<Begin Segment 22>

MU: The next question, Mitzi, is, you must have had some kind of a philosophy of life. Did you have any thoughts that guided you through all the turmoil that you've been through?

MM: Well, actually, you have to be real strong, real strong and I feel at our age we're kind of living from day to day. Make the best of it, make the very best of it every day, and be thankful that we're still here on earth. Is there anything else? Oh, I wanted to add that Mr. Aiso -- I believe this was in 1984 -- he was conferred the Third Class Order of The Rising Sun from the Japanese government for his personal contribution as well as promoting better relations between Japan and the U.S. And that at that time was one of the highest that any of the Japanese Americans have been bestowed.

MU: I'm glad you brought that up.

MM: 'Cause he was first in everything, come to think of it. But it's... he passed away at the age of seventy-eight, wasn't it? Seventy-eight on December 29th, I remember, 1984. That was really a shocking news to me. I couldn't believe that a person (who) had worked so hard to uphold justice and to stop crime, had become a victim of a crime.

MU: Tell us the circumstances as you understand it.

MM: The circumstances? He, from what I heard, and I don't know how accurate I am, but he had attended some meeting after church, I don't know what church it was, and he was on his way home. And he stopped by at a gas station, one of the you-serve gas stations, to gas up. And that's when a mugger came and hit him on the head, I think. And of course he fell and he never regained consciousness, I understand. Now, I don't know whether they ever caught that person. Do you know?

MU: No, I haven't heard.

MM: I haven't heard. But here he was working hard daily to prevent such a thing. And it's really cruel...

MU: He ended up as a judge down there, didn't he?

MM: Yes, and he was one of the first judges in the continental U.S., I think, to be appointed to judge. So, he's first, top in everything.

MU: Well, good.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.