Tsuru Yamauchi
published Oct 13, 2018

An Oral History

TSURU YAMAUCHI - Leaving Okinawa and Settling in Hawaii, 1910:
"Is Hawaii a place like this?"

Based on interviews by Michiko Kodama , ESOHP Researcher/ Interviewer.
Translated by Sandra Jha and Robin Fujikawa . Edited by Marie Hara .

We moved to Number 10 next, and I cooked and washed clothes about eight years there. It was a big place with A and B sections. Thus, there were two uke-bosses (bosses of the group that contracted to grow, tend and harvest cane).

The housing was just the same, right in the middle of the cane fields. They were houses all right, but they looked like chicken coops. And my children were always covered with red dirt. As soon as I changed their clothes they would be completely dirty again if they went outside.

At that time we had to wash everything by hand, scoop and carry the water from the faucet in the bathhouse. I did laundry by hand. I took the clothes to the bathhouse to wash, using a washtub, putting a box underneath it. I got wet all over, but I washed off the red dirt. On the first day I tried to wash off only dirt, so I soaked the clothes in soap and water. The next morning after all the men left, I put the laundry in two empty five-gallon oil cans. And I used three steel train rails to make a fireplace to boil the laundry - the white things first, then the underpants. Oh, I sure did everything!

And as for ironing, it was charcoal iron. We put in two pieces of charcoal and adjusted the heat until it got warm. At night after having the children go to bed, and having taken my bath close to bedtime, I did the children's ironing, trying not to make much noise. They could hear everything, you know; the walls were so close to each other. It was 10 o'clock when I went to bed. I did not like to just wash the clothes and let my kids wear them wrinkled, even if they were only children's clothes.

In the bathhouse we took weekly turns heating the water according to the A and B groups. At the beginning we used firewood to heat the water, but later coal began to be used . The uke-boss' wife from Yamaguchi-ken used to take care of that. She understood English very well, so she took care of everything, treating us like a real mother. I was still young and didn't know much, but she taught me many things.

In the cook job I found that it was getting easy to wake up in the morning and cook lots of rice. We were each apportioned a half bag per person for the month (50 pounds) as well as two boxes of udon each. We ate that much! I would use eight long boxes at a time to put into the morning miso soup. We also had tsukemono (pickles) made of daikon (radishes) which I grew at the edge of the cane field. I couldn't afford to buy them made. Only salt was used to wilt the daikon. Then I put it in a barrel with miso, put a heavy weight on top, and when it was ready, I took it out and used some for lunch boxes.

When they came back from the fields, I had to wash their lunch boxes. When they were clean I put green tea in a pot and set teacups on a table. I would pour the hot tea in the cups ahead of time. Because it was so busy. I got up at 3:30 a.m. I had washed the rice the night before and put it in a large container. It was cooked by firewood which was set up in place beforehand. When we were ready to set the fire, we poured a little kerosene over it, because I was in a hurry in the morning.

People came to eat at 5 o'clock in the morning in order to get the noodles before they boiled too long and didn't taste too good. As soon as those early people came, I put the noodle pot on the table with everything in it and brought out a ladle. The early people ate all the noodles, and only soup was left.

People ate breakfast on Saturday and Sunday too. I prepared it, and on Sunday I also washed and starched the bags they carried lunch in. So I had no time to play.

Because I was a cook, I had leftovers to throw away. Above the big pond down there in Number 10, we built a sty and kept pigs there . We also had ducks and chickens there .

The word wankoku means that whenever I bought anything, I would keep track of the amount. There was a head cook who was in charge of that, so I let him know the amount. It was less than five dollars - four dollars and something a month. If it had reached five dollars, I think everyone would have been shocked. I was afraid of that, so I seldom spent more than five . No matter how many children I had, three or four, meals for me and my children were free. We ate leftovers, you know, without making our own food. That is why it was free. I got paid one dollar a month per person. I did cooking, washing, everything. I got only one dollar. That is all . What with the cooking job, the washing, the household chores, the clothes to fix, and the children to feed and bathe, I worked very hard. I didn't even have time to put on my sandals. I couldn't make it unless I ran barefoot. I had to give milk to my babies and bathe them, then after a little while, make lunch, make hot tea. And if people had colds and wanted to drink something, I had to make miso soup or something. Really, I just felt tied to them, couldn't leave, but I had to feed my children, too. I did not have time to relax. That kind of work! I myself think I worked hard. I say this only because I am talking about my story now. I lived in poverty. But next door there lived childless Hiroshima people named Kamikawa. They loved my four children as though they were their own. They took them everywhere to play and were like real parents. I cannot forget them. Then there was the uke-boss' wife who loved all of my children . She even took my first daughter into her own bed to sleep when our girl had a toothache. (She had weak teeth.) It was helpful for me. My children were taken care of by everyone. We lived in that manner.

