<Begin Segment 6>

TI: You know, as we talk about your mother's family, what did people tell you about her? What was she like?

ST: Well, the family was a prosperous farming family, so that meant the girls did not do farmwork. And they were all raised to... how shall I say? They went to finishing schools, the so-called. They took lessons in flower arranging, needlework, sewing, all that sort of thing. And, in fact, on my father's side, I think, two of his sisters were teachers at those type of schools. And all the family was... so I would say the family was very prosperous, and so she was well-trained, well-brought up. It seems that she was the child of the first wife, and that after his wife died... there were several children, and after his wife died, he remarried, of course. And then things were not as prosperous. They were, my, her younger sister's husband was an upcoming young man, and he was prosperous. And so he bought land from his father-in-law, that would be.

TI: Your grandfather.

ST: Yeah, my grandfather. And so much of the land that my sister, my aunt's family has is actually her land. So it's kind of interesting the way that happened. So it could be, at the time my father went back to Japan to marry my mother, the family was just, you know, doing well, doing okay, but not that well.

TI: And what about personality? What had you heard about your mother's personality, or what was she like?

ST: See, no one really tells you anything, you know. And my father never spoke of my mother. And my sister doesn't remember very much, because, you know... and I think, we had no relatives, it was just, in the United States, there was just my father, my sister and I. None of the rest of the family ever wanted to come to the United States. So, and we had no one to tell us stories about her, no close friends whose mothers would tell you, "Oh, your mother used to do this," or something like that. We know she was considered accomplished in needlework and stuff because in the trunk were unfinished pieces of embroidery and needlework, and things of that sort. And she, her clothing was, we had her clothing, she was a very petite woman, of course, and we think she was probably, maybe 4'8", 10", something like that. She was very tiny. Her feet, she must have, we had an old pair of shoes, we had a lot of her old shoes and her jewelry, and she must have worn about a size 3. She was a pretty lady, and that's what most people would tell us. And they would look at us when we would go to the picnics, the undoukai that they would have. Oh, and they would look at Miyo and I and they'd say, they would say to my sister, "Oh, you look just like your mother. She was so beautiful." And so that's pretty much what we heard. Past that, we really didn't hear much more.

TI: Okay. So let's go now, so they returned, or your dad returns to Portland where he's working at sort of a men's furnishing place?

ST: Well, he, yes, he had a men's furnishing shop. There was another family, there is another family in Portland with the same last name, Tsuboi. And there were two brothers and their families, and so they were the Tsuboi brothers. And so when my father kind of joined up with him, they said, "Well, you're part of the Tsuboi brothers." So we had no actual relationship. But they were the Tsuboi brothers, and so most people are sure that we are related to the others, you know. [Laughs] They were, they were jewelers, and they had a very nice jewelry shop on Burnside. Burnside is the division between north and south in Portland, and it used to be the central part of Portland in the beginning. And they had a shop there, and they used to be kind of like a... the way, the first I remember about this was probably when I was seven or eight. I remember going there to visit during the day, in the summertime, my sister would take me and we'd go for a walk. And my father's store was connected to the jewelry store, but I don't really remember anything about his shop because, of course, the jewelry store was far more fascinating.

TI: But it was under the umbrella of the Tsuboi brothers?

ST: Yes, yes. And then later, I think this was probably about the time I went home to live with him in 1938, he opened a shop several blocks away.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.