<Begin Segment 10>

JT: And then I want to get back to your career when you said you worked at Pittsburg. Was that where you retired from the chemical company, Dow? Or did you say you went to...

MT: No, after I retired from Dow, I have not really worked (after that).

JT: You have not really worked, okay. Did you join Kenji in joining volunteer work?

MT: Well, like I said, since he was getting so old and tired of climbing stairs, he brought me along to climb the stairs.

JT: Right. Kenji delivered lunches for JASEB, or J-Sei now for thirty-two years. And you said when he couldn't run, drive, park and run lunches, you did that. Did you get to visit with any of the Issei people that you delivered lunches to?

MT: Yes. Actually, we sort of got to know Mrs. Nakamura, Cubby's mother.

JT: Cubby's mother.

MT: Yes.

JT: Tokyo Fish.

MT: Tokyo Fish now. She was a very interesting person.

JT: Oh, she owned this store before Cubby.

MT: No, I don't think so.

JT: Oh, she didn't own Tokyo Fish. Oh, but you knew her.

MT: Well, Kenji was delivering food to her for a long time. And then I was helping together, and we sort of got to know her a little bit. She graduated from Cal. And she made a career in working in the library at Cal.

JT: Mrs. Nakamura?

MT: Uh-huh, Cubby's mother. I think his father, too, was a Cal graduate.

JT: That's so interesting, that generation who also went to Cal.

MT: You know, you get to talk to them when you're delivering, and she was always standing out front waiting. And we'd chat for five minutes and left.

JT: Right, but for thirty-eight years, that's a long...

MT: Well, I don't know how many years he delivered (to her).

JT: Thirty-two years, that's a lot of minutes. So you did do your share of volunteering by delivering the lunches for J-Sei, or for JASEB, then it became J-Sei.

MT: But after he retired, both of us have not helped at all.

JT: Well, I think we all appreciate all those years that you gave them your time and your energy.

MT: But it was fun, Jo Jo, it really was.

JT: I thought about that a lot, especially since J-Sei is coming on their fiftieth anniversary, but how devoted you were, and how so few people know that because you're very quiet about giving your time.

MT: It was actually Kenji that did all the work.

JT: Well, I won't say anything, that there's always a good woman behind a good man, but I know that's true.

MT: [Laughs] Thank you.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.