I was not even 30, but I had four children already, without a doctor. There was an Okinawan midwife in New Village in Ewa. I asked her to help me since I was very careful about childbirth, as my parents had told me to be.

When I had the first child, everyone was working. I worked up until the birth, too. On that day fire logs were brought for people to pick up near the railroad. So after people finished their lunch, everyone went out to get logs for their individual kitchens. My husband said that he would go get logs also, but I said he shouldn't leave today . Otherwise I couldn't clean up the kitchen. Then I went to take a bath while my husband finished the cleaning. As soon as I was through, I had to send him to call a midwife. When I felt a wave of pain, I held on to my waist for a while. Then soon, pain disappeared. Nobody went to the hospital. Everyone stayed at home.

There was a lady from Niigata in Mill Camp 2 in Waipahu who came to help. In those days a midwife just helped a baby be delivered, come out, you know. She took care of the umbilical cord and cleaned the rest. She bathed the baby and things like that. She would come back the next day to bathe the baby again. But it was far away, so as soon as the umbilical cord fell off, she stopped coming. She didn't do anything else. Even if we called her a midwife, that was it. Everybody had a hard time in those days. There is a lady who is 92 now, who made me this cushion. She said that as long as she lives, she would not forget me . So she made this and brought it over for me. I helped her when she had her first baby, because our area didn't even have a midwife then. She said that thanks to me, her life and her baby's were saved, and as long as she lives, she will never forget me. Up to now, even today.

When the women who came after me had babies, the midwife had moved and even if there was another one somewhere in Waipahu Camp, they couldn't find her in time, not having hired her beforehand. Since the midwife couldn't make it on time, I helped and cleaned the mothers, staying up sometimes all night without sleeping.

When the male cooks had some clothes to throw away, I kept them and boiled them with the dirty clothes, then kept them somewhere. When neighbor women from Japan had their first babies, they didn't have anything, not even old clothes. So I let them use those things. They needed clothes, but they didn't have anything. When I brought clothes for them to use, I said they could throw them away when they were done. It was tough in the old days. Nowadays people are blessed.

When I had my children, neighbors helped me. That's why my children could grow up safely. When I had a cold and was in bed, I couldn't work as a cook, so my husband took a day off and became a cook or took care of the children. All of the men were hard workers. Everyone was kind to me. I thank them for that. So in return, I did everything I could for them, too. Old days, really. But that's why I feel nostalgic.

I had that many children, and so I went nowhere, because I had to go on foot and with that many children I couldn't really go anyplace. When my friends had parties near us, then we went. There wasn't even a bon dance in those days. People did nothing but work. Some people neglected their children and did whatever they wanted, but we weren't like that. The occasions we celebrated with feasts were the Emperor's birthday and New Year's or wedding parties. Sometimes in a party we made much delicious food, you know. Even so it was just sushi (vinegared rice), tempura (fried food), and kamaboko (fish cake). That's about it. We did kill pigs, though. The cook who worked with me had some experience in that and killed them for us. We made rafute (pork dish) and used pork a lot, boiled or cooked with sugar and shoyu (soy sauce). Cooking in those days was simpler. There was nothing hard about it. Meat didn't have to be cooked in different ways; in everyday life we didn't get that much meat. We had chicken hekka (chicken and vegetable dish), though. We also had sashimi (raw fish) which was cheap in those days. Katsuo (bonito) was almost free compared to the current prices. Pork and sashimi were cheap . Katsuo was 50 cents for 30 pounds. But since there wasn't any ice box, I made dried katsuo by myself. I did things like that, but we didn't have anything else. There was a Chinese restaurant, you know, but we rarely went.

I feel very grateful looking back at my life when I was first in Hawaii. Everybody helped me. People were kind to each other. Things like being laughed at as Okinawans did not happen to us. What I feel grateful about is people were kind to us from the beginning. Many picture brides came to Number 10 and lived near me. Since they did not know as many things, I taught them what to do as I had been taught earlier. Everybody was just like brothers and sisters. When I was sick and couldn't do things, people came to help me after finishing their own work and doing their own chores. I really feel grateful about it.

Returning to Visit Okinawa, 1919: "I couldn't stay there too long."

Around 1919, after being away from home for eight or nine years, I took our four children back to Okinawa. People were very curious about us. In Itoman they asked, "Oh, you brought that many children back from Hawaii?" Neighbors were also saying things about my being dutiful to my parents. At that time there were quite a few people who went back with their children while leaving their husbands alone.

I had been told we should take the children back and have them go to school in Japan. I myself wanted to see my parents, too; that's why I went back happily. The children's grandfather on my husband 's side had come to Hawaii and stayed with us. He said if we took our children to show the grandmother in Okinawa, she would be happy. We didn't have enough money, so my husband let us go back while he stayed, still working in the cane fields.

