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TI: But this is interesting. So you were kind of raised in a Swedish American culture.

ST: Yes.

TI: From two 'til about eight years old, you said?

ST: Uh-huh. And the interesting thing is that I never heard any disparaging words about where I came from or Japanese, or that I was not white, or anything like that. In fact, you know, I never really felt different. I knew I was, after a while I could see my father and my sister, and my father and my sister came every Sunday afternoon. That was a weekly visit, and they would come to, and my sister was the interpreter, and ask how things were, if there was any help that they needed. Of course, I spoke no English when I went to join them, and the first thing they -- and they would write down what they thought I was saying. And the first visit, they had written this down because they said, "She keeps running around and saying the same words over and over for several days." And they said it, and it was, "Pon pon itai." And when they told, they had written it down, so when they told Dad and my sister and they interpreted, they were just so hurt. Because they said, "Here she was hurting, and we didn't know." And they just were so upset that they hadn't caught that. But it was...

TI: And what you were saying as a child was your stomach hurt.

ST: Yeah, I was saying my stomach hurt. And they didn't recognize that, you know. But, and the other thing I was told was we did not have a car, of course, and so we rode streetcars in Portland. And Mary said that after I got a little older and we were riding the streetcars to go visit somebody, she said, I said, "Was anybody paying any attention to us? Did they look at us?" She said, "Not really." She said we were perfectly, just like any other passenger getting on, she said, "Until you would pipe up and say, 'Mommy, look at that.' And all the heads would turn." [Laughs] And she said, "And after that, yes, they would look at us."

TI: Everybody trying to figure out how did this little Japanese girl end up with this family of Swedes. Interesting.

ST: Yes, yeah. Well, they weren't really, you know, she was proud of her Swedish background, but we never spoke any Swedish. I learned a few words, her in-laws would come over, her sisters and their husbands would visit, and they would teach me some words. And they would say, they taught me "Svenska flicka," which meant "Swedish girl," and things like that. And "tack sa mycket," which meant "thank you very much." They said, "Now, those are things you should know," you know. So they taught me that, and they were all great tea drinkers, they drank tea.

TI: How about other traditions? Like during the holidays, Swedish holidays or anything like that?

ST: No, no, we never did that. However, there were certain foods we ate that were really Swedish. We didn't have the... what do you call that stuff? Well, anyway. One thing she was very set on was boiled potatoes, and we had salted cod. I think we had that at least three times a week for lunch. That was not terribly great, but it was Swedish. [Laughs]

TI: Well, during this time, how much exposure did you have to Japanese things? Like did you ever learn how to use hashi?

ST: No. I used forks and knives always. I didn't really go back to visit, you see, my family, until I was what you could call old enough to be on my own, you know. And that was only for a short time, maybe a week in the summertime when my sister would be out of school, of course, and be able to take care of me. So I had to be old enough so that she would be able to take care of me. So I was probably, I'm guessing, I would say, maybe I was six or seven before I went to stay for a vacation, already going to the local school. And so at that time, I was kind of learning how to use a chopstick there, but not very good at it, but you know, I would use the chopsticks when I visited. I really don't remember getting lessons. But Ms. Brown was very, she was trying to keep some Japanese in me, so she would serve, she would make rice for me. But, of course, you realize the way I had rice at her house was with cream and sugar. It was cereal. And so, but she was very proud that she served me rice with cream and sugar. [Laughs]

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