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BH: So could you tell me a little bit about your mother? You said that she was a very strong woman. You've mentioned that she, you would always call your mom --

KH: Well, my father was working at nighttime, mostly, so that we had to be quiet so he can sleep during the daytime. So my mother had to make decisions as to what... and I don't know who decided that we would go to Maryknoll.

BH: And what was that?

KH: It's a missionary school, and it was up on Sixteenth and Jefferson, and they would come around with a bus and pick us up for school. But the, Hiroko and myself, Ishi and May and Chuck, we all went to Maryknoll. But I don't know why, but Bako was sent to Pacific grade school, which was only a block from where we lived.

BH: And was that a private school as well?

KH: No, Pacific was a public school. I don't know whether it was preferential, you know, the first son.

BH: You had mentioned that your mother was the president of the Mother's Club at your private school?

KH: Uh-huh, Haha no Kai.

BH: Can you tell me anything about that?

KH: Well, we used to have bazaars, and my mother would organize the ladies. And at each house, one house would make barazushi, another house would make makizushi, and then another house would make ohagi to sell at the bazaar. And the barazushi was made at my mother's house, and I remember that. She had a little wood stove, and she had a gas stove, and both were cooking rice.

BH: And can you tell me about your father? You mentioned that he worked nights, what did he do?

KH: By that, by the time we were growing up, my father was working as a bellhop at the Rainier Club on Fourth Avenue.

BH: So your parents, they must have both had to work very hard to support the family.

KH: No, my mother didn't work.

BH: She didn't?

KH: She was a housewife. In fact, I remember all the diapers she had to wash, 'cause we came so fast, one after the other. [Laughs]

BH: So she was always busy around the home?

KH: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

BH: Your parents must have had to have you guys help a little bit, didn't they? How you helped to contribute to keep the family moving smoothly?

KH: We never went out to work as such, until we were older. I remember by the time we were thirteen, fourteen is when we went out to pick berries. And at that time, you stayed in a, at the farm and picked berries for the, you know, berry season, which was maybe about two or three weeks.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.