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VY: Wow, there's so many connections there. I wonder, do you know very much about your mom's, or sorry, your grandmother's background?

DS: That's an interesting aspect of the Sakura family or my background. We know very little about the (Kondo) side of my mother's family. My mother was born in 1910 as Agnes Kondo, and she was a member of the Kondo family, my grandfather Kondo who had a shock of white hair, so I've inherited his white hair, and my grandmother who was extremely, my grandmother Kondo was extremely austere. They had three children. My mother was the youngest daughter, my aunt Rae (Nakamura) was the oldest daughter, and there was a son, Paul. Unfortunately, there was a tragedy in the family, and the son passed away and left a young boy about my age as an orphan. And the young boy was raised by (...) the Koizumi family, and I know his son, or my cousin (Tommy Koizumi) very, very well. The family, the Kondo family, seemed to be characterized as being risk takers, being flamboyant, being adventuresome. My grandfather Kondo was, according to family lore, an avid gambler, and, in fact, he at one point lost all the family fortune. My aunt was quite an adventuresome, flamboyant person, and she continued so until the end of her life. And her story is one of being very entrepreneurial after the camps -- and I'm getting ahead of myself. After the camps, we were living in Wisconsin, and she moved her family to Los Angeles and really made quite a fortune in real estate in Los Angeles, but that's a whole different story. My mother, being the youngest, was much more reserved, but was very family-oriented. But there was a streak of adventuresome in her, and I can tell you more about that. So there is a contrast between the Sakura line, which is stable, fun-loving, family-oriented, and the Kondo line, my mother's side, which was much more adventuresome, entrepreneurial, risk-taking, flamboyant. So when you look at my brothers, you can see traces of both the Sakura side was well as the Kondo side.

VY: How about you? What do you think you're more like, which side?

DS: Well, I think I'm a hybrid. Because if at some point we talk about my career, I think you could characterize my career path as being very risk-taking. But on the other hand, I'm very committed to my family. I think I'm a very stable and introspective person, much like my grandfather. I love music and poetry, so I have that cultural orientation of my grandfather. But I have the entrepreneurial risk-taking side of the Kondo family.

VY: Yeah, that's so interesting. So backing up just a little bit, I just want to make sure I get this correct. So your mom is the youngest of how many children?

DS: Of three children on the Kondo side.

VY: Three children on the Kondo side. And your dad, your dad is one of nine children, and where was he in that order?

DS: He was number three. There were two boys born first and he was the third son. Ultimately there were four boys and five girls in the family.

VY: Okay. And your mom's side of the family, the Kondo side, where were they located? Were they also in Seattle?

DS: They also lived in Seattle. And to make the story a little more complicated, they were Catholic. And it was a little difficult for my grandmother, Misa, to accept someone who was raised in the Catholic tradition to be married to her third son. But my mother ultimately converted from Catholicism to evangelical Protestantism. So they were of the same beliefs, my father and my mother.

VY: That's interesting that she converted. Why do you think she did that?

DS: I think there's something about the idea that love makes you, a relationship makes one make certain choices. And I think my mother was very happy with her evangelical Christian beliefs, as compared to the Catholic tradition.

VY: Do you think that your mom and her grandmother, so her mother-in-law, had a good relationship?

DS: I think they had a reasonable relationship. Unfortunately, after the war, and we were separated as an extended family, I don't think she had a close relationship with Grandma (Misa Sakura).

VY: Okay, okay. So we'll maybe get back to that a little bit later.

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