FINDING DOHI

Documentary Short • TRT 25:30

Synopsis

FINDING DOHI is an intimate portrait of a woman separated by culture, language, and thousands of miles from a family she has never met. Daphne, a 3rd generation Japanese-American, holds on to letters sent to her mother long ago. The contents of the letters are a mystery, as they are written in Japanese – and she cannot read or understand the language. Thus begins her decades-long pursuit to fill in the scant details she knows about her Grandfather Dohi, who immigrated to Hawai’i from a rural Japanese village in 1891.

Documented by her daughter, their journey from Hawai‘i to Japan explores the themes of identity, language and culture loss, honoring ancestors, and reconnection, and reminds us that some family bonds cannot be broken no matter the time or distance.

Director’s Statement

Okage sama de – I am who I am because of you (Japanese expression)

15 years and 10 months. That’s how long Eitaro Dohi had been alive when he boarded a ship in March 1891 with departing group #15, bound for Hawai‘i. He was headed to work as a contract laborer for three years at a sugarcane plantation on the island of Kaua’i. Between 1885-1893, the Japanese government recruited farmers and fishermen from impoverished, overpopulated areas to work on sugarcane and pineapple plantations in the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. By the 1920s, over 125,000 Japanese lived in Hawaii, comprising 43% of Hawaii’s population.

After fulfilling his contract, Eitaro went on to open a hat store, and became a successful businessman on Kaua’i. He and his wife encouraged their children to study Japanese language and culture, yet embrace their identity as industrious citizens of the United States.

However, World War II changed that. Living in Hawai’i, they were all placed under martial law, and communication with family in Japan was severed. Meanwhile, nearly all Japanese Americans in the US, both 1st and 2nd generation, were gathered and imprisoned in detention camps. Eitaro’s son Ryuichi and his young family were interned at Heart Mountain, of which the family never spoke, but my mother discovered during her research.

My mother and her siblings were born immediately following World War II, attended Christian church, and were never taught to speak Japanese. If they had family in Japan, their existence was never mentioned. Both sets of Daphne’s grandparents who had immigrated to Hawai’i died shortly before or after she was born, taking their stories with them.

My mother Daphne has been researching our family history for as long as I can remember. Not knowing how to speak Japanese, she was met with many roadblocks and disappointments, but an earnest desire to feel a connection to her parents and grandparents kept her going. Birth certificates, death certificates, and a handful of photos are all she had – and four letters addressed to her mother. One is still held in an envelope, sent by a woman named Sueko Matsumoto. The name Matsumoto is not familiar, but we have our first clue – her address is Nakazu, Iwakuni City – the modern day equivalent of Eitaro’s address when he departed for Hawai‘i.

FINDING DOHI is a story that has been slowly unfolding since my great-grandfather Eitaro first stepped onto that ship at the age of 15. When we booked our flights to Japan, our goals were to figure out whatever we could about this Matsumoto family, and to visit Eitaro’s village for the first time. We had no expectation of what or who we would find along the way, we simply aimed to capture all that would unfold. We are honored to share this journey of discovery, and hope to inspire others to honor their ancestors by learning about the past and the connections that live on today.