<Begin Segment 9>

TI: You talked about your dad really making sure that you guys did your chores and things, what were some of the chores that the kids had to do growing up?

JK: Well, when, firstly, my dad loved gardening, so we had to cut the grass, we had to weed the yard. He always took pride in the way the premises looked. And then the usual things around the house, you cleaned the house, mop the floor and all those grunt chores. Today's culture, we'd hire some immigrant to do it. I'm kidding. [Laughs] But then, like... are you familiar, like when you get produce it'll come in a box or crate? Now they used cardboard mostly, but there was an era when they used wooden slats and things. Well we, there's a little, you bought all that lumber loose, and there was a jig, and you took a hammer and nail and you handmade those, okay? Well, my dad got us a job, for both my brother and me, after school we'd come home and we'd go back in the back of the shed and make crates. And I think we got like two cents a box, some --

TI: Okay, so it was like piecemeal kind of work and you would do this.

JK: That's right, yeah. We had to do our chores. And then of course, when my dad got into the farming business, okay, then we had to go out to the farm. When we weren't in school, out at the farm. Oh yeah, worked like a dog.

TI: Now, did your father treat the boys differently than the four girls?

JK: Yeah, he always yelled at us.

TI: [Laughs] But was there, like, a different set of rules for boys versus girls during that time?

JK: Yeah, I guess it's because my sisters were all... gosh, they were so nicey-nice. My immediate older sister, my dad never raised his voice with her, never. And as I got older I said, "You know, she was the ultimate politician. She never made a wave with her dad." She was good. [Laughs] I don't know if that's a lady thing, but now, my late wife, for example, she was from a family of six, and so when, I've got these two boys now and of course I'm on 'em like a tent, and I always remember my late wife saying, I find she'd never accept the fact that I'm barking at my boys. She said, "You know, my dad raised all of us, including my two older brothers, and he never raised his voice." And I said, "Well, he must've been truly a gentle man." Of course, my late wife, she was a, she was a very, very fine, fine lady, very fine. And I'll tell you a story about her too a little later.

TI: But it sounds like, based on what I just heard, that, so your father raised his voice with you and your brother, but not so much with the girls.

JK: No, no. Except my, that, remember I told you that one sister because a nurse? Okay, she went to college, and in today's language she became a liberal, you know what I mean kind of a thing? And so she and my dad actually used to get into political debates.

TI: And back then, what would be the, kind of the debate about? What would the issue be? Can you remember? Like women's rights maybe?

JK: No, and it had to do with my dad's nationalism and his allegiance to Japan, and the fact that my sister would try to say, like, "Okay, now you've assimilated. The fact that you've learned English, you learned how to write English, you're good with... now you need to love America a little bit more." And then he would respond -- and I don't know why I remember this, but he'd respond, he said, "Yeah," he said, "but you know what?" He said, "I'm still not treated like a first class citizen, you know what I mean? I'm still..." I hate to use the term, but, "They still call me nigger. I'm still a damn Jap." And that kind of stuff. And I, because my dad is the way he is, remember I told you about the samurai thing? To the day he died, you know what I mean, he, inbred in him was his spirit of nationalism and the pride of being a Japanese.

TI: And then what was your sister's sort of stance or viewpoint?

JK: Well, "You need to become more American. You need to become more enchanted. This is your land now, okay? This is now your land. You've come to America. You don't have to, you don't have to be as Japanese anymore."

TI: Interesting. Now, was your sister involved at all with the Japanese American Citizens League?

JK: No, not that, I don't recall that particularly. It's just apparently, my sense of it all is she's a very independent thinker. And I just remember one little debate, and I remember -- I don't know why I remember stuff like this, but, and my dad talking about, "Well, if America's so great, how come they treated the Indians so bad?" I always remember that because, see, my dad was intellectual. Remember I told you he learned to read and write, okay? Yeah, so that, even though he never got past third grade or something in Japan, he self-taught himself to become a businessman.

TI: So he could see the pattern, or how in America certain groups weren't treated well.

JK: Right. And he felt, and I think he felt pretty strongly, yeah. He said... he got dumped on pretty good, I'm sure. Like where my late wife was raised, they had segregated schools, but it was Asians only, and then everybody else in other school. I never knew that.

TI: So she grew up in, like Sacramento area?

JK: Yeah.

TI: Okay. Interesting.

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