Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Tom Akashi Interview
Narrator: Tom Akashi
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary); Chizu Omori (secondary)
Location: Klamath Falls, Oregon
Date: July 3, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-atom-01-0007

<Begin Segment 7>

TI: Now, how was that with your, for your mother? Because here you had a large family at this point. Why don't you talk about, how many siblings did you have?

TA: At that time? Let me see. It was my brother Tosh, myself, Mits, Satsuki, and Tomo. There was five of us, eventually, before the war. Junko was born in Tule Lake. And, yeah, we were small and young, and my mother had to take care of the family, and at the same time, supplement teachers' income. So she, she went out and picked tomatoes, picked strawberries, picked tulips. Anything that, to help out, supplement the income.

TI: It sounds like it was a pretty hard life for your, your mother then.

TA: I think so. Looking back, I mean, I don't know how she did it, really. To work, take care of the family clothes, keep up the house. And being the teacher's wife and being able to speak English. The woman, they, they came and talked about their problems and things like that. So she had to do that also, so she was a busy, very, very busy woman.

CO: Yeah, that generation of Japanese American women really had hard lives in terms of work...

TA: Yeah. Because she was one of the few Nisei who spoke Japanese as well as, Japanese as well as English. And as a result, they just kind of relied on her, those things that needed translation or -- not translation, but being able to interpret and make them understand certain things that they do in the American way.

TI: That's, that's good.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.