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When Mary Masako Axthelm was 7, her parents divorced and she was taken from her home in Oregon to live with her maternal grandparents Kazuo and Toshiko Ikeda in Hawaii.
Former principal Kazuo Ikeda
celebrates his 90th birthday
surrounded by familyBy Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com"I felt kind of lonely," said Axthelm, now 32. But her grandfather, a strict school principal, was always there for her to share her problems.
"We had a closer relationship than even me and my mom, who was always so far away," she said.
Axthelm recalls her grandfather's "rolling" way of lecturing like a principal.
"He's such a principal-type that you're scared to cross him because you feel you're going to get called to the office.
"It took me a long time, but I realized he really loves me," she said. "If your heart is there, your intentions are good, that means something."
Discipline, love and education are family values that have been passed on to not only the children and grandchildren of Kazuo and Toshiko Ikeda, but thousands of their "other children."
Kazuo Ikeda, who turned 90 on Jan. 2, was a principal at nine elementary schools on Oahu, the Big Island and Maui, spanning the four decades from 1941 to 1977. Toshiko, 86, was also a career teacher 1956 to 1980 at Waianae and Kalihi Kai Elementary Schools.
Kazuo Ikeda's most memorable assignment was the 12 years spent at Nanaikapono Elementary School in Nanakuli from 1956 to 1968.
He remembers a fellow principal asking him: "'Why do you want to accept Nanaikapono? That's a rough school in a rough area. You are going to your grave 10 years earlier.' That principal has died before me, but I am still around."
The former principal is still remembered for his firm discipline, often administered with the whack of a paddle.
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"We'd be at some delicatessen and some grown Hawaiian men would come and tell him, 'You helped to set us straight, you really helped us,'" said daughter Linda Monroe, 58. "That is the most wonderful feeling. These people remember that discipline. They didn't like it, but they treasure that."My father is a simple person, a very humble man and he hasn't done anything grandiose, but he managed to touch the lives of these people, and the whole community."
Ikeda's brother-in-law Toshi Nakasone, also a retired principal, said: "He was really well-liked by the parents and the community in general. He was strict disciplinarian, but he was fair, caring and supportive of the kids. He used to treat kids to lunch when one of them lost their lunch money or forgot to bring their lunch money."
Last night the Ikeda family, including children Peyton Ikeda and Linda Monroe, and grandchildren Mary Masako Axthelm, Kyle and Jenny Ikeda, a sister Monica Kozuki, his brothers- and sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews and friends from the mainland, neighbor islands and Oahu gathered at patriarch Kazuo Ikeda's home in Moanalua Gardens to celebrate his 90th birthday.
Ikeda was moved to see so many faculty and staff members who worked with him at Nanaikapono Elementary School, attend the party. They brought with them a 1963-64 picture of the entire staff, with Ikeda sporting a bowtie and crewcut.
Family members read excerpts of funny and touching recollections of him from friends and family, which had been collected in a memory book and presented to him.
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The gathering exploded with laughter as a story submitted by his niece was read of how she found Ikeda's dentures, which he often keeps in his pockets."Over the years his bark has softened, but he's also lost some of his bite," Faye McCoy wrote.
The night before the party 10 members of the family gathered informally for dinner at Kenny's Restaurant in the Kam Shopping Center in Kalihi, where Kazuo and Toshiko, dine twice, if not three times, daily since their retirement more than 20 years ago.
Whenever the family comes to town, they must have at least one meal at Kenny's, said son Peyton, 60.
Born in 1912 and raised on a Maui sugar plantation in Puunene, Ikeda struggled to get a higher education.
He quit high school after his freshman year, worked a year for the mill, then realized he ought to finish high school.
Upon graduation from Lahainaluna High School in 1931, he worked four years at the sugar mill. Then with the encouragement of his Japanese language teacher and the help of the minister at the Lahaina United Methodist Church, he received a loan scholarship to attend the University of Hawaii. Ikeda supplemented that with bookkeeping and managing the dormitory at the Atherton YMCA. He even saved enough to send money back to his mother in the plantation camp.
Ikeda got his first teaching job at Honokowai Elementary School in Lahaina, and after four years, became principal.
In 1938, he married Toshiko Nakasone, who came from a family of 10 and whose Okinawan immigrant parents impressed upon them the importance of education. Five siblings became teachers, one a principal, one a doctor, another a nurse and another a teacher of Japanese flower arrangement.
"Those days, there were no unions, and plantation supervisors were powerful," said her brother, Toshi Nakasone. "Our father told us the only way to get ahead is to get an education."
"At that time the Japanese didn't believe in educating girls," sister Margaret Tsuda, 90, said. "My father's friends said he was foolish. 'Why educate girls when they get married?'"
Toshiko Ikeda, who worked in her parents' barber and beauty shops, finally graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1955, after she was married with two children.
She credits the help of her sister Margaret Tsuda, who took in daughter Linda on Maui while Toshiko went to school at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and Kazuo was principal of Naalehu School.
"Kazuo was so involved with school and community activities, so poor Peyton was always alone," Tsuda said. So Peyton was also sent to live with Tsuda and her husband, who were both teachers.
Tsuda and her siblings helped support each other as they attended college. For example, while brother Nobuyuki was at Harvard Medical School, Tsuda helped out until her sister Lily got her teaching position.
Linda Monroe eventually followed in the footsteps of her school principal father and schoolteacher mother.
"Education was extremely important in our lives," said the 58-year-old, who resides in Oregon. "Because I was a girl, it was understood I was going to be a teacher in some way, shape or form."
Monroe started as an education major, but convinced her parents to let her switch to art, which she eventually taught.
"Being the son of a principal is bad enough, but being the son of a principal and attending the same school is really hard," said Peyton Ikeda, who is a system administrator for a California software company. "You have to be exemplary."
Peyton, who married a schoolteacher from Hawaii, says he is proud of their own children, son Kyle, who is going for his doctorate in Japanese literature and daughter Jenny, who does web development with a software firm.
"They are the product of our continuing evolution from how we were brought up, from how my dad felt we should be raised," Peyton said. "Those values transferred to them."
For his 90th birthday, Peyton gave his dad a computer and is now teaching him a few things.
"I'm not going to learn too much, but the idea they think about me and spend the money and sent it through the mail ahead of time, makes me feel good," Kazuo Ikeda said.
"You cannot buy some of the values of family relationships," Kazuo said, crediting a power above with the blessings he's received.
"I consider myself very, very fortunate to enjoy a healthy body, a healthy life and a family that has been loyal to me and to each other."
