NikkeiWest--Northern California Japanese American Newspaper

By Miki Garcia—A memorial service for Miyuki (Miki) Hirano was held on Nov. 20 at Pine United Methodist Church in San Francisco. Nearly 200 family and friends gathered in the packed church to celebrate her life and watch the video slide show.

Hirano, the vice president of operations of GDI Communications, was a well-known member in the Japanese American community and also a recognized figure from the photos taken by Dorothea Lange, one of the most influential photographers in the U.S. who covered the rounding up of Japanese Americans in internment camps.

She is survived by her children, Kathleen Chang and Michael Hirano; grandchildren, Ryan Hirano, Justin Hirano, Harry Chang and Tiffany Hirano; sisters, Satsuki Ward, Kikue Mochida, Kayoko (Arthur) Ikuma, Hiroko Mochida; and brothers, Tooru Mochida and Masaru (Mas) Mochida (deceased).

Untimely death

Hirano passed away peacefully at home on Oct. 23. She was 74. The exact cause of her death is still unknown. As far as the coroner could tell, there was nothing wrong with her.

“Mom died peacefully some time during the night of October 23 or the early morning of October 24,” Kathleen Chang said.

“She was taking her beloved hot bath. There was no water in the tub which just tells me that the water had run cold and she was going to refill the tub with fresh hot water. She had a book in her lap reading and a cigarette going at the side of the tub. She did not suffer.”

According to Chang, Hirano was telling her plans for the New Year over the phone just a couple of hours prior to her death. “Mom talked about how she was going to be a great-grandmother. She was so happy and excited about that she was even talking about how she might finally retired and stay home and take care of the baby. I think that is the only thing she would have regretted not being able to do.”

Rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area and Japanese culture

Hirano was born on April 29, 1936 in Oakland, California to Moriyuki “Eddy” Mochida and Masayo Hidaka Mochida who immigrated from Fukuoka prefecture, Japan. She was the sixth child of a family of six daughters and three sons. Her eldest brother Morimasa Mochida and sister Emiko Hatano were born and raised in Japan.

The family was interned in Topaz, Utah during World War II. Dorothea Lange took photographs of her family there and one of the family pictures appeared on the cover of the book entitled “Executive Order 9066: The Internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans.”

After internment, the family returned to San Francisco, but only to find out that white Americans would undeniably shy away from young Hirano.

Frank Ribelin, the president of operations of GDI Communications, her business and life partner explained the reason why she had bonded quite closely with Mexican immigrants: “As a little child after returning from the camp, she found that white Americans shunned her but the Mexicans would play and talk with her.”

In her youth, she was a Girl Scout in Japantown. She participated in basketball as part of the Links Club with her sister, Kay. Their picture is displayed in the plaque outside JCCCNC.

She married the late Susumu Hirano in 1955. After having two children, she started going to Marinello School of Beauty at night.

“That was why I always had some weird haircut or another. She would style my hair and if she liked it, she gave it to herself but there was no way that we were going to have the same hairdo so I remember having hair that was only two inches long,” Chang recalled.

After her divorce, she raised her children as a single mother. “To support us, she worked two jobs when we were young. But, she was always there when we got up in the morning and got us to school. She was there to cook us dinner and eat with us. After dinner, she would spend some quality time with us and then after we were in bed and went to sleep, she went to her second job. I remember Uncle Mas living with us and babysitting us while she was at work. Weekends were always spent on the family things and outings.”

When Hirano was working at Downtown Bowl, she went to school at night to learn bookkeeping. “She then started working at National Auto and from there she worked at Car Parts. There, she hired many of my friends,” Chang explained. During this time, countless youngsters started their careers through her. She was a mentor and inspiration to many.

After retiring from Car Parts, she moved to Lake Tahoe in 1982 where she met and fell in love with “big tall handsome man, Mr. Frank.” She moved to Sparks, Nevada and went to work with Frank Ribelin who had an electrical company. There, she hired her grandchildren, nieces and nephews to work during the summer, as well as Mexican immigrants. Ribelin said: “She wanted to help them. She helped about 35 to 40 Mexican workers at our company in my 28 years of being with Miki.” According to him, her biggest passion was “to be fair, helping others to a fault and make you laugh.” She was a very proud, independent woman. She never retired.

