MY FAMILY: Part 1

Before I go into my family, just one news matter:  this decision yesterday.

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in three years and signaled one more interest rate hike in the coming months as it aims to slow rising inflation. The central bank raised rates yesterday 0.25%, making its flagship rate 4.00%. And as of this week, all but two members of the Federal Open Market Committee forecast another rate increase this year.

Inflation was up to 3.4% as of August, fueled by the Iran war’s impact on energy prices. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh told reporters that his agency can’t affect the prices of food and other items, “but what we can do, and will do, is ensure that any change in relative prices don’t broaden out.” President Donald Trump reacted to the decision by demanding interest rates be lowered, “AND FAST!” 

He later said the Fed’s decision was due to a “hostile board” that Warsh couldn't overpower. “I told, I talked to Kevin, and I think if you want to approach the board, it’s not going to matter. The board is very hostile. They’re very political. They’re doing the wrong thing.”

Trump also rejected the claim that rates were raised to combat inflation, arguing the board was “raising them only for political reasons.”

What Warsh said about the Fed’s decision.

Further, from the President:

“Interest Rates in the United States should be 1%, or less, because we are the Best Credit in the World—BY FAR,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “LOWER THE INTEREST RATES FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND FAST!”

Finally, from Warsh himself. The Fed’s newly minted chair, Kevin Warsh, whom Trump appointed in May to succeed Jerome Powell, said Wednesday that all 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee, including him, voted unanimously for the 0.25 percentage point hike. The federal funds rate now ranges between 3.75 and 4%.

 
Indicative of inflation, a key percentage is:  

7.08%  

Thirty-year mortgage rates hit a one-year high on Wednesday. The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage reached 7.08%, according to the Mortgage Research Center.

Says Google AI:

Bigger Payments: Moving from a 6% rate to a 7% rate on a $350,000 or $400,000 loan adds roughly $100 to $255 more every single month in principal and interest alone. [1, 2]
Total Interest: Over a standard 30-year term, that small percentage jump adds tens of thousands of dollars in extra interest paid to the bank. [1]

Perhaps using this word too much, but I did not have much interest in my roots while growing up.

• In 2005, at the age of 64, got a little curious, and joined a Finding Your Roots workshop at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii.
• Cost $50, but it came with a 143-page workshop manual and bento lunch, said to be worth $35.
• There were four sessions lasting all day.

• 
  Then, six years into retirement, in 2006, I sat next to David Ikegami at a 50th anniversary dinner for a couple.
• With his wife Elsie, they ran the Mormon Kalihi Family History Center.  From Google AI, still there if you're interested:

The Honolulu West FamilySearch Center is still located at 1723 Beckley St, Honolulu, HI 96819. [1]

The facility operates out of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building on Beckley Street in the Kalihi area. [1, 2]

Center Details

Address: 1723 Beckley St, Honolulu, HI 96819
Access: Available by appointment only.
Email: HI_HonoluluWest@familyhistorymail.org
Services: Free public access to genealogical records, technology, and trained staff assistance. [1, 2, 3]

• David was born in Utah and very well knew the Romneys.
• They asked me to drop by their center.  I did not have much information.  But I must have supplied enough, for they found in their archives (the Mormon Church is well-known for their roots search centers) a 16March1938 document dealing with my father Shogo applying for a certificate of Hawaiian birth.
• There was considerable official information about his father Kenjiro, who originally came  to Kauai from Hokkaido around 1900.
• Interestingly enough though, he arrived from America.
• A decade or so earlier, Utashinai found coal, and needed someone to learn about the process.  So Kenjiro was sent to the U.S.
• One of the witnesses said that Kenjiro was not a laborer, but a luna.  Rather unusual in those days for a Japanese person to hold a leader role.  From all reports, Kenjiro was in charge of building the first hydroelectric facilty.
• In 1902, Kenjiro married Hana Suzukawa, already living of Kauai with her father. One of the witnesses was Hikojiro Yamamoto, a news reporter.
• My father Shogo was born in Kilauea in 1903.
• The 3 MW hydroelectric facility was almost ready for commissioning in 1906 when Kenjiro fell off a cliff at work, and never recovered.
• My father's sister, Takayo, was born after Kenjiro died.
• His mother Hana then married Hikojiro Yamamoto, who must have been important to our family, for his grave stone is along side my parents' at the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park.
• At some point my dad, his sister and mother, with Hikojiru, moved to Palama in Honolulu. 
• At the age of 11, my father and his sister were sent to Japan.  He returned to Honolulu four years later, but Takayo got married to a Takahara and was last traced to live in Oita Prefecture in Kyushu.  His mother died in 1935.
• One of the witnesses to that original document mentioned above was Kinai Ikuma, who came to work at Kilauea Plantation in 1895.  
• He built the monument tombstone for Kenjiro on the hill above Kilauea.
• Became a minister in 1918 and married my mom and dad in 1928.

