Little Sarah Cooper wrote her article on It's a Tiny Little World Out There  inspired by her Japanese exchange student and throughout our little conversations of my Japanese ancestry. Now it's my turn to give you some insight on the history of the Japanese immigrants to Hawaii and well as a little history of my mom and me.

The first Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii in 1868 as laborers in the pineapple and sugar cane fields.  My mother (Okasan) is full blooded Japanese although she is an American born Japanese and born on Kauai, Hawaii in 1928. (check my mom out in the picture!) American born Japanese are called Nisei Japanese if they were in the second generation (who usually were adults by WWII). The ones who were American born during the first generation....like my grandmother (Obachan) are called isei. My grandfather was born in Japan and my grandma was a "picture" bride which means they were set up by their parents.

There is a book called the "Samurai Sword" and my mom's family owned two of the swords from the Bizen era and made in the years 1081 and 1804. Click here to view the  Sukehira Swords info (page 160). Yup. Mom's maiden name is Sukehira. These swords passed down from generation to generation and my mom's only brother passed it to his son (my cousin), who still lives on Kauai. Many years ago my cousin gave them to a museum in Japan.

Now, my grandfather also owned a lot of land in Japan but since he chose to stay in Hawaii he had to donate the land and now there sits a college on the land. Ahhh. The price to live in paradise. They were flat our poor and really worked hard in their little Japanese country store in Nawiliwili, Kauai.

Of course, a lot of customs were handed down from generation to generation as well. (Not many in my house though) I am not literate in Japanese and only speak a little although we did live in Yokohama,Japan during one of my dad's tours in the US Navy during the years of 1962 to 1966. This gave me more insight into their way of life. I had a little Japanese girlfriend that didn't speak a lick of English. Funny. We got along just fine.My mom enrolled me in ballet in the village below us and this Japanese teacher hit my legs to teach me movement. Grrr.

By the time we came to Hawaii in 1967 I had no clue what "America" was like (as we had lived in the Philippines after Japan) and we were finally around mom's family which gave me more insight into my ancestry ....although Americanized. My cousin and I would always want to go to Aunt Sally's house on Kauai. She would cook Japanese food, and to this day I know every word to a Japanese song she taught me (and the only thing I can remember is about a boy and girl climbing up a mountain or something like that). She was also Buddist and prayed to her little temple. This is the only sister of my mom that married a Japanese ancestry man.

Sarah, decipher this:  Yuyake koyake de higa kuretei. Yama no otei ra no kane ga naru. Ote te tsu naide mina kaero Karasu to isho ni kaerimasho. (who knows if I even spelled it all right. But I sang it while typing)

The Japanese ethnic group used to account for 40% of the population in Hawaii back in the old days. Now, with so many mixtures of ethnic groups the % of "pure" Japanese has come down. Well, of course it has! Look at me. I'm half Japanese and half Swedish (dad was pure Swede from Wakefield, Massachusetts). The half/half mixtures of Japanese/Haole (Caucasian), Hawaiian/Haole, Filipino/Haole and so on are called Hapa Haole's. My children are one fourth Japanese and a variety of "haole" (Caucasian). 

My sukoshi (little bit) of Japanese History from Japan to Hawaii. And that's the way it was and is.

Celeste "Sally" Cheeseman's Mililani Hawaii Real Estate Blog 2007