<Begin Segment 4>

SY: Let's think about your childhood a bit. When you think about your childhood, how would you describe it?

YM: It was really -- well, I was raised by my grandmother. And so I think it was a very, not a happy childhood, but it was -- she was so good to me that -- well, it probably was a good childhood in those days. We didn't have TV or we... I don't think we even had a radio for a while.

SY: What would you say are your very earliest memories?

YM: Hmm?

SY: Your very earliest memories. Your earliest, earliest memory.

YM: Earliest memory... earliest memory is when my -- I love to eat and Grandma always tried to give me something. And I remember my uncle saying, "You'll spoil her," [Laughs] but my grandma never answered him but just made... because if she served something I did not like, then I wouldn't eat it. Then as I grew older, I realized that what she was doing so I ate whatever she served me. When I was really little, I just refused to eat and so she gave me what I liked, and it was usually fried cabbage or scrambled eggs or kamaboko or something like that, but I think in those days kamaboko was quite expensive.

SY: So did you eat mostly Japanese food?

YM: Yes, it was mostly Japanese food.

SY: And what language did your grandmother speak to you?

YM: Japanese.

SY: And you mentioned your uncle, was he --

YM: Because he graduated university in Japan and then he came -- that, I don't know, but I am just thinking he came over here and went to business college. So his English was -- well, from my point of view, it was very good.

SY: So did your uncle live with your grandma?

YM: Uh-huh.

YM: And your uncle was your grandmother's son?

YM: Son.

SY: And so the three of you lived together?

YM: Yeah.

Yukiko M. Interview - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved. - <End Segment 4>