<Begin Segment 29>

DG: You got an award from the Japanese government.

NS: Probably. I was the only woman, too. They were giving out those awards for public service, I think.

DG: Why did they give out those awards?

NS: I have no idea. Maybe it was the chamber of commerce and the Japanese consulate activity, but I knew a lot of the Japanese consular wives. We used to go mushroom hunting together [Laughs]...

DG: Where did you go? Where's your secrets?

NS: ...which was one of the things that we enjoyed doing.

DG: How did you know where to go?

NS: Oh, we had our secret spots.

DG: Mount Rainier?

NS: Yes. We were one of the first ones to go up to Mount Rainier after the war or even before the war, I think, or just right after the war, I think we went up there. And we used to find them right alongside the road or in the park alongside the road. But, of course, now with so many people going, why, it makes it harder to find excepting for a stray one. [Laughs]

DG: I do know that a person gets this award from the emperor because you did something to promote the good relationships of the Japanese fitting into the United States or wherever.

NS: I don't know what it was for, but anyways, whatever.

DG: Did you meet the emperor?

NS: No. It was given here in Seattle at a ceremony here.

DG: Okay. In early days they got to go meet the emperor.

NS: Well, no, I wasn't that.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.