[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 60 (Monday, May 13, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S4276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             TRIBUTE TO MR. KENNETH OTAGAKI AND HIS FAMILY

 Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I am deeply honored to rise in 
tribute to Ken Otagaki, who is a very dear friend of mine. He is a 
patriot in the fullest sense of the word. His life and his service to 
our Nation should make all of us very proud to call him a fellow 
American. His story should inspire you. I ask to print in the Record an 
article about him and his family printed in the April 28, 2002, edition 
of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in Hawaii.
  The article follows.

                Loving Persistence Pays Off for Otagakis

                          (By Treena Shapiro)

       Members of the Otagaki family say that their patriarch has 
     never let obstacles defeat him.
       And as his children note, Kenneth Otagaki has faced 
     challenges that would have discouraged a lesser man--from 
     supporting himself while still a child, to wooing a reluctant 
     bride, to learning to cope with a disability after World War 
     II, to raising five children--eventually earning his Ph.D. 
     and becoming a member of Gov. John Burns' cabinet.
       Even at 84, ``He's full of energy for someone who could 
     have just sat around and said, `I can't do this, I can't do 
     that,''' said his daughter, Joy Miyashiro, 55.
       Consequently, while growing up, the Otagaki children never 
     wanted for anything, but had a lot to live up to.
       Ken Otagaki took control of his life at the age of 12, his 
     son Robin Otagaki said.
       He was the second son of a Big Island field laborer and his 
     picture bride wife. Because Japanese tradition at the time 
     dictated that the first-born son inherit everything, Ken ran 
     away to Honolulu at age 12 and worked as a houseboy, then put 
     himself through college.
       At the University of Hawaii in 1936, Ken met Janet, his 
     bride-to-be. He was majoring in agriculture, she was majoring 
     in home economics.
       When Ken first asked Janet on a date, she tried to fix him 
     up with a friend instead. ``And the next time he asked me, I 
     gave him the brush off because I'm not interested in him 
     since I had a boyfriend,'' Janet said.
       Eventually she consented to a date, ``but I wasn't very 
     much interested.''
       But Ken was more fun that her boyfriend, and more 
     persistent, she said. ``I tried to brush him off, but he just 
     wouldn't. This is what he said: `If I see a good one, why 
     should I stop? I'm going to keep chasing you,' '' she 
     remembered.
       After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Ken enlisted and 
     joined the famed 100th Infantry Division. He proposed to 
     Janet before being sent overseas and they decided to wait 
     until he returned to get married.
       Ken became a litter bearer, once helping an injured Spark 
     Matsunaga down from the mountains.
       In January 1944, near the hills of Cassino, Italy, Ken and 
     six other litter bearers were called upon to help soldiers in 
     front of them.
       It was about 10 p.m. and snowing, Ken recalled.
       ``The Germans saw us coming, I suppose, so they threw a 
     barrage of mortar shells. Unfortunately, one landed about 
     three feet away from where we were, backed up against a big 
     rock,'' he said.
       Of the eight American soldiers in the group, one escaped 
     injury. Three were killed and four, including Ken, were 
     wounded seriously.
       It was 20 hours before Ken was evacuated. The battle cost 
     him his right leg, two fingers on his right hand and the 
     sight in his right eye.
       He wrote to Janet, telling her about his injuries and 
     absolving her of her commitment to marry him, Joy said.
       However, ``She figured that he wasn't going to sit around 
     and feel sorry for himself,'' Joy said. They were married 
     later that year.
       Robin said Ken's injuries interfered with his plans to 
     become a medical doctor, then he was told he could not 
     practice veterinary medicine, either. He ended up using his 
     G.I. Bill to attend graduate school in Iowa and California, 
     earning a doctorate in animal science.
       Joy, who was born in Iowa, said her father's career took 
     the family to Berkely and Davis, Calif., while her mother 
     stayed home and raised five children that all came within one 
     or two years of each other.
       When Joy was 8, the family moved back to Hawaii, where her 
     father taught at the University of Hawaii and later led the 
     state Department of Agriculture during the Burns 
     administration.
       Joy said her father was always a good example for the kids.
       ``Even though he was physically challenged, he taught us 
     how to ride bicycles, he taught us how to swim. If there was 
     ripe mango up on the tree he would go up and get it,'' she 
     said, adding that he kept his tree-climbing a secret from her 
     mother.
       ``My mom really never worked, she did some substitute 
     teaching, but she never really had to go out (and work),'' 
     Miyashiro said. ``She always had Sunday dinners cooked for 
     us, she sewed, she entertained, she was den mother, brownie 
     leader.''
       She was also the family peacekeeper, according to Robin.
       ``My mother always had to be the one who was the mediator. 
     She had to buffer the father from the children and the 
     children from the father,'' he said.
       His father had high expectations of his children, 
     particularly in school, he said.
       But Robin, who now teaches secondary science at Punahou, 
     said the children were never academically inclined. In fact, 
     he graduated last in his class from the University Lab 
     School.
       He and his late brother were the only Otagaki children who 
     finished college.
       These days, however, Robin, 52, and his wife live in the 
     Manoa home he was raised in, while Ken and Janet live in a 
     cottage on the same property and they all get on 
     ``tremendously,'' Robin said, describing how he and his 
     father putter around the garden together.
       ``Little by little we meet in the middle,'' he said. ``He 
     has seen what I have become, and I realize where he has come 
     from.''
       Both Joy and Robin noted how their father dotes on his 
     eight grandchildren.
       Ken said the key to raising his family has been respect: 
     ``Like any family, all-in-all, it requires a lot of 
     understanding, a lot of give and take.''

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