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AI: And what was your mother's name?

RI: My mother was Yayoi Iseka, was her maiden name. And she was the eldest of five or six children. But her mother died when she was twelve. And so she said that she remembers that her father remarried and had, so she had a stepmother. And there was a younger sister or brother who would cry at night. And so she says she used to get up and carry that baby or child on her back and go outside and walk the street in order to keep the child quiet because the new, new stepmother was irritated with the child crying. But I think she went through some hard times. And maybe with so many children, the family tried to get the girls out of the family so that they, they wouldn't have to support them. But she said that she always -- that's why she said, since she had a difficult time, family life, early, she tried to keep a smile on her face. So she always had a smile on her face, even though inside she didn't feel happy. And then pretty soon, she said that smile became natural and she was always smiling. So a lot of our friends in America, they always say, "Oh, your mom, she's always smiling." I says, yeah, that she, she made herself do that, but, she said it became a nice habit for her.

AI: Well, did she tell you very much about her own family, what they did to make a living in Japan?

RI: My mother's family, they probably were farmers, too, and maybe fishermen. They lived, they lived close to the water. In fact, Shikoku, near where they lived was where she said that Pearl Harbor, it resembled a Pearl Harbor kind of inlet. And so, practice, Pearl Harbor attack was practiced in that area, you know, the Japanese. So, she showed us where it was when we went to visit Japan. But, it's a very nice, picturesque area. And, when I think about their living close to the water and having nice scenery, it reminds me of the San Juan Islands kind of place. I think, well, they grew up with nice scenery, near the water and good fresh air.

DG: The farmers were respected.

RI: Uh-huh.

DG: And so that wasn't really a low...

RI: Oh no. It wasn't low. In fact, probably all their friends were farmers. And they raised potato, I guess, and then they also had mikan trees. Only, instead of mikan they used to be called daidai yama. Daidai was grapefruit. But maybe pretty soon grapefruit was not a good product so they changed to mikans.

DG: 'Cause it's really famous for that now.

RI: Yeah. That Ehime-ken area is, lot of the -- well, when they say "yama" you'd think it's a mountain, but they're hills, lotta hills.

DG: And you said she went to a school for brides-to-be?

AI: I think so. I think she had the standard education, six, sixth grade, and after that I don't think she went to high school. In those days I don't think many women, or even boys, girls or boys went to high school. But she went to a school in, I think Uwajima. Uwajima, it's now Uwajimaya, but Uwajima is a city in Shikoku. And Tomio's father came from there, that's why he called it Uwajimaya. But, anyway, she says she went there for, I don't know, maybe a year or two to learn the basic housewife things, women's things, cooking and sewing and all that. So...

DG: I think you had to be a little bit higher-class to afford to go to that, too.

RI: Probably, because she, it was not in her own village.

DG: Right, right.

RI: It was out of town so she probably had to be boarded somewhere.

AI: So that was a little unusual for that time --

RI: Maybe.

AI: -- for girls to get some extra education like that. Well, and in your, your notes, you had mentioned that your mother was born in 1900.

RI: 1900, yes. She was born 1900, so it was always easy to know how old she was. 1920 she was twenty years old. So she was born 1900, I was born 1920, my brother was born 1930, another brother was born 1940. So we were all decades, kind of thing. But, it was always easy to remember. So if she, if she were alive today she'd be hundred two, hundred, yeah, hundred three, because she was born in January.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.