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AI: Do you recall any negative incidents of prejudice or any kind of discrimination as you were growing up in school?

KM: Not between students. I don't recall anything. It was after I graduated and then I got into dressmaking, that's when I felt it. [Laughs]

AI: But as a child...

KM: No, no.

AI: ...it really didn't affect you very much?

KM: No, no, no, no. But my parents always taught us that if you get into an argument, lose. Lose by -- and then win, by losing. Because you're different, and you're Japanese and you're never gonna make a, win any kind of case. And so that was kind of instilled into us.

AI: What other kinds of lessons did they teach you, especially about being Japanese?

KM: Well, they said that because we're different, and we're gonna be, have lot of prejudice, says, "Study harder, and do the best you can, and then compete and then get honors." And so most of the Oriental people got the honor, like honor society, or scholarship, because of the fact that they studied harder.

AI: And you were aware that because of prejudice your parents told you...

KM: Yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh.

AI: ...you would need to --

KM: Yeah, most of the parents encouraged us, and supported us.

AI: I see. Did your parents encourage you in any kind of religious or spiritual learning? Were you raised in a...?

KM: Yeah, well, see they were so busy in the farm that only time we went to church was when memorial service. And I used to think, well, I was raised as a Buddhist -- you know, every seven days, you know how they have the service. And I said, "My gosh, how long did it take to go [Laughs] complete this service? But, then all the people that they knew in Japan that were relatives and they hadn't seen for a long time, well they would say certain day that he passed away, well then we would hold a memorial service. And that's all I remember. But later on though when we had a Buddhist teacher come every Saturday to teach just Buddhists alone, we learned a lot of Buddhist songs and Buddhist way. But it was not through the parents more, but it was from the teacher. And all our teachers came from Japan directly. And then they went to USC or UCLA to learn English. And then for their spending money, well they taught Japanese.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.