Along with her great gardening, cooking and artistic skills, her greatest joys were her family and friends. “Her nieces and nephews were constant joys and sources of companionship for her. She was very proud of them. As a child, the house was always filled with nieces and nephews, and friends’ children,” Chang commented. She also enjoyed her smoking and hot “ofuros.”

After having a car accident in 2002 and nearly died on the operating table, the doctors said that she would probably never walk again. But she did with the help of a walker. She also had a red scooter because her legs tired easily. Before the accident, she and Ribelin traveled extensively in the U.S. – catching live lobsters in Maine, as well as Mexico and Canada. She did not want to fly but travel by car so she could see the country. She never made it to Japan or Hawaii.

Always young at heart

Debbie Sugawara, a former computer analyst from El Cerrito, lived next door to the Hirano family in San Francisco.

“My earliest memory of Auntie Miyuki was when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I just loved going next door and being a part of her family. She took us places, she fed us “fun” food. I think I had my first umeboshi with ochazuke at her house. She took me on my first roller coaster ride at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. She got a kick out of looking at my face after we got off. She said she never saw my eyes so big,” Sugawara recalled. But then, everyone moved out of the Sacramento Street building where they lived after the owners sold it in 1963.

Sugawara added: “I will always remember her as being a fun loving person who loved kids. She was always young at heart. I will never forget her.”

Second mom and mentor to many

“Auntie Miyuki was our second mom. I’m sure she was the same to many people. She was my mom’s best friend and ally when they were both raising us. I say “both” because my mom would do the shouting and Auntie Miyuki would be the back-up hand or soap in the mouth action. The two of them were a team when our dads weren’t around,” Linda Sawamoto gave a heartfelt appreciation of her.

“She liked Obon time. Every year Auntie Miyuki would take us to Obon practice at the S.F. Buddhist Church. She knew we always looked forward to the Obon festival. That’s when she would always do our hair and make-up and my mom would put on our kimonos.”

“Auntie Miyuki loved watching sports. We would go to the Sunday Nikkei softball games at Margaret Hayward field and she would yell and bring her loud blow horn. She had a great voice that carried...When she got in the accident, she lost her voice but that didn’t keep her from enjoying herself. This past October, she came to Melanie’s (Sawamoto’s daughter) basketball game on her speedy scooter equipped with her Japanese rising sun flag and her big bell to support the team,” Sawamoto said.

Hirano strongly believed in being Japanese and doing everything “chanto.”

Terry Woo, a San Francisco Fire Fighter from Belmont, said “We hit it off. She was my second Mom,” he said affectionately. “She was just always there for me and I would do anything for her. Like she treated me like a son and I treated her like a mom. I loved her very much.” He is one of many who worked with her at Car Parts in San Francisco.

Woo first met Hirano when he moved to San Francisco from New Jersey. He had just started second grade and Miki’s  daughter Kathleen was in his class.

“She was kind of strict about letting Kathy go out without cleaning her room. So I would help her clean room so we could go out,” he recalled.

“I always looked forward to seeing Miki at the bazaars and parades in Japantown. I will sorely miss her.”

Multi-tasking fun loving lady

To Ribelin, she was not just the vice president of operations at GDI Communications, but a bookkeeper, personnel, arbitrator, facility leader, organizer, writer, best friend and companion.

“A lot of fun went out of my life with her,” Ribelin spoke dotingly of her. “Miki would accompany me in the golf cart when I would go and play my game of cow pasture pool. I would tee off and hook it into the rough then grumble and tap my golf club on the ground. Miki would say ‘Excuse me I am trying to understand this game better. Are you not supposed to hit the ball out on the green fairway that is in front of you?’ Quickly, I would turn to her to snap but only to see her famous smile and usually the next shot was fairly good.”

Editor’s Note:

Miki was like my second mom too. I grew up with her son Michael when I was in junior high school, so I too was familiar with the family. It was more of a guy-thing between Mike and I back then, but we still keep in contact after all these years. I too was one of those young teenagers who worked at the auto parts stores where she oversaw the bookkeeping. When I had problems over the years, I would confide in her. She would reassure me, give me some practical common sense answers and kept up my moral.

As stated earlier, she did reinforce her Japanese upbringings by letting me know the right or proper way to do things. But to me, it was in a more progressive way compared to other Nisei her age.

“Speak up and say what’s on your mind,” she would tell me. “It doesn’t matter what they think, do what makes your heart happy,” was one of the last discussions we had. She always encouraged me to do what is right for the JA community through this publication, and for her, I owe her a great deal of gratitude.