No doubt you’ve heard angry stories about somebody getting their car stolen. Maybe you’ve told that story yourself.
This one is a little different.
First of all, the guy telling the story, Norman Kikuta, is 96. His wife, Matsuko, 93, drove him to a doctor’s appointment at The Queen’s Physicians Office Building I on Sept 23. She dropped him off at the entrance and then went into the parking structure to park the car. When they were ready to go, the car was gone.
The Kikutas contacted Queen’s security staff, which helped scour all of Queen’s lots to make sure they weren’t wrong about where they parked — as we all are sometimes. It wasn’t. (A spokesperson for Queen’s says there have not been other reports like this on their property.)
The Kikutas called the police department and also reported the theft to their insurance company.
“My insurance said they’ll get me a new car,” Kikuta said. “But I’m 96 years old. I don’t want a new car. I want my car.”
The main thing that’s different in this story is that Norman Kikuta isn’t mad. Not really. He mostly just wants the car back.
The car — a 2003 Toyota Corolla four-door, black, license number JWG 568 — is hardly a classic, though Kikuta is. He was born on Maui to immigrant parents, worked in the Kapalua pineapple fields while going to school, graduated from Lahainaluna in 1939 and ventured to Oahu to study at the University of Hawaii.
He left college one credit shy of his teaching degree. America had entered World War II, and like many men of his generation, he felt compelled to serve. Kikuta volunteered for the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team, but was rejected.
“They wouldn’t take me because they said I had a bad heart,” he said. Undaunted, he tried again and was accepted into the Army’s language school. “During wartime, things are unexplained. You just wonder how things turned out that way,” Kikuta said. His heart no longer seemed to worry anybody, and he was sent to Fort Benning, Ga., for parachute training. He then served in the Pacific in New Guinea and the Philippines.
After his military service, Kikuta worked in administration at Fort Shafter for 35 years. He and his wife had two sons and now have two grandchildren and a great- grandchild.
What they don’t have is a car.
It’s inconvenient, to be sure. “We’re stuck at home. A friend took us to coffee the other morning,” he said.
But more than that, Kikuta is worried about his wife.
“My wife is downhearted,” he said. “She was the one who parked it. She blames herself for the loss of the car.”
So here is a couple in their 90s still able to get around and take care of one another after a long life of service and self-sufficiency. They just want their car back. They want to keep going.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
