<Begin Segment 8>

KL: Did you have a library in that community, or a bookmobile or anything?

AO: The bookmobile came around, I forget how... not too often.

KL: Who drove it?

AO: I don't remember, because it came from Hollister.

KL: It was in, like, a truck?

AO: It was, yeah, like a little bus. It was a San Benito County Libraries. But my mother encouraged reading. She encouraged learning.

KL: Did you have a lot of books in your home?

AO: Yes we did, a lot. And I was always watching what Toshi was doing and learning, trying to study the same things.

KL: Were the books that you had in your home or from the bookmobile, were they picture books geared toward children, or were they classics of literature, or what kind of books were they?

AO: They were the children's books. They didn't have that many with lots of pictures in those days. And my mother read to us a lot in Japanese, the Japanese stories, and then we'd talk about it.

KL: What kind of stories?

AO: Oh, the Momotaro, you know those?

KL: Are they like fairy tales?

AO: Yes. Momotaro is the Peach Boy, and there was, Kintaro was... I forget how Kintaro started. And then... what was her name? The Moon Princess, she was found in a bamboo, it was a woodsman who cut the bamboo and there was this princess. And so he took her home, and they raised her, and then when she, I don't know, became a beautiful little princess, this army comes from the sky to take her home. [Laughs]

AL: What was the story of Momotaro, if people are not familiar with it?

AO: Oh, that's the Peach Boy, and I forget how the beginning of that is. That he's eating a peach, and I guess the seed opens up and a little boy is there, if I'm not mistaken. And they raise him, and then Momotaro learns how to fence, do all the different things that little boys do. And he's going to go to the city to establish himself, and he goes on a journey. No, no... that's right, no. Momotaro, I'm getting my stories mixed up. Momotaro-san, Momotaro-san... oh, the mother makes the little musubi for his lunch to take on his journey, and he has... "Momotaro san, okoshi ni tsuketa kibi dango," okay, kibi dango is his bento. "Hitotsu watashi ni kudasaina. Agemashou, agemashou, orekara oni no." Oh, that's right. there's a monster, oni is threatening people, and so he is going to... yeah. The reason why I'm thinking so much is because there's also a story of Issun Boushi, the One-Inch Boy, who fights and kills an oni. But I think Momotaro does, too. But he meets a monkey, and meets three animals on his journey, and he says, "Sure, you can come along with me, and I'll give you one of my dangos." And so they go together, and when they come up against the monster, the three animals that he has befriended help him to overcome the monster. I think the monkey climbs on him and closes his eyes or covers his eyes or something, you know, type of thing. And so it's a story with a moral, of course: be kind to dumb animals, because they'll help you. And learn all these things so you'll be good and strong.

KL: What is the song? Is that different than the story?

AO: No, that tells the story, that's why I was singing it to myself, to get the gist of it.

AL: Could you sing it for us?

AO: I can't remember the words. "Momotaro san, Momotaro san, okoshi ni tsuketa kibi dango. Hitotsu watashi ni kudasaina. Agemashou, agemashou, korekara oni no seibatsu ni. Tsuite kurunara agemashou." That's it. "If you come along with me I'll give you something."

KL: That's neat. I knew that story a very little bit, and I even have a recording of someone telling it from a museum I used to work in, but I didn't know the song, and I do like stories, obviously.

AL: Well, you know, we just have a couple of minutes left on this tape, I don't know if there's any other songs that you remember that would share?

AO: Oh, my goodness. I remember, this is totally different, but my younger sister Kazue, she and I were always singing. And her song was... oh, dear, "See, my toys are dear but my dolly Pretty Molly, she's the one I love best of all and she's my love. Da-da-da, and I love her best of all," or something like this.

KL: That sounds like an original.

AO: Could be. No, it was something that my sister learned to play on the piano at Georgia's house. And so people would ask her to sing, and she'd sing it, only she'd sing it, "Oh, my toys are dear, but my dolly Pretty Molly," and she'd go so fast that you couldn't tell what she was saying. [Laughs]

AL: Did you learn to sing Kimigayo?

AO: Oh, yes.

AