Densho Digital Archive
Preserving California's Japantowns Collection
Title: Kenji Maruko Interview
Narrator: Kenji Maruko
Interviewers: Jill Shiraki (primary); Tom Ikeda (secondary)
Location: Fresno, California
Date: March 9, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-mkenji-01-0011

<Begin Segment 11>

TI: Did your parents ever talk to you about being Nihonjin or Japanese and what that meant to you or to them?

KM: Oh, they kind of left it... at home, we didn't, not much. But they kind of left it up to the schools to teach us about Japanese culture and all that.

TI: 'Cause it sounded like your parents were really forward-thinking, so they wanted you to do things with the white population and different things. But I'm also curious how they... because I know your dad also took the time to start this program at the Buddhist church for the Japanese. So I'm curious what he told you about being Japanese, or what he wanted you to think about being Japanese.

KM: [Laughs] Actually, they didn't say much. We just... I guess we observed it daily, so we didn't even notice it. Then they speak, between them, they'd be speaking Japanese just like any other Japanese family. And then among us kids, we'd be talking to our parents, we'd talk in English. And my mother would say, "Yeah, I'd talk back to you in English, but if I do that," she said, "you'd forget your Japanese." So she'd speak to us in Japanese all the time. And when she went out to meet her hakujin friends, why, she would speak to them in English, converse with them.

TI: So that says a lot, huh? That she wanted you to speak Japanese?

KM: Right, right. She said, "If you don't speak it, you're gonna lose it."

TI: Now how about personality-wise? I mean, you have the benefit of actually having your parents speak English, so you probably communicated with them more than the other people your age with their parents. What was your father and mother like?

KM: [Laughs] They were easygoing, yeah. And they were both easy to talk to, and a lot of... the mother, especially, she was the one that brought up the kids. So she'd kind of give us advice and tell us which way to go, which is right, which is wrong. But a lot of times, we'd hear what she had heard at either the church or Fujinkai, or her meetings with the other people. So she'd convey it that way.

TI: Did you ever hear them talk about their, maybe their dreams or kind of what their hopes were for the family and for them?

KM: No, they didn't say much. But you know, all the Isseis, they always talked about education, now, and they wanted you to get ahead. So they wanted you go to through education. Yeah, but between the Japanese race, well, they're two competing, always competing with each other.

TI: I mean, within the Japanese?

KM: Within the Japanese community, yeah.

TI: What would be an example of that in terms of, inside the community, that they would compete?

KM: I think they all competed together, business-wise and, of course, family-wise.

TI: Well, for example, your bike shop. You mentioned there was another Japanese bike shop. So were you always aware of them and what they were doing?

KM: No, actually, we weren't. Because they were a block over, two blocks over. They were on G Street, and we were on F Street. So we didn't even know they were there. It didn't bother us. Maybe because of the location, that we had more hakujin customers. It's hard to say. And we were busy, gee.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.