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DG: Yeah, I forget some of the things that we talked about but you sort of found out more about your roots and family and...

KS: Oh yes, oh yeah.

DG: Different things that you were exposed to.

KS: And so we had Toru's mother come and live with us. And one of the nice things about that was that I was able to talk with her.

DG: Right.

KS: And she would tell me about her, her young experiences in Japan. Her father and mother had left her in Japan when she was about six or seven years old. And they were going to go to America and make some money and then come back and get her or go back to live in Japan. So she was left with her grandmother, but her grandmother couldn't take care of her, so her aunt did. Well her aunt was working and she was just about at the age where she started going to school. And I think they only lived about five or six blocks from school, but there were no other children evidently in the neighborhood. She had to walk to school by herself and for all those years, she said she was very lonesome, she was scared. She said, "I never really learned very much at school." She hated school. She also told me that they would have these horrible thunderstorms in Kyushu and she would be so frightened. And she had her own special place that she'd crawl into to hide. And I thought, you know, parents, maybe, they have to do these things. Eventually when she was thirteen years old, her dad did come back to Japan to get her, but there were what, about six or seven years where she was very lonesome. And...

DG: Were your children around when your parents were coming and living with you at all? Or were they gone by then?

KS: Yes. When my mother came to live with us. My, my children were home, so they got to know Grandma. But by the time Toru's mother lived with us, why they were all married and gone. It was, or April was in school really, she was away. The others...

DG: Because this is an ideal way for children to get to know, you know...

KS: Oh yes.

DG: Our Japanese traditions.

KS: Oh yes and just the fact that his mother stayed with us, my own children, every time they'd come home, they'd say hi Grandma and talk to her. So that part was very delightful and I think his mother certainly got to know our kids better.

DG: Because it's one of the things I love about, you know, our culture is that, you know, we take care of each other and we take care of our elderly.

KS: That's right, oh yes.

DG: And it isn't just with the Japanese, I find this true all over, but. Tell me about, you know, these values that you want to pass on to your own children and grandchildren.

KS: Um.

DG: Which ones are important?

KS: Well, I think the love of family and closeness of family. And to have roots. To be able to know that, like my mother came from Nigata and there's family over there. My father came from Hiroshima and there's family there. They're all part, part of you. And Toru's mother came from Kumamoto and we were able to go and see her family and her family's land and...

DG: So your children see by example.

KS: Yes.

DG: That it's passing on your heritage.

KS: Yes.

<End Segment 45> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.