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BF: Do you think your parents had a role in that, or your mom?

CK: No. Not that... I can't remember. Because I hear people saying our parents expected you to do this and so forth. My parents didn't. It was more like you bring home a report card and they, it was just accepted that you were supposed to make good grades. And they never urged me. They never pushed me, and I don't know. It was sort of a sense, I think we were aware, well, I know we were aware, that we were minorities then. And it was that feeling that you had to do better. You had to sort of prove yourself. You had to show that you could do as well as the other person or even better, so that, that may be somewhat the start of it. Because sometimes I wish my parents had either approved or disapproved. But they weren't very... they were stoic, you know. They didn't -- you know how Isseis are. They don't show affection, and a lot of times there wasn't strong discipline. It was verbal, more or less. And so in a sense, I kind of missed that. I wanted more discipline. But I didn't have that.

BF: Was there a language barrier, too, sort of, at that point?

CK: I think so. Being out there, there wasn't the need to talk to other Isseis and it was only the very home-style Japanese. We couldn't express our feelings because I didn't have the vocabulary or the ability to talk about feelings. So it was all very mundane kind of things. The home-style Japanese. I regret I didn't know my parents better.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.