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DG: What about discipline in your home?

NS: My mother was quite a disciplinarian, especially having boys, and they had to be -- they had to act according to her standards, or else. She was quite vociferous in that respect. But they were interested in sports and they took part in baseball and basketball and football and so they kept busy on weekends. My father used to have his truck and he would put boxes in the back -- empty boxes overturned in the back -- and transport the boys on the team on his truck when they had to go to White River Valley or the playgrounds. And my mother would go when -- there were often games at Columbia Play Field. She would take the streetcar and go out there and watch them. And there were games, I guess, there was a playfield on Twelfth and Jefferson and different places, and she liked to watch them and she would go, too. Then, of course, my brothers took part in high school athletics too, and my brother Harry played football for four years from freshman until he was a senior.

DG: So he must have been bigger than most of the Japanese?

NS: He was. He was almost he was 5 feet 10 inches, or 11 inches, and he was heavy. He was big-boned, I guess, and so he played football. He played all four sports. In fact, he played football and basketball. He had a good friend, Homer Harris. Homer was a year ahead of him, and so the two of them were always together. And there was a picture of Harry and Homer in the papers that was pretty well-known. I don't know whether you've seen it or not, but it was on the wall of one of the restaurants on Fourth Avenue. And it showed Homer, I think in front of him and Harry in back with somebody on his shoulder going through a line in football. [Chuckles] So it was interesting. And it was interesting because the announcer -- there wasn't television then, but then there was... was there television then or radio? There was radio, but the radio announcer would rattle off Yanagimachi like he knew it by heart, which was kind of a long name.

DG: It is. So did your mother encourage your brothers?

NS: Yes, uh-huh. She knew it was a good sport for them to be in; kept them out of mischief, and she knew where they were. [Laughs] And she encouraged it.

DG: 'Cause you mentioned quite a few times when we have talked before about how your mother really kind of encouraged you to do your...

NS: Yes. She encouraged me to get out and do whatever I could in the community, mostly after I graduated from university and graduate school. And she just encouraged me to get out in the community and do what I could.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.