<Begin Segment 9>

BN: The other thing, before we jump to the war, the other thing I was going to ask you about was being, you're growing up in kind of this, almost this bubble, it sounds like, of Aala.

JK: Yes.

BN: Did you have any sense of, both being a girl and being Japanese, any sense of limits of what you would be able to do in life?

JK: No. I think that pattern was set by my mom. Because she was doing something that men usually do at that time, so she was my model, and she was very open. And she says, "You choose whatever you want to do or become, and we'll see to it." Well, in that sense, I have to say that when my father died, my uncle offered her half of the Honolulu store and she turned it down. She said it took her two weeks to argue about it with my uncle, who was very appreciative of what my father had done for him. And so she says, "Okay, if that's the case," and this is 1930, she says, "Give me five thousand dollars up front, and I will use it to educate my children." And that's why all three of us -- because (one) sister had died by then -- went to private schools. My sister and I went to the Priory, and my brother went to Iolani, and all of us went through college.

BN: That was from the time you were growing up, was it kind of understood that you were going to be going to college?

JK: Well, it was understood that I'm going (beyond high school). And now, if I set the pattern here, I'll just have to do that, too. She valued education, and she resented the fact, very much so, that she could not go on to higher education. She went to about the sixth grade, (when) fourth grade was the standard. So she went a little above (other girls), but her brothers all became teachers or writers, and she couldn't. She resented that very much. So in her commitment to education, it was male or female, same thing. You would have enjoyed interviewing her.

BN: Was that, I mean, was that unusual at the time?

JK: Oh, yeah. Because in many families, everybody pitched in to put the oldest son through college. But in my family, the son was at the bottom, so I got to go (first).

BN: Was your family religious?

JK: She was a Buddhist, belonged to Jodoshu, and I remember every morning and every night sitting before the altar, and we prayed. She prayed and we just sat there waiting for it to get over because my legs hurt. [Laughs] And we went to the temple on certain memorial days and that kind of thing. We were not in Jodoshu Sunday school or anything. In fact, because I went to Hongwanji Japanese school, I was more involved in the Hongwanji choir and all of that... but that was when I was a little older.

BN: When did you start at the Priory?

JK: I started at the Priory at eighth grade.

BN: And was there a collision there between...

JK: No. She just said, "You go." And fortunately the school was located -- I went to Central Intermediate, and then I went right across the street to the Priory.

BN: But I mean religion-wise?

JK: No, they did not... we went to chapel every day, but they did not try to proselytize.

BN: So there were a lot of other kids.

JK: There were many who were not Protestants, or Episcopalians. But we did go (to) chapel every day with our little veils, because at that time they wouldn't let you in the chapel without a veil. It was the days of Father Bray, whom we worshiped.

BN: Were there a lot of other Japanese?

JK: Yes, there were quite a few Japanese, Chinese, and there were a lot of old Episcopal families, (people) with six ethnicities, and they'd say, "You cannot be one only, Jane." I'd say, "Yeah, I'm only Japanese." And they'd name off one, two, three, four, five six (ethnicities).

BN: And then the last thing I wanted to ask you before we kind of jump into the war was, I know your husband, future husband also grew up in Aala, furniture business.

JK: Well, the thing is, I did not know him, or I had not even seen him until the war broke out. And then when we began to get together at his house, they cleared one part of the... you know, the inventory was getting lower and lower, and they had storage of furniture upstairs. And as the inventory got lower, they were able to open up a room and that's when we met. That's when I met him.

BN: But when you were smaller, you didn't know each other.

JK: No. He didn't exist. [Interruption] Never saw him before. But I was very good friends with one of his sisters who was a year older than I was.

BN: How old was he relative to you?

JK: He was three years older than me.

BN: Which when you were a kid was a lot.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.