Interviews

1. Father retouching photos of picture brides

2. Getting married

3. Possibility of being adopted by aunt

4. Day Pearl Harbor was bombed

5. Working in the pineapple fields

6. Tree planting

Jean Hayashi Ariyoshi

Former First Lady of Hawai'i

Tree planting

During the 25th Anniversary of Statehood, I thought of planting 25,000 trees for the 25th Anniversary. And so, we were able to do that. We actually gave out seedlings, and I asked the State to give me those trees. And 25,000 trees were given out and planted.

From that project came the Kanyaku Imin—the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrant to Hawaii—in 1985. And it was towards the end of George’s term, and I really wanted to sort of take it easy. But, I said, “It will be my last project.” And we really worked hard at it. We planted a million trees—one tree for every resident of Hawaii. And it was called “A Million Trees of Aloha.” And my husband provided me with all of the million trees. And we distributed them. We went through all of the state, the functions where the public was concerned. We distributed the trees. We got the organizations throughout the state to help us plant these trees all over the state. And we had Prince and Princess Hitachi, who came in. And they came in and planted the first tree in Diamond Head.

And so, you won’t believe this, but it took about a year and a half of work. And at the end we planted 1,168,000 trees. And I think that was a great accomplishment, not for me, but for the people of Hawaii who planted those trees.

governments Hawai'i politics United States

Date: December 15, 2003

Location: Hawai`i, US

Interviewer: Lisa Itagaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

Interviewee Bio

Jean (Hayashi) Ariyoshi, who holds a B.A. in speech and a B.S. in math from the University of Hawai`i, met her future husband George Ariyoshi while earning her teaching credential and serving as a speech instructor. She also hosted a weekly television talent show. They married in 1955, a year after his election as a Democrat to the Hawai`i Territorial House.

Heavily involved in charitable and community causes during her husband’s tenure as Hawai’i’s governor between 1974 and 1986, she established the First Lady’s Volunteer Awards to honor Hawaii’s outstanding volunteers annually. After the end of her duties as first lady, she became a domestic and international philanthropic figure. (December 2003)