<Begin Segment 31>

LH: And so what did your mother do while your father was out hunting down these gardening jobs?

FG: She worked downtown in one of the hotels, a Japanese hotel. It was the Nakashima's hotel and she did -- was it maid, chambermaid -- cleaning and things. She did a lot of cleaning. Yeah, that's what she did until my father got the business, got so that he couldn't really handle it all by himself anymore and then he started hiring people. In the meanwhile, in 1947 my brother was born so she was kind of busy with that, but she always did that. She had children, she'd be raising children, and running business at the same time so she did all the -- she always did the bookkeeping for my dad -- and that's what she did. Yeah, that's what she did.

LH: So she would be keeping the books for your dad, going working at the hotel, and raising kids. When did your mother sleep?

FG: Not too long. [Laughs] Well, my mother I remember even when I was a teenager she would be finishing up the housework and cleaning up after dinner and then finishing up the books because at that time, by that time my father was also importing as well as having a gardening business. And so she used to go to sleep about midnight, I think, and then she was up at six o'clock. And I don't think I could do that and survive, but anyway my mother did. She was already up at six o'clock every day but... I think that's what Issei women did, I think, very industrious, probably much more than the following generation. [Laughs]

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.