<Begin Segment 39>

TL: It's remarkable that you've led such a rich and rewarding life, and I'm wondering if there are certain lessons that you feel that have been especially helpful in guiding your choices.

YB: Well, I think my foster mother's one that was always -- I don't know if I should put it in the form of a lecture, but always speaking to me about something. And I would think to myself, "Here we go again. I should close my ears and it will go in one ear and out the other." But, as I said before, somehow along the way -- you know your mind is a wonderful thing, your memory. It's there, blocked in and saved for a rainy day, and it comes out. I was quite amazed that many things that Mother told me -- how to put it in English, I don't know. She always says, "a human being" or "a human person should or shouldn't..." Always, she would follow that way and tell me, "If you are an individual or a human individual, one should do this, " or "One shouldn't do that" or, "It's proper or incorrect..." And she'd always come and I used to think, "All those lectures. I'm just sick and tired." I wished I could just close my ears and take off. And when you're young it gets too far gone, and they overdo it on you, and I don't want to hear any more. But as I look back I think, "Gosh, I'm glad Mom told me all those things. It's coming back." And I think that -- and she'd say it in a quiet, nice way; she wasn't screaming at me, hoping that I would listen. And I pretended I was, but half of the time I was thinking of something else, but I think a lot of it stayed there.

<End Segment 39> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.