Kiku Honda

Age : 23 (as of March 1941)

Birthday : February 11, 1918

Height : 5′5″ (165 cm)

Occupation : High school student/houseboy 

Nationality : Japanese

Kiku Honda is a Japanese immigrant living in Davao City, Philippines. He moved to the Philippines with his father when he was just 9 years old. Growing up to a multi-cultural country, he is fluent in a number of Philippine languages. He is also one of the few Japanese that is fluent in English.

Kiku is a peace loving individual and rarely looses his cool. He is pretty good in resolving conflict. He is dependable and gets along well with people, some even see him as an older brother figure.

A hard working and intelligent young man, he is currently finishing his High school education while working as a houseboy for a wealthy Spanish lady. He also works as a tutor to help him save up for college. One more year to go and he is off to Manila to get college degree.

//answered:

We don’t really mind. After all, they don’t cause us any trouble. However…

Overall, I really like the jobs I have. I have a great boss, I'm able to save money for college and I have some free time to spend with my friends. Really, I can't complain.

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Oh, and of course, I can speak Nihonggo.

Those guys are my barkada. They are my closest friends.

^This is Davide Bago. He’s the “leader” of our group. A lively fellow and very friendly, he is quite popular in our neighborhood. His family is pretty well off and they live in a big house. He’s quite active in a lot of extracurricular activities in and outside of school and is a very responsible kid.

^This is Hadji Syed Kudarat. He doesn’t talk much and looks serious, but he’s nice and knows how to get along with people. You can always depend on him when you need help. I rather enjoy our conversations, he’s pretty mature for his age.

^This is Leon Wang. He’s the adopted son of a British woman, my English tutor. They moved here from Hong Kong when he was very young. He looks serious, and its hard to tell what he’s thinking, but be careful. He is famous around town for his mischief  

Here are my other friends from school:

^This is Maria Ligaya Dela Cruz. Like her name suggest, she’s a cheerful girl. At 18 years old, she’s the second oldest in class after me. She works at my boss’ house as a maid but my boss helped her be able to get back to school to finish her studies.

^This is Cecilia Maxilom. She’s our class president. She’s one no nonsense, independent girl. She’s smart and focused on her studies. Davide has been courting her for a couple of months now, and she haven’t noticed it at all. 

^This is Hayato Kobayashi. At 14, he’s the youngest in our class and one of the few Japanese enrolled in our school. His parents works at my boss’ Abaca plantation. He’s uh, a sprightly sort of fellow and he keeps calling me ‘nii-chan. 

It’s mandatory.

//thanks anon. I think CAT is a Philippines thing. When I googled it, all the results was from the Ph. 

//Kiku is in high school [x]. And you are right anon, when it comes to high school military training, it’s usually CAT (Citizen Army/Advancement Training).

However, Kiku’s character is based on a real person. He’s a Japanese immigrant and he was in high school in Davao city just before the war broke and he wrote that they had ROTC training. (Sorry, I’m not giving you anymore info about him, coz spoilers.)

I did do a quick research about the history of ROTC, but I could not get a clear answer if high school students also participated in the training. But there is such a thing as Junior ROTC for high school students. I did not see any info if this was implemented in pre-war Philippines, but perhaps this is what the person behind Kiku’s character meant. It wouldn’t be surprising that HS students also had some military training considering the situation at the time.

When my boss doesn’t need me at home, I’d hang out with my friends after school.

I also help around in my boss’ house, especially the chores that the female maids can’t do.

I know I’m too old to be in high school, but it was tough when I first moved here. Aside from money matters, I didn’t know the language and culture. I had to take special classes while helping my father earn money.

I was just 9 years old when I moved to the Philippines. I’ve been living here in Davao City for 14 years! My, how time flies, I didn’t even realize I’ve been here that long. 

Notes:

There were many Japanese immigrants living in the Philippines in the early 1900′s. 

//I’ve restarted the blog and deleted everything in the inbox. I’ve also made some changes in the story, so hopefully, this will go more smoothly than the last time. 

Also please make sure to check out the links below.

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