<Begin Segment 81>

TY: [Jpn.] By the way, you said your husband passed away in 1960, on June 3rd?

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] And just one year earlier you two talked about visiting Fukushima?

MK: [Jpn.] That's right. Just the previous year.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] We planned to go, but because he died, shikata ga nai.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Instead, he died suddenly. He suddenly died of a heart attack.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Eng.] Well, I don't know what to do.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Eng.] That's why maybe go this way, maybe, maybe quit, or still keep going or not. Very hard to decide, you know.

TY: [Jpn.] When you were only forty-three years old and had seven children.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] The youngest was only sixteen, right?

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] And then...

MK: [Jpn.] Oh...

TY: [Jpn.] What? Forty...

MK: [Jpn.] Alan was not that...

TY: [Jpn.] Oh, that's right. Alan was eleven years old, wasn't he?

MK: [Jpn.] That's right. Alan was not that old. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes, he was young.

MK: [Eng.] So after he died, Alan... summertime... everybody, parents take to anywhere, you know go because summer vacation. But I can't because I'm, not enough hand. That's why always, Alan complaining all time. Yeah, everything complain. Very sad for him. Yeah. Other kids you know, daddy take to baseball sometime, but that's nothing. You know so, I'm too busy so, then I can't drive either, that's why very sorry for kids. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] And you had your husband handle everything, didn't you?

MK: [Eng.] Oh, yeah. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Can you tell me what happened to you? I understand you didn't even know how to write a check.

MK: [Jpn.] No, no, nothing. I didn't even know how to write a check. Nothing.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Jpn.] When I had to sign, I didn't know where to sign.

TY: [Jpn.] Because your husband did everything till then.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah. That's why everything just like black. Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] You must have worried about money when you lost your main bread earner.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah, that's right.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] So then you asked your son Roy not to go to college...

MK: [Eng.] Yeah. Because they want to go to another, another school, but I gonna give up alright anytime, huh, then I don't need ask him. But I spend lots of greenhouse and land, everything, that's why I can't quit. Then kids small too.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Eng.] That's why you have to some way go to maybe keep going. That's why I ask the Roy. Roy don't want to. Roy was... Roy's... always he want to. But this is special, you know, that's why, that's why they, he help a, he help us. Uh-huh, yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] So even after your husband passed away, you kept the greenhouse going...

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Until you retired. You retired at the age of seventy-five, didn't you?

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah, seventy-four.

TY: [Jpn.] Seventy-four.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. Yeah. That's right.

TY: [Jpn.] Till then, after your husband passed away, you kept the greenhouse...

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. I worked in the greenhouse. At that time...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Lilian and Lilian's Saburo... that's a husband.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Eng.] Everybody Saturday, Sunday come to help, help us.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, that's why kids are hard, hard life too. Yeah, very hard. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Everybody helped you.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah, every Friday, Saturday, some boy or girl come back and help, Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, very hard time, it was.

TY: [Jpn.] Why did you decide to continue the greenhouse farming?

MK: [Eng.] Oh, greenhouse start, sell...

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah. You didn't sell it, but continued the farming.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah, I thought we could keep going, but...

TY: [Jpn.] Your children...

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah, I thought about Roy.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] If Roy doesn't want to do, he doesn't have to keep going forever. Isn't it right?

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] If I kept going, it would be okay with me, but if it is not good for the kids, then I should think about it. Isn't it right?

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Jpn.] No matter how much you didn't want to sell it, if you think it is best for everybody, you had no choice but to do it. To be honest with you, if we had kept going, everything would have been better. Everything. So I really didn't want to quit, but I cannot just think about myself. Yeah. So I quit.

<End Segment 81> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.