<Begin Segment 31>

AI: And I was wondering if this led to other conscious decisions of yours or perhaps unconscious decisions in the way that you started raising your young children.

MS: I have to admit, I did not push too many of the Japanese kinds of things. I didn't teach them about any of the Japanese traditional holidays or the foods or anything. And they didn't ask for it, either. Because as children they probably wanted to do what was acceptable at school -- your traditional breakfast and your traditional lunch, etcetera. It was only after I got involved with Mako Nakagawa, who was the creator of the cultural heritage program, when she told me she wanted some people to be involved because she needs volunteers to start a cultural heritage...

LH: And where was this?

MS: This was in the Seattle Public Schools, and the only places that this program could occur would be if you have a child in a school, then you have entre into that building.

LH: Oh, so you weren't doing this as a teacher?

MS: No, I was at home at the time. My kids were young. In fact, my last child, Becky, was still in kindergarten, and it was only because she --

AI: And what year was that that Mako asked you to get involved?

MS: Gosh, I can't remember, it must have been in the '70s that she asked us to start. She had, she was always very strong in being able to develop in our Asian students strength of cultural identity and who they are and pride.

LH: Was she another mother with a child in the school?

MS: Yes. In fact, all of us that she recruited, she did so knowing that we had kids in schools and we would have that able, ability to get into the building. Because it was volunteer, and it was not something that the schools were willing to fund at all.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.