Densho Digital Archive - Doris Nitta Interview (denshovh-ndoris-01-0003)

<Begin Segment 3>

RP: You mentioned your mother. Let's talk about her a little bit. First of all give us her name?

DT: Shizuko Kadokawa.

RP: Spell her last name for us?

DT: K-A-D-O-K-A-W-A.

RP: And where was she from?

DT: She was from Hiroshima too.

RP: Do you know the circumstances of their getting together? Did your father go back to Japan to marry her and bring her to the United States or did she come as a "picture bride"?

DT: No, my father knew her because his sister and my mother's uncle got married and I'm sure they saw each other. They're not blood relatives but, and I think my father had an eye on her. So he had a go-in-between, everything in Japan is go-in-between so he had a go-in-between and they came to my mother's side and asked for her. And my mother I think liked my father too so they got together and they got married December 25, 1920 and then I guess couple weeks later she came to America with him.

RP: What do you remember about both your mother and your father? Tell us a little bit about their personalities, their physical appearance and your vivid memories of them.

DT: Oh, my mother was a very attractive woman but she was highly opinionated. And I think her oldest daughter was her favorite and I was her least favorite. Usually the youngest is... but I didn't have the beauty that my two sisters had and I was dark, and if you're dark you're not as pretty. And my two sisters were very, very light so she favored them. And my father favored me but my father, they were both very strict and I always say that if they were living today they would have been stuck in jail. Because it was nothing to spank us or like me, if I even talked back or didn't finish dinner, they just yanked me and take me outside and then lock the door and wouldn't let me in the house until I apologize. And I'm still scared of the dark to this day. But that's how it was and we didn't have to have police when we were young because church was our main police and everything we did they said, Well, what would your neighbors say?" there were so many Japanese neighbors. They were the one that ruled the community. They'd say, what will the neighbors say, don't put shame to the family. Everything was don't put shame to the family. They were very Japanesey. And before we ate we had to say, itadakimasu, that's "may we eat" and after we ate we had to say, itadakimashita desu, that's "thank you for eating." And when we went to school we had to say, ite kimasu, that's "we're going" and then we came home we had to say, tadaima, kaerimashita, you know, "we're home." It was very... they were very... my mother was very Japanesey but she was a very capable person because she came when she was about seventeen I guess but she was able to sew and she cooked. Everything she did she was a perfectionist, so she never let me into the kitchen. When I said, "Well, could I help?" she says, "No, you go, you don't have to come in," and she did everything. And when we went she had all the food all prepared for us to eat. And then after we finished she says, "You can go home now," we didn't have to do the dishes. And my father got after her told her that she should teach us but no. So I never knew how to cook until I got married and then I made the same simple things. But then when I was about seventy, my sister wouldn't cook, my other sister didn't cook, my sister-in-law wasn't too well and my mother and my mother-in-law were gone so I started to cook. And my husband said I was a late bloomer because I was making all the Japanese dishes for New Year's 'cause my mother made it all... my mother and my mother-in-law.