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BT: Okay. So I'm curious, what is your recollection when the war started?

BN: Actually, can I...

BT: Yeah, you could, please.

BN: ...a couple things before that. I know your father was an art photographer, but when you were growing up, what did he do for a living? Was he able to make money from his photography or did he have other types of jobs?

FS: No. When he had to make money, he started working with the people like Kimura and Iwata in Little Tokyo. He was good friends with all of them, of course, and Toyo was a good friend. But he was very adamant in my mind of not... he wouldn't want to do a photo studio. Those kind of things, he didn't want to be establishment, he was more serious about pursuing art.

BN: He felt that was too commercial?

FS: Yeah. And I could understand that, that's something, if you're deeply into the arts, you feel. So his relationship with all those people, I think it was out of respect. They all knew him by first name, you know, they were always welcoming him there. And he did work for Iwata part-time down in the basement, doing the fine printing work.

BN: This is Jack Iwata?

FS: Yeah.

BN: The photographer.

FS: And then I know he used to go to hang out at Kimura's too, so that was his...

BN: His work?

FS: Yeah, his work. And then he did work at a grocery store, but I think when he injured himself, it limited... and we always lived near the P Car, so he could take the train to J-Town. So that was about it, limited to what he could... public transportation.

BN: And then your mother was Kibei, basically, right?

FS: Yeah.

BN: Was she more comfortable in Japanese?

FS: Oh, all Japanese. I may as well have had Issei parents.

BN: So you spoke Japanese at home?

FS: Yeah, that's all I spoke. And she, as I say, when she came back, I think, from being away and realizing that I didn't recognize her... my dad, I think my dad made sure that I was raised the way he was raised by his own mother, a very strong Japanese samurai type of early childhood. Actually, I saved The Last Samurai, there was parts in there that I kept that DVD because I wanted my grandkids to see it, and there were pieces there that reflected my early beginning. I mean, the irony is it's America, right? But I can feel a connection with some of them.

BN: And then besides your dad's connections with other photographers, was your family involved in other kinds of community things like a church or kenjinkai or Japanese associations or anything like that?

FS: Not really. I don't recall any. See, my dad, I think, started the photo-kai. He was a starter, he was a leader, he started the tennis club. Okay, other people might have, you know, the recollection of being part of that beginning and things, but I just, my direct understanding from what he told me, he was pretty instrumental in that. Because he came with that strong quality. Yeah, it's hard to say. There were only two men that sort of always followed him. They would visit us even after camp, and it was as though they honored his position in Japan or whatever. This was two Japanese men. The others were friends, they had family and friends, and of course the photographer friends. But there were two individuals that I think they might have been single, but they used to come and they would talk for a long time, have a little wine. My dad wasn't a heavy drinker, but that's how... my recollection. And they always did a lot, even after my father was injured and I was a young child, one of the gentlemen would drive us to every place that my father would have driven us. To the mountains, to the snow, to the beach, too, everywhere. So I had a very ideal beginning in life, very strong support. You know, because I was the only one. Some people says, "Well, you're spoiled," well, there's a lot of ways to define that word. It was rich, it was a very rich... I had music, I had art, I had culture, I had strong understanding of it. I was only confused at the beginning, the American side took a little longer to sink in.

BN: Did you... I mean, it was fairly unusual for a Nisei to be an only child at that time. Did you wish that you had brothers and sisters?

FS: No, I don't think so. I don't think so. You know, my wife makes that comment, too. She was an only child but through a second marriage, she had siblings. I think I gained a lot of independence and strength from being an only child from my perspective. There's nothing I didn't have, and my life has been that way. In other words, lack of wants if that makes any sense.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.