Description
Yoshie Seida Yamamoto was born on the Makaweli plantation on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. She grew up in Camp Four of the plantation, where her father worked as a luna (overseer). Shizue Takaki was born in the Schofield Barracks in Wahiawa on the island of Oahu, Hawaii in 1919. She was sent to Hiroshima, Japan as a child to live with relatives before returning to Kauai in 1936 to work at the Waimea Hotel and at her family’s laundry business. In this interview, Yamamoto and Takaki discuss growing up as Japanese Americans in Hawaii during World War II, the interracial environment they experienced on the plantations and in the local military base, Christianity and Buddhism in their communities, and their thoughts on the international community of Kauai.