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TI: So I want to talk a little bit about your mother. How did... well, first, what was your mother's name and where was she born?

KK: She was also born in Kanazawa, and her name was Riki, R-I-K-I, Kita, K-I-T-A. And her family was, at one time, makers of sake, but then her father took the money and invested it in a gold mine, and the gold mine was not a gold mine, so they lost everything.

TI: And so how did your mother and father come to meet?

KK: They knew each other in Japan, through the church. And then my, his sister, my auntie, brought her over as a maid for her on one of the trips coming over, and then she stayed in the U.S. And then my father married her.

TI: Okay, so they knew each other in Kanazawa, then your father came to the United States, she came later, then they kind of re-met again and decided to get married? Or did she come thinking she would get married to your father?

KK: No, I think she didn't know.

TI: So that was a pretty bold thing for her, to come to the United States without a clear future, other than coming to work.

KK: Yeah. But she and my auntie were good friends, you know.

TI: So tell me a little bit about her. What was her personality like?

KK: Who?

TI: Your, your mother.

KK: My mother? Oh, she was a giving person. She was lots of fun. Men liked her, the boys liked her. She could play cards. [Laughs] And, and they just enjoyed her a lot. You know, my brothers and their friends. They'd come in and they'd play cards, and then she said whoever loses had to buy dessert and something like that.

TI: So she was pretty good at bantering with people.

KK: She was, yes, she was friendly, and she was a very committed Christian, and went... well, because where we lived was away from the Japanese community, and so they couldn't go to church all the time, but when they could, they would go on Wednesday nights to the prayer meetings and church meetings and on Sundays we'd all go. But, just being herself, and then at home she would pray and she would write in, all in Japanese, I couldn't ever read her writing, but when she died one of the ministers took some of her books and translated some of the things that she had written and they, she had written poems and songs.

TI: Oh, that's precious, that's like a treasure to get into some of that. So where did your mother and father end up living when, after they got married?

KK: Well, first they lived in the Bay Area, I can't remember if it's Albany, or someplace around there, and then they went to Utah. They had two sons when they were in California, and then they moved to Utah. And then my mother took the two boys to Japan for my grandparents'... what was it, the fiftieth year anniversary, wedding anniversary, and then she left the two boys and came back. And then a year later, the older one, Buddy, some uncle was traveling, and he brought him back, and by then she had Hana, my sister Hana. And then, about two years later, they brought Howard back. I always wondered why Howard just didn't kind of fit into the family, he was always kind of a little out. Now I know. Because he spent three years away from them. By the time he came back there was Hana and May, and Amy. [Laughs]

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