Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-10-01
FAITHFUL LITTLE WOMAN PLEADS
FORFREEDOM FOR HlBBANDsHE
BELIEVES INSTRUMENTATION
You want to tellsyour story?"

guess her age. Her body is bent
rom hard work, her face Is marked
with the lines of hardship. priyation
and worry have put there; her hands
are worn, her step issslow. She has
suffered. She Is suffering, but. so is
her husband, whom she loves. That is
why she wishes her story told. ii is
for his sake. gss .E.H
1t would be better If she could tell
her story in her own way But her
education in this language has not adj.
vanced far She was born in Toxic
OF parents who served the emperor
long and honorabiy; and what school
ing she has received was had there.
English she has learned, in way
washing English" is her phrase for
it; by which she means the words
used in her work as a washerw6man.
So her story must be told for her, as
this has nothing to do with washing.
Story CT a Great Love. ~.
Rather, it is story of the great
love of woman for her husband, a
love so great that nothing can de-
stroy it or stop its growth the story
of the hardships and privati0ns under
gone by a wife to make the inprison-
ment of her husband less torturous to
him, and to compass ultimately his re-
lease from prison; story IN which
the woman declares that her husband
was convicted for murder of which
he is innocent; that he was sent to
jail for term OF thirty years on tes-
o.
the unaerYorld backed by the words
of false witnesses, and that he was
cast in irons at the Hilo Jail, where
he suffered the agonies of he'll.
Now weakened by his suffering and
close confinement, despairing of ever
standing under the blue sky of free
dom again, the man she loves Is at
the door of death, says the woman.
And so she wants her story told,
hoping in that way to obtain his re-
lease. It is really more his story
than hers, as she was not a. party to
the trial which made her husband a
murderer in the eyes of the law; yet
as his wife, what he has suffered she
has suffered, and for both the suffer
ing has been great.
Has Waited and Worked.
For eleven years she has suffered,
and worked. She has never com
planned of her own lot; in striving to
help her husband she has completely
forgotten self. To bring food for him
to the territorial prison, or to add a
few comforts to his unhappy life
there. or to secure the assistance oil
attorneys to fight for his pardon, she
las forgotten her own needs. Through
the hours of the day she works ever
the tub for money with which to bring
Ter husband berries and rice, and also
Ia pay for legal assistance in her
fight for her husband She has wait.
ed and worked and perhaps played.
The woman's name is 'Funakoshi by
her marriage to Flnakoshi Tatsugoro
and the tragedy which swept away
her home and happiness began in
1901 There are all the elements OF
a. plot for the Great Tragedy here
little Funakoshi who loves her hus'
band with all of her heart, and whose
husband loves her; Tokue NakamHra,
a pretty but maynard girl who APP
peals to the man Funakoshi for sue
cor, and Motohiro, who persuades the
girl to abandon honorable pursuits and
sell herself. And so she does until
Funakoshi, in the 31st year of Meiji
twelve months later discovers he1
dishonor, and she confesses; where.
upon her benefactor denounces feT
and drives her from the home with
this language: !
You have asked me. to help you
appealing to my sense of duty as a
man. If were to help you any longer
] would be laughed at by the public
Put this house ins order right away
and stopping here this night, depart
next morning from ray house.
The woman Tokue wept.~ -"
One Account Ct Tragedy.
When her eyes we're dried she
turned upon Motohiro, whom she
blEmed for her fallen estate.
"Motohiro," she said to him in a
loud voice, you have so strongly ad
Fised me against my will; and tonor
row l have 10 leave this house. This
is all because of your"
The man was greatly downcast at
the accusation the woman hurled at
him, and though Funakoshi refused to
consider that he was to blame, he did
not recover from Tokue's words, but
Left for his room in remorseful
mood. There, while the others were
scattered about the house, he ended
his life with a blade 49,.
This is the account Of the death OF
Motohiro as Funakoshi gives it in a
narrative affidavit, which he wrote in
the Oahu prison addressed to Gov
ernor. Frear. The circuit court al
Hilo did not iAieve this account and
sentenced Funakcshi and Watanabe
his friend, to prison for the murder
of Motohiro. Continuing in his affida
Wit, Funakoshi affirms that the woman
Tokue lied in 1.-The testimony she
gave, to revenge herself upon he1
benefactor, and brought false wit
nesses against him.
Recital of Events.
This is what Funakoshi says con
eernirg the events following immedi
ately- after the death of the man. l;
is copied down for what it is worth:
HT noe irnmodiotolu c,1po,yooo o6 opd