When I returned to Okinawa our fifth child was born. Then our third child passed away from Spanish flu which was spreading all over the world. I felt so sorry for my child. At the time, even if I wanted to cool his head, there was no ice, you know. I got water from the river and changed it many times, but his temperature did not go down. If it had been now, such a thing wouldn't have happened. There wasn't a good doctor there either. Now it's very different. It's about the same as Hawaii. Things are better now in Okinawa. So they say, "Come, come, "but I don't like long airplane rides.

Back then, though having been so long away from my birthplace, I wanted to see all my friends from my younger days. They had gotten married and lived far away. So even if I wanted to see them, I couldn't because now they were scattered. I wanted to see the neighbors who I played with. I could not forget them. So I felt if I went to see them just once, then I'd know they were doing fine, and I'd feel at ease .

Back in ltoman things were very different from Hawaii: the climate, the food, the inconvenient things, such as closed windows even in summertime. It was awfully stuffy and there were many mosquitoes. I compared Okinawa with Hawaii. Even if we said Hawaii was bad or something like that, there wasn't any place as good as Hawaii for climate and sanitation. Okinawa hadn't changed a bit since before. That's why my children didn't like it either. So I thought I couldn't stay there too long.

The children would say, " Let's go back. Let's go back to see Papa."

They were in school and two of them later graduated from high school. They were young enough, and I had taken them back to Okinawa before they started going to school. So they got used to going and made friends. I stayed for four years. All along I thought, "If I come back to Hawaii, I can't leave my children behind. A mother and a child should not live apart.'' Also I thought schools in Japan would be better, although English must have been more important to them. Then my husband wrote that it would be hard for me to live in Okinawa and that I should come back.

He said we could have our children come home one by one. So I changed my mind. Since my mother was still young then, she allowed me to come to Hawaii again. Later on we called our children one by one to come home.

Beginning an Independent Life, 1923-1940: "Even then I happily worked."

Right away after coming from the Immigration Bureau, upon returning home from Okinawa, I took a job where my husband was then working. It was at the Honolulu Military Academy on 18th Avenue where a job for a woman was then available. Not knowing a thing, because I had come directly from Itoman to the plantation, I started work at the boarding school. Mrs. Stone was the housekeeper. She taught me a great deal. I didn't know how to do anything, but I learned well from her. We would do such things as bathe, feed, and take care of the mainly haole children who came from the distant countryside, places like Kona on the Big Island. They came even from America. There were 80 or 100 students at times.

Both my husband and I did kitchen work because it was busy around eating hours. In the morning I worked from 6 o'clock. After finishing with lunch work, I would serve Mr. Black and Mrs. Stone coffee and such from the small place where coffee was fixed. We spoke by gesturing. "This is a broom" or "Broom." I didn't understand, you know. We said things like that simply. Even without answering we worked by being shown how. So I surprised myself thinking how well I managed to do it. However, when I did speak of quitting, they stopped me, saying, "There is no better place than here. It is better to work here." Thus despite not knowing anything, I managed quite well. And they offered me a lot of work to do. Soon after each lunch I came back home, which was nearby, took a bath and such and went back again to help in the kitchen for dinner. I also kept the students in when they caught cold, taking food to their rooms. And there was a matter of cleaning up the tables. My husband, another boy and I would wash utensils, wipe them and put them all away. We were kitchen help in that way . There were people taking care of the yard. Those who did housecleaning would just clean house. It was so different from cane field work.

The pay was just a little. But the house was free. There we could live without using any money. We ate our meals over there too, and sometimes the cook, called Akee, a Chinese person, would give me leftovers. No rent. That is why we stayed. But we worked every day including Sunday; after lunch we had half a day off.

At first because I did not understand anything, I was a little apprehensive. But one gets used to it once one does it.

My own children were, until then, left in Okinawa, but one by one, we sent for them. As our numbers grew again, we moved into town. We had three more children in 1925, 1927 and 1929. Later, along with living in town came rent and the cost of sending children to school and such. When we were at the Academy my husband wanted to quit. He said it would be better to change to some other place . But then a familiar place is better, isn't it? The school work caused no difficulty, because it was all routine. He thought pig farming on some land owned by a haole in Waialae would be better. At the same time we could also raise vegetables and such. He asked if I thought we could do it by ourselves. But I disliked that kind of work even if he had experience, so I said no. By that time I had my sixth child. I had one after the other.

Individual teachers and the other married couples who had houses, would say to me, "Clean our rooms. You can rest your children on our beds while you clean." They were haoles, so I couldn't speak to them about anything, but I just worked. I worked for the coach of the football team and others. So I had work as a housemaid for teachers even after I left the work at the school.

I would bring the babies along with me and lay them on the extra beds. There were no babysitters then. The couple would both work so nobody was home. That kind of place would pay only a little money, bur there was a lot of work doing that kind of thing.

