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TI: Before we go to the war, I want to just ask about your mother. Similar questions, what was she like? How would you describe your mother, or how would other people describe her?

TH: Well, I think she was, my dad was more laid back, I think, but my mother was, was more, I guess you might say... oh, what's the term I want? More directive, and so she would be very concerned about the public appearance, which goes back to the Japanese type of thing, and our health. And so I think in a way she may have actually ran the, the family, but in the way it was not noticeable from the outside. You'd think my dad then would be the one that would be the dominant one. And in all those years I've never seen the two in conflict or any arguments. They got along very well. And so the six of us grew up in a very nice, I would say, family environment. So that helps out. But she, going back to my mother, she had, apparently had gone through high school and after graduating, and I guess she actually probably had training in sewing, so that she then ran, had taught sewing, so she was very skilled in sewing clothes. And some of the things that she turned out, I was rather... at that time, well, you don't think much about it, but later I could go back and look and says, wow. And the stitching techniques that she had used. And in fact, she one time had a pile of cloth there, so I (asked), "Where did this cloth come from?" Well, somebody had decided to sew, and I (...) forgot what it was, but it must've been a complex clothing item and the person couldn't sew it, so she gave up and says, "Here," and gave it to my mother. And my mother, having her skills and knowledge, was able to do the sewing. It may have been a suit or something like that, that she put together. And she did have a (...) good (sewing machine), in those days Singer was the sewing machine. And when the war came along, then (...) getting ready to leave, she had it (...) converted into a portable sewing machine electrically driven, and I remember we took that into camp. So (...) she was able to make clothing and do repairs and so on. And (soon) other people found out (...) she had a sewing machine (...). She got everything (done) for the family and finally says alright. She then loaned it out and I guess maybe a year or so came back, well-used. [Laughs]

TI: But she was the type, though, to really think ahead. I mean, for someone to think about, not only bringing a sewing machine but taking something that was not portable, making it portable and then bringing it, she really had, in her mind, had to think that through, realizing that there weren't gonna be all these clothes available, that she probably had to make things.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.