• 
  My older brother Stan was born in 1930, graduated from the University of Hawaii in civil engineering and went on to graduate school at the University of Michigan and UCLA, and became at one point the top marine structural engineer in the world.  Photo is with wife Annette.

• 
  Growing up in Honolulu, he played the clarinet and was into judo.
• He had moved to the Oxnard area of California in 1957 to work at the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory at Port Hueneme.
• He got me a summer job before my freshman, sophomore and junior years at Stanford, and I lived with his family during those periods.

• 
  This photo shows three brothers, Stan, Pat and younger brother Dan.
• His life in Southern California had a tragedy when two sons died from drowning.  Another son and daughter are active.  In fact, the whole family are entertainers.  They headed a hula halau and entertain throughout the region.

• Daughter Diane is a professional Patsy Cline tribute artist.

• Son Warren has a band, and for several decades now, entertain at weddings and sock hops.

• 
  At every reunion, we have a karaoke session.  They're all pros, so I go out of my way to be distinctive.  This is where my interest in Anak came, for I had too do something different, and one night tried Anak.  Turned out this was the session which was recorded for Stan to make a Christmas CD, which he gave to every one.  So out there is a CD of me singing Anak.  And I don't sound like Freddie Aguilar at all.

• 
  Here is photo of my wife Pearl and I at one of his orange trees in the backyard.  This large area had half a dozen citrus trees that provided fruit every day, all the they lived there.  Oxnard has that special climate where their lemon orchards led the nation in production.

• The family has had various reunions, usually in Oxnard and Las Vegas.

• 
  Stan passed away at the age of 84 in 2014.  He was a decade older than me and was the most influential person in my life.
• Read details about his life here.

• 
  My brother Dan is four years younger than me.
• When he was a Colonel in the Army, he actually headed the Pacific Command out of Camp Smith in Honolulu, from midnight to 6AM.  He also commanded.
• When he retired, he determined that Honolulu was the second best place for his family to settle, but that Las Vegas was much better.  So he has been there since then.
• He is a senior racquet ball champion, and with his grandson Mateo just visited us.  Yes, Mateo is tall:  6"2"

We went Sekiya's for dinner, with Dan and I having a memory meal, saimin (the local version of ramen) with a stick of BBQ meat.

Mateo wants to become an airline pilot and is in  had loco moco.  For the first time in his life.  He grew up in the New York area, and this was his first trip to Hawaii.

He loved this dish.  What is loco moco?  From Google AI:

Where and When: It was invented in 1949 at a small eatery called the Lincoln Grill in Hilo.

The Creators: Restaurant owners Richard and Nancy Inouye made the meal for local teenagers from the Lincoln Wreckers sports club.

The Name: The teens wanted a cheap, fast, and filling meal that was not a sandwich. They named it "loco" from the Spanish word for crazy, and added "moco" because it rhymed. [1, 2, 3, 4]

The next morning, they joined me for breakfast at 15 Craigside.  I passed on to them by life work searching for Kenjiro Takahashi's roots, for, at his young age, he is deeply interested in this subject.  He, Dan, and younger sister Sophia plan to visit Japan next year to start their search.  Note the mask they have around their neck.  15 Craigside still harbors a COVID outbreak.

Eleven years ago, I stopped by the home of Dan's son, Erik, who is a medical doctor.

As I showed Mateo earlier, here is a photo of Sophia eleven years ago.

I asked her what she wanted to become when she grew older, and she said, a rainbow butterfly.

With that introduction, I thus went on my first roots search in Japan in 2007, a year before this blog started.  I made a special effort to search for Kenjiro's roots for two main reasons:

• I was named Kenji after him.  In Japan Kenjiro means first son, and Kenji second son, which I am.
• There is vague family rumor that a grandmother of Kenjiro was a female samurai.

This posting is long enough.  I'll continue the story about my root searches as MY FAMILY:  Part 2.

However, I'll end by indicating that today is National Apple Dumpling Day.

• 
  Originated around the Pennsylvania area.
• Found among Amish recipes, and can be eaten as a dessert, usually with ice cream, but also as a breakfast dish.
• Not only do these pastries taste and smell like fall, but they look like it, too. First, the bright apples in their many colors come into our kitchens by the baskets and boxes full. Then we season them with warm-colored spices. Finally, when the pastry comes out of the oven filling our home with that delicious fragrance, it presents us with a gorgeous golden crust.
• I finally end by alerting you to tomorrow, which is National Pawpaw Day.  What is that?  Return tomorrow.

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