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Great grandparents' hotel business in Hawaii

He actually went back to the Big Island and found his future wife, whose last name I believe was Higashi, but I don’t know anything about her family other than that they had a reputation for making very good poi on the Big Island. Anyway, she went back with him to Maui and together they scraped enough money to start their own hotel. So they started the Kagawa hotel in Kahului or Wailuku in Maui. Must have been Kahului. Anyway, it was the only Japanese hotel and so they did pretty well because there were obviously a lot of immigrants coming in from Japan and I guess at that time there was even trade that was developing. Anyway, he did pretty well as a hotel owner and he and his wife had four children.


business economics Hawaii hotels management United States

Date: April 25, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

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

Interviewee Bio

Robert Fujioka was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1952. He attended the University of Michigan earning a BA degree and earned an MBA from the University of Hawai'i. He has been in the banking industry since 1974 and currently serves as Vice Chair, Japanese American National Museum Board of Trustees, a Trustee of the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation, and the First Hawaiian Bank Foundation. (November 2018)

Harunori Oda
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Oda,Harunori

Getting started in America

(1927-2016) Shin-Issei businessman

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Harunori Oda
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Oda,Harunori

Expanding business

(1927-2016) Shin-Issei businessman

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Harunori Oda
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Oda,Harunori

Life Philosophy

(1927-2016) Shin-Issei businessman

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Herb Ohta
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Ohta,Herb

How he got on the All-Navy show on Ed Sullivan

(b. 1934) Ukulele player from Hawaii

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Herb Ohta
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Ohta,Herb

"Song for Anna"

(b. 1934) Ukulele player from Hawaii

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Herb Ohta
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Ohta,Herb

Performing in Japan

(b. 1934) Ukulele player from Hawaii

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Jimmy Ko Fukuhara
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Fukuhara,Jimmy Ko

Family nursery business

(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan

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Jimmy Ko Fukuhara
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Fukuhara,Jimmy Ko

After being discharged and returning to the nursery business

(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan

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Hachiro Ohtomo
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Ohtomo,Hachiro

Business in Missouri (Japanese)

(b. 1936) Shin-issei welding business owner

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Antonio Shinkiti Shikota
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Shikota,Antonio Shinkiti

Transition from a factory worker to starting his own business (Portuguese)

(b. 1962) Japanese Brazilian owner of a Brazilian products store in Japan.

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Tom Yuki
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Yuki,Tom

Father's business partner operated their farming business during WWII

(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.

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