<Begin Segment 31>

BK: What other Japanese American kinds of organizations did you, did the children belong to?

MH: They didn't. They just did... oh, Rodney was in a lot of sports, football, golf, and all that, and Beverly, she worked all her life, too. I mean, she's worked -- when she was going to school, she knew that Mom and Dad just couldn't give her everything that everybody else had, no matter what. She worked, since she was in high school she worked at Kline Galland Nursing Home in her high school years, and then she worked for Dr. Braille up in Rainer Beach for, all through college. She went on a, got a scholarship from Westin Hotels, because I worked there. So she went to school from there. And Rodney didn't want to go to college, he went to community college. Then he went to work for Boeing, and they sent him to whatever schools he's gone to. I've been lucky there.

AI: I was wondering, as they were growing up, Beverly and Rodney, did you ever have any concern for them as far as what they might face regarding any prejudice or discrimination? Were you worried about that?

MH: I did, I worried about it a lot, because like I say, even to this day I don't feel comfortable sometimes. Because, although I'm Japanese, I don't feel that I'm... I wanted my children to be with the Japanese community. In fact, we lived right behind the Providence Hospital and I went through by the school one day, and there was no Orientals, no anything, but black, and it's not that I'm prejudiced, but I didn't want my kids to go where they would have, not meet any Japanese. I didn't see a Japanese on the playground. So I told Dad that we have to do something. And we had bought this house, and only had it three years. So we looked around and found a little house in Othello Street, and so they would be going to Brighton. And I wanted them to know the Japanese community, although it really didn't help. My daughter ended up marrying a Caucasian, and then we... the house was too small, so we bought a house in Rainier Beach. And it was really hard for my husband, because he had to travel. He did only Queen Anne, Magnolia and Capitol Hill as a gardener, and that gave him an extra drive every day. I'm sure a half hour at least. So I, although my yakkin' didn't really help him, and it didn't do anything for the children, either. I really feel bad about that. I wish to this day -- she's forty-nine -- I tell her, I say, "I wish you'd get in, into some of the Sansei things." And she says, "Mom, I don't have time." Which is true. She went to school, and she was a teacher, then a principal, and she's in the superintendent's office now, and I feel bad that she doesn't. And I'm kind of glad that she doesn't have children, either. She decided that they wouldn't have children, so... I hope that she never misses not having Japanese friends, and have to wait as long as I did to be, have some good Japanese friends, you know.

Because my husband was kind a quiet. In fact, very quiet. Very well-read. He read all the time. And my brother said, "I never knew anybody that would read a Bible." But he would, he'd sit down, he read the whole Bible, never thought anything of it. He was a Buddhist, but he was real quiet, and... although, when I took him out, I'd always lose him, because there'd be somebody over there talking, because he could talk on any subject. He's one of those kind. He could just, anything. So if we went to a party, it was all hakujins, because at the Space Needle, that's what, that's where, all hakujins -- I'd lose him. Here he would be over talking with somebody, you know, about something. That's why I hope my children will get so that... but I think it's kind of a lost cause now.

BK: So for much of your married life, was your social life not with the Japanese American community?

MH: Uh-huh. It was mostly with who I worked with. You know, I did, I worked at the Space Needle for twenty years. And in the meantime I was working for Gretchen's, Of Course, in the catering on my days off. I also worked at Ben Bridge. I'd work at Ben Bridge from nine to three, and then Space Needle from four or five 'til whenever I could get off early. And then I worked catering for Gretchen when she needed me. So I always had worked -- in that time my husband had gotten a heart attack, and had to have open heart surgery, and so, you know, I didn't want him to work a lot. But I didn't want to change our lifestyle, either, and I figured, well, as long as I could do it, I'd do it. So that's what we did.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.