<Begin Segment 4>

KL: I know your mom studied PE, and hearing you talk about her siblings who became a doctor and a beautician and stuff. That kind of makes sense, but I wondered how her interested in PE developed.

JO: I really don't know, but I understand she was a tomboy and loved to play baseball. I said, "What?" I couldn't picture my mother being a tomboy at all.

KL: Or being eighteen at all? [Laughs]

JO: I thought she was more of a flapper-type, you know. And then we looked back at her photographs, now that she's gone, we have her old albums, she just wore the fanciest clothes, always dressed in the stylish outfits with the fur collars. I don't know. So PE didn't seem to fit her, but maybe it was because it was an easier curriculum, because I don't know if she was all that willing to study that much. But I know her father wanted her to go to college. He probably would have had all of his children go to college, but some of them were not smart enough. The one that's a beautician was not, didn't want to go to college. And then the next one that had to leave UCLA, she was a sociology major, but she never went back to college when she got married, and did not attempt to finish college while she was in camp. And you know the story of the Quakers helping all of the drop, people who had to drop college to find other schools to attend. She didn't even pursue that, she just wanted to get married.

KL: But your mom had finished college?

JO: Yes.

KL: Where did she enroll? Where's her degree from?

JO: USC. You know, the dad, my grandfather believed in sending his kids to USC, I guess. Except my aunt went to UCLA, but my mother went to USC. And so, and then she also had a car when she was very young. She started driving when she was sixteen. I think she went to college when she was seventeen, so she had a car. I said, "Don't you think it was strange that you had a car at such an early age?"

KL: What'd she say?

JO: "No, no, it wasn't that unusual."

KL: And how did you, you told me a little bit about your parents meeting each other.

JO: I don't know where they met, but they met in Southern California, probably at a college function. Because he was in Berkeley and she was at USC, and he would ride his motorcycle down to see her on weekends.

KL: That's pretty dashing.

JO: Yeah. And she was really taken with him. We have her diary, and reading about it. [Laughs] I haven't read it all, but I really should read more about it.

KL: What drew her to him?

JO: Oh, he was really good-looking, good-looking guy. And he was not, he was pretty tall, I think he was about five-six at that time, kind of shrank after a while. But he was pretty tall and thin and good-looking.

KL: And interested enough to ride his motorcycle down.

JO: Yeah. And he'd come down every so often to see her. But she's the one that had a car.

KL: Yeah, I mean, that's a nice thing to have, too.

JO: Oh, and whenever they went out, she always had to take her sisters with her. So the two younger sisters, sometimes three, would go with her.

KL: Did she resent that? What did she think?

JO: Well, she just had to do it.

KL: How would they...

JO: They liked it; they thought it was fun. Especially the one that's a beautician, she used to talk about how they used to all go get in the car and go with the sister and my father and mother on dates.

KL: That'd be exciting, I would think. Did they get you to say your parents' names on the tape, too?

JO: Probably not.

KL: I forget sometimes about the important details. [Laughs]

JO: Okay, my mother's name is Yaeko Nakamura. No, Yaeko Kusayanagi first, then Nakamura.

KL: And your dad?

JO: My dad's name is Genshiro Nakamura.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.