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BY: Okay, let's talk a little bit about your mother. What was your mother's name?

KY: Rose Ayako Kishi.

BY: And when and where was she born?

KY: She was born in Thomas, Washington, in 1930.

BY: And did she grow up in Thomas or somewhere else?

KY: She grew up in Thomas and then so was evacuated or forced to leave from there into a camp.

BY: Okay, and so she was ten years old when Pearl Harbor happened. What was she doing at the time?

KY: She was, like any other young girl, just enjoying farm life, actually.

BY: And so her parents had a farm and so she grew up on the farm?

KY: Yes. Baachan and Jiichan actually were tenant farmers, and so, yes, they didn't own the land, but yes, that's where she grew up.

BY: Okay. And what happened to the family after Pearl Harbor?

KY: They were forced to leave and taken first to Pinedale Assembly Center and then to Tule Lake concentration camp.

BY: And so she was ten years old, so she spent her formative years in camp. What did she do in camp, do you know?

KY: As she tells it, she was actually, by 1942, she would have been twelve. And she said she attended a little bit of school, she called it "American school," and a little bit of Japanese language school. But mostly it was a lot of socializing. She took Japanese classical dance lessons, she loved going to the arts and crafts kinds of activities that they had in camp, and then also the friendships that she made.

BY: So when the war ended, she would have been fifteen or sixteen years old. What happened to her and the family after the war?

KY: Well, the way that Mom tells it, she left camp with the Kawaharas, who would have been my auntie Ruby, so Mom's sister in-laws. Mom's sister got married in camp, and the Kawaharas took Mom with them to Spokane. Baachan and Jiichan stayed behind in camp. Mom ended up in Hayford, Washington. And Baachan and Jiichan went back to Thomas to collect some of their personal belongings that they had left there. It took them about three months, and Mom said that then they rejoined, Baachan and Jiichan joined her in Hayford.

BY: Is Hayford near Spokane?

KY: Yes.

BY: And so I'm just guessing that your mom was in Spokane, your father was in, going to college and working. So how did they meet them?

KY: [Laughs] Yes. So they ended up in Hayford, but after about a year they moved out of, it was like the Matsumoto family, I believe it was, had a farmhouse, and so that's where they were staying temporarily. Then after about a year, they went to Spokane, into an apartment. So yes, Mom and Dad met in Spokane. How they met was actually, do you remember the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team?

BY: Yes.

KY: They were playing at Gonzaga University. And Mom went to go see the game with her friend from camp, her name was Tak. And Tak's brother, Kats, was also attending Gonzaga, but he was in a different department. He happened to see my dad at the same game and Dad said, "Who's that with your sister?" And so Mr. Tanino said, "Oh, well, that's my sister's good friend Rosie," and Dad managed to get her telephone number and he called her up and asked her out on a date. [Laughs]

BY: That's a great story. So the Harlem Globetrotters...

KY: Globetrotters brought them together. [Laughs]

BY: Wow, that's great.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.