<Begin Segment 12>

KO: And then did you stay in the nursery business with your parents?

RO: Yeah, my mother got, my dad had passed away in 1958, and then my mother was not that healthy, so I had, came back to help her, 'cause she had to run the hall and run the flower shop, so I came back to help her. I've been there ever since.

KO: And what year was that?

RO: In the '50s, '59 or '60.

KO: Were you married at the time?

RO: No, I wasn't married then.

KO: When did you get married?

RO: God, you got me on that one. [Laughs] It's in 1963, I think it was.

KO: How did you meet your wife?

RO: Oh, she was going to San Jose State, and she was living with my aunt. My aunt's from Hawaii and my wife's from Hawaii, so she was boarding with my aunt, that's how I met her.

KO: Did she help you in the flower business, then?

RO: She, she got a degree in teaching, and she taught school for seven years. And then after we had the three children and she quit teaching and then came to help me in the shop.

KO: So you have a, you learned a lot from your mother and father on how to run the business.

RO: Yeah, pretty much, uh-huh.

KO: From your previous years of helping them out. Did you ever think you would want to do something different than be involved with their business?

RO: Yeah, it would be nice to try something different.

KO: What do you think made their business such a success, to last all these years?

RO: I think they worked long hours. They worked very hard.

KO: So they established a good reputation --

RO: Uh-huh.

KO: -- for then, for you to carry it on. And have you seen many changes in the flower business over the years?

RO: Oh, yes. The flower business has changed dramatically. It's not like the old days. Old days was a lot busier. Now it's, it changes with every generation. People have different ideas, and every generation differs. So it goes in, like, in cycles.

[Interruption]

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.