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BN: And then you mentioned that school wasn't interesting to you. What kinds of things did you find interesting or exciting? I know you mentioned sports as one thing, but can you talk about that what things you did find interesting or exciting?

NN: I liked sports. I think it kept me from getting in too much trouble, because you have to be kind of in shape to participate. Growing up, I didn't have really like a... I didn't have a direction that I was more interested in the moment than interested in what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life. And I more or less gravitated to people that felt the same way, and there were probably more than a few of us. I liked excitement in terms of you were trying new things. Because if someone says, "Don't do that," wanted to see why not, kind of thing. I kind of lived for the weekend where probably as I became, got to high school age, that there was like a dance or a party happening every weekend, which took up my weekends. School was cool because it was kind of like a gathering place. And I think at that time that for a lot of... I shouldn't say a lot, but for some of us, there was a real strong machismo type of, searching for some type of strong identity, which without any type of guidance, I should say, that you could go down different paths, and not all the paths were productive.

BN: What was your parents' reaction, having your older brother being this ideal kid, and then here you are rebelling in some ways and so forth? How did they deal with that?

NN: You know, when I thought about it later on my life, for my father, because of his background, that I don't think that he had, like, the capability of understanding about, "What's wrong with that boy?" And then nor did he really have the, maybe the time and energy that... and I guess if it wasn't life-endangering or to a point where I'm shaming the family, that it was, "Maybe he'll grow out of it." And raising the kids was really my mom's job, because she was at home to raise us, because he was bringing home the bacon. But a few times, she'd always say, "Well, wait 'til your father gets home," then I mean, "Oh, shit." But to their credit, or to his credit, he never laid a hand on me. Maybe he should have, you know. [Laughs] Genkotsu, wake up call. And then my mom, like her love was unconditional. So basically I could just tell her anything and she'd want to believe me. Mothers are like that.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.