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MN: Let me ask a little bit about, like, special occasions and holidays. Like for Halloween, what did you kids do?

KY: On Halloween, we lived across from Le Conte junior high school, and they used to show cartoons in the auditorium, so that all the kids would go to the auditorium and watch the cartoons instead of creating mischief. And it was walking distance from the house, so we'd go there. One of the things that I remember is that in many, in front of many houses, the people would water the lawn between the sidewalk and the curb so that kids wouldn't step there to do anything to the car because their shoes would get wet. And I think it was fun to go see cartoons.

MN: What about for New Year's?

KY: Well, as I vaguely recall, my mother made gochiso, and we were one of the families that stayed home. So people would come to our house to eat, and my mother would make everything from scratch at home. So I'm sure she spent many, many hours preparing for that.

MN: Can you give us some of the gochiso, what kind of gochiso did your mother make?

KY: Well, we always had... I guess it's like the lobster. And I guess we had whatever the typical New Year's food was then, like renkon and sardine thing, and, oh, of course gobo with goma on it. And I'm sure we had mochi. But a lot of what I'm recollecting may be from later years, not from the war years, 'cause my mother continued to do that after the war until there weren't enough people coming other than the family to warrant spending so much time preparing the food. So she was able to buy more and more of it at the store. And so she did that.

MN: Now you mentioned the mochi. Did your family do mochitsuki?

KY: No, not that I remember. 'Cause I was the only boy, and I was really too small to pound the mochi. And my sisters were not much older, and by the time that the war started, two of them were married. And so I don't think my sisters had to help with mochitsuki at the church or wherever.

MN: I'm just kind of curious, you mentioned also the lobster. It seems like a lot of the families before the war, lobster was for the people who came and the family couldn't eat it? Was that like yours?

KY: Oh, I don't know. I know it was on the table, sort of like the centerpiece. And I don't ever remember eating any of it, but I don't know if that was why.

MN: Now, I know you said your family went to a Buddhist temple, but did your parents observe Christmas?

KY: Not that I recollect. And I sort of felt left out at school because I didn't know anything about Easter. I didn't know really the religious reasons for Christmas.

MN: What memories do you have of your parents taking you to Hiroshima Kenjinkai picnics?

KY: I'm sure we went, but I don't remember. I know we used to go to White Point, which was like, I think, a spa. But I don't know what we did there. The name White Point rings a bell when I hear it.

MN: You also shared about being a member of the Woodcraft Rangers?

KY: Yeah, I think that was sort of like the equivalent of Boy Scouts for boys who were too young to join the Boy Scouts. And as I vaguely recollect, we probably met at Le Conte junior high school, too.

MN: Now you also shared that your family had a player piano.

KY: Yes.

MN: Did you or your sisters take piano lessons?

KY: I did not, and I don't know whether my sisters did or not because they were essentially gone by the time I remember anything.

MN: Now for those of us who may not know what a player piano is, can you share with us how that works?

KY: Okay, there's a roll of paper that has holes in it, and if you push some pedals, it activates this paper roll. And the holes in the paper is a program that causes certain keys on the piano to play. So I guess it's sort of equivalent to a program for a computer. And I don't know why we had it and I don't remember anyone ever playing it for us.

MN: Did you fool around on the piano at all?

KY: Well, I learned how to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" with two fingers, and I think that was about the only song that I knew.

MN: You had a little dog also. Can you share with us about the little dog?

KY: Well, we had a dog, I think it was a Chihuahua, and I don't think it came in the house. But again, I don't remember. And after the war started, my parents, one of my older sisters and I voluntarily evacuated to Sanger, California, east of Highway 99, so supposedly we wouldn't have to go to camp. And we did not take the dog with us. And I don't remember what happened to it or all the toys I left in Hollywood when we left.

MN: So I guess you left the player piano and probably all the furniture?

KY: As far as I remember, yeah. I think we just got in the car and drove to Sanger. And in those days, going through the "Ridge Route" was very difficult. And most of the times when we drove there, our car would overheat, so we would have to pull off to the side and someone would have to go fetch some water, bring it back down to the car, pour it in the radiator, and when the motor cooled down enough, it started, and we'd continue on our way.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.