<Begin Segment 28>

AL: How many grandchildren do you have?

AN: Oh, I don't know.

AL: You don't know? Okay. [Laughs]

AN: No, I have about twenty-six or twenty-seven, out of which maybe about eleven, yeah, eleven great-grandchildren. In fact, just last night I was thinking I couldn't name all of them. [Laughs]

AL: Yeah, we won't ask you to name all of them. But let's just say one of your grandchildren, great-grandchildren, is watching this in twenty years. What do you want them to know about your life, about the most important...

AN: Well, I want them to know that Grandpa was a man that they can say that he really served man, God, and country. I want them to know that, that at least he did that. I want them to have that image of me, that I did serve, and my whole life was service, and that's my inner feeling, that I'd like to, my whole life is service. That's all I've been doing. I've been serving the church, I've been serving the military, I've been serving, you know, people. And so I enjoy it. I like to help people, to lift them up when I can, if I can, and that's my whole... I hate to see people down and people kicking them when they're down. I don't know why, I'm just that way. I guess that's the way I was brought up maybe, I don't know. But that's my feeling on it.

And I haven't finished my family yet. I've got one more. Of all things, this one little baby came out, it was different. We never had a baby like this before, it was a girl. My wife said, "What is this?" [Laughs] We never had that experience, we had four boys and this one girl. And I said, "Mom, what are you going to do with things like this?" She said, "I don't know, I've been taking care of boys all my life." I said, "This is a mistake." But we finally had a girl, and she turned out to be real good.

AL: What's her name?

AN: Erin. She's the baby of the family. And the reason why I call them "law and order," because she's an attorney, okay? And she wound up with a big mouth, she was, what do you call it, a debate champion in high school. And I remember one day I said, "You know what, Erin?" You got a mouth so big that you can be a lawyer. I didn't say anything, quietly she went to school, graduated university, went to law school, became a lawyer. [Laughs] And now she has three little girls, yeah. And so, then she still -- she doesn't practice law, but she keeps her license alive in California. She's Anaheim. She used to work for the Orange County DA's office, and she loves to prosecute.

AL: I would not want to mess with your family. [Laughs]

AN: Oh boy, she loves that. But she worked only a little while, you know.

AL: What is her last name?

AN: Kailiponi. She married a Hawaiian from back home, from Maui. So that's the reason I say my house is "law and order." All cops and law. [Laughs] And then the Supreme Court is here. I'm the chief judge, my wife and I. And then my daughter, you know, my daughter gets the four boys together, they said, "You know, you guys are nothing but a bunch of dumb cops." She said, "You guys better learn how to behave yourself and know what's right and what's wrong. You guys, all you know is like to fight." [Laughs] And when the four boys get together, the boys get together, all the war stories come out, their police experiences, oh, it's lot of fun.

AL: What is the age range between your oldest and your daughter?

AN: Twenty-five years.

AL: Whoa.

AN: So in other words... no, twenty-four years. So when she, I remember when she graduated high school, went to the graduation, she was a cheerleader for her high school, and my boy Wells would play football for the high school at the same time. And so... and she was one of the commencement speakers, with the mouth... and so she was one of the speakers in the stadium exercise. So after that we all went down to congratulate her, and of course, the school staff was there, the principal and everything, and they were congratulating Erin for her nice talk she gave and all that. And so my oldest boy Castle went down, and we were following him, and the principal met him and said, before we can talk and introduce ourselves, the principal looked at Castle and said, "You know, your daughter was one of our favorite students." So mom and I, we backed off. We backed off, let it go, let it go. [Laughs] After all, there's twenty-four years' difference, you know. So he fell right into play and talked like he was the father and we're the grandma and grandpa.

AL: So how old were you when she was born, you and your wife?

AN: This is a miracle for you women. She was forty-eight years old, forty-seven years old. [Laughs] I told her, she should belong in the Guinness... that's why I said she got pregnant and then we got a girl, we were bewildered, we didn't know what was going on. What the heck's going on here? Yeah.

AL: After four you didn't know what caused it? [Laughs]

AN: I said, "Well, we might be eating some wrong food here or something." Oh, boy, that was really something.

AL: That's when we should have turned off the camera. So I understand that, I know that you lost your wife last year, and we're sorry to hear that.

AN: Yeah, well, it's too bad, but can't help it.

AL: But who was she as a person?

AN: Hmm?

AL: Who was she as a person? It sounds like you guys led a very interesting life. How would you describe her?

AN: Oh, I'd describe her as one that had patience, one that always considered the family first, especially the children, and especially when she had four boys, she had to use some strong language on them once in a while, you know. When they were teenagers, when they started going on dates, she told the boys in plain language, "If you take the gal out tonight, but don't forget, keep your pants zippered up, okay? You know what I mean? Do that." And she gave 'em some real sound, solid advice, and they did. Actually, she brought up the boys more than I did, because I was out in different assignments in the military. But she was a really family-oriented person. The reason why, because she was the only child. She wanted to have a sister or brother, but she didn't, she grew up by herself. So at first, when I met her in high school, I thought maybe she's a spoiled brat, but she wasn't. She wasn't. And she told me all her life, she said, "I wish I had a sister or brother. I was the only child. So when I had my own children, I made sure that my kids all enjoyed each other." So she was really family-oriented.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.