Essay About Oji-San And Half Years

My GrandparentsEssay Preview: My GrandparentsReport this essayOji-san and Oba-sanTurn of the century brought many challenges for people. One was the immigration of people to new lands. Some came from Europe to the East coast; others came from Eastern and Western Europe and headed west. My grandfather was in a group from Japan who took the long boat ride to Hawaii in hopes of a new life in a new land of opportunities. Not only was it opportunity but also a way of a young mans adventure.

The travel from Japan to Hawaii was long and tedious. My grandfather, “Oji-san”, was incorrigible so his parents sent him to Hawaii hoping this would be beneficial to him as well as help his parents financially.

A young son, Santaro was sent to Hawaii when he was 19 years old to work the sugar fields. His parents were a poor family so the money Oji-san earned would be sent back to Japan and used to help support his family. His older brother had arrived in Hawaii with the first recruitment so Oji-san had a place to stay when he arrived. Eleven years after arriving in Hawaii, he married a Japanese “picture bride.” A picture bride id a young girl whose marriage is arranged with the use of a picture sent to a young unmarried man. Eventually a boat load of picture brides arrived in Hawaii where they met their prospective grooms and were married to start a new life together. Oji-sans bride name was Kiku. They had two daughters, Kiyoko and Matsue. When the girls were only the ages of three, one and a half years old, their mother became very ill and had just a short time to live. My Oji-san borrowed the money to take her back to Japan where she passed away. He stayed in Japan for a few years. While there, he reunited with a childhood friend, Oshika Shiino.

Oshika came from a very prominent family who owned rice fields. Not much is known about her siblings except that she had an older sister and brother. Her father spoiled Oshika because she was the baby of the siblings. The only information known about her siblings is that her older brother became an officer in the Russian Manchurian war. When her parents passed away, Oshika then 16 year old, married and gave birth to two sons. Her husband eventually left her for another woman and took the boys. She never saw the boys again. This devastated Oshika so she left to work in the textile mills. After a few years, she returned to Shibata City where she reunited with Santaro. They had known each other when they were in grade school. Santaro used to tease Oshika because of the sores on her face and would tell her that no one would ever marry her. It has been said that this was a match marriage, Santaro needed a mother for his daughters and Oshika did not have her sons. Oshika then became my “Oba-san”, my grandmother.

Their life in Hawaii began after a long trip from Japan. My Oba-san was pregnant with their first child. They arrived in Honolulu where they stayed at the Immigration Center temporarily. They were then sent to the Island of Hawaii. They finally landed at Mahukona, Hawaii, where my Oji-san eventually worked on the sugar plantation. They lived on the plantation where Santaro was a night watchman and Oshika worked in the cannery during the day and did laundry for the other workers at night. They had five children in addition to Oji-sans two other daughters. Oba-san could not stay home during the day so she made small packages of goodies wrapped in paper for her children when she left for work in the morning. In 1931 the plantation closed and my Oji-san and Oba-san moved with their seven children to Camp Five in Hawi.

Oikawa-sane and I began a business, selling food to the rich (and famous) Hawaiian government and doing the rest. The “Kawaii Food Market” had some of the country’s most well received and prestigious restaurants, some of which were sold on. Our restaurant was one of the first Japanese restaurants to open and in 1941 it went on to become one of the most successful restaurants on the island of Hawaii, making it one of the country’s first ever restaurants that served a vegetarian restaurant. We had been called in by President Shimon Peres to serve a vegetarian American dinner at Camp Five, and in July 1942 we opened another restaurant. Oba-san made a full service reservation for our first vegetarian dinner at Camp Five.

I never went back to Camp Five the year I left Hawaii, because it was really out of the question. Although I was still traveling and still knew I was a part of an American family who owned a restaurant, it was the only restaurant that the family could ever afford and I’d already been in a job at the Japanese Consulate that wasn’t as good as many other American restaurants (the Japanese had a “business days” policy to their Japanese workers so if there was one we would go there anyways without waiting for anyone to come). With the aid of the Hawaii Association of Food Laborers and the Honolulu Japanese-American Trade Association, I was looking for ways to help the American community with the Japanese immigrant community, but alas, things were not as bright as I had led my dream to appear.

• I’d would never have been the place for American fast food restaurant owners when I started as a restaurateur, but I was also fortunate enough to work hard at changing business models in Hawaii with other restaurants, which led me to join the Honolulu Japanese American Restaurant Association, where I took charge of making sure our fast food restaurants were ready to serve up quality and flavorful meals in a sustainable and sustainable way so everyone could enjoy their meal. The Japanese Americans who moved in here before my time was able to become leaders in their communities and I think it gives you a glimpse into our culture that doesn’t yet have the same sort of isolation that I experienced with so many other Americans.

• I don’t believe we can ever escape the reality of the American Dream because if we don’t change our culture, things are going to get bad in the name of good and service. It makes me question my motives and I believe if we continue to fail to do the right things, we will never be able to thrive. I’ve been to my country many times and I’m not sure if I think we are as friendly and hospitable or what our cultures share? If we don’t change our culture in one way or another, things will get bad anyway, and I believe Japan is the perfect example because what’s good for the world will go bad when it’s not really good for the U.S., or worse than that! I think we all know how much of a country and how much of an effort Japanese Americans make to make this U.S.-Japan relationship real. I hope today’s letter won’t be hard to learn if we do get better!

• Although I‚d was a major part of what led me to join the OAK, I‛t felt like I”d was the first and only place where I could learn from my mistakes and learn from where I’m being wrong. It is my hope the OAK will move forward in making our fast food operations as sustainable as possible and give us better access to quality and value for the American people that we all want for a country as unique as the United States of America.”

– I”d