Interviews

1. Going back to Hawaii

2. 1920 labor strike

3. Picture brides and karifufu

4. Racial make-up of plantation camps

5. Clothes of plantation workers

6. Surviving after father's death

7. Washing for Filipino bachelors

8. Kids working hard

9. Bombing of Pearl Harbor

10. Helping soldiers

11. Brother leaves for war, survival

12. Okinawan discrimination

13. First day of school

14. Doing chores

15. Eating cold rice

Kawakami,Barbara

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

Brother leaves for war, survival

And at that time, when he came to pick up my brother, my mother never showed tears. She smiled, and she said, “You’re an American now, no matter what. Don’t bring shame on the Oyama family.” And because you grew up without a father, don’t do anything to disgrace the family. “You fight for America, because that’s where you belong.”

And then, after my brother left, I went back to the house, and then I was surprised because […] when I went back to the house, my mother had locked herself in the bedroom and she was just crying her heart out. That’s the part where I admire my mother because she really never showed her weakness because she wanted to be strong for us, growing up without a father. And I think that’s what kept us going.

We were such a close-knit family, you know. And I think that’s the only time I really heard her really cry. And I think once, as a widowed mother, single mother, it must have been tough for her, you know. And once she tried to leave us, and I think she just wanted to get over it. So, a kind neighbor next door, you know, the adults came over to stop her. But, after I got married, I realized how difficult it was during that immigrant period. You know, you’re away from your family in Japan and without relatives to learn to survive on your own.

families World War II

Date: February 19, 2004

Location: Hawai'i, US

Interviewer: Lisa Itagaki, Krissy Kim

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

Interviewee Bio

Barbara Kawakami was born in 1921 in Okkogamura, Kumamoto, Japan, in a feudal farmhouse that had been her family’s home for more than 350 years. She was raised on the Oahu Sugar Plantation in Oahu, Hawai’i, and worked as a dressmaker and homemaker before earning her high school diploma, Bachelor of Science in Textile & Clothing, and Master of Arts in Asian Studies—after the age of 50.

In her senior year, she began to research the clothing that immigrants wore on the plantation for a term paper. Finding there was relatively little academic research in this area, Barbara embarked on a project to document and collect original plantation clothing as well as the stories behind the ingenuity of the makers. Over the course of fifteen years, Barbara recorded more than 250 interviews with aging Issei women and men and their Nisei children. She captured their lives, the struggles of immigration, and conditions working and living on the plantation. Importantly, she documented the stories behind the ingenuity of these Issei women as they slowly adapted their traditions to suit the needs of plantation life. Her knowledge of the Japanese language, having grown up on the plantation, and her extensive background as a noted dressmaker, helped many Issei women feel comfortable about sharing the untold stories of their lives as picture brides. From her extensive research, she published the first book on the topic, Japanese Immigrant Clothing in Hawai‘i 1885-1941 (University of Hawai‘i Press, 1993).

A noted storyteller, author, and historian, Barbara continues to travel to Japan as well as throughout the United States to give lectures regarding plantation life and clothing. She is widely recognized as the foremost authority on Japanese immigrant clothing and has served as a consultant to Hawaii Public Television, Waipahu Cultural Garden Park, Bishop Museum, the Japanese American National Museum, and to the movie production of Picture Bride. (February 19, 2004)