<Begin Segment 2>

MN: Okay, so you said your mother went to nursing school. So did she do any sambasan duties here?

KK: No, because he had no way of getting to anyplace. So she got her certificate to be a nurse, but she never practiced.

MN: And then before we go on, I wanted to ask you, which city were you born in?

KK: Monebello, or Monterey Park, I don't know which it is. It's down in, I think it's down in Monterey Park.

MN: Okay. They're kind of close to each other.

KK: Yeah.

MN: And what is your birth name? The name you were given at birth?

KK: Keiko.

MN: Now, a lot of Niseis in your generation later adopted an English name. Did you ever adopt an English name?

KK: Yeah, Kay, K-A-Y.

MN: Oh, so you just shortened Keiko.

KK: I just, Keiko, shortening Keiko to Kay, 'cause it was easier.

MN: What is the first language that you learned?

KK: Japanese. [Laughs] So you know how hard it was for me to learn English, being the only child and away from people. I didn't know nothing. I was way behind.

MN: So how was it when you started kindergarten?

KK: I don't know. [Laughs]

MN: Well, did you have a hard time?

KK: I must have.

MN: But you must have started learning English pretty fast in kindergarten?

KK: Well, I guess so, I don't know. That I can't tell you, because I really don't know.

MN: Do you remember which kindergarten you started when you were living in Monterey Park?

KK: I don't know. I don't even remember the name of the school anymore.

MN: Do you remember what the ethnic makeup of the school was?

KK: Oh, they were all hakujin, and a few Japanese, because there were Japanese living around there.

MN: How did the hakujin students and teachers treat you?

KK: Now, that I don't know, because they treat you like a human being. They weren't any different. I didn't feel that I was, you know, segregated or anything like that at that time. So I guess they treated me okay.

MN: Were you able to make a lot of friends with the hakujin kids?

KK: No, I kind of stuck to myself, I think.

MN: Can you describe the home that you lived in in Monterey Park? Do you have memories of that home?

KK: Yeah, it was like the... you know the Manzanar homes that we stayed in? They were built like that, more or less. And so when we went to Manzanar, it didn't make it that much different. [Laughs]

MN: So it was a wooden structure?

KK: It was a wooden structure.

MN: Ofuro outside?

KK: Yeah, ofuro outside, and the privy outside, too. [Laughs]

MN: What did you use for toilet paper?

KK: Newspapers and toilet paper, I guess, whichever was handy.

MN: What kind of newspapers did you use?

KK: Oh, Rafu Shimpo. [Laughs]

MN: So your family subscribed to the Rafu Shimpo.

KK: Yeah.

MN: How about like the Kashu Mainichi?

KK: Well, I don't know which they took, Kashu Mainichi or Rafu Shimpo. But which one was the Fujii-san?

MN: Kashu Mainichi.

KK: Well, then they took the Kashu Mainichi, not the Rafu Shimpo.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.