She came just like the an image bride into the 1918 for the Shinyo Maru when she is actually to get years of age
I remember meeting Ayako Kikugawa the very first time throughout the winter of 1985 during the Dot’s Bistro during the Wahiawa, Oahu. It absolutely was at annual Kumamoto kenjinkai (prefectural club) into Wahiawa/Waialua area shinnenkai (New year affair). The fresh new pub try reactivated after World war ii, in about 1955, following nisei sons came back domestic out-of offering for the European battlefields. My better half, Douglas, are president of your Waialua/Wahiawa city club to possess ten years. And so i try fortunate to fulfill a number of the issei female who’d been since the image brides out-of Kumamoto. A lot of the issei husbands got just after come leadership of your bar however, got because the died. Some of these spouses remained in well being and you can seemed toward brand new occasion annually. One spouse was Ayako Kikugawa. Within eighty-seven, she was still stunning and also elegant. Their own sensitive and painful keeps, darkish eyes, and you will fair skin matched up their own soft-verbal, gentle trends. It absolutely was hard to imagine that she was previously one of many picture brides who had been forced to toil away during the Wahiawa’s pineapple fields under the sizzling hot sunshine and make an income. Immediately following retiring on the pineapple plantation, Ayako compensated down with her partner, Shitoku, along with her third young buck, Akimi, in the Wahiawa. Akimi had dedicated to the fresh new property shortly after World war ii. Wahiawa is actually also called “Pineapple Town” whilst are bunlarД± deneyebilirsin in the middle of miles and you will miles off rich pineapple areas. Their residence is actually based in a quiet means of high eucalyptus trees along side Kakunahoa Lake, and this streams lazily to your tranquil Lake Wilson, the most significant freshwater lake for the Oahu. The latest Waialua Sugar Team first built which tank to irrigate the brand new sugarcane sphere all the way to Waimea Bay. Some people titled it the fresh new Wahiawa Reservoir, however, today it is best also known as River Wilson. It is a famous seasons-bullet fishing spot for tilapia, catfish, bluegill, and other varieties of seafood. The new lake is served by eco-friendly turtles. The leading grass of Ayako’s solitary-tale home try wonderfully improved that have a Japanese stone lawn, shapely pine bonsai tree, and you will yellow camellia herbs.
She sat comfortably to your sofa together with her hand folded towards the their particular lap
and their adorable yonsei (fourth-generation) grandchildren all of the stayed gladly under one roof. While i visited Ayako toward August eleven, 1987, she greeted me personally which have a loving smile and bowed their particular lead several times at doorway. I answered that have a bow, just as my personal mom got taught myself whenever i is really young. Ayako, like many almost every other issei women, clothed conservatively, for the an easy bluish pure cotton dress covered from inside the a flowery trend. Their silvergray tresses was lay into an effective chignon on the rear away from their unique lead and you will stored set up which have an olive-environmentally friendly lacquer brush. I realized that their unique give was indeed covered for the marks regarding stripping the spiny, razor-sharp leaves in the crown of pineapple bush. They were truly the only telltale signs left of one’s age she had done new plantation. Because she first started unfolding her earlier in the day, their unique voice faltered sometime with feeling. She paused, and you can gradually regained their unique composure. She is actually new embodiment of the woman on Meiji era: strong-willed, separate, and you may dedicated. The truth is, inside her a few-hour interviews she did not play with much of their Kumamoto dialect. She put standard Japanese with many dialect and very nothing Pidgin otherwise English. I began to ponder regarding the means she spoke. Over the course of my personal interview with several issei about isles, I realized that those who stored in close contact together with other villagers regarding the exact same countries retained the dialects and town tradition. It was easier to correspond with both in their common code. New
