Densho Digital Archive - Chiyoko Yano Interview (denshovh-ychiyoko-01-0023)

<Begin Segment 23>

MA: So tell me about your children. So you had one daughter in camp.

CY: I had, yes, she was born in camp.

MA: And what was her name?

CY: Sharon. And she married a Caucasian. When I, when I had two girls, I told 'em, "You gotta marry a Japanese and you gotta marry a Buddhist." They never married, they married, both married Caucasians. [Laughs] And they're not Buddhist. But she got married at a Buddhist temple. He's a Jewish boy from New York, yes. And she met him -- 'cause she used to be a social worker before, and after he got out of, he went to Harvard and Yale, and he got his law degree from Harvard. He worked one year for California Legal, I guess, to help the, help people that can't help themselves. That's when he met my daughter, 'cause she was working as a social worker and he was working for California Rural Legal Association.

MA: And so you have two daughters?

CY: Two daughters.

MA: So Sharon, and who's the other one?

CY: Sharon and Gail. Gail is a nurse, and she's a psychiatric nurse, and I have one son.

MA: And what's his name?

CY: Randall, we call him Randy. And he's, he got his... he was, when he graduated high school, he joined the army with, he wanted to join the army, he wanted us to sign for him. And we wanted him to go to college, but no, he wanted to see the world. So he signed up and he went to Germany. He wasn't eighteen yet, but he graduated from high school. But after he came back, he earned his... from San Jose State here, his bachelor in economics. And he works for the, he worked for the bus company for twenty years. Then he retired from there, 'cause he didn't want to work anymore for the bus company, and he's a health fitness person at Club One, which is private club. And he's, he didn't want to work full-time, but now he's working full-time. So he's not married, so that's the reason why he can do whatever he wants. [Laughs]

MA: Sounds like a, a wonderful family you have.

CY: [Laughs] My daughter, Sharon, she's a teacher now. She teaches kindergarten. They call it special education, it's for, it's advanced kindergarten, so they, she teaches stuff that even a second or third grades, they don't even learn, you know. It's a, it's like a, the parents have to pay to go to that kindergarten class. And that's what she's been doing for about twenty years.