Question: My wife and I were in Japan in May and Ikuko Matsui was our volunteer guide in Osaka. She chose us because we were from Hawaii. She showed me this photo and asked if I knew who the woman was on the right. She told me she was in the Hawaii English Language Program at the University of Hawaii in August 1974. I didn’t recognize the woman, but coincidentally, I taught in that program, helping instruct 17 boys from Nagoya. We had parties and gatherings, but I don’t remember meeting Ikuko (there were 2,000 college kids from Japan in the program). … If the Honolulu Star-Advertiser publishes the photograph perhaps a reader will recognize the woman and help Ikuko reconnect with her old friend.
Answer: We’ve emailed a copy of the photo to HELP, the intensive language-learning program at UH-Manoa for students whose first language is not English. The program focuses on training students in English skills for college or university study, but also welcomes anyone interested in improving their English for academic, professional or personal purposes, according to its website, 808ne.ws/1MnMhIn.
We’ll also put Kokua Line readers to work on this question, which comes to us from local author Bob Sigall, who writes “The Companies We Keep” series of books about Hawaii businesses, as well as the column “Rearview Mirror,” which runs Fridays in the Star-Advertiser’s Money section. As Sigall noted in his email, “what are the odds that the person who volunteers to be my guide in Osaka was in Hawaii in 1974 in the Hawaii English Language Program, and I was a teacher in the very same program?”
Matsui, pictured in the center of the photograph, initially thought the young woman was a fellow English-language student from Japan, but quickly realized “she couldn’t speak Japanese and I couldn’t speak English well, but we could manage to communicate.”
The local woman likely was a volunteer or instructor with the program. Although Matsui can’t remember her name, she vividly recalls her kindness and hospitality to newcomers who were far from home. “She asked us where we (had) visited, and we said nowhere except UH. She kindly offered to take us to some places in Oahu. … She drove her car and took us to Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Blow Hole and a shopping center,” Matsui said in an email to Sigall, who shared the information with Kokua Line.
If any reader recalls this Oahu outing, which Matsui said occurred Aug. 17, 1974, or can identify the woman in the photo and provide contact information, please email kokualine@staradvertiser.com and we’ll forward the details on to Matsui.
Q: Could you repeat the information about the free document shredding? I need the details in print, not a link online.
A: Yes. Hawaii Better Business Bureau’s Secure Your ID Day is coming up this Saturday. Free shredding will be offered from 9 a.m. to noon at the following locations on Oahu, Maui and the island of Hawaii, respectively:
>> Access Information Management Aiea Destruction Center: 98-736 Moanalua Loop, Aiea, HI 96701
>> McKinley High School: 1039 S. King St., Honolulu, HI 96814 (entrance off Pensacola Street)
>> Access Information Maui Record and Destruction Center: 124 Manea Place, Wailuku, HI 96793
>> Access Information Big Island Record and Destruction Center: 73-4164 Hulikoa Drive, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
Each person can drop off a maximum of two boxes of paper, CDs and floppy disks “that contain information you don’t want in the hands of identity thieves,” according to the BBB website.
Staples and paper clips can be shredded, but paper documents should be removed from binders.
For readers who are interested in more information online, see 808ne.ws/1JRpTq1.
Auwe
There must be at least 100 charitable organizations that are seeking donations from me. Each week I receive mail from two or three. Many of these organizations enclose address labels, notepads or calendars. How many address labels, notepads and calendars can I use or need? I wonder how much these organizations spend producing and sending these letters? I bet the total adds up. Maybe they would have to raise less money if they spent less sending out all this stuff.
Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
