“Steps toward a normal life?”
“And with that, trouble for your family. The Japanese workers, I’m not proud to admit, were paid less than the other ethnic groups, and Ken Shimura was among the chief agitators for wage parity. There was a strike and, when it finally settled, Ken was reassigned to Maui. Harue and Yoshitsune did not go with him. I can only imagine that my father’s managers didn’t want her to leave the school. Thus the offer of the house, which was recorded in my father’s diary as, “Harue Shimura agrees to remain teaching, and will pay $10 for house on Kalama.”
“It made sense for her to take the house,” I said, thinking about how she must have thought here was a home that would be her property, no longer subject to the whims of management.
“What happened next is unclear,” JP said. “I’m guessing that neither side recorded the transaction with the state, which left nothing for our company to use as evidence to handle both Yoshitsune Shimura’s complaint, and the Liangs’ request for a lease. At this point, there’s little that can be done; obviously, my father’s intent was to give the land to Harue Shimura, but it doesn’t make sense to give that portion to Yoshitsune Shimura, because Masuhiro Kikuchi will do more with that land, for the people of the Leeward Side, than Edwin could.”
“But you can’t give him the land, even if you wanted to.” There, I’d said it; Michael had thought I should wait for the lawyers, but the level of frankness that JP had employed with me made me feel he deserved the truth too. As carefully as I could explain without having the pictures and maps in hand, I explained about the evidence of the military’s takeover of the land by the water. At the end, I said, “You can, of course, sue the military for taking your land, but then you’d be in the same position you deplored Edwin for, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t doubt your story,” Josiah Pierce said, after a short silence. “It was the war, and we’d been bombed-the military had good reason to have such powers. And we were willing to give them concessions, too, because they left us the means to stay financially solvent. Because the government gave us a break, though, we never protested when the military ran roughshod over Oahu, seizing whatever land they wanted in the name of defense.”
“As you said, the island had been bombed. There was a reason for securing areas.”
“Just as there is now,” Josiah Pierce said. “I’m torn, because I know that on the Leeward Side, in the areas where I and other people have granted thousands of acres to Hawaiians, the people aren’t doing well, in terms of employment. The restaurant complex made sense to me-both from a financial and social viewpoint.”
“There are two sides to every problem, aren’t there?”
“I hope you don’t mind that I end our conversation now, Rei.”
“No, not at all.” Had I said too much?
“This is a shock to me; there’s no doubt about it. And you too will need to think over the information that you now possess.”
28
“I’M SORRY THAT you had to hunt me down,” I said when Michael found me, a few minutes later, sitting in the hotel’s lower garden underneath a massive banyan tree.
“I’m trained to hunt,” Michael said, smiling slightly. “Well, at least you had something to occupy you. I know I took a good while longer than nine minutes.”
“But you look wonderful,” I said. Michael was wearing what looked like raw-silk trousers with a green and brown patterned aloha shirt-the first Hawaiian gear in which I’d seen him.
“You were here for the phone reception, I’m guessing?” Michael’s eyes went to the telephone still in my hand.
“Josiah Pierce called me. It was quiet a conversation.”
“Let me guess: he wants to see you to discuss something he’s found out about the land deal? When you were in the hospital, he phoned me, using the state department number. He asked me for your phone number because, as he said, he didn’t want the truth to be inadvertently filtered.”
“He really does trust me, then,” I said.
“Yes. And I’m dying to hear everything, but we’d better get on our way to the restaurant first.”
We drove slowly out of Waikiki, sandwiched in long double lines of luxury cars and tour buses. I would have felt claustrophobic if it weren’t for the canal on our right, where a few golden lights still floated in the darkened water.
“Do you know anything about that?” Michael inclined his head toward the water.
I explained what I’d learned about Hawaii’s Japanese population marking the end of the obon season, offering the lighted boats to lead their ancestors’ spirits home. “I was regretting not having had the chance to send lights for Harue and Ken, but now I realize a candle was lit tonight, because JP found something in his father’s diary.” And this was the perfect time to begin with the sad story of Ken and Harue, with all its twists and disappointments.
“So Harue rehabilitated a guy with problems,” Michael said at the end of everything, when we were pulling into the garage at Restaurant Row. “That sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”
“She turned a stranger with a penchant for drinking and fighting into a family man and labor activist. But they died separated, which is what’s unusual-and so sad.”
Michael shut off the car and looked at me closely. “Now that you and Josiah Pierce are so chummy, do you think he’s off the list of suspect poisoners?”
“I don’t like to think I’d change my opinion based on a conversation,” I said slowly. “However, I like him, and I don’t think my brain would allow that to happen without some kind of intuition. I’d like to see him in a few days to look at the documents he found.”
“Rei, I’ll be gone by then. I still can’t help feeling anxious about him, after your poisoning. It hit me pretty bad, Rei. I’m still dreaming at night that I’ve lost you.”
“Maybe I’ve lost you,” I said. “I saw Hugh this afternoon, and I talked to him. Does your ultimatum still stand?”
“Of course not!” Michael exclaimed. “I regretted the words the instant I hung up. But you know how I am: I run away when I think I’m at risk.”
“Hugh had a driver bring him to the townhouse mid-afternoon. We talked a little bit about the land deal and Braden. He told me that Sendai, his old employer in Japan, collaborated with Mitsuo Kikuchi for some real-estate purchase.”
“Really? Does he know him?” Michael pressed the button to pull up the convertible’s whiny-sounding roof.
“By reputation only. He said Mitsuo Kikuchi was a hard bargainer, which we already know. It’s what Hugh told me about Kikuchi’s son, Jiro, that’s creepy. Hugh says there was a rumor a few years back that Jiro assaulted a woman. That’s why he’s here, tucked away at Pineapple Plantation. Hugh tried to scare me about him, but as you know, I’m already steering a wide berth.”
“You and your sailing metaphors,” Michael said, taking my hand. “I regret never having the chance to get you on Four Guys on the Edge .”
“I don’t regret it,” I said. “I don’t regret anything about this visit, even having to face Hugh. He was kind enough to give me a ride into town, and we had a light bite at his hotel and said a pleasant goodbye. It’s really over, Michael. Nobody kissed or cried or screamed.”
We walked out of the shadow of the garage and on to the street. A mix of emotions passed over Michael’s face, and finally he said, “I’ve been so stupid.”
“I would never say that about someone I love.” The words came quickly, before I could take them back. And now, under the streetlight, I could see that Michael’s face was as flushed as mine.