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TI: You mentioned your mother dying when you were a year and a half. So before we get there, let's talk about some of her background. Do you know where in Japan, where she was from?

MS: She came, her family came from Kumamoto. And, but she was born in Colton, California, which is in San Bernardino County. She was maybe the third of six children, five of them, the oldest five -- no, the oldest four were girls, then there was a son, and then another younger daughter that I'd never met.

TI: And do you know how your father met your mother?

MS: Not really. I think the Japanese community was pretty small. Her family lived somewhere in East L.A. or in south Pasadena, somewhere in between there. And they had a laundry business, and my dad said that all the fellows used to go there because there were these three beautiful sisters all under one roof. [Laughs] So it was a good place to go, I guess.

TI: So a lot of the, maybe all the college men at USC or something knew, had heard about your mother's family. So they got married in the early '30s, probably after he got his master's degree?

MS: I think it was 1933, but I'm not a hundred percent sure.

TI: But that would kind of work in terms of, then you were born in 1935.

MS: Uh-huh.

TI: So you mentioned that she died when you were about a year and a half, so she was still a young woman. What happened?

MS: Oh, she had tuberculosis, and it was the days before they had even sulfur to help the disease. So she was in a sanitarium somewhere up in the foothills here. So my dad at the time was living in Gardena, so he had quite a trip to make from Gardena all the way to the foothills up here near Pasadena. But she died in 1938, I think, April.

TI: And during that time, someone must have, probably had to, would have to tell you. So if you're father's in Gardena and you're mother's in a sanitarium, who was taking care of you?

MS: Well, I'm not sure, but I think my grandmother had to come from Stockton to take care of me. I have some pictures of me as a, like a toddler, with my grandmother.

TI: And how did people describe your mother? What would they say if someone asked, "What was your mother like?" What would people say?

MS: Well, I've spoken with my aunt, her older sister, and she said, "Oh, she was very bright and very ambitious." She liked to take classes, and she was not educated beyond high school, I don't think, but she liked to take piano lessons and things like that. She was always trying to improve herself.

TI: And personality-wise?

MS: Oh, that she was a very gentle person.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.