<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Do you think you were kind of treated like the "golden child"? I mean, I'm listening to this story...

RI: No. I'm the middle neglected child, and my sister is the older child and my brother is seven years younger. No, I don't think...

TI: But the oldest son? You weren't, like, viewed as the, within the family as sort of the future of the family and given a lot more resources?

RI: Well, let me put it this way. I don't think in terms of being... yeah, okay. My father was the chonan of the chonan, okay, great, the oldest son of the oldest son, which is fine. But I do remember growing up, and maybe in junior high school, and we have okazu. And okazu is vegetables and maybe a little bit of meat here. I would know, especially because I was, we were growing up and I was on the swim team, my dad says, "Oh, you need more protein," so that he would not eat the meat. With his chopsticks, he would move the meat to the side on his plate and he'd give it to me. [Laughs] And so that was very endearing. You know, at the time, I was just hungry, I didn't know the difference. But there's things like that, now that I think about it, I go, "Wow, these parents really gaman," they really did things for the children that, at the time you didn't really recognize or appreciate properly. And so, for me, that was a real upside.

TI: Well, would he do that for your older sister?

RI: No, I don't think so. I don't remember that.

TI: So it sounds like you were kind of treated specially.

RI: Well, I don't know about special, but I'm very thankful. It's kind of this: when you grew up and your father wears gardening clothes, right, and we have a baseball game, my father would never miss a baseball game. He worked harder cutting lawns during that day we have a game that starts at four o'clock, and he'd park his gardening truck with my other friends', father's gardening trucks, they all parked their trucks in the parking lot, come into the grandstands and sit. And in their gardening clothes, they'd be cheering us on. I think it's really wonderful to see that. Now, other families, oh gee, they'd be embarrassed because, oh, your parents are wearing work clothes. Well, you know something? It makes no difference, and that's just part of the community. I remember when I was in Washington, D.C., and I'd come to visit Gardena, and this is in the '70s and early '80s, and I'd visit my dad. And in the morning I'd take the flight back to D.C. from LAX, and so Dad goes, "Well, you know, let's leave at six o'clock and I'll drop you off at the airport." I said, "Okay." So I get my luggage and throw it on the back of the gardening truck next to the lawn mower and the edger and the rakes and everything else, and the hoses. And I've got my suit on, and he drops me off at the airport. And so this one skycap who knows me, I'm taking my baggage off, and he says, "You know something? That's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," he said.

TI: That is a beautiful thing.

RI: He says, "You know, here you're all dressed up, your dad brings you to the airport, you're picking him up, and you give him a hug," he said, "that's beautiful." And I said, "This is the only thing I know, this is how it is." This is beautiful, too, because I'm just very thankful.

TI: And so I sense this fondness between you and your father.

RI: Well, you know, when I talked to friends, just very, very fortunate, my mom and dad were just loving, caring people, and they're just great examples, I guess, is what it is. And even to this day, when I travel to different places, or if, especially when I go to Japan and I go to special inaka places, or have special Japanese food, I say, "Oh, Mom and Dad would really enjoy this." And then going backwards a little ways, I remember one time I was at the East Room at the White House. The sun was setting, I could see the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument, and I said, "You know, I really wish my mother and father could be here to enjoy this," rather than me. Because I think it would mean so much more to them than to me. And it's like everything else in life, coming from a little city like Gardena, and be able to see things and experience things, you want others, especially people you care about like your parents, to be able to enjoy that.

TI: That's a beautiful story.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.