Densho Digital Repository - Katsugo Miho Interview II (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1022-2-1)

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MN: Okay. This is an interview with Mr. Katsugo Miho, session two, February 9, 2006. The interviewers are Michiko Kodama Nishimoto and Warren Nishimoto. So Kats, we're going to continue by doing a little bit of follow up on session one. And first of all, having so many children in your family, what was your father's role in terms of child rearing in the family?

KM: Well, being the youngest in a family of eight, I don't have a good memory in that regard. Because, number one, you had a language barrier, first of all. My eldest sisters, both Tsukie and Fumiye, was very much involved in looking after the younger siblings, especially myself and my brother above me. But even my brother above me was three years older than I was. And the one above him was also three years older. So between me and my two older brothers, Katsuaki, there was a three-year difference, and between myself and Paul there was a six-year difference. So being the youngest itself was another factor, but the age difference between my older brothers was far apart.

MN: And how much of an age difference was there between yourself and your two older sisters?

KM: Fumiye was two years older than Paul, so she's eight years older than I. And Katsuro was ten years older than I was, and Tsukie was twelve years older than I was. So being the youngest, there's vast difference in age.

MN: And what was your mother's role?

KM: My mother was very much, as far as I know, she was always busy. Because most of my recollection is during the years when we were running the hotel and she was the full-time cook. Not only did she do the cooking, although she had one or two helpers. There was one live-in housekeeper and then there was another neighbor... not neighbor, another helper who helped in the kitchen doing the cooking. So basically there were three people doing the cooking, housekeeping.

My dad was more or less involved with the front end of the hotel, which was the store. As I said last time, we had a hat store for a little while, so he was involved with that. And then he was involved with so many other community activities. When I first got a driver's license, when I was fifteen, my job was to take him around and pick him up from all kinds of different functions that he was involved in, community affairs.