Densho Digital Archive - Yaeko Nakano - Kenichi Nakano - Hiroshi Nakano - Stanley Nakano Interview (denshovh-nyaeko

<Begin Segment 9>

SN: The other side of a coin is, I think, we could have grown up as kids of a doctor and we could have been rich. [Laughs]

KN: Yeah, or we could have been raised in Japan.

HN: Right. But it's funny, I was talking to one other person on one of the buses, and just kinda going, you know, you can get really angry over the fact that Dad missed out on being a doctor and -- basically they both missed out on meeting their dreams. Mom hasn't mentioned it yet, but she wanted to go to school and get a degree in music and that kind of stuff, so they both -- and the opportunity was there for them -- and then war came and that just went goodbye. But on the other hand, if it didn't happen, if it didn't -- history didn't happen the way it did, they would have never met, they would have never gotten married, the three of us would have never existed. You know, I would have never gotten married, I wouldn't have the two kids -- all these things would have never happened. My life may not have ever really existed. And so you can get really angry over the fact that history messed with their lives. On the other hand, after that you kind of go, well... you know, you kind of go, well, "It could have been" this, and "it could have been" that, but it wasn't.

YN: Well, I go by my Buddhist teachings that this is karma. And it was meant to be. And I think it turned out very well. My husband, before he died, told me that he came from Japan all by himself at age fourteen with a single suitcase, and he had to borrow money for the ship. And then he says, "I came here all alone and now I have a wife and three sons." He says, "I am rich." He says, "I'm happy."