<Begin Segment 9>

AH: Well, you had a disciplined orientation even to going on to college and stuff. And you were talking about the fact that increasingly you started to move in circles which were largely with hakujin people. Now, did the limit stop with respect to romantic involvement, or were you encouraged, or did you feel free to be able to explore relationships across ethnic lines or not?

JA: Well, at that time, I never even thought of going out. See, like my parents didn't want me to go dancing, so I didn't dance. They didn't want me to go any movies. They told me to see certain kinds, so that was it. But it was pretty well controlled. And culture, they were teaching me all of the good things of Japanese culture. They said, "There's three things that you gotta remember -- one is the mirror, one is a sword. Mirror you look at yourself, and make sure you could look at yourself. Sword is conviction. And the other is the necklace and that necklace is made up of all different colored beads, shaped beads and human beings should not be all of round or square or one color. That's the world." And he pushed that, and he said, "Make that part of yourself. Be strong -- sword, honest -- mirror, be worldly -- the necklace."

AH: And these came from your father?

JA: Yes.

AH: And were they echoed by your mother, or reinforced by your mother, or was there a difference?

JA: She didn't say too much; she was more concerned about bringing us up.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.