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TI: When you think about your parents during this time, how were they coping with being in camp?

SA: Well, my dad developed a... I call it a very positive attitude, positive thinking attitude. And in fact, he became a great student of Norman Vincent Peale. Norman Vincent Peale is the author of Positive Thinking.

TI: So he would have his book and read it?

SA: Yeah. So he read... in fact, I still have one of the books that he had. And so he developed that, and he also went into... he was a Buddhist, but he went into another church movement called Seicho no Ie, which is another positive thinking movement. And it's a positive thinking movement that says that if you condition your mind and your brain, you can repel disease through positive thinking. And so he practiced that a lot, too. So he never went to a doctor.

TI: And so when you say "practiced that," how do you practice...

SA: Mentally. Mentally, it was all mental.

TI: Would he have like a certain routine where he would go off and think?

SA: Well, no, it's the way you practice your life.

TI: It's just your way of being?

SA: The way you live your life, the way you eat. See, and that's how... see, a lot of this organic farming is tied to that kind of thinking.

TI: So was he always like this or do you think the camp experience maybe accentuated that?

SA: No, I think he was always that way. I think he was always that way.

TI: And did you and he ever have conversations about that, did he talk about it?

SA: Well, he was always telling me things, and I wouldn't listen to him. [Laughs] I was a rebel. In fact, if there's anything that characterized my early life, I was very rebellious.

TI: So what would an example be of being a rebel?

SA: Well, because I would never, I would never listen to him. In fact, my youngest son, because they used to babysit for us a lot, so both of our two boys spent a lot of time at their place. So my youngest son tells me today, he says my dad would tell him things. He says, "Your father will never listen to me, but I'm going to tell it to you." [Laughs] And this is about a lot of things like he used to practice organic farming. So they used to work out in the yard. He told more things to my kids than he did to me because I wouldn't listen to him. [Laughs]

TI: Oh, interesting.

SA: So anyway, so he practiced a lot of that, and he was very... in fact, they used to pray a lot, too. So they did pray a lot together.

TI: But do you think of yourself as a positive person?

SA: That's something that really rubbed off on me.

TI: Okay, so even though you say you didn't really listen to him, it rubbed off.

SA: Oh, it totally rubbed off, yes.

TI: Now, so what would happen if he had to discipline you? I mean, if you did something bad and he needed to discipline you, how would he do that?

SA: Well, he was very stern, so you didn't... if he said something, I would listen. You can tell when he's mad. [Laughs]

TI: Now, would he ever, like, spank you or anything like that?

SA: No, no. And my mom was very caring.

TI: So if you did something bad, she would never get mad at you?

SA: No. If he got mad at me, she'll come probably comfort me.

TI: Okay, and so probably other families though you were spoiled.

SA: That's right.

TI: They were coddling you too much.

SA: In fact, it was sort of interesting because when Anna and I were courting each other, I went to her place. I didn't know that my father knew, I mean, her father knew my father. I didn't even know that. So I went over there, and afterwards I found out -- and my wife Anna told me this -- he says, "Yeah, I remember him. He was a bocchan." [Laughs]

TI: Talking about you. [Laughs] Okay.

SA: Because I guess I used to ride the truck with him to deliver fertilizer, and that's how he remembers me.

TI: So I'm curious about kind of child rearing. How did you raise your children? In the same way, were you pretty... or yeah, how did you...

SA: Well, I guess that's an interesting point because when I grew up, I was left to grow up sort of on my own. I was never restricted, I mean, I had to work. There was one thing we had to do is we had to work hard. Weekends, after school, had to come home and work. But as long as I worked, I could do anything else. I can go out, as a teenager, I remember I used to go out and play as long as I, next morning I got up and worked, he didn't care. So I learned that I can play and work hard both ways.

TI: As long as you got your work done, then you could play.

SA: That's right, that's right. Now, if I didn't go to work, then I'd really get chewed out. But as long as I got up in the morning, early in the morning, went out in the field, did what I was supposed to do, that was fine. So... and all of us growing up in that period, I think we were almost all the same way. Because all the families were poor, trying to get on their feet, every... it was hard labor. So we all grew up together that way and we developed a... because the Japanese Americans were insecure, we grew up as a group together.

TI: And so when you think about your children and how you raised, in the same way, did they have to do similar things where they had to do work first before they played?

SA: I said they ought to go work and earn some money.

TI: And this is when they were quite young?

SA: Yes, yes.

TI: So what would be some typical, or types of jobs?

SA: I used to get them to go work in a kitchen. Might be washing dishes or whatever. So that's the kind of job, and we used to have them do that almost sometime during high school and sometime during early college.

TI: So just like a part-time job for your spending money and things like that.

SA: Yeah, yeah. And I gave them a checking account when they were really young so they could learn how to manage their money.

TI: Interesting. Okay, so let's go back to you. So we're still at Poston. We talked about school and some of these other activities like fishing, and we talked about your dad and his positive thinking. What about your mother? What did she do in camp?

SA: Well, she was... let's see, what's the best way to describe it? My mom was a person who took care of the house, cooked, and she was, her main job was to make sure that the kids were taken care of. So she... and if you compare her to other ladies, the other ladies let the house go and they were out in the field all the time. She was more of a housewife than a person that went out on the farm and worked from sunrise to sunset with the husband.

TI: So it sounds like, growing up, you got a lot of support, or this nice blend of support and independence.

SA: Yes, yes. And that's, and if there's anything that I got, I think it was a lot of support. And that provided a lot of confidence in a person.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.