<Begin Segment 27>

TI: Barb, anything that you want to ask? So we've been doing this for two hours now, so I wanted to kind of... just any last thoughts? We can talk about raising a family, but in terms of anything that you want to talk about?

MI: Well, I think that's because of Bako and everything that... Junks wants to keep that Kinoshita reunion going. And then we had twelve Kinoshita reunions from 1993, and they're still going strong. And all the cousins know each other well. I know it pleases Junks real bad, good.

TI: Well, and you sharing this story, all the cousins don't know this.

MI: Sure they do.

TI: Not really, Mom. If I asked, like the Kigas or I see Peter Hashisaki, they don't really know the details of these things.

MI: About what?

TI: About how like Jiichan and Baachan were told at Minidoka.

MI: Well, that... what is there to tell? [Laughs]

TI: Well, I think the details are really powerful.

MI: But I know for the cousins to be that close, it's amazing. Because in camp, I know the cousins sure didn't get along with each other. [Laughs] But we didn't have any cousins so it didn't matter.

TI: Okay. So that's... I mean, you did an incredible job.

MI: But anyway, I think that's one of the reasons why Dad kind of wants to keep that Kinoshita reunion going.

TI: Just to remember those connections.

MI: I mean, he sure likes to see all the different cousins get together.

BY: How do you feel about that? Do you also share those feelings?

MI: Yeah, well, I think it's nice. I mean, you don't see other families that close.

BY: So it's important to you as well?

MI: Yeah. And then especially like the Hashisakis, they were raised in Montana, and they're more Japanesey than we are now. [Laughs] I mean, she's the one that wants to keep the New Year's tradition going on.

TI: With the traditional foods.

MI: And so among the four girls, the Kigas, Hashisakis, Tanabes and Ikedas, we take turns each year having New Year's.

BY: I think for my family, we have a Yasui family reunion every five years, and it's the same thing. But what we're realizing is that although we as cousins are very close, our kids are not so close. And so how do we keep that family connection going with the Yonsei and Gosei?

MI: So we have it every year. [Laughs]

TI: And we do it over a weekend, so it's overnight. And so actually the Yonsei generation is really close. Because from a young age, they -- and we had all those, like you probably do, we had these picnic games, the old traditional...

BY: Oh yeah, three-legged race.

TI: Three-legged, but with getas, we did it with things like that. And the watermelon, all those things.

MI: So when we have pictures of the kids from 1996 on. And then Junks made twelve books, and then it shows how all the kids grew up.

TI: Yeah, so they have a lot of the same feelings, I think, that we had with our first cousins growing up, they have the same thing.

BY: That's great. Yeah, I think doing it every year and having it over...

MI: And then we canceled three reunions because of the pandemic. And then it's more or less our turn to...

TI: To do New Year's.

MI: New Year's it's going to be our turn.

TI: But it's interesting how a lot of it -- and Dad has said this too -- it's almost like also remembering Bako.

MI: Yeah, it's to honor Bako. I mean, we're saying that it's too bad he's not here.

BY: This will be a highlight of your next reunion, I think.

MI: Because as far as I'm concerned, we have a real close family, which is a lot of comfort, you know.

TI: Well, thank you so much for doing this. It's taken years for you share this story, so thank you.

MI: Well, you knew most of it.

BY: It's such a powerful and touching story, though, it really is.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.