<Begin Segment 6>

TI: How about your mother? What would she be like in terms of when she got excited or maybe angry? How would she show those things?

SY: I guess... I don't know. She's not a special... she would smile, you know, and says, "Oh," she'll say that, just about.

TI: So I'm looking at all your, you had all those brothers, so six brothers. And at times, boys can be kind of rambunctious or noisy or do things. What would happen if your brothers essentially didn't mind? They were too noisy or they did something? Who would be the person in the family to discipline?

SY: I think my mother would be the one to discipline. And if they don't still mind her, well, she'll say, "Wait 'til Father gets home." [Laughs]

TI: And then that, your brothers would then get, would start behaving at that point?

SY: Oh, yeah.

TI: Did you ever see what would happen if your dad had to do something? I mean, what would happen if your father had to discipline?

SY: Oh, his hand would... [laughs]

TI: So he would go ahead and hit them or something if they weren't behaving. That's interesting. You never hear enough about how they Isseis... I'm always curious how the Isseis disciplined or how they, in some ways, brought their value system to the Niseis. I'm always curious.

SY: Gee, I don't know. Well, Father and Mother would say, "Meiwaku kakenai." "Don't trouble the people."

TI: "Don't be a nuisance, don't..."

SY: Yeah, something like that.

TI: Oh, interesting. Did your mother or father, did they talk very much about being Japanese and what it meant to be Japanese?

SY: Well, they said, "Whatever you do or whatever you say, don't bring shame to the name or the family." That's what they used to say.

TI: That's good. Anything else you can remember? Other things that they would say?

SY: They would say, "Watch what you say," "Be careful what you say." "Don't offend the people you're talking to." And I think there were more, but I can't remember. "Don't lie," you know, things like that.

TI: Now, what would you say if you were to ask a question, how your parents would view success? I mean, what would be... what would they want for their children? What would they want for you and your other siblings in terms of success or a life? If they were to say, "You would have a good life if..." what would that "if" be?

SY: Gee... I can't say.

TI: How about things like, is family important? Community? Education? Making money? Is there anything that you can remember that they would talk about as being important?

SY: Well, they said, "Be healthy," you know. Because that's the most important. If you're ill or anything, you can't work and do what you want to do. So that's, I think they used to say that a lot of time, many times.

TI: Okay, good.

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