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AL: And your family in Japan, did you live in the city of Fukuoka?

KO: Yes.

AL: Big city? So what was city life like in Japan in the 19... early 1930s?

KO: 1930, you know, when I get six years old we went to kindergarten, not like over here. Not everybody went to kindergarten parents, first grade you have enter but no tuition. But I went to kindergarten, they had to pay, and sixth grade and after sixth grade, high school, it's not like America, you don't go to local. And then good high school has an entrance exam and then easy one has later one. They even have a Japanese song about it. [Laughs] But I went to aa good private school. And then mean you have to study no computer those days, pushing pencils bleed between the finger.

AL: How many hours a day did you go to school?

KO: Saturday is a half a day. Then weekdays six hours, four hours, and then I think it was two and a half hours in the afternoon.

AL: And how would you say your family's economic status was? Was your family wealthy or poor or in the middle?

KO: No, my family wasn't poor but my father had to work in office, big electric company so they were able to buy a house. And in those days, woman, housewife almost never worked, my generation before so she just stayed home.

AL: Did your family have traditions like was your family Buddhist or Shinto or any religious background?

KO: Yeah, most of them Buddhist but we don't go to church. Only time is a funeral, somebody died and that's the ceremony and then anniversary... and then cemetery is different.

AL: Did you celebrate things like Girl's Day in Japan?

KO: No, don't remember.

AL: No, you didn't have the dolls?

KO: Oh, yeah. I think it was, March was the Girl's Day, then decorate with all the dolls. And Boy's Day I forgot, May.

AL: May 5th.

KO: You know. [Laughs]

AL: I always know the Boy's Day. Actually Manzanar was established on March 3rd, which is Girl's Day in 1992 Girl's Day 1992. So it's kind of interesting 'cause you're born, Arthur, in 1922.

AO: Two, 1922.

AL: Okay, so both of you are children during the Great Depression.

AO: Yes.

AL: Right, the economics, and I'm curious about in Japan, what was the economy like when you were a child as far as the country as a whole?

KO: I don't know. I don't know anything about money, but my father, those days, housewife never worked as far as I see unless professional. And my father worked in a big electric company eight to five and he comes home and they're able to buy a house.

AL: So what kind of things would your mother do during the day?

KO: Just keep the house and cleaning and laundry. Those days they didn't have washing machine. [Laughs] She scrubs.

AL: Did you study any particular things like flower arranging or calligraphy or tea ceremony?

KO: Yes, after I graduate high school, nothing but good family daughter... some people professional went to work. Some people went to work to help the family but my flower arrangement teacher come to the house and teach me. And tea ceremony we went to nearby. I want to learn the piano but I practice the piano at the school.

AL: Were you... well, in the United States, of course a lot of what we see of Japan in the 1930s is the military, the rise of the military in Japan. And I've talked to some people, some of the Kibei who talk about, you know, in the morning that in the 30s when people would you know bow in the morning to the Tennouheika Showa, you know, those kinds of things. Were you aware of that in your school, like does that make sense? Maybe that was more for young boys.

KO: No, I don't remember. My father was, beginning was regular army officer and then I know during the war with Japan and China he was called in and he went to China about a year or so.

AL: Do you know what his rank was?

KO: He was a lieutenant, reserved officer, but then after that he went to work, after he came back he went to work for the big electric company.

AL: Do you know where he was in China?

KO: I remember Nanking and Beijing, Shanghai. I think I was maybe nine ten years old.

AL: Did you hear from him that year that he was away? Did he write or send telegrams when he was in China?

KO: I don't remember. And then my mother get up early in the morning, five o'clock, and kneel by a little shrine and pray for him to come back safely. But he wasn't regular army, he was called in with China Japan war. But he had a... I think, now I think about it he had a pay from electric company, he also get army pay... now when I think about it. I didn't know then.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright &copy; 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.