<Begin Segment 2>

TI: So where did your father, in terms of, did he have siblings?

KK: Oh, yes. [Laughs] Let's see. There were nine or ten of them, I can't remember now, I think it's ten, but he's number seven. And all of them were sent to the U.S.

TI: I'm curious, why? Why were they all sent?

KK: Because they were Christians, and they knew they would have a hard time in Japan.

TI: Interesting situation, because your grandfather was a military officer, so there must have been some pull to have the sons serve in the Japanese military?

KK: They didn't. [Laughs] None of them did. In fact, the youngest served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and he became a U.S. citizen.

TI: I'm sorry, the youngest sibling of, of your...

KK: My father.

TI: Of your father...

KK: My father's youngest sibling.

TI: Okay, got it.

KK: My uncle.

TI: And he was a Japanese, he was born in Japan --

KK: He was born in Japan.

TI: -- immigrated to the United States, served in the U.S. Army --

KK: During World War I.

TI: And got U.S. citizenship because of that.

KK: Yes. And he was interned in Wyoming, in Heart Mountain, and, when he died, the military came in and gave him a funeral.

TI: And when did he die, was it during the war?

KK: Yes, during the war. I can't remember the year. I have it down, I should have brought all that with me, I forgot.

TI: So it's one of these ironies then. Here you have a, a World War I veteran, U.S. citizen in Wyoming, so Heart Mountain --

KK: Heart Mountain.

TI: He dies there, and the military comes in and they give him a military funeral. So let's go back when -- you said they sent the kids, because they were Christian, to the United States -- did your grandparents come to the United States also?

KK: No, no, they never came. And the boys were able to come because my auntie, their sister was married to Mr. Domoto, and he was a very successful businessman. In fact, he was so successful when he was young, here in the United States and Japan, he was an importer-exporter, and... you know your cans of crab? You have the white paper? That was one of the things he invented. And he started canning mandarin oranges, and he did all kinds of different things, and he was a very successful man. And when he was told he should get married, he went to Kanazawa and he stood outside the gate of the school that the missionaries had, and he watched the girls go in and out, and he saw my aunt and he went in and asked who she was and if they could introduce him, and they, and then he got married to her, brought her to the U.S.

TI: That's another good story.

KK: Yeah. [Laughs]

TI: So when your father and his siblings came to the United States, what did they do? You mentioned this Mr. Domoto, but what did they do?

KK: They started working for Mr. Domoto, and he had flower, flower gardens, and some of them worked in the flower gardens. Others did, worked in stores where he had his items and all. My father, somehow my father learned English and spoke it well, from the very early part of his being here in the U.S., and so he was one of those who my uncle set up to sell his good here and there, and sent him to Salt Lake. And my father lived in Salt Lake and started the Christian church there.

TI: Interesting. At a time when the Mormon church was probably emerging and growing also.

KK: The Mormon church, yeah. Right.

TI: So tell me, in terms of, your father, in terms of personality, what, how would you describe him?

KK: He was a funny man. [Laughs] He loved to talk, and he had really fascinating memory. If he got interested in something, he would go study it, you know, and he'd go get books from libraries or from, he'd go to used bookstores and look for books on the subject he was interested in. He'd go search people that he thought would know more about the subject and visit with them and learn from them. He was self-taught, but he became an entomologist that way. And he knew all about, well, before that, he knew all about flowers, he could tell you the scientific name, the regular name, he could tell you where it came, how it grew, everything about the flowers. And he had a fabulous memory. And then he did this with insects also, when he became, he was working for an insecticide company, and because he could speak Japanese, they gave him all the Japanese farmers to go and work...

TI: And so, in his social life, who were some of his friends?

KK: Oh, gee, I don't know really who his friends were, because, well, he used to bring home all kinds of people. [Laughs]

TI: Well, tell me about the people. Were they, like, Japanese, or were they different ethnic groups, or what was it like?

KK: Yes, everything. [Laughs] He would get, he'd get interested in somebody and then he'd bring them home for dinner, and my mother, "Oh, not another, we can barely feed ourselves." She'd have to stretch dinner.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.