<Begin Segment 7>

BN: Tell me a little more about your mother, just her personality and...

JK: Okay. My mother was not only a very business-wise, smart woman, but she was a very compassionate person. We used to have people who came to the store, and (poured) out their problems. She helped people adopt children, she helped, like nakoudo for marriages. Although she would never stand up front, but she would help them at the very beginning. She did a lot of that kind of service, because people trusted her. And, of course, in the business world, she was (...) competitive. But much respected. She was the only daughter in a family of... five boys. And the three before her died before one year, so they thought she wouldn't live. So they did not put her in the koseki touhon until they were sure. So her official birth date is not her real birth date. It's a year afterwards. She was born to a (much respected) family, Konos, (who) were primarily soldiers (with) the Heike group. And when the Heike lost to the Minamotos, they disbanded. That's how they got into this village in Hiroshima. But looking at the property, my cousin's wife (who) was very learned about Japanese history and was a (...) schoolteacher (...) in Tokyo. She said, "Looking at the location of the property and the size of the hill behind it, she says, "You can tell that they were leaders." And there was a shrine in the village that could not have its festivities begin until a delegation came down and got the head of household of the Kono family, and they all marched (to the shrine, only then could) the festivities (...) begin. So they were quite substantial. My mother never talked about any of this; I found this out much later. She came out (to Hawaii seeking) adventure. She had heard from a distant relative who had come to Hawaii earlier and had gone back (...) -- glorious stories. And so she told her father, "I want to go." Very adventuresome.

BN: Did you have discussions with her where you had a sense of what her hopes for you and for your siblings were? Would she ever tell you, "I want you to do..."

JK: No. Never told us what we should become, but at the same time, whatever we chose to become, she was very supportive. When later in life -- and she stayed with me until she had to go to the Hale Pulama, (a care home), I used to sit down with her after breakfast and talk. We would feed the birds, and (because of the glass window), we could see the birds feeding, and she and I would talk. And I asked her one time, "Oh, you had a very hard life, didn't you?" She says, "No." And I said, "But look, Papa died early, before (that) Kurisu-san died and you had those two girls. (...) You married again, and Papa died early. And she says, yeah, but when she looks back on her life, she said she's had a good life, particularly because each one of us succeeded in what we wanted to do. I became a teacher, my sister was a home economist, and my brother became a lawyer and a CPA. She says, "I can't ask for..." and we never committed crimes. [Laughs] So she says it was all very worth it, but she never feels that she sacrificed a lot, but she did. She was an outstanding woman, a woman before her time, yeah. Because at the time that she began managing the store, Japanese women, they may have (helped in their) Mom and Pop stores (...) but never an established, big firm that people from all over the islands came to. My son (who) was asked to write about his life, (he asked me to read it). And I said, "You're not writing about yourself, you're writing about Grandma and me." And he said, "But I am what I am because of you guys." He was very much influenced by his grandmother.

BN: Did they know her?

JK: Well, she lived with me... she lived with my sister for many years, and then she lived with me towards the end of her life. And so the kids knew her.

BN: So she lived long enough to get to know the grandkids.

JK: Yes. She died at ninety-six, which was really ninety-seven. They registered her birth (a year later).

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.