Parable of the Plumeria

Bento Boxes and Friendship

Fred, is in our Sunset Family Branch Presidency. When he was much younger, his family (14 children) moved from the Philippines to Hawaii, so his family could work on the sugar plantations. There were also Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Polynesians and probably other nationalities, but these were what he remembered.                                                                      

Each day, the plantation workers would 

bring their lunches in a type of three

tiered Bento box. The hot soup in the bottom, so it could warm the rice above it, on the second level, and the cooler dessert, on the top. At lunchtime, the workers would gather and share whatever they had in their lunches with one another. Although they couldn't understand each other, very well, they became good friends. When World War II broke out, all of the plantations workers were sent home to their countries of origin.

Back in the Philippines, Fred and his siblings still attended school. He remembers the Japanese soldiers making the teachers dig pits and then cutting off their heads, in front of the children, to intimidate and control the kids and their parents.  

Philippine men would often be rounded up by soldiers, marched off and shot. He, well, remembers the day his dad was included in the "roundup". He was marched along in a group of men, headed somewhere. As they came upon a bridge, one of the Japanese soldiers pushed him down, under the side of the bridge. He stayed there awhile and then went home. Later, the soldier found him. He was one of his friends from the sugar plantation, in Hawaii, that he had shared lunchtime with. He also told the family what parts of the city to stay away from and how to be safe. His family survived the war.

The family tried to find the soldier after the war, but, were not successful.

There are good people, everywhere, even in wartime. 

Aloha