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TI: How about your father? How would you describe your father? What was he like?

VW: Well, he had a good sense of humor, very intelligent guy, which was good. Sometimes he could help my sister who was in high school on tough arithmetic problems. And these are written problems, and he could figure them out his own way, and he always got the answer right. And she would take it to school and say that her dad helped. They'd say, "Well, how did you get this?' and then she'd explain how my dad had gotten it. And then they'd say, "Well, I don't know how he got this, but he's right, the answer's right, too." And so he had the ability to do mathematical problems pretty well, and he was just a kid when he came, sixteen years old. And so his schooling had to be pretty good already by then. And, but he was a, he was a tough dad. He expected a lot from his family, and I always figured that he, that he always sent a message saying... not verbally, but through the thought, that anyone who lived in the (family), was part of the family, all work was expected and not, not for pay or anything like that. And so when he would hire people to help on the farm, he'd pay them and thank them. But we would do the same work, maybe even more work, but he never paid us, of course. We didn't expect the pay so much because we were so, such a poor family. But a little "thank you" would have been great, but it never came.

TI: So it sounds like, so he was pretty hard on the children.

VW: He was.

TI: That he expected a lot, but he was, it sounded like, fair with outside people in terms of paying them and working well.

VW: Yes.

TI: But inside the family, had high expectations.

VW: Like my sister always said -- and she is the older sister -- she'd say, "Charity begins next door." [Laughs] And she's right. She was right about that. Charity begins next door with my dad.

TI: Well, how about the dynamics between your mother and father? You described your mother as very nurturing, and perhaps your father as more, more of a --

VW: Authoritarian.

TI: Yeah, authoritarian. So when, for instance, if your father was hard on the kids, would your mother try to make it easier for the kids in any way? How did that dynamic work when...

VW: Yeah, she would sometimes do that, yes. And so, although we never hid behind my mother, but she was always there, and we knew it. And, but my dad, we'd always kind of steer a little bit away. I never remember him ever coming up and putting his arm around me or anything, ever, or around any of the kids. He just wasn't that way. And I don't know why, but he wasn't. He wasn't that way.

TI: You mentioned earlier that you, one of the first things you said was he had a sense of humor.

VW: Yeah, he did.

TI: What would be an example of his sense of humor?

VW: Well, (...) he always liked Lincoln, our president, and he'd tell stories about Lincoln and how he used to split wood and things like that. And then he said, well, (...) somebody asked Lincoln how long his legs were, and Lincoln, he'd say, "And Lincoln said, 'They're just long enough to reach the ground.'" And so, and my dad always kind of liked that saying. And he had other jokes, too, that he would tell.

TI: And who would we, who would he tell those jokes to? Was it to the children?

VW: Yeah, quite often, and also to the neighbors, neighbor boys and girls and so on. And then he also played bridge. He learned how to play bridge, and he was pretty good at it, too. He learned how to play checkers, and he was pretty good at checkers, too. But his sense of humor was pretty good. If something funny happened, he'd laugh quite a bit about it. And yet, when things happened that were kind of a negative, he didn't have... well, he had kind of a quick temper, and that was kind of one of my dad's, bad things about him, certainly to the family.

TI: How about Japanese culture? Did he, did you grow up with your dad sharing any of his Japanese heritage or culture with you or the other --

VW: Very, very seldom, very seldom. He, he turned American pretty fast, and he was a pure American guy. And when I went off to war, he, he didn't say much, he just... he hardly said goodbye. That's just the way Pop was.

TI: Yeah, but as you were growing up, how about like, did you ever hear, like, a Japanese song or Japanese stories or anything like that?

VW: Yeah. Sometimes I remember him singing some Japanese songs. But one night we were coming home from work, and it was dark and it was cold, and I was sitting in the back of the wagon and freezing. And he'd say, "Virgil, come on up and I'll keep you warm." And I didn't go. You see, there's a, there was a feeling there. And then he called me again, and I still didn't go. And then later on, he'd call me again, and so finally I was so cold, I did. And kind of sat in his lap, and he kept me warm, which was quite different than normal. That was back, I was a pretty small kid then. But, and he was driving the horses on the wagon. But he used to sing a Japanese song. All I can remember is -- and this goes way back -- "Ekanamo wa kinkake," or something like that. Now, that isn't Japanese, I suppose, anymore, but it did come out that way to me.

TI: Okay, that's nice.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.