Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Mary Kageyama Nomura Interview
Narrator: Mary Kageyama Nomura
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Torrance, California
Date: July 9, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-nmary-02-0008

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TI: When, after your mother died, and pretty much your brother is taking charge and doing all this, did you get much help or support from friends and other people, neighbors in the community?

MN: We had a guardian, which, just in name only. They lived in (west) Los Angeles, and they were an elderly Japanese, Japan couple. And they would come over sometimes with rice or oshoyu or something. And then I know at Christmas time, we didn't get toys. We got rice, oshoyu, miso, things like that, to keep us going, and to help the larder. And one day, one Christmas, we were given a pair of skates for all the siblings to share. I mean, that was a milestone, and then we were able to have fun on the street, asphalt street, by sharing the skates. That was a big treasure for us, to have a toy. My mother left instruments that we were able to (play with) shakuhachi and taiko and shamisen, but we never touched her shamisen. Because, you know, it was a precious thing, and we would have torn it. But we were able to tootle around on the shakuhachi, which we couldn't do, but she could play it. She had a piano, we tinkered on the piano, and she played the violin. But we never got to pursue all that, because you had to take lessons from that. But here I'm deviating from what you asked me, I'm sorry. [Laughs]

TI: No, no, this is great. And in fact, I was just trying to get a sense of, almost like the everyday life for you and the kids. I mean, in terms of, like, discipline, if someone didn't do something right or got in trouble, who would be...

MN: My brother. He ruled us with an iron hand and his voice. He would never strike us. Maybe he would swat us on our rear or something, and then that would bring us to right away. And he taught us, my sister and my brother made sure we all had proper manners, and so we grew up okay. I guess it was instilled into them by my mother. And we still, we thanked them for our survival.

TI: How about things, as you grew up into a young woman, in terms of dating and things like that, did your brother talk to you about those things?

MN: Well, my dating, I was such a wallflower, I didn't date until I went to Manzanar. My sister, just two years older than me, she was quite popular, just a pepperpot, and everybody just chased after her. They used to come over and try to date her and all that, but my kid sister and I were just little brats. [Laughs] So they had no interest in us, we were just little teenagers. But after... that's going into the camp now.

TI: Well, so let me ask you this. So, for instance, the sister older than you, just older, who a lot of boys wanted to date, how would your brother handle that? Would he talk to her or watch out for her?

MN: Yes. Yes, he would be around, and made sure that the right boys were coming over, and I guess he would, the scowl or something would turn them away. [Laughs] And being that he was just a few years older than us, he was the patriarch, so he had to make sure that my sister had the right kind of boys. And the fellow that used to come over, she finally ended up marrying him. She was very popular. And then my other sister, my eldest sister, when she had to find work to support us, she went to work in a market, and then she was introduced to the supervisor who was the produce supervisor for the chain market that she worked for, and she eventually married him. He was ten years older than she, but it lasted a while.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.