<Begin Segment 8>

TI: I'm thinking about, you said earlier that your father died before the war? But he also... I'm trying to get this clear, because you said, was he there at the wedding when you and Hi were married, or had he died already?

KI: He wasn't there.

TI: Okay. So I'm wondering how the family supported itself without a father and a mother. It's just the older brothers and you.

KI: Oh, because harvest time, there used to be a man that took all the workers that want to work out in the field, he would have a truck where, like, I would sit on a bench, a bench inside of the truck, you know. And he would take us to the farms to work. And then, like, if you did one tray of grape, you have a pan. When it's full, you lay a brown sheet of paper, and then you do it, that's like two cents or three cents at that time, a tray. And then at the end of the day, you count how many trays they did, and you get paid for how many trays you did for the day.

TI: So it sounds like you and your brothers worked out in the fields and made enough money to...

KI: My brothers didn't work in the field, I did. [Laughs]

TI: They worked at the store, the pharmacy.

KI: Yeah, they went to school to become a pharmacist, whereas I, I had no talent of anything.

TI: Do you recall, after your father died, do you recall the community, the Japanese community helping out in any way?

KI: Yeah, the church people, 'cause I was a Christian, and Christian reverends would come and say, you know, kind of help out my dad. And then when I was nine, I said, "Well, I could take care of the twins. They're five years old now."

TI: But now I'm wondering, after your father had died, did the church help out then?

KI: No. I don't remember.

TI: So you guys were pretty much on your own.

KI: He just went and got them.

TI: You mentioned how your father, especially as you got older, you didn't see him that much, because he was out in the camp and you were in Fresno. Talk about your relationship with your brothers. Did you have a good relationship with your three older brothers? Because it seemed like the four of you had to kind of take care of each other in many ways.

KI: Yeah, yeah.

TI: So talk about, like, how your brothers looked out after you. I mean, when you started dating, did they say anything to you?

KI: I don't remember that. But they were older than me, the three brothers, so they looked after me. And they decided they would rather become a pharmacist than be a farm work. So they went off to school. I think they did, because how can you become a pharmacist without an education in a university?

TI: Right.

KI: So they went to Berkeley.

TI: Right. Did they ever talk about, like, when you were going to school, did they ever, like, look at your grades or anything or tell you to study hard?

KI: No, they didn't.

TI: So where did that come from? Where did you learn how to, like, study and do your homework? Did anyone tell you?

KI: No, there was no one to tell me what to do. You just knew what you got to do.

TI: Earlier you talked about not having a mother's love, and especially as you become a young woman, things like dating or sex or things like that, how did you, did anyone teach you about those things or talk about that? Whether it's your father, your brother, or another woman? How did you, without a mother, how did you learn those things?

KI: You know, when I started my menstruation, I was really scared. No one told me about menstruation. And my girlfriend didn't tell me, and my girlfriend was one year older than I was, her name was Tsuyu Hiura. But she didn't tell me about what's gonna happen to my life, and I thought, "Ooh, lot of blood, I'm losing a lot of blood." And I told my dad, and my dad said -- no, I told my uncle, and he said, "Go see the doctor." So I went to Dr. Taira and he told me about menstruation. And it was only one block on F Street where he had his office and I had my home. So I learned about menstruation through somebody else. No one told me about that.

TI: Well, and then so later on when you started dating, did anyone -- like you mentioned Mrs. Ozawa, and she said she didn't want you hanging around with this other family because their girls were "too fast"?

KI: Yeah, that was the...

TI: So who taught you about those, like, the shoulds and should-nots?

KI: Because she, I guess my neighbor, since she was my neighbor and she didn't have children, she said, "I don't want you to associate with them," she said. So I had to stop my going there to play, even. She just put a stop to that. But this girl Tsuyu, she had lost her mom, so we became real good friends, Tsuyu. Tsuyu, she's a Hiura in San Francisco. They have an optical business in San Francisco. But she was my best friend until she got married, and I lost my best friend.

JS: She moved to San Francisco.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.