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Members of the Otagaki family say that their patriarch has never let obstacles defeat him. Loving persistence
pays off for OtagakisBy Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com
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 than 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 Battalion. 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 the 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.
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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 the 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 Berkeley 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 a ripe mango up on the tree he would go up to 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."