<Begin Segment 5>

MA: What are some of your earliest childhood memories?

SO: Living there? Well, I remember that my dad, every New Year's, my dad had, fixed up the house so that the young people could, my friends and my sisters' and brothers' friends could come, and we'd play karuta. And he had, he had, my mom made lots of food, and that was for New Year's. And let me see. I think for Easter he had, he had some Easter eggs that he hid in the -- [laughs] -- and I remember my dad used to cut my brother's hair, and he used to cut our hair, too, like this. [Laughs] But that way he could save some money.

MA: What types of foods did you eat at home? Was it Japanese-style?

SO: Yes, it was mostly Japanese-style, and we ate rice. We ate a lot of fish in those days. We didn't, we didn't eat too much meats in those days, I guess that was more expensive. But we ate some noodles, I know, remember we ate noodles, and we always had rice with tea, ochazuke, that's what you call it. That was always good. And when we ate, we never spoke at all, we were real quiet. I guess, like, in American families, you talk with each other, but we never did. We were, we were supposed to be quiet when we ate, and my dad was pretty strict.

MA: How else was he strict with you, with the kids?

SO: Well, we had to be home before dark, and I remember when we had a dance at our church, when I was in my teens, well, he would bring us to church and then he would stay for a few minutes to see how everything was, and then he'd leave. If he saw that it was, you know, everything was okay, then he'd leave. But he was pretty particular. And then we had conferences in different cities, and we'd have to go in a train or something. And he was kind of concerned because there was boy-girl, you know, not only girls. So he was kind of concerned, but I think he let my sister go once. [Laughs]

MA: Were these conferences through your church?

SO: Yes, uh-huh. So it was called the Young, YPCC, and I think it started quite a while ago. Now, they have the Nikkei Conference, and it's, I think it started out as the young people that came from Japan, but there's Niseis that go to that, too. But as the Niseis are getting older, it seems like the conference is getting smaller and smaller. So that's kind of hard.

MA: Were you able to participate in these conferences when you were younger, like a teenager?

SO: No, I think I started going when I was, after I got married, I think. But I remember my sister, Miyo, she used to go when she was in her teens.

MA: Did you want to go along with her? Were you jealous that you couldn't go?

SO: No, not necessarily. She's five years older than I am, so it's kind of a different group.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.