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TI: Okay, so we're gonna get into that, but before we go there, I just want to get a little bit more about how your parents raised you and your siblings, in terms of, just maybe their philosophy of parenting. I mean, they probably didn't say, "This is our philosophy," but when you just observed how they, you know, the values that they emphasized when you were growing up, what are some of the things that you really got, in terms of how they wanted to raise you?

KK: Well, they wanted us all to be educated. They wanted us all to have good manners, they wanted us all to speak good English. Once we got out the door, they said, "Do not speak Japanese, not to each other or anybody else. English." And because we were poor, we were very frugal. And they expected us to get good grades in school, and when we didn't, then we had to stay home and study and get some of the privileges taken away, but actually we had a very, very easy home life.

TI: And how about Christian values? Was that something that came up in the family discussions?

KK: Well, we just knew we were Christians, and the values were there, you know. It wasn't something, "Oh, you're a Christian, you have to do this and that." No, it wasn't like that. But we went to Sunday school, and for years we went to the Salvation Army Sunday school, and something happened there and I said I didn't want to go there anymore, and so then we started back -- all the older kids went to Union Church in San Pedro, on San Pedro in Little Tokyo -- and so then my mother started sending all us younger ones to the Sunday school at Union Church. And that was, that was fun, because we, at least one day a week, go down to Japanese Town.

TI: Now, you mentioned that incident, would you rather not talk about it, you mentioned something that happened...

KK: I won't talk about it.

TI: Okay, that's fine. Let's talk a little bit about school, then, a little bit more about what school life was like. What kind of student were you, what did you like at school?

KK: Well, I liked everything at school, but I wasn't a good student. [Laughs] And the teachers were very nice to me, and I guess being Japanese, they just thought I would know how to do nice floral arrangements and everything. They always gave me the flowers to arrange in the school. And because my father had been a florist and he, I watched him, and so I learned a few things, so of course I did it and they were very happy, so I was kind of the flower person at school.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.