<Begin Segment 13>

PW: Now, I understand you took, when Bob joined the consul-general's office, you had to go and do some assistance. Tell me about what, what happened during that period.

SK: Yes. Before that, I brought all my kimono from the silk, kimono from Japan, but my brother and sister went back to retire, I sent it with them, because no sense keeping it here. And not even a year Bob work in the consul-general, so they have a party. They said, "Wear kimono." And every time invite them we have to help, so drink, how to drink -- I don't even drink -- and I learned it there. [Laughs]

[Interruption]

PW: Can you tell me about your, your life and what you had to do when Bob started working at the consul-general's office?

SK: He was working at a cleaners at that time, and he was in JCCA's Issei group, I think, he was in. And they had a concert at the Centre... wait a minute. Not the Centre... where did they have it before? Downtown, Regent Hall? I don't know, but he, the Consul Endo heard Bob's speech, so he saw, "Nisei, Nihon ni itta koto arimasu ka." They ask and Bob said, "No. Doshita sonna perfect Japanese, hanasareru no katte." He ask, I think that Bob speak perfect, no accent. Like I'm speaking like a Japanese, it's a Tohoku-ben, a little bit, inside. But his was, was a perfect Japanese. So don't work, those kind of thing, and come to work at the Consul-General's office. This is what he involve in the Consul-General's office.

PW: And what did you have to do as his wife, as Bob's wife?

SK: He was working, but I thought I (don't) have to do anything. I just adopt Donna, and I don't want to leave her with, small child with ojiichan, grandfather. So, but they thought, they said, "No, wife have to come out, too, to entertain those, the guest." Consul-general's guest. So, oh, and after that, I can't say, "I adopt a kodomo, child, so I can't go." Do you know what? They said, "Babysitter tanon dara e." They ask me, that is what I start. So once he said, afterwards, I didn't say no. "Hai, mairimasu, ikimasu." And I went with Bob, and afterwards, they said, "Sometime we have big occasion, so you'll have to wear a kimono." Oh my gosh, so I came home and I telephoned my brother right away, my sister-in-law: "Could you make --" before, was I brought lots of kimono, but when I was seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, too young things. So my sister-in-law make kimono and sent it right away. And I wore those things to the party and everything, and Consul asked me, "Can you drink?" I said, "No, no thank you." "You have to," he said. [Laughs] "You have to learn how to drink, even little bit."

PW: Now the, you had gone to Japan, and you'd taken your children very early on.

SK: Yes.

PW: Tell me about what happened when you took your children without your husband.

SK: Yes. Bob was so busy and he can't take a holiday, so I went with children. And my best friend said, "When you come next time, could you bring your husband? Because everybody think you're married to hakujin." Because they saw Jerry and Donna, they weren't perfect Japanese, and you know, there's a mix anyway. So I said, it's a Nihonjin, you know, from the Kumamoto, but I'm telling a lie, they said. "So bring your husband." So I have to ask Bob, "You have to come next time to introduce my friends." [Laughs] Even my name was changed to Kadoguchi, they won't believe it. You know, Kadoguchi is, for the Tohoku people, it's a different kind of name. There are no Kadoguchi in... of course, it's only Kumamoto, I think. It's all the Kumamoto, there's a cousin or uncle, or something, Kadoguchi. But where you go Tokyo or where you go, you can't find Kadoguchi. So they, they don't care what I said, they have to see my husband, Bob. [Laughs]

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2005 Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and Densho. All Rights Reserved.