<Begin Segment 28>

SY: And your kids have all gone to other places?

YM: Other places. Not other churches, just other places. [Laughs] Except Judy, she goes with me.

SY: Judy's your daughter?

YM: Uh-huh. She goes with me.

SY: And she is your, she was very active in East West Players at one time.

YM: Yes, she was. And actually she, I don't know if you heard of Cold Tofu Group, but she and, she was one of four.

SY: Improvisational.

YM: They were the four that started that group way back in early '80s, I think. And it's still going.

SY: That's amazing. So they've, at least Judy was very active in the Asian American, Japanese American community.

YM: In, at the theater anyway she was.

SY: Stayed active.

YM: She was active there for quite a few years. And in those days it was like a family, the group that was there. They studied there and they stuck around there. It's a little different now. She had some good times there.

SY: And she stayed, she stays with you now because she, she...

YM: Yes.

SY: You want to talk a little bit about what happened?

YM: Oh... not really.

SY: No? Okay, we won't talk about it. But she lives with you?

YM: Yes, she does.

SY: She lives with you, and she's... your other two sons, are they, they stay pretty active in the Japanese American community?

YM: My, in what?

SY: In the JA community.

YM: No. Well, Randy's son was for a while because he took taiko, was in the taiko group.

SY: Which is very good.

YM: Yes. But that's, when the taiko ended that was it. [Laughs] So my oldest son is not a church-going son, and my oldest son lives in Truckee, which is near north Tahoe, near there.

SY: Wasn't he involved in writing for a while? Was he a writer?

YM: Yes, he did all kinds of things. He went to, after high school he went to City College for a while. Then he went to work for Lockheed for about four years, then he went to East West Players. He was there for a while. He was at Tozai Times, I don't know if you remember, it was a newspaper. He helped with the first edition of that. And then he was at Pacific Citizen for a while. And then he went, moved up north, and ever since he moved up north he's been into more, he worked in the Silicon Valley, that type of work there. He's a, I guess what you call a computer tech or something. He's retired mainly, but he does go out on jobs sometimes to help somebody with a computer.

SY: So you were saying that you are trying to preserve some of your history by writing some of these things down, to share with your children?

YM: Well, I keep thinking someday I won't be here so I was writing it down for that.

SY: And do you, have you, do your children know very much about this? No?

YM: No. This will be something new.

SY: Okay, good. I think they'll really appreciate it. As much as it, it's been interesting talking to you. So is there anything else that, I'm trying to think if I missed anything.

YM: Well, Randy here, I have to ask him about what he did after high school, just for this. And he went to Cal State L.A. for years -- I didn't realize that -- 'cause he didn't know what he wanted to do. So finally when he decided on what he wanted to do he went to Trade Tech, and now he's telling me he's been in the graphics area for thirty years and it's hard to believe.

SY: Graphic design?

YM: Graphic, yeah, graphic design.

SY: So he's a, kind of an artist.

YM: Yeah, I thought he was, when he was little he used to do little tiny artwork, and I thought, so I told him one day, why don't you take art in class, whatever? He didn't want to do it. Anyway, I hope he's enjoying his work.

SY: Where, is there, that in your family, or in Rick's family, some sort of art, anybody in that field?

YM: No, not really.

SY: But I think the work you do, that your mother did with the, with the kimono and all of that.

YM: Well, I don't know.

SY: That's very fine work. So anyway, well I hope, you've been a wonderful interview, Yasu. Thank you so much. I enjoyed talking to you. Unless there's something else we missed?

YM: No, I don't think so. [Laughs] I've talked enough.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.