She arrived since a graphic bride to be when you look at the 1918 to your Shinyo Maru whenever she was eighteen yrs . old
I remember fulfilling Ayako Kikugawa the very first time throughout the cold weather out of 1985 during the Dot's Cafe inside Wahiawa, Oahu. It absolutely was on yearly Kumamoto kenjinkai (prefectural club) toward Wahiawa/Waialua region shinnenkai (New year event). The newest pub try reactivated after World war ii, in approximately 1955, adopting the nisei sons came back family regarding helping to your Western european battlefields. My better half, Douglas, is actually president of your Waialua/Wahiawa area pub having a decade. Therefore i are lucky to fulfill a few of the issei women who'd been because the picture brides of Kumamoto. Quite a few of the issei husbands had immediately following been frontrunners of your bar however, had since died. Any of these wives were still when you look at the great health and you will seemed forward to the affair from year to year. One such spouse try Ayako Kikugawa. Within eighty-eight, she had been breathtaking and extremely graceful. Their own painful and sensitive features, dark brown attention, and you will fair skin tone coordinated their own flaccid-spoken, gentle manner. It actually was tough to suppose that she had previously been certainly one of the numerous photo brides who were compelled to toil aside when you look at the Wahiawa's pineapple sphere in scorching sun making a full time income. After retiring regarding pineapple plantation, Ayako compensated down together with her partner, Shitoku, along with her 3rd young buck, Akimi, in the Wahiawa. Akimi got committed to the fresh house immediately after World war ii. Wahiawa was also referred to as “Pineapple Urban area” as it was enclosed by miles and you will acres out of rich pineapple sphere. Their home try situated in a quiet setting out-of tall eucalyptus trees across the Kakunahoa hva er en postordrebrud? River, and therefore flows lazily towards the quiet Lake Wilson, the greatest freshwater river into Oahu. The fresh Waialua Sugar Team first built this reservoir so you can irrigate the brand new sugarcane areas as high as Waimea Bay. Some individuals titled it the newest Wahiawa Reservoir, but now it is better known as Lake Wilson. It is a well-known seasons-bullet angling spot for tilapia, catfish, bluegill, and other designs of fish. The fresh lake also offers green turtles. Leading turf of Ayako's solitary-story home try wonderfully landscaped that have an excellent Japanese stone backyard, shapely pine bonsai tree, and reddish camellia plants.
She seated comfortably into the chair along with her hand folded for the their own lap
in addition to their lovable yonsei (fourth-generation) grandchildren the existed joyfully in one place. Whenever i went along to Ayako toward August 11, 1987, she greeted me personally having a warm look and you can bowed her direct once or twice from the doorway. I answered that have a ribbon, just as my personal mommy got instructed me personally once i was very more youthful. Ayako, like many almost every other issei women, clothed conservatively, inside an easy bluish cotton fiber dress secured during the a floral development. Their silvergray tresses try put into the a good chignon on the back away from their particular lead and you may stored in place having an olive-environmentally friendly lacquer brush. I realized that their unique give was secure from inside the marks away from stripping this new spiny, razor-clear departs regarding the crown of the pineapple bush. They certainly were the actual only real revealing signs leftover of years she had worked tirelessly on new plantation. Since the she first started unfolding their particular previous, their unique sound faltered sometime which have emotion. She paused, and you may gradually restored their own composure. She are the brand new embodiment of a typical lady from the Meiji era: strong-willed, independent, and hardworking. Believe it or not, within her a couple-hour interview she failed to fool around with the majority of her Kumamoto dialect. She made use of standard Japanese with many dialect and incredibly absolutely nothing Pidgin or English. I started initially to ask yourself regarding the means she spoke. During the period of my interviews with many issei from the isles, I realized that those exactly who kept in intimate touch with other villagers in the same countries employed the dialects and you will town lifestyle. It actually was better to communicate with each other in their familiar language. Brand new
