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TI: So your mother was a little bit, I mean when, I hear the stories of women who... Issei women who come to the United States, oftentimes they're younger, not as educated, and in the case of your mother she was older, well-educated, a professional.

RO: That's right, that's right.

TI: So a little bit different circumstances.

RO: That's right. So she chose my father fortunately, otherwise I'd be speaking to you in Spanish.

TI: Or Portuguese maybe.

RO: Or Portuguese, right, Portuguese. So let's see. They married in 1933 and my brother, my older brother was born in 1935 and then fifteen months later I was born in 1936. And in 1937 my father was given the... was told to go to the United States to help out with development of the Oriental Missionary Society or the Holiness Church.

TI: And at this point your father was also ordained as a minister?

RO: Yes, and that surprises me because he wasn't really educated like my mother and I need to do some research, I've done a lot of research on my mother, I know her background. But my father's background, where he went to school, I just have tidbits from the concentration camp records.

TI: Interesting, but it sounds like he was also pretty independent in terms of needing to be, you know, I like your story where on his own he learned to be a really good cook. And so it was sort of like he wasn't willing just to be like a dishwasher or something. He really wanted to learn.

RO: Absolutely. While he... when my parents arrived in the United States in 1937 I discovered records where he went to the same elementary school where we were sent, where we went, he was studying English. I never did understand until that point when I saw those records why his handwriting was so beautiful, he had beautiful handwriting. And it turned out he went to the same grammar school we were going to for three years, night school. 'Cause obviously he had to work but he learned English that way. And it was fortunate that he did that because after the war the only way he was able to support us -- 'cause the minister's salary was so low -- he became a gardener and he had to speak English to work with the rich families in Coronado because we were down in San Diego.

TI: But that's interesting that he attended the same school that you did. But backing up, it's interesting because you hear about Christian missionaries and I always have this image of people from the United States going to different countries to be Christian missionaries. In this case, Christian missionaries came from Japan to the United States so I have to ask the question why? I mean it's kind of like it seems different.

RO: To minister to the Isseis here because they needed Japanese-speaking ministers here in the United States and that's why my father and mother came because they were both ministers for the Japanese congregation.

TI: Okay, so that makes sense. So to get a Christian minister fluent in Japanese you really had to have them trained in Japan and then you would send them to the United States, okay.

RO: So we left Tokyo. They were ministers for six months, I mean, I know they did some ministry in Japan. My father in fact was sent to Korea for a year I discovered, he never told us about that. I often wondered where he learned how to make kimchee so well. Now after I read the records, oh, that's where. He was an excellent cook and his kimchee was better than what you could buy in the store. But anyway he served as a, quote, "missionary" to Korea for a year then returned to Tokyo and that's when the bishop then told my mother she had a choice.

TI: Now did your parents ever talk about being a Christian missionary in Asia, primarily Japan but in this case Korea because in the United States there's a stronger tradition of Christianity and so I could see where it would be perhaps easier in the United States than in a place like Japan where Buddhism is so entrenched. Did they ever talk about how, you talk about your mother and how her family wouldn't do it but I was just wondering how difficult it was to be a missionary in Japan?

RO: I'm sure it was difficult. I never did discuss that with my parents, what it was like for them as ministers in Japan. I guess I just wasn't curious enough. I was more interested in their personal lives not as ministers but just their whole background so I never really discussed that with either of my parents. In fact, I'm so sorry that I didn't really talk to them about their early lives in Japan. I mean, I only learned about it through research and going back to Japan, meeting my cousin, digging up as much information as I could.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.