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IM: But you have been involved, you've continued to be involved in different ways, I guess, Vigilant Love, Nikkei Progressives, I guess we can talk a little bit -- we can talk about in a second, I was just very curious also about you were involved in these poetry workshops, right, with Amy? Can you talk a little bit more about how you got involved with that and what that was like?

KM: Well, I mean, I've always liked literature and fiction and writing to a certain extent, and I've always liked poetry. So after retiring, it seemed like kind of a good opportunity to get into it, and I also thought that maybe writing would help me summarize some of the work. Like maybe I don't want to write about it, like write-write, but I could write little snippets, like some reflection that would sort of capture what that work was about in a more creative way, you know what I'm saying? Not that it happened, but this was my thinking. I don't have the energy to write something big, but I could at least go through my things and have some record of what that was about in a different way. So I looked at my stuff of some reflections, put it away, that's it, that kind of thing. So that's what I was hoping I could do, but poetry has always been kind of something that I've liked. My father wrote tanka also, and actually, as a small child, one of the favorite things I would do is when I didn't want to go to school and I was sick at home, I would actually read my mother's poetry books. So, yeah.

IM: So you became, you started a new life as a poet?

KM: No. I don't consider myself a poet, no. I wish I were, I wish I was... no.

IM: Do you remember, I mean, this wasn't too long ago, but what kind of things did you write about in your poetry or other creative writing?

KM: Well, I've written a little bit about my father and his life, and then I also write about persimmons, stuff like that. And my grandfather. And more about, I wish I knew more about some of them.

IM: About the members of your family?

KM: Yeah. When you try to write something, it's like, "Gosh, I realize I don't know anything about him now, who he was, what his life was about." Evan may have to call time.

IM: Yeah, I guess the other thing I just wanted to ask, and also just check in about, was like, I don't know, recently you mentioned something like the Sansei right now, or at least some of the members of NP are going through a lot right now with people passing and people declining health, things like that. I guess I'm just really curious how that's been affecting you at this point in your life looking back at everything?

KM: I'm seeing a therapist again. [Laughs] It's kind of like, yeah, I'm definitely not hesitant to be proactive about it, because I felt like a month or two ago, I was at a point of immobilization. It was like I don't know if I can take any more of this. I'm not the one that's sick or dying, but it was just too much to see and to respond to. I said, "Oh, no." I decided I had to see a therapist for that. It's been kind of the ringing theme of my life, huh? Therapist, therapist, therapist.

IM: So have you been trying to cherish moments with people, I guess, at this point?

KM: Yeah, I went to see a relative this morning, Mark's uncle Harry Kawahara, who is not doing well. And I thought, gee, I see all these other people that are friends, like Iku, Tracy's mom, or Alan, but I hadn't seen Harry. It's always good to see them.

IM: I guess... I don't know how we are on time.

EK: Last question.

IM: Okay, okay. There's so much riding on this last question.

BN: Don't blow it.

IM: I guess... I don't even know what to say for the last... but I just want to say something that allows you to say, I don't know, kind of put a bow on our entire conversation, but... I guess at this point in your life, we've spent a lot of time looking, talking about everything that's happened to you in the past and looking toward the future, what are the things that, I don't know, have given you the most meaning either a long time ago in your childhood, but are also things more recently. I don't know if that's too vague of a question.

KM: You know, think just learning about, from everything that I've done, and I don't think I regret anything that's happened, bad marriage, or being in the period of, like, losing joy or losing myself, none of that really I regret. It's like it's all part of the development, and I also feel like I've been very lucky. I've been at different places at the times that were right. Really happy to have been alive, and at a point where redress was happening, to be the Sansei generation that could be part of it. Really lucky to have been alive in the late '60s and been at Berkeley at that time. So all of it is like, almost like oddly weird to me that these things have happened, and to be alive at these certain points in time, and a lot of crossovers from when I think about the collective in Boyle Heights. Even the house I lived in in Berkeley became J-Sei. It's just weird how things kind of overlap and come together. And the fact that I'm able to learn something now, and I value that, and I think that, I do think others. But it's like it's amazing, actually. It's amazing to be alive at this point, horrible but amazing at the same time.

IM: Okay. Thank you, Kathy, really appreciate it.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.