I also did work at home washing others' laundry while caring for our children. But I managed. If I didn't do it, I wouldn't have been able to raise the children. There would not have been any money.

People who lived on the second floor of a friend's store collected the laundry from the haole people for me . When I was finished I left the clothes at the store, and the people there paid me. The money was so little; one white shirt with long sleeves which you don't see now was ten cents. Undershirts were five cents. Pants were 15 cents. Really, those days!

It was laundry for four or five people a week, all by hand. I used a charcoal iron, and I had to light ten at a time in turn . If I did not let the wind enter each iron, the fire would go out. When one became weak, I alternated with the next.

In those days, many women in the Pawaa area did this work. They went to pick up laundry from the haole houses. After our family moved into town there was electricity so I could use the electric iron. I did this kind of work until l937 when I started working at Libby's cannery.

When I started they increased the salary to 30 cents an hour. It had been as low as 15 cents. Next-door ladies used to work at that rate. It went up from the day I began. I thought I was lucky and gladly accepted . I was thankful that the day I went, I worked. I felt lucky. I got a job; I was glad. At first I worked at jam (crushed pineapple). Jam seemed to be flowing away from me, so I realized I could not do that very well and asked to be changed to trimming.

When I was changed I worked with big kanaka women who had the big-size pineapples. I had the middle-size ones. So we peeled the pineapples which were taken by machine, and they flowed fast. Whatever passed in front of you had to be trimmed. I was small, but I did it. Nobody could beat me when it came to working with my hands. Everything looked easy enough, but trimming was a little tiring. I put the pineapples on one thumb and turned and trimmed them. But the next day I could not even comb my hair. I could not raise my arms or hands to my head. Still, I stuck at it and worked hard. I went every day. For only 30 cents an hour. But I was thankful. Even then I happily worked.

The work at Libby's was for three years during the season, while off season I went to the tuna factory to work for 20 cents per hour skinning the fish. I had heard about it through those working there. They said they needed as many people as possible during fish season. So I went. As soon as I finished the job at Libby's, I thought, "If I do not go today, I will never get a job.'' I went there from Libby's, walking very far. And on that day, there was a job available.

At that time I was really poor, very poor. I did not have a telephone at home. Besides, I had many children. It would have been only five cents to take a streetcar, but if I took it, I would have to pay five cents. With it I could buy apples and give to my children. I didn't take a streetcar if it was early enough.

The wife of a taxi driver was working at the factory, and the husband came to pick her up when it was late at night. Since it was late, we would ask the person to take us, too, saying, "Let's go home together." So if we paid about ten cents to them, they would take us, too. He came to pick up one person, but if there were five people, that made it worthwhile for him to take us all along. As we worked together, we got to know each other. About tuna, the fishermen brought it to the factory. They cleaned it and cut off the heads and such. The fish was next put on a table. Women, mostly Japanese, cut it in half. Then they cut each part into half again and sent it down. As they sent it down, I took it and cleaned off its skin all the way to its fin. Then after this cleaning I think it was sent out to the place where they canned it into tins. We learned the job by going there to the factory. The foreladies gave us the knives, told us the way to cut it, and we had to follow it properly.

I hated the smell. I brought clothes to change into, but I didn't have too many clothes. It could not be helped. It smelled so bad that I could not walk in front of people. But if I didn't do the work, I wouldn't be able to support my children. That's why I worked so hard at all those hours. When the fish were caught they asked us to work overtime until 9 o'clock at night. No fixed hours. The foreladies were all Japanese and had been working there from long before. The language spoken at the factory was all Japanese. When people from Okinawa got together, though, those who wanted to speak the Okinawan tongue did so. There were many Okinawans there. Many fish came down the line, so all of us in the row let each other know, since each of the things in front of you had to be taken up. The machine was working all the time, you know, although slowly. Foreladies were behind me and gave us commands. The people who could not do the work had to be watched by the foreladies. Even at that, although my body was small, no one could beat me when it came to working with my hands. I think of myself as a hard worker. How hard we all worked, people in those days!

Around the same time, I was housecleaning in Kahala, two or three houses a week. My friends who were working as cooks and such would ask me if I wanted to work. I was lucky others cared about me .

The job started from 8 o'clock in the morning. I had to leave at 6 o'clock. As soon as I arrived, I cleaned up the kitchen. They left things as they ate . After doing that, I did laundry. While I cleaned the house, the laundry dried. When I finished ironing, it was 6 o'clock in the evening. Two dollars and a half for that. Only two or three houses because I had to do my own things at home.

I heard that if you happened to work cleaning a house for a difficult person, such as a haole wife who was watching you all the time, it was not easy. But my people weren't like that. My job was fixed. I would know which room, which kitchen, what laundry to do. After doing that, it was over. It was much better than work with the pineapples or in the fields. Even if the salary was so low.


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