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TI: Okay, so you mentioned your mother. Tell me a little bit, what was your mother's name and how did she meet your father?

MS: My mother was Kiyoko Amitani.

TI: Okay, Kiyoko Amitani, and then how did she meet your father?

MS: I think it was a "picture bride." She was raised by an aunt who didn't have any children. And so she became, went to live with her. Apparently, she was a very stern lady. And my mother went to some academy where she learned flower arranging and playing the koto and the shamisen, and oh my god, the tea ceremony and so forth. But apparently she wanted to study English, but her mother said, "You never use it," so she insisted that she go to this place. My mother would read things, but it was like the... like magazines like McCall's and so forth, the Japanese kind. And once in a while she would read it. Not often, but she was not a person that the level of reading that my father did was interesting.

TI: But it sounds like in Japan your mother was well-educated, cultured. I'm guessing it must have been quite a shock for her.

MS: It was a shock for her. 'Cause she was saying she thought when she came out to the valley and she expected to be met by a carriage, but it was a wagon. And here she came out to this very wild kind of country and found that a group of men were waiting for her to come, and the washing she had to do, and there was no hot and cold running water, she had to pump this, and heat and so forth. So it really was very difficult for her.

TI: And did she ever express either disappointment or...

MS: See, as kids, we didn't talk this way. Nowadays, you hear parents telling their children, but they're too busy trying to earn a living, keeping up a house and so forth. And so it was very difficult. But I do remember my mother wanting us to learn things, and she'd try to teach us ikebana, and oh, my god, when she'd sit us down for the formal tea, it was awful. [Laughs]

TI: But that's, oftentimes other people, and probably in places like Wapato, never were exposed to anything like that.

MS: No.

TI: How about Japanese language? What did you and your siblings do...

MS: Never did. And because my sisters were six and eight years older, you know, I think the way I was raised is a little bit different than them. And they were often doing things, and here I was very much the young kid, and they didn't pay much attention to me, which was all right. [Laughs]

TI: Before we talk about your siblings, let's... tell me about your mother. What was she like? You talked about your father a little bit, what was your mother like?

MS: My mother was a fairly gentle lady, but somebody who made do with what she had to do. And I remember that she was very kind. And when my uncle's family, when my cousin who was the oldest was a senior and graduated, she decided they could not stay and run that, the gas station, and she moved her family to Portland. And I remember my mother packing a bunch of groceries and giving her some money and so forth, so that she would have something. But I think the women those days were, once in a while they'd get together and talk. Like Mrs. Inaba, Mrs. Yonekawa were very good friends of ours, and Mrs. Kikuchi. I think it was just that girl talk, and to be able to maybe share a recipe or whatever. But I didn't pay much attention to them, because they were not around and gathered like the men. But I did hear the men talk. [Laughs]

TI: That's good.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.