Maui Japanese book released
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor
Maui author Rita Goldman had just finished interviewing Yoshi Okada of Hana for a book about the island's Japanese community when she turned to ask if there was anything she might have overlooked.
Christie Wilson • The Honolulu Advertiser
"Well, I didn't tell you that Charles Lindbergh asked me to make his coffin," Okada said .
Rita Goldman of Maui spent five years researching "Every Grain of Rice: Portraits of Maui's Japanese Community."
Goldman made an about-face and sat down again with Okada, a carpenter who had built a writing studio for Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of the famed aviator. Lindbergh spent his last years on Maui and died in 1974 at his Kipahulu home.
Okada's humble story and vignettes of some of the Valley Isle's more well-known families are the focus of Goldman's just-released 240-page hardcover book, "Every Grain of Rice: Portraits of Maui's Japanese Community" ($49.95, The Donning Co.).
Proceeds from the sale of the book will go toward the nonprofit Nisei Veterans Memorial Center, which is planning a $3.9 million intergenerational center in Wailuku that will include an adult daycare facility and a preschool.
Goldman said the book title came from something longtime Maui radio personality Fusayo Koike told her about the values passed down from her parents, who were issei, or first-generation immigrants: "Every grain of rice is precious. They may look the same and look ordinary, but because it takes so much effort to grow, they are all precious."
Koike, who died earlier this year at age 93, was instrumental in providing Goldman with advice, translating Japanese-language material and putting her in contact with families to be featured in the book. Other valuable guidance was supplied by an editorial committee of local Japanese Americans, who told the author to seek out storekeepers, farmers, tailors, mechanics and craftsmen as well as the important and influential.
Among the obvious choices were businessmen such as Masaru "Pundy" Yokouchi, a real-estate developer who started out a baker and became one of the most powerful figures in state politics; government leaders such as the late Patsy Takemoto Mink and former state legislator Mamoru Yamasaki, who died days after talking with Goldman; and sports pioneers such as baseball greats Wally Yonamine and Ichiro "Iron" Maehara and legendary swimming coach Soichi Sakamoto.
Maui residents will recognize many of the Japanese-owned businesses started generations ago, whose stories are told in the book: Ooka Supermarket, Tasaka Guri-Guri, Sam Sato's, Kaneshige Jewelers, Nagamine Photo Studio, Hanzawa Store and Tokyo Tei restaurant, opened in 1935 by the Kitagawa family.
World War II plays a key role in any story about Japanese Americans in Hawai'i, and Maui counted many soldiers in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the 100th Battalion and the Military Intelligence Service. "Every Grain of Rice" includes the stories of two Maui boys who earned the Medal of Honor: the 442nd's Barney Hajiro, who led the charge to save the "Lost Battalion" in France, and Kaoru Moto of the 100th, who fought bravely in Italy.
Other compelling figures include Haleakala Ranch cowboy John Sakamoto, the product of a then-rare union between a Japanese father and a Portuguese mother; and Sentaro Ishii, a former samurai and one of the earliest Japanese arrivals who stowed away to Kipahulu in 1855, married a Hawaiian woman named Kahele and died in 1936 at age 102.
Goldman spent five years researching the book and assembling a treasury of archival and family photos. Many of the stories — some only a few paragraphs long — are verbatim anecdotes of everyday life gathered during the author's talk-story sessions with her subjects. She also relied on materials provided by local museums, libraries and newspaper accounts.
"What I hoped the book would do is be a portrait gallery in words and visuals that would tell personal stories linked together by overall history," she said.
The biggest challenge was finding information and images from the earliest years of Japanese immigration to Maui. Many families living in Hawai'i during World War II destroyed documents, photos and other memorabilia that connected them to their Japanese heritage because they were fearful of being accused of disloyalty.
Barbara Watanabe, executive director of the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center, described "Every Grain of Rice" as a family album more than a history book.
Goldman readily admits she is not a historian, and said she didn't know much about Japanese culture when she started the project. Yet, the Jewish woman raised in Chicago found a shared human experience in the stories of Maui's Japanese community, whose members lived through incredible times and were often thought of as outsiders.
"Every Grain of Rice: Portraits of Maui's Japanese Community" is available at Shirokiya at Ala Moana Center and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i; on Maui at the A&B Sugar Museum, Bailey House Museum, Borders Books, Music & Cafe, 'Iao Congregational Church, the Wailuku, Kahului and Makawao Hongwanji missions, Kahului Union Church, TJ's Outlet, Wailuku Union Church and W&F Washerette in Kahului. For more information, contact the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center at (808) 244-6862.
Contact Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
