<Begin Segment 13>

VY: And did your father, was he a gardener pretty much until he retired?

BK: Yes. And I think he worked until he was seventy years old.

VY: How long did he live?

BK: Well, he was ninety-two when he passed away. Yeah, that was in 1992, 'cause he was born in 1899. And so, well, my mom is still alive, and she was born in 1912, so she's just had her 106th birthday.

VY: Wow.

BK: And she's at skilled nursing. And she's still... I mean, she can't remember what she ate for lunch, but she recognizes her grandkids and great grandkids. I don't know, it sounds like she talks to all the caregivers, it seemed like they all know her.

VY: Did she ever talk about the war later in life, about that time period?

BK: Not really, no. I think that they never...

VY: Neither of your parents?

BK: Right. I mean, you know, like they talked about things that they did, because my dad was (learning) shigin, I don't know if you know what that is. It's like Japanese singing.

VY: Your dad did that?

BK: (...) Yes, my dad did that. So he learned it in camp and then when we got out of camp, he was teaching on the side because he enjoyed it. Because a lot of the Japanese weddings, at the reception, they would always get people to come up and entertain, like sing a song. And so my dad always would sing a song. My mom was into singing, too, so she would sing the popular songs, not the classical like my dad would sing. And they enjoyed it.

VY: Well, what kind of life do you think your parents wanted for you?

BK: Well, I just think mainly to be happy. I know my mother wanted to be a doctor when she was in Japan. But then at that time, because that's what she would tell me and then she wanted my brother and I to go into it, but I said, "I don't like the sight of blood." My brother was, you know, he didn't like to go to school. And so that was not in the cards. But my brother ended up... well, my mother said he had to go to college. My brother was really an A student, he was really good, but he did not like going to school. So my mom said, "You have to go to college," so he said, "Okay," and he decided, he went to business college, and so that way he could get out in three years and not have to go four years. But he owned his own body and fender shop, and he was doing well at that. He had the Hertz account, the Hertz rental car account. And so he would fix their cars and then they usually used to sell the rental cars after a certain period of time, so he would get them ready to be sold. So he had a good business going. Later on, after he died, I heard that he and some of the other people that were in that business wanted to start a parts shop so they could purchase their own parts. I guess it was a good business, but then it never panned out because he died when he was forty years old. So I just heard from his friends that that's what they were going to do.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.