<Begin Segment 18>

MN: Now, I just have a few more general questions. Now, as a Japanese American who's a little shorter, you've had to overcome a lot more obstacles than an average-sized Japanese American. What are some of the accomplishments that you're most proud of?

KY: Well, I don't really know. Well, I guess finishing in the Portland Marathon in 1987 was a highlight of my life. Because I ran a breakthrough race. I had never run so fast for 26.2 miles before or since. And that was something that was only possible because of my perseverance and discipline. And so I can take all the credit for doing that, and that was a great thing. It might have been the happiest day of my life. Other than that, I think other things I've done, other people have done, so it's no big thing to pass the CPA exam or devote a lot of time to volunteer work. I don't find that significant at all.

MN: It's an accomplishment to pass your CPA test on the first try.

KY: No big thing. I mean, that's, they asked the right questions.

MN: What are some of the things that irritate you that most average-sized people do or say to you?

KY: I guess a lot of people don't take me seriously. They equate size to ability, which is not necessarily true. They do things to me that they wouldn't do to an average-sized person, like hit me on the head. That's very insulting or demeaning.

MN: I've asked all my questions.

KY: Good.

MN: Is there anything else you want to share? Oh, you know what? I do want to go back one more thing that I forgot about. You were born during the Depression era, 1932, so you may not know a lot of this, but I wanted to ask you how the Depression affected your family, if it did.

KY: Well, I don't know. We lived very frugally. From talking to older volunteers at the museum, many of them said they had plain bread sandwiches to take to school, and I never had that. I always had something to put on the bread. My mother cooked very simply, and so we had okazu. And we always had gohan and ocha, and I drank milk all my life. So I don't really know how the Depression affected my family's life. And I have no basis of comparison as to what other JA families were going through. I only learned about the bread-only sandwiches from talking to, or listening to some of the other volunteers here who are a little bit older than me.

MN: Now your father managed this four-plex, and I know you were just born in '32, but did you ever hear stories where a tenant couldn't pay their bill, they had to be thrown out?

KY: No. I was a kid; they're not going to tell me things like that.

MN: Okay, those are the questions I had. Any other memories you want to share with us, anything else I should have asked you?

KY: No, I think you've covered about everything, Martha.

MN: Okay, good.

KY: Thank you.

MN: Oh, well, thank you very much for sharing your story.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.