Manoa Japanese school hails heritage
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
As a student at Manoa Japanese Language School in March 1929, Kazuo Kamemoto watched as Rizo Sakida planted a pine tree to commemorate the purchase of the school property from the Queen Lili'uokalani Estate.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
"It was about 3 feet tall," recalled the 85-year-old Kamemoto, a lifetime Manoa resident.
Students at Manoa Japanese Language School learn a song to prepare for the school's anniversary celebration tonight.
That same tree is now more than 20 feet tall. It stands in a courtyard between an old single-story wooden-frame building fronting the language school's East Manoa Road entrance and a two-story concrete classroom building.
To the Japanese the matsu, or pine, represents something strong and steadfast. It is an appropriate symbol for the school, which opened on Nov. 3, 1910, with 12 students.
Forced to close after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the language school reopened in 1948 with 250 students and has since had no disruption in classes. Today, it is one of 12 Japanese language schools remaining in the Hawai'i Kyoiku Kai Association, which once had more than 20 members, said Headmaster Albert Pyun.
Alumni and friends will honor Manoa Japanese Language School tonight at Manoa School cafeteria from 5 to 9 p.m.
Kamemoto, one of 10 children of a vegetable farmer and flower grower to graduate from the school, will be among the speakers. "The school has always been in the same location," Kamemoto said. "The old Manoa School used to be right next to the language school. In fact, the wooden building was purchased from Manoa School."
The building was acquired at auction for $1,000 in February 1955 and it cost $6,000 to have it moved to its present site, according to the language school's records.
In addition to his brothers and sisters, Kamemoto's four children graduated from Manoa Japanese Language School. Mari Shimazu, one of his grandchildren, is a student there today.
The school's enrollment has been about 150 students in kindergarten through the seventh grade in recent years. Monthly tuition is about $80 per child. Students are taught to read and write hiragana, the simple Japanese characters based on phonetics, as well as the more complex kanji.
"Kanji can be pronounced differently by the different groups but in meaning, they are very much the same," said Nakako Hiroe, the school's faculty director. Hiroe, a retired nurse, added the language school also teaches chado, the way of tea; shodo, or calligraphy; aikido; judo; ballet; and kado, or flower arrangement.
"I think we have to be wide open to make it interesting to children," Hiroe said.
Pyun said competing activities make it difficult for the school to keep its upper-grade students.
"When kids hit the fifth grade, they start dropping out," Pyun said. "Most of our younger students attend Manoa School or Noelani. But as they change schools, distance becomes a factor. Also, there are many other activities for them."
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
