2018 Hawaii Kamuro Club

Hawaii Kamuro Club at Saturday Sep. 29th ,2018. Art and Rene Kimura's condominium party room. (photo by Water Mitsui)

This year, there were many activities for the gannenmono immigration to Hawaii 150th anniversary. In particular, there was much interest with the NHK gannenmono two-part documentary when it showed in Japan on NHK Premium, in Hawaii on TVJapan, then on the Hawaii public broadcast TV channel, and also when we showed the Japanese version with translation on July 28.

Therefore, our annual "shinnen enkai" gathering was very delayed, but we had it on Saturday, September 29 at Hawaii Okikamurokai members Art and Rene Kimura's condominium party room. And the Kimuras also provided the refreshments!

welcome table with 1930 picture and revival declarations and Hakuseiji gift

refreshment_table

Marie Otani　President of Hawaii Kamuro Club

marie otani, joy tanji

Tour presentation by Art Kimura

Kamuro tour presentation by Art Kimura

Rene Kimura, Art Kimura

Rene Kimura, Marie Otani

Art Kimura talked about his experiences traveling to Oshima and Okikamuro, and planning the tour for the Hilo Meishoin group. He encouraged us to travel on our own and explained how get around the area.

Alan Aoki

Genealogy presentation by Alan Aoki

Alan Aoki showed how to research your own genealogy. He's been able to find information on immigrants who came to Hawaii in the early 1900s, and he used the ship manifests to find their home town addresses in Japan. Alan narrated his own DVD presentation and brought many, many documents for us to see. As Japanese-Americans, searching for our ancestors requires references both in Hawaii and Japan. Alan showed us that it is not impossible to find family history information by just having an ancestor name and a birth year range. His presentation was fascinating, encouraging, and helpful.

Genealogy references

Genealogy references table presentation

Mary Yanagihara playing koto

Mary Yanagihara on koto with graphic effects

We also had a surprise performance by koto student Mary Yanagihara who came straight from her class! It was wonderful to hear and see a koto performance up close.