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TI: So let's, I wanted to go back and ask, so where was your mother from?

HN: Hiroshima, too.

TI: How did she and your father meet?

HN: The trouble -- I shouldn't use the word "trouble" -- the reason my mother was so strict was because she was the oldest of the four. Her grandfather was a naval officer. See, it adds, not being, not only being the oldest daughter with lots of responsibility, the father being a navy officer, you could imagine the lifestyle she had. Lot of discipline, right, with a military family, and being the oldest. I think that, I think that's the reason why she was so strict with me.

TI: Interesting, okay. And then, again, so how did your mother and father meet?

HN: Oh. They married in Yokohama when my dad went back there. But I think, I don't know how they met. I think it was a baishakunin, you know.

TI: An arranged marriage.

HN: Arranged marriage. Because my father was in Seattle, Nishimura was... actually, my mother was born in Nagasaki, the naval base. But later they came to Kure, which is Hiroshima, Kure, but my father and mother never met. So it was arranged thing. And the story, I remember, is, my father and my mother told me, her uncle, Kumano family, uncle of my grandmother, my mother's mother, told my dad, "When you get married, she is not to work." In fact, it's in her passport, mushoku. Mushoku means, literally, non-work, unemployable. In her passport, I still have it. In her passport, "mushoku" it says. The governor signed that, all the governors signed all these passports, right, for them to leave the country, right? They had to get a passport signed by the governor.

TI: So it sounds like your mother's, your grandmother on your mother's side, the family, I mean, they must have been concerned about her coming to the United States.

HN: Obviously. Very obviously.

TI: And wanted to be very clear that she was --

HN: Not to be working. Well, people came to work; that's the reason why they left, right? They didn't go for pleasure.

TI: So let's talk about when she did come to Seattle. I'm guessing that she did have to work.

HN: She didn't work.

TI: Oh, she did not work?

HN: No. Well, when I was five years old, when I was born, I lived at Panama Hotel. There's a picture in the Hiroshima photo album, okay, probably in 1922 in Tokyo, photo album which I still have. In that album, there is Panama Hotel, picture of Panama Hotel. There's my father standing on the sidewalk, and the Maeda family, Mr. and Mrs. and the little boy. My mother is not in the picture. That told me that she's not into this same kind of thing. She's just a, you might say, oku-san. Stay home, not to be out and about. So even later on, after I grew up, my dad had a grocery store.

TI: So tell me a little bit about your father. What was your father like? How would you describe your father?

HN: Very quiet, very quiet. He didn't say very much. He didn't have to because my mother did all the talking, discipline. He didn't have to worry about it.

TI: Was he a hard worker? How would you describe him as a worker?

HN: Oh, yeah. Isseis were, most Isseis were hard workers. They were all hard workers.

TI: How would the other Isseis, perhaps, describe your father? If they were to talk about your father, what would they say?

HN: Well, like getting into your grandfather, Mr. Ikeda, used to consult my father because he was in business and this and that, about hotels, apartments. I think, yeah... my father, fortunately, didn't get involved into the community activities, affairs, responsible. I'm glad he didn't, because he would have gone to camp, special camp, immigration. So I'm glad he didn't do that.

TI: So let's talk about you a little bit now, in terms of siblings. Where are you in the birth order? How many brothers and sisters?

HN: One brother, that's all.

TI: And your brother is older or younger?

HN: One year, two months younger.

TI: Okay.

HN: Toshiyuki, Tosh, just one. It's my one regret, just having one sibling. I envied my friends that had two, three, four siblings.

TI: Why is that?

HN: I was lonely. I was lonely. Especially after the war. My brother's in Chicago, I'm here alone, we're both alone. I felt very lonely. I envied my friends that had lots of siblings; I told them that. That's one regret. When I see young people today, they say, "Oh, this is my daughter, this is my son." "Be sure you give them a sibling." That's important.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.