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The Closing of Sugar Plantations: Interviews with Families of Hamakua and Ka‘u, Hawai‘i

Daryl Ke

“You know, the last day of the harvesting [on March 29, 1996], there was a parade. Oh, there was many, many people. Media from O‘ahu was over here, too, taking film and whatnot, to put it—to flash it on the TV. There was, oh, a lot of people over here. And it just so happened I went down and I was watching how they came down with all the cane trucks with all the signs, as you seen on the TV. Ah, it was really something. I was really amazed to see ‘em, but with the honking of all those cane trucks, it’s like good-bye, you know. And I know that it’s good-bye. But I was watching. I turned around, I watched all the other fellows, workers. They was something like me, drop tears. What we going do, you know? But like as for me, I just tell myself, life must go on. No give up.” —Daryl Ke

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