<Begin Segment 28>

TY: [Jpn.] Well then, did your children start going to school in Sunnydale?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] By the way, many Japanese people in Seattle sent their children to a Japanese school.

MK: [Jpn.] Uh-huh. That's right. That was Japanese... people living here...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Japanese school...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] I heard they sent their children there.

TY: [Jpn.] But you lived far away. It was too difficult for you to take your children there every Sunday, every Saturday, wasn't it?

MK: [Jpn.] Yes. It was too difficult. It was too far.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Uh-huh. That was for people who live here in Seattle...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Especially. There is still a Japanese school here, you know.

TY: [Jpn.] That's true.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Then did your children learn Japanese at home?

MK: [Jpn.] That's right. They learn English and Japanese as much as we spoke at home.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Uh-huh. When they got scolded. [Laughs]

TY: [Jpn.] In Japanese?

MK: [Jpn.] When they were bad.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] When you have many children, you cannot be smiling all the time. Really.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Sometimes I yelled at them.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] We are so busy, but the children don't understand. They do everything. We lived in the country and had a plenty of land.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Therefore...

TY: [Jpn.] There is a plenty of room to run around.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. They didn't have to go outside. Our place was so big. The children had plenty of space to play at home.

TY: [Jpn.] The house I saw in the photo was big.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] The house was big enough for all those children. Big enough for a large family.

MK: [Jpn.] Yes. That's right. The children still fought even when they got older. [Laughs] But I think it's great to grow up in a large family. Yeah. I grew up alone. Grandfather... I look back now...when you grow up...

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Better to be brought up by young people. If you were raised by an old person, you cannot do anything. A young mother and father will spank the children when they behave badly, and teach many things... also because I didn't have a brother or sister, I don't know what it's like to have one. So I think the happiest person in the world is the one who grew up with a family, with brothers and sisters. That's the greatest happiness.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] I believe so. Maybe because I could not have it.

TY: [Jpn.] Right.

MK: [Jpn.] So when someone says she is going back to Japan to see a brother or sister that she grew up with, I feel very envious.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Uh-huh. Yeah. So that person is really a lucky person. So brothers and sisters are good things to have no matter how old you become. Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Then your children loved one another even though they fought.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. That's right. So when I hear someone going back to Japan...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] What a wonderful thing it is, I think. Uh-huh. Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] By the way, changing the subject to your children, you gave birth to your first daughter, Lillian, in May of 1932.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Right.

MK: [Jpn.] That's right.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.