. I hope his contribution is mentioned somewhere in our history books and in the AJA hall especially. The fact that he was a Buddhist priest from Japan is all the more reason why we shouldn't forget....especially in light of the distrust and hatred that war breeds between nations.
L....w
L...w
It really did amaze me that he took that risk as often as he did. He didn't know at the time that only 4-5% of the population was actually susceptible to the disease. My grandmother was always worried that he would get sick and she would lose him. After 8 years, she is the one that insisted they return to Japan. When I visited them in 1970, he had colon cancer and my grandmother cared for him lovingly. I loved seeing how much she loved him, how proud she was of him. It was so beautiful to me.
DeleteHis name and contributions are in the Buddhist records. My mother says that when she arrived in Hawaii, the priests here all knew his name and what he'd done. To this day, I cherish the memory of those three short weeks I spent at his temple in Sendai with he, my grandmother and the rest of the family.
The Buddhist St. Damian.
ReplyDeleteSomeone had to say it!
I want to publicize this info as it deserves. What a blessing to learn these things.
Arrigato Gozaimasu, dear friend
Aloha from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral
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That's so sweet, Cloudia, but I know grandfather would not agree. He did what he could, but unlike Father Damien and Brother Dutton, he did not give his whole life to Kalaupapa. He did not die there. With my grandmother too worried over his welfare and his four children he now had to care for, he left the islands after 8 years to return to Japan.
DeleteI'm late getting to your blog, Kay, but I have so enjoyed reading about your wonderful family!! What a wonderful book it would make indeed! Thank you as always for the great things you share with us! That was such a difficult time for everyone, but particularly for Japanese that had lived in Hawaii for so long to be treated as they were in Hawaii and in the US!! To me that has always been unforgivable and learning about the list that was in MacArthur's hands two years before the war began says a lot of very troubling things about our history. Thanks again!!
ReplyDeleteSylvia