<Begin Segment 19>

SY: So he, I, interesting that I remember him being kind of very strict, like you do, but also very, like had an angry side to him, a little bit of bitterness because of the war. You never saw that, though, huh? Never saw that side of him?

PM: I probably tried not to see it, but yes, I saw many sides of him that were angry. But I didn't attribute it to anything.

SY: You thought maybe it was his personality more. I mean, I can't say what it was, but I just remember that because he would be very angry. Sometimes he was very angry, right, at home? [Laughs]

PM: You know, I don't remember. So there's some things that I've blocked out of my mind. I just know that when he woke up in the morning, when I was living at home on Lafayette Street in Denver, if I heard him move upstairs I was up and I was in the kitchen and I was preparing his breakfast 'cause I didn't like him to get upset with Mom, and he used to get upset with Mom a lot. At dinnertime he'd complain 'cause the food didn't taste right, it was too sweet, it was too salty, and she had no way to know. He used to go out to eat so he knows what food should taste like, so she was always getting scolded. Sometimes she left the table crying. So I just vowed that I wanted to try to be a good cook so he won't complain, and that's when I started trying to study recipes and trying to be a good cook that will match his taste.

SY: You succeeded. [Laughs]

PM: Well I've tried. [Laughs] 'Cause it was just too hard to hear him complain. But that was his nature. He had to complain or he wasn't satisfied. I do remember that much.

SY: Yeah, I remember that too.

PM: Yes. [Laughs]

SY: I remember when his car came in the driveway we would jump up because we didn't want to be...

PM: Yes. He didn't like us slouching at the table; we had to sit up straight. He didn't like elbows on the table. He just was very strict.

SY: Yeah. Amazing though, because it, I'm just curious whether that is a Japanese upbringing, from -- because he was born here, but...

PM: Right. He was so Japanese in his thinking.

SY: In his thinking. So he got that, obviously, from his father, or parents.

PM: Must have. Or in his schooling. I don't know which.

SY: Yeah.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.