<Begin Segment 4>

MN: Now, aside from regular school, did you attend Japanese language school?

FH: No, not at all.

MN: How did you learn your Japanese?

FH: Well, my parents, who barely had the eighth grade education in Japan, got some textbooks from Japan, and he was our teacher at home.

MN: But when your parents spoke, did they speak Okayama-ben?

FH: Yes, Okayama-ben, right.

MN: Now, you had also mentioned your father practiced judo when he was managing the hotel. Did you take up judo?

FH: No, I did not at all.

MN: You also said your father loved music.

FH: Yes.

MN: Can you share with us what sort of music lessons your father enrolled you in?

FH: Yes, one was the piano, and piano, we didn't have piano at home, just on the keyboard, black and white. And so there was no fun without hearing the sound, and so we didn't keep the interest very long. And so he shifted to violin, because violin, you can rent it, and you can practice at home. And so that's how I had a little bit of background in music.

MN: When you said the keyboard, black and white, is it like a box that he painted black and white?

FH: Yes, that's right, just like a keyboard, a replica of the keyboard on that piece of paper.

MN: And that's how you --

FH: Move the fingers without any sound coming out of it.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.