<Begin Segment 21>

JD: Here's a question that just occurred to me, this is sort of going back to when we were talking about your family and your dad. I know in my own life, my dad didn't give me much advice or tell me how to do things or explain things to me. And, and I felt sort of deprived in a sense because I, I wanted to understand, you know, I don't know how to grow up, become a man in this culture and stuff. He didn't really tell me anything about that. But I realized later that he had a tremendous influence and taught me a huge amount, just by the way he lived his own life. And I'm wondering if you have any sense like that about your own father and how, how the way he lived his life sort of formed your character or informed the way you approached things.

FK: Oh, I'm sure it has. Yeah, I'm sure it has. I know I, I look back on when I was a young man and I remember yelling at him one time and telling him he can't, he might as well quit getting mad at me because I was bigger than him now and I could beat him up. [Laughs] And I'm thinking, "Why did I ever do that?" But, you know, but, but I think about the little things he's done for people, and his free spirit and his caring. And I know that's rubbed off on me, you know. I know there were good things and bad things that he did in life. But I know... and I just, I just wish I had more time to really get to know him before he passed away. 'Cause '69, well, I was just not that old enough to think, you know, things were that important. And, but I, I kind of hope he realizes that I know how important he was in my life. That I, I probably identified with my mom a lot more because she was around when I was little. But I think about the things now... I mean, I used to think my dad did stupid stuff. He used to, he used to do yaito, you know, the burning different acupuncture burning in spots and, and now I'm into acupuncture burning and so I'm thinking, "Oh, shoot. Maybe he wasn't that off." And I used to think he used to do stupid things like make tofu. I mean, who would ever eat that stuff? But he was obviously ahead of his time. So, and sometimes people see me limping along and say, "God, you look just like your dad when you're walking." [Laughs] 'Cause he used to limp around and so I, I know he's an influence on my life. And I, you know, yeah, I do think he was. Yeah.

JD: What about the chinchillas?

FK: [Laughs] Well, this is one of the examples of what I, sometimes I thought my dad did really stupid stuff was one year decided he was gonna make a lotta money and raise chinchillas. So he came home with about a dozen chinchillas, and we thought, "Oh, no, here he goes again." [Laughs] And, he didn't get very far. But I'm sure it didn't do much for his... for how he felt about himself when we all thought it was a stupid thing for him to. [Laughs] Yeah. But that's, that was the way he was. He just, he just got this idea and he would go for it. [Laughs] Yeah.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.