<Begin Segment 9>

AI: Well, tell me a little bit about that. What kinds of things did your parents stress to you? What was important to them?

WW: Well, my father, particularly, he, he came as a young boy himself, and he didn't have the opportunity to further himself in education, other than high school. And he always lamented later on that, oh, he had friends that had become so accomplished and successful, a friend that might be a physician, or a minister, this kind of thing. And he felt kind of badly about that, so he would always stress that if he had had an opportunity, he would perhaps like to have been a medical doctor like one of his friends. So that, I think that kind of put the, set the tone for me, and therefore I did strive to do better. (In fact, I graduated as valedictorian in high school.)

AI: Did they, did your parents have any particular religious affiliation, or any kind of religious related values that they stressed to you?

WW: Yes, we, my mother and father were Episcopalian, so I grew up in the Episcopal church.

AI: Oh. Do you know when they, or do you happen to know if either of them were from a Christian family in Japan? Or did that come later, perhaps?

WW: My father did not become a Christian until he came to this country, and then he, at that time, he became a Methodist and then my mother was of the Episcopal faith. I don't know when she started that, but then when they got married, they were married in the Episcopal church. And therefore I was raised in the Episcopal church.

AI: So, also, pretty much throughout your growing-up years then, that was the church that you attended?

WW: Yes, that was the only church I attended then, right.

AI: Then what other kinds of things, I'm very interested, because your mother herself was Nisei, and grew up as an American citizen. I wondered, did she or your father, also, ever say much about citizenship or about being American, or about being Nihonjin? Did they ever...

WW: My father, he always regretted the fact that he could not become a citizen until 1952, which is about a year before I graduated from high school, then he became a citizen. 'Course, my mother, obviously, being born in Washington, she obviously was a citizen, so she never brought up the subject of being a citizen.

AI: I'm wondering if your, either of your parents ever said much about their camp experience as you were getting older, either in your high school years or later. Did they say very much about what happened in those years, or comment on it to you?

WW: They didn't comment too much on it. They, I don't know if it was because they were reluctant to speak about it, or perhaps it was too painful for them, but they did mention, particularly my dad. He was more so, being, gave a sense of being bitter about losing possessions and business and so forth.

AI: Right. So that must have been quite a blow for him, because it sounds like they had quite a bit of business before, before going.

WW: Yes, yes, uh-huh.

AI: And I'm also interested, you mentioned that your father had photography skills, and did you say that he took some home movies?

WW: He took home movies, and as far as, or long as I can remember, he started taking pictures of our family when I was very, very little, must have been three or four years of age.

AI: And I was so curious about that, because I know that there was an interest in photography among some of the Japanese immigrants...

WW: Right.

AI: ...but I don't know of that many people who actually had the home movies.

WW: Oh, yes, yes. He took a lot of 8-mm color movies, and...

AI: And so do you still have any of those?

WW: I have some of them, yes, uh-huh.

AI: That's wonderful.

WW: Great.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.