<Begin Segment 6>

AI: So you were quite busy as a young child.

MK: Oh, I was. My mother did believe in keeping people busy, the kids busy so we won't get into mischief. I remember I was... during the summer, I didn't go to camp but I did attend a sewing school. And from the time I was ten years old, so you can imagine. And she was smart, because, the way she said it was, if I finish a garment, well, she'll very willingly buy another yardage so that I can make the next item. So, of course, out of greed, and fortunately, they were dirndl skirts, so they were not very difficult to make. So I was ready for school by the time fall came around.

AI: Well, that's great. That's very interesting to hear about growing up as a girl. I'm wondering, did you notice that you were expected to behave in different ways, or there were different expectations for you, as a girl, compared to the boys in your family? Did you have different responsibility around the home, or did they have privileges as boys that you didn't have?

MK: Well, now that I look back on it, I think our family was a little the exception. I was lucky because we always had schoolboys in our home, the farm boys from Fife, Sumner, Puyallup area, the ones who didn't fit the farm scene. Their parents would ask my father to use them in his business, and to provide them with a place to stay. Well, they helped out at my -- and when they went to school, then came back to our home, for room and board, well then they would help out with cutting the lawn, because my father was so busy that they cut the lawn and they did the dishes. So, strangely enough, I escaped a lot of those tedious chores that most people resent. [Laughs]

AI: What about... you mentioned the Japanese language school, did you have other kinds of Japanese cultural lessons that you went to? Any other kinds of training, or...

MK: Oh, well then I had piano lessons. And my brothers took violin. And, did you want the names of the teacher? Miyamoto. Michiko Miyamoto was the name of the teacher, and Fumiko (Morita) was the sister that taught the violin. And this is very early, and let's see... I had a teacher before that, but then I think those, these are the teachers that we had last. And of course, in those days our mothers rarely drove, so I had to take the bus. And this was, it took about half a day. I'd have to take the bus and go to my piano lesson and take the bus again and go back home. So, whatever we did, it took time. But they did provide us with all this opportunity. I don't think we appreciated it then, but now, I can see that they did what they could for us.

AI: And what about some of your friendships while you were at the Rainier School? Who were some of your best friends as a child?

MK: I was very social, so I always had friends.

AI: And being that it was kind of an integrated school --

MK: Right.

AI: -- did you have friendships across the racial lines?

MK: Yes, I did. I think when we left for camp there was a, Margie Thompson was a Caucasian girl that befriended me and we left a few items with her. I gave her my, like my desk, school desk, left it with her. I lost track of her, but nevertheless, we were close enough that her fam-, her mother took some items that she could mail, ship to us later. And I think that, I remember her as the closest one. And the other Nikkei friends, Japanese American friends, there were a few, but not, not too many as far as Rainier School was concerned. However, I had a lot of Japanese friends from the Japanese school that I attended after school. And because I have been to Japan before, being exchanged with these prisoners of war, at the age of eight...

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.