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BN: Did you have to go to a Japanese language school?

KS: Yes. In this Uptown, there were two churches, Christian church called St. Mary's, and there was an Episcopal church, and then there was a Buddhist church. So each church had their own Japanese language school. You belonged to one church or the other, which meant you belonged to one language school or the other. So we belonged to St. Mary's, and they had a language school after class. So on the way home, then we had to stop off at the language school and do one hour of Japanese language. So I think I did that for three years or so.

BN: Were your parents Christian?

KS: Yeah, my father was Christian. I don't know if he was Christian in Japan or not, he might have been Christian in Japan before he immigrated. But when he was here, before he got married, then I think he used to associate with Christian people. So there were a lot of bachelors that he hung around church and stuff like that, and I think that's what my father did. And then after my mother got married to my father, she used to go to church, St. Mary's church in Los Angeles. Then I think when she went to, when we lived in Chicago, is I think when she got... I don't know if that's when she got baptized or not, but she became a Christian later. My father was Christian all the time.

BN: Did you like Japanese school, or it was just something to deal with?

KS: Well, Japanese school, lot of thing is that that's what everybody else does. So we used to go to Japanese language school, and I didn't think anything of it. I thought that was what you're supposed to do. I told you that we went to, my family went to Japan about 1933, so that time my oldest sister was around nine or so, and the second one was a few years younger. So in Japan, those two girls now had to go to the local public school. So they went to school in Japan for one year. So their Japanese had to be pretty good, or else you'd be in big trouble. But I think at that time, a lot of families thought that they might go back to Japan one day, so they wanted the Niseis to learn about how to speak and write Japanese.

BN: But they came back with the family and stayed?

KS: Yeah, they came back, that's right. My mother always thought that when they were in Japan, her grandparents wanted my third sister to stay in Japan when we came back in 1934, but my mother said no, we're going to stick together. So all the girls and I, we came back to the U.S. But I think that was common, in a situation like that, they might leave one son behind in Japan and come to the U.S.

BN: Now, you were the only son after three girls. Did you get special treatment because of that?

KS: No, I don't think so. I think the oldest always gets the special treatment.

BN: Can you describe your parents a little, just in terms of personality, what your recollection of them was? Were they involved in lots of community activities, were they outgoing, were they more quiet?

KS: Yeah, they were more quiet, and not too outgoing. And then my mother liked to read Japanese newspapers, so then she liked the Kashu Mainichi. So she was getting that after the war in Chicago, she was always getting the Kashu Mainichi. Then she always got a lot of those Japanese magazines and stuff like that.

BN: Any involvement in business associations, kenjinkai, that kind of thing?

KS: No. Well, everybody was in a kenjinkai before the war, so we were in the Hiroshima Kenjinkai. Then every year, the kenjinkai would have a picnic, and I remember going to the picnic and then I remember one year at the picnic I got lost. I didn't know where my family was, but I got lost twice in my youth, once at a kenjinkai picnic and once in a sporting event. So since then I try to keep track of where I am.

BN: But obviously you were reunited.

KS: Right.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.