<Begin Segment 4>

TI: Before you get to your brother, because there's a lot there, why don't we talk a little bit about your mother and then we'll talk about your siblings.

HM: Okay. My mother was from Osaka and she was a rather educated, cultured person, which was kind of different from my father. There was a lot of educational and cultural differences between my parents. She was a teacher of ikebana, she had done koto work and she was familiar with the tea ceremonies and she had some very good credentials in all these areas. But my father was just a regular farmer and he didn't have any of these cultural aspects so he really didn't care for some of the interest areas my mother was engaged in. But nonetheless, my mother's main objective was to raise children and educate them and help the family enterprise, and the grocery store. So she sacrificed all her cultural interests on behalf of the children.

TI: With these cultural interests, did she try to impart them on her children? Did she try to make sure that her children had a sense of Japanese culture and the richness of that?

HM: Well, unfortunately, during this time period, especially when my older sister was growing up, the emphasis was being American. And my sister was more interested in people like Kate Smith and some of these so-called female singers, and wasn't really interested in the Japanese cultural part of it. It's really unfortunate because my mother had some very high aspirations for her in this area. But culturally, my sister and brother both were not too involved with the Japanese cultural aspects.

TI: How about with you? Did you get a sense of some of the culture when you were growing up?

HM: No, I got the same brain washing at Bailey Gatzert. We were given the routine that the American system, society, and so forth, was superior to that of Japan. So consequently I think all of us felt that way. This reflected on our studies in terms of Nihongo, also. I think my mother was very disappointed in the fact that we had no aspirations of following Japanese cultural benefits.

TI: Within the community because your mother had this background, this experience, could you recall her being different or having perhaps more pride in things of Japanese nature because of her background?

HM: The only time she really showed it was when we used to have Boys Day or Girls Day and she used to have all the dolls and the whole set-up. She had a very elaborate display system and she had the Emperor and Empress and the Peach Boy and everybody else all decorated. And she had a great deal of pride in that respect. Other than that, she didn't show too much of her interest. Maybe sometimes she did play the koto once in a while by herself, but just to entertain herself, I guess.

TI: You described your father and mother as being quite different. How did they come to be together?

HM: Well, she was one of the victims of the picture bride system, I guess. I guess my father had sent the picture of himself much younger than he was at that time [chuckles] and my mother thought that this was a young man that she might be able to relate to. And unfortunately, their age difference was greater than she had imagined, when she came over here.

TI: What was the age difference?

HM: There was about twelve, thirteen years. But culturally, they were so different that it was a difficult transition for her to make. In Japan, she was treated as a cultured person. She comes over here, she becomes a farmer's wife and the consequence of that was that she lost all her ability to pursue her cultural interests.

TI: Can you recall any instances where that frustration came through, that you would see that, that difficulty that she had?

HM: It reflected more on what she felt was happening to the children. And she felt that we weren't getting the true aspects of being Nihonjin. And I think she was right! [Laughs]

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.