<Begin Segment 5>

BY: Okay, so tell me about your mother. What was she like?

MK: She was a bundle of energy. We had, everyone thought it was a huge home. We had a place that had single men living in the rooms. So it was three stories, so everyone, if you looked at the picture, you would see that it looks like... and it had a large garden and grass. And so she had to take care of changing the sheets weekly and cleaning and then she ran the secondhand store when my father bought the furniture and furnishings. He took the large items to the Bushell auction house, and they would sell it for him. And the small things like glassware, dishes, all that, he opened up a store. So she took care of that. She sold all the small items.

BY: So then you're saying that there actually were two different stores. So there was the...

MK: Furniture.

BY: Furniture store and this other...

MK: Secondhand store.

BY: And do you know where either of those stores were located?

MY Yes. They were at Ninth and Jackson.

BY: Both of them?

MK: The furniture store was large, and her store was across the street and it had a small frontage, but she had a lot of merchandise. And so she was busy all day long. [Laughs]

BY: So she was not only running the boarding house, essentially, and running the secondhand store, but also raising a bunch of kids at the same time?

MK: Seven of us.

BY: So what was her personality like?

MK: She was more curt. She didn't smile all that much, she was so busy.

BY: But it sounds like she talked to you. She told you lots of stories or lots of things about your father and all of that.

MK: Well that she did because she was left with Frank, my brother, and me. Because with the war, it actually saved my sisters, my oldest brother was drafted in the first draft because he had gone to college, gotten his degree, but he couldn't get a job in foreign trade. So the furniture store was in his name. And then I think he graduated in 1939 and in the first draft, army draft, was held on June of 1941 and he was drafted. So when Pearl Harbor occurred, he was in the military. And he was at home.... well, he was in the furniture store with the assistant getting the showcase. It was a big corner showcase, ready with toys for Christmas. They sold... they didn't sell the small toys. They had the bicycle and the wagon and I remember they were paid... and I was there. I used to always go. They didn't want me in the store when it was open, but when it was closed, I was allowed to go in. And they were playing the music and then they cut in about Pearl Harbor. So he had to report back.

BY: We're going to get to that.

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