Interview With Rose Chang Murakami - Chang Apana's Youngest Daughter

 Rose Chang Murakami (on the left), with her sister Annie Apana (on the right).  They are wearing their usher uniforms from the Queen Theater where they used to work.

On April 14, 1982, I interviewed Rose Chang Murakami, Detective Chang Apana's youngest daughter at the Maple Garden Restaurant located on Isenberg street in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Rose was a very articulate women who had graduated from the Sacred Hearts Academy in Kaimuki, Hawaii.  Unfortunately though, Rose passed away on January 2, 2000 and is interred in the Diamond Head Memorial Park in Honolulu.  The actual interview, which will be included on a CD with my book, is about forty-five minutes long, but I present a very short excerpt here for your enjoyment.  Please click on the eSnips link at the bottom of this post to listen to the audio.

Excerpt From Transcribed Interview:

Rose:  "He was very fair.  He never did use his whip on us, because one word he said was the whip."

Interviewer:  "The word was the whip."

Rose:  "Yeah, his word was the whip, but he was a very pleasant fellow.  I um ... really.  I was closer to my father, than my mother, and my mother knows it.  She knew that I was much closer.  Although I loved her as a mother; you know, but, ah, my dad was more ... so I used to help him, and I used to read.  Read to him, you know whatever I can.  From the newspaper, I always used to skip the big words."

Interviewer:  "Sure."

Rose:  "And repeat the small ones you know, then sort of explain to him, because I couldn't read it I thought I'd explain what it was about."

Click on the video widget below to hear an excerpt of the interview with Rose Chang Murakami.  Safe journeys to all the fans of Charlie Chan's Hawaii, wherever you may be.