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CC: And actually, why don't we, so your mom was Shizuko Kikuchi.

MM: Yes. And they called her Mary. She was born in Colorado, Brighton, Colorado, and she was the youngest in the family. Her dad was a farmer, and he was very good at what he did. And her mother grew flowers, she had a garden that she grew for (herself), what do you call it, disposable income, you might say. But that was them, and he was sort of like a leader in the community, and my mom used to say that the Japanese community would just come to their house all the time, she said they have company all the time. The leaders, he was like a leader, so they would come with their problems and talk to him about different things. I don't think he chose to be, it's just that's how it happened. So that's all I know about my... well, I could tell you stories about some of the things he did. Shall I tell you about those?

CC: Well, first, let's take a step back. So they were born, do you know where they were born in Japan?

MM: Yes, I think they were both born in Japan, they were Isseis, so they immigrated over here. And I don't know if I should tell you about my grandfather, he was kind of like the black sheep of the family. And he was one of the older ones, I think, I'm not really sure. But he came here, he was already married to my grandmother, but he came by himself, left two boys and his wife in Japan, he came to the United States, and, I don't know, it was just, I don't know, just roaming around, apparently. I don't really know what he was doing. But he was doing things he shouldn't be doing, apparently. So my, the person I called Baachan, who was, like grandmother, she was my surrogate grandmother. And she was, Miyuki Hashimoto is not my aunt, but I used to call her Auntie Miyuki. Okay, and so her mother, Auntie Miyuki's mother, I don't even know what her name was, I just called her Baachan. She was the one, apparently, who told him to quit fooling around, go get his wife and children and bring them back. Well, I think that he brought only his wife back, and the two children were left there. My grandmother, who came from a really wealthy family, apparently, so she had to go begging for some of her food for her children, because he didn't leave her with any money, apparently. And there's this one story, which is really kind of a cool story, and who knows how true it is or whatever. But because they were so poor, and she was too proud to go to her parents and say, "I need money," anyway, they were poor. So her two boys were outside playing one time, apparently, this is the story I've been told, and a man in white clothing came by and gave them some rice balls. And they went in to show their mother that this stranger had given them some rice balls, and she went out to thank him and he was gone. And we think that they were, that he was an angel that came to save these two little boys. But anyway, I like that story. Where was I?

CC: Well, let's go... so your grandfather, he settled eventually in Colorado.

MM: Yes. And he had made a lot of money doing his farming, he was very good at that, and he didn't own it apparently, because I don't think he could own land, I think he was just leasing it. But his father, my great grandfather, that called him home and said, "You have to come home," because they had a mikan orchard, and he was getting pretty old and not able to work, so he had to go home. And so he gathered up his entire family and went home. And my mom was, I think, in fifth grade at the time, but I'm not certain about that. So she lived her first maybe ten years in Colorado, and then went to Japan. So that's on my mom's side. Now, my dad's side, I don't know very much about, because he didn't talk about his family very much. What I heard about them was from my mother, actually. So what she told me was that they came from a samurai family that had been exiled, but that's as far as I know. And I've seen a picture of my, that would be my grandfather, no, my... who would that be? My great grandfather?

CC: Great grandfather?

MM: My great grandfather in a samurai outfit that was not really brand-new looking, but it was a full outfit, looks just like my dad. I would have thought it was my dad, except it wasn't. So I think that there's some truth to some part of it, I'm not sure what. And my dad was the oldest, well, my grandfather lost his first wife, so they had a child who was the father of my cousins, of course, he was the half brother of my dad. And my dad was the oldest son of that family, and then he had a sister that was born next, and then a brother, a younger brother. So that's all I know about my dad's side.

CC: But you know that they were from the same area as your mom's side?

MM: Oh, yeah, they were from Ehime-ken.

CC: And then where did... he come to the United States, your grandfather? What state did he settle in?

MM: I had no idea for sure, but I'm pretty sure that it was Tacoma, because my dad had a lot of connections in Tacoma, and they worked in a restaurant or something like that, and I was born there. And my dad actually came back and forth a lot from Japan, so I don't know where they got all their money. So we had, growing up, we had all these ideas since we didn't know, my brothers and I, we thought, hmm, well, maybe they were pirates, or how did they get their money? Because we don't know, they had a mikan farm. If you looked at my dad, you wouldn't think of him as a farmer. I mean, he's more intellectual, their whole family is very intellectual. They do haiku, they do painting, they do music. I mean, all sorts of things that are not related to farming. Whereas my mom's side, they're bigger, and you can see them working the land. So I don't know what happened, it's a mystery to me.

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