<Begin Segment 41>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: Your children, there were one boy and three girls at home, right? Raising children in the U.S., there are such important concept as oyakoko, giri, and gimu in Japan, right?

AT: Of course, there are.

TY: Did you think that they were important assets to raise children in the U.S.?

AT: It is important, of course.

TY: So you taught your children such concept?

AT: I didn't say that they had to do it. But, I taught them that they should do this and do that. Thanks to that, still today, my children say, "What are you doing, Grandma?" and I answer that I am not doing anything, then they tell me that I will become senile. [Laughs] They say such things. My grandson, too, he is funny. "Grandma, if you don't do anything, it's not good because you will become senile. It is still good that you can come home straight though." "What are you talking about!" [Laughs] He made me say that I am back home. [Laughs] He jokes, my grandson. After that, he must have felt awkward, when I came down here, he came near me, when I came, the oldest one do this immediately. He has things to do. Like this, this. It is nice. Now, the daughter's son, he said that he wanted to be a medical doctor, and he is attending the Princeton. He said, "I want to succeed my daddy." He said that he wanted to go to the Princeton that his dad went, and he asked us if they could let him go, so we said, "Oh, sure, you should go." Then, he passed the test. Then, if they were the children of the parents who graduated from the Princeton, I heard they pick those children first. Of course, it wouldn't go this way if they failed the test. They pick them first [inaudible], and they pick the rest of regular people. So he passed it, and now he goes to the Princeton. One of my grandchildren. When I asked him what he wanted to be, he said, "Me, I am going to be a doctor," so I said, "Be sure to do your best to follow your dad's path." He said, "All right," but he is busy. He only speaks English, that boy. When he learned Japanese, he talked to me in Japanese, and when I talked to him in Japanese, he said, "What? What?" Still today. He's already lost it.

TY: Did you pay special attention to your children to learn Japanese?

AT: What?

TY: While you were raising children, when they were small, about acquiring Japanese, did you pay any special attention...

AT: Yeah. We all spoke in Japanese. Japanese, they went to Japanese language school. The teacher said, "Mrs. Terao, your children, Fusako and others, they speak Japanese very well. Are you teaching them at home?" So I said, "No, we are not really teaching them, but when I talk to them, I just teach in Japanese because I think it is better to use Japanese than bad English," then she said, "That's good." Someone said, "It's been a long time, but when I talked to Fusako and others in Japanese, they talked to me in good Japanese. They answered in Japanese," so I said, "Is that so?" Not today, no more. They are speaking English now.

TY: But, still now, the conversation is...

AT: We use Japanese. I never speak in English. I use Japanese.

<End Segment 41> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.