K AUNAKAKAI
77
Misaki is almost a Molokai native. He came to the island with his parents in 1922, when he was one year old. His father, like tens of thousands of his Japanese countrymen, had come to Hawaii originally to work in the sugar plantations. He arrived in Hawaii when he was sixteen, planning to make some money and return home. But he married, and stayed. Misaki’s father worked on Maui for a number of years before
Richard Misaki: I can remember back to about 1926–27. Not too accurate, maybe, but I can recall the number of stores we had here. Where Mayo Kikukawa’s old store is, it used to be Toguri’s store. Where Mrs. Ito has her shop, that used to be a pool hall run by Mrs. Nishimura’s brother, the contractor Nishimura. Francis Takata’s dad had a service station where Araki’s store is right now. Right where Dr. Chu’s office is used to be a market run by Nohara; he used to have a piggery; he had a meat market, and that was the only meat market on the island. And of course Chang Tung’s store was here. Kaunakakai Bakery—Kanemitsu—used to have a shop right in the same area there, so all the shops were from Chang Tung’s down this way. We used to have a poi shop in the back here. Kim’s Service used to be an old theater. Yoshinaga’s store used to be used by Mrs. Kikukawa, the Midnite Inn Kikukawas; she had a dress shop there.