<Begin Segment 26>

SY: And during that time, you were at the big house? You called it the big house?

MN: Well, there was a big house that my father built (circa 1914). (...) There was a greenhouse and there was a store (...). And behind that store was an apartment, and that's where Pearl and Hiromu moved to when the store greenhouse was built, and that's where we all ate (after my father died and before the war). We all went there to eat. Pearl and Hiromu and the two boys lived there, and then we went to the big house. And that's when I'd get to be with my mother.

SY: Okay. And when you were with your mother, you were in the big house?

MN: (Yes).

SY: And what, you mentioned one time that there was a very special relationship that you had with your mother at the end of the day? You wanna tell me about it?

MN: Yeah. Well, it was that we'd eat dinner, and then we'd go to the big house. And there was this pot-bellied stove, and she'd have a fire and she had a rocking chair. And we'd play around and talk to her. (...) You know Japanese people aren't very affectionate. But since she had raised my little sister Connie 'cause she wasn't well after Connie was born, and so, and my sister Misao raised me. So Connie was very affectionate. And she was younger than me, and so (...) my mother would let her sit on her lap and rock her. And they'd laugh together and everything. And I'd stand by the edge of the rocking chair and wished that I could sit on her lap and be rocked, too. But I never got to sit on her lap that I remember, but I just stood as close to the rocking chair as I could. So she -- the Japanese people don't show affection like they do now. (...) (This) was when we were still in grade school. But I mean, after the war when we came back, it was my mother and my sister and (myself).

SY: After the war, the three of you were together?

MN: (Yes).

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.