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AI: Well, now you also lived quite close to your father's parents, is that right?

LB: Uh-huh.

AI: And could you tell me a little bit about them, and their names and a little bit about your relationship?

LB: My Bachan Bannai, her name was Shino Bannai. My grandpa was Sakui Bannai. They also emigrated right after the turn of the century. Both of my grandmothers were picture brides. They were brought over by their husbands, and made this incredibly long journey across the ocean to a new country, which also, of course, taught me a lot about how strong and adventuresome they must have been to do this undertaking, to go to a new place they'd never seen before. My grandfather was a gardener. Very, very quiet man. Never really talked to him very much, but I knew how hard he worked. He worked from just early, early in the morning until late in the day, and had his truck full of gardening tools and went from house to house. And I just admired him so much for how he felt so responsible about his work and doing the best work that he could do. And again, this was not verbally expressed. It was really just a matter of having the gift of growing up and being able to watch this work ethic and this work pride.

My Bachan Bannai was an extremely exceptional woman. She had been blind. She went blind, I think, slowly up through her teen years, and I think became totally blind sometime in her twenties or maybe mid-twenties. And again, she had raised five children under difficult circumstances, but was an extremely strong woman. She had a great deal of faith. Both of my bachans were Christian and found a lot of strength in their faith. I used to drive my bachans around when I was a teenager to go and visit people who were other Issei who were ill, maybe shut in, maybe sad, maybe feeling forlorn. And my Bachan Bannai would just go around and I suppose you would call it minister to these other people many of them younger than her -- to help them through difficult times and pray with them. I would get as many Issei in my car as I could. I'd get them, and these other of their friends, and I'd pile them in my car, and they would tell me where to go. And I'd just drive them from nursing home to hospital to somebody's apartment, and it was just such a wonderful experience for me to be able to see the interaction between the Issei, learn how they cared for each other and helped, supported each other. I spent a lot of time with them. I spent a great deal of time at my Bachan and Grandpa Bannai's house when I was very, a very young child, and watched her cook and watched her do things like wielding a knife to cut fish, and she was blind and checking to see if water's boiling. And so I learned a lot about what it was like for her to, not only be a Japanese American woman, but also to be a person who had a severe handicap that never, ever stopped her from doing what she wanted to do. She spoke to me a lot about pride and family, and about being strong, and about working hard and studying hard. She probably -- more so than anyone else -- was very articulate with me and made a point of making sure that I learned certain lessons about growing up Japanese American, and she was a tremendous influence on me.

AI: If you had to pick out a couple of those lessons that you recall, what would you -- which ones would you choose that you really recall her emphasizing to you?

LB: I think the importance of family certainly was a really important thing to her, that it was important that all of us make our family proud, that we work hard to make our family proud, and that we help our family. You know, she never demanded that I visit her or demand that I drive her where she wanted to go or buy the things she needed to pick up, but I think it was really clear to me that those obligations were very, very much a part of, of what made our community and our family work. And so I think that that certainly was a lesson. Another lesson, I think, was, was the importance of giving to others. Clearly, she spent a great deal of her time reaching out and helping people around her who were either less fortunate or who just needed a friend and someone to sit and pray with them. I remember she wrote a letter to someone in Japan who was having some problems, and her letter was published in some kind of a newspaper or something. But she was very, very much someone who cared about people around her, and thought it was one of the most important things you could do in life, I think, to help others. And that was a message that I think very much permeated my upbringing.

AI: When she would explain some of these things to you or express these things, what -- did, did she and you communicate mostly in Japanese or English or a mix?

LB: Well, all English. I didn't know any Japanese. The only Japanese that I knew was dinner table conversation, like passing the shoyu, and, "I need some furikake," basically. [Laughs] I suppose I picked up a few words here and there. I do think that probably most all of the Japanese I learned was more in the nature of baby talk than anything else, so it was all in English. But again, that was something that always really impressed me, that these women, both of my grandmothers, knew English well enough to get by just fine, and all I knew was just one language. So yes, all the conversations took place in English.

MC: Did they ever express any opinions or reactions to being in America or what that meant to them, specifically, outside of making sure that you had a strong family unit?

LB: Oh, I can't recall anything really specific, but I think that both of them were really quite proud of being Americans. I would probably characterize them as being quite patriotic. I mean, I can't point to anything specific, but I do think that they really felt that this was their country, and that it was really important to care about this country.

MC: Did they -- did you ever see them interact with members of sort of the majority culture in any way, or were they pretty much confined to the Japanese American community in the Los Angeles area?

LB: My Bachan Matsuno suffered a series of strokes, and ended up being in a number of different nursing homes as she got older. In those contexts, she interacted outside of the Japanese American community. So I saw it somewhat, but not very much. I mean, most of Gardena, California, where I grew up was, had a very large concentration of Japanese Americans. When I was growing up, it was like a third Japanese American. So our world was very much grounded in the Japanese American community. Certainly, I never had any sense that they felt outside of the mainstream community because Gardena had so many Japanese Americans, and when they interacted with hakujin people outside of our culture or anyone outside of our culture, they were very, very comfortable, felt very much a part of the community.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.