<Begin Segment 5>

SY: So do you remember talking to your parents very much? Were they very conversant with you? Did they, did you, what, maybe you could just sort of describe what your mother and father were like. What was your father like?

YY: Well, he didn't talk too much to me. [Laughs] 'Cause he used to work from nine in the morning, he would leave around nine in the morning and then he'd come home nine o'clock at night. No, he closed at nine at night. And he worked every day except Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, and Fourth of July. Those were the four days he took off.

SY: Wow.

YY: So I didn't see too much of my father.

SY: And how about your mother, was she --

YY: Well, yeah, when we were at home I would go, go to school and don't come back for a while, so I didn't talk too much to her either.

SY: Did she work when you were young?

YY: No.

SY: She stayed home. Was she, do you think she was closer to your sisters?

YY: Probably. Especially my, the youngest one, when she was born.

SY: 'Cause the youngest one, what's the age difference between you?

YY: Yeah, there's, I think she was eleven years younger than I was.

SY: So she was born right, well no, not right before the war, but she was born several --

YY: Do you remember the quintuplets in Canada?

SY: I do.

YY: Well, she was born the same year they were born. [Laughs]

SY: That was in the...

YY: I think it was '34.

SY: '34, 1934. So that's how you remember her.

YY: Right. [Laughs]

SY: That's, so that's a big age gap.

YY: Right.

SY: So you remember her, always having a baby around when you were growing up.

YY: Right.

SY: And your mother having to take care of her.

YY: Right.

SY: So when you, did you, were you close to your sisters, to your, the one that was younger than you, just --

YY: Not that much 'cause she had her friends and I had my friends.

SY: But you went to the same schools.

YY: Schools, uh-huh.

SY: But you did activities separately? Like you walked to school separately?

YY: Right.

SY: And went to Japanese school separately?

YY: Uh-huh. We weren't in the same class.

SY: And your mother would always be home when you got home.

YY: Right.

SY: And then she would cook dinner?

YY: She was the one that would drive.

SY: So you had a car?

YY: Yeah, and then she would drive, she would take, she would cook supper and she would, we would get in the car and take it to my father at the store. Then she would drive him back home at nine o'clock.

SY: So she would drop him off in the morning?

YY: No, he'd take the streetcar in the morning, 'cause the streetcar was close by.

SY: But it was dark at night, so she picked him up.

YY: Yeah.

SY: And you would go with her every night to pick him up?

YY: No, not every night, but I used to go most of the nights.

SY: So you had a pretty, your day was pretty scheduled.

YY: Right. Yeah.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.