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TI: Well, so talk a little bit about the impact on your family. Because your children at this point were growing up --

HM: Yeah. They were growing up, and, but my wife wasn't working at that time. And she didn't feel too uncomfortable about handling the kids for maybe a couple of days when I wasn't home. And she knew when it was the end of the proposal and the deadline date, I said, "I'm not going to be home for the weekend." Sure enough, I'm not home for the weekend. But she got used to it. Well, with the wind tunnel thing, also got her used to it because I would be gone on trips, and I wouldn't be back for two weeks sometimes, three weeks maybe.

TI: Now, out of curiosity, when you moved back to Seattle and started raising your family, what part of Seattle did you live in?

HM: Oh. I, we stayed, when we first came back we stayed at my parents' place. And then, well, Kathy was kindergarten age. In fact, she went to a kindergarten in Japan. And that kind of spoiled her because we were in a very interesting district. It was made up of half non-Japanese nationals, like me, and fairly well-off Japanese nationals. Across the street from us, the guy -- Shinagawa was the guy's name -- he was, for that year he was given the honor of the national (art treasury) of Japan for wood block prints. He was the foremost noted wood block print maker. And his wife was a patron of this, this kindergarten. And I didn't realize what kind of kindergarten she was a patron of. And first impact I had was when they had an open house day, and Kathy was enrolled in this kindergarten. And Shinagawa and Yoichi and anyway -- ended up that the brother of the emperor was there. Prince Mikasa was there. And he was a patron of the school. [Laughs] I thought to myself, what the heck am I getting myself into? But right after that I decided, well, it was kind of a rainy day one day, and my, the maid wasn't feeling so well. And she used to bring Kathy up to the kindergarten. So I took an umbrella, and I, I walked Kathy up to this kindergarten. And here comes a chauffeur-driven car, [Laughs] it happened to be a Rolls Royce. And this chauffeur opens the door, and this kid comes out. The kid goes into the kindergarten.

TI: So it was a school for privileged --

HM: Yes. That was the vice president of the second biggest steel company in Japan.

TI: Now were these private schools, or was it a public school in a very well-to-do --

HM: This was a model school that was set up to determine what teaching systems they were to use for other kindergartens in that whole area. It was a nationally sanctioned school, so some of the budget came from the national government. I didn't know this. I had no idea this was -- the obaasan across street used to say, "Well, we have a nice school. Would you like Kathy to go there?" So I said, "Sure."

TI: That's funny.

HM: Well, the deal was that my wife at the time would be teaching the oldest kid there. And he was going to, he was in his last year of high school. And they would teach him English pronunciation. That was the deal. And then they would make sure that Kathy got into this kindergarten. And she kept her word. And everything went along very smoothly.

[Interruption]

TI: You talked about your, how your daughter had a wonderful kindergarten experience in Japan, but now we're coming back to the United States. And now you enroll her -- you have to think about enrolling her in school here. So --

HM: Well, the thing that I was looking for was the best scholastic record of all the school districts, how many people went to college. So, at that time the Bellevue School District was the best one in the state. So I decided, well, we'll get a place in Bellevue. And that's why we ended up in Newport Hills. Still the same place we started.

TI: Did you ever, did you also consider, because this was the early '60s...

HM: Yeah.

TI: That, in terms of minorities, there probably weren't very many out in Bellevue.

HM: Oh, yeah. They didn't want to sell us the house I wanted. And it wasn't because of the seller didn't want to sell it, but the neighbor complained to the real estate person that she didn't want persons of Asian, Japanese ancestry living next door to her. So we ended up with the third selection that we wanted. Neighbors on both sides, they didn't mind. So we were the first non-Caucasian, non-black family in, in Newport Hills.

TI: Were you concerned about how your children would be accepted by other children in that area?

HM: Initially we were. But the neighborhood was very nice neighborhood. And they started participating in things like swimming activities because the pool was only a block and a half away. They have -- in the wintertime they put this big balloon on top, and it's a pressurized system. And they had tennis courts there and they had other recreational activities there. And this was a community play area. And they had a parking area. And that kind of attracted us to Newport Hills. And I figured, well, if the neighbors will accept us, the one on each side, well, I, I think we could talk with the rest of them to accepting us. That was my feeling. And the kids did get some resistance when they enrolled in the school. But the school is right close to us. It's another, another two and a half blocks away from us on the other side of the pool. So we're right in the center of this thing. And it was a very convenient place for us. And, well, the kids, after they got to know the neighbors and the neighborhood kids, I mean, it was no problem. But --

TI: And was Kathy fluent in Japanese and English?

HM: Yeah, both. Yeah. She used to correct my Japanese because I used to make some grammatical errors that were pretty bad. And she would say, "That isn't the way to say it." And she would correct me. But, and Robert was, when we came back, was two years old. And he would, [makes an expressive sound] just Nihongo only, because the maid used to take care of him most of the time. His English was pretty, pretty minimal. But my mother really enjoyed him because he would talk Nihongo at a mile an hour, mile, mile per minute clip. And my, my father also enjoyed him. But, and he was a really a jovial-type kid that would speak Nihongo like crazy. He had vocabulary that was better than mine.

TI: Well, that's interesting. So by the time he got to school age, kindergarten, was he able to keep up his Japanese?

HM: No, no. He'd lost it altogether. But the Shinagawa kids, they had younger kids besides the kid in high school, they used to come over, and they used to play with Robert, so, and both Kathy, both. But, and that's why they got so good in their Nihongo. It's surprising what a kid can do in different languages.

TI: It is amazing.

HM: But by the time he went, started school, he lost all his Japanese.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.