<Begin Segment 26>

DG: And you came back because you had responsibilities, you say. And tell me a little bit about the store, again, as you went through the years. Like you're -- tell me your age now.

AM: What?

DG: And you're still running the store.

MM: Tell your age.

AM: Nandatte?

MM: Tell me your age.

AM: Now?

DG: Right.

AM: Eighty-four.

MM: Yeah.

DG: Why are you still running the store?

MM: Well, she, she wonders why I still hang on, but...

AM: Ano...

MM: To me, as long as I could do it, I have a feeling I'll do it, but I have to think about her, too. That she wants to take it easy. But, she knows that I can't do it by myself. Of course, we have a helper.

DG: Well, your father set you up, way back. You didn't have to work at all, if you didn't want to.

MM: But I like the public, I guess.

AM: She likes people. Talk to people.

MM: She says, "Oh, you talk too much." And then, I sometimes tell her, "You tell me I talk too much. Now you're telling me to talk." [Laughs]

DG: One of the things I want you to explain is how your father nurtured your family in staying together in all these years.

MM: Well, he was always a kind gentleman.

DG: But he thought family was important.

MM: Yes...

DG: You've told me stories about like you thought you had to help your brother and -- we didn't talk about your mother's passing. When was that?

MM: She died of a heart failure. So we knew she had a bad heart. But...

DG: She worked...

MM: She worked hard, too.

DG: ...until the end?

MM: She worked hard.

DG: Did she worked, back when the store first started, too, right? She did a lot of the working in the store...

MM: Yeah, after, after she came I think she worked in the store quite hard, too.

DG: So we're talking about a fifty year span now. The war ended and you went to Japan and came back. And...

MM: Oh, yeah, and --

DG: You're about the only store that's continued way...

MM: Yeah.

AM: Uh-huh.

[Interruption]

DG: ...you know, the Japanese community has to offer the future generations in terms of -- what we have to learn from people who've been in business. What the Japanese businesses offered.

MM: What have you got to say? Hmm?

AM: Nan datte?

MM: What have you got to say?

AM: About what?

MM: Ima yutatte no?

AM: Huh?

DG: Can you, can you hear what I said?

AM: Would I want to stay by myself, you mean? Work?

MM: No, no, what...

DG: No, Japanese businesses and the...

MM: Japanese businesses.

DG: ...the entrepreneurial spirit of the Japanese immigrants when they came. And let's kind of summarize it. And what you learned from being in business and kind of the change of the Japanese community here. You know, you're some of, one of the only ones left.

MM: Uh-huh.

AM: How...

DG: Just a minute...

AM: I don't know what is, the years will be, bring. It's hard to predict.

DG: Let's kind of summarize. Let's go clear back. You're one of the first businesses, and tell me how you see it changing.

MM: Well, that it's always been in our family, so I took it for granted that I should help them as much as I could. But, of course, there comes a time where you have to start thinking elsewhere.

AM: About us.

MM: About ourselves, too. She's ready to quit anytime. But, I'm still living and I says, "By the way you're buying, Aya," I (say), "I don't think you're ready to quit yet." It's still in our blood, I guess.

AM: That's the answer.

MM: But eventually, we have to...

AM: We can't live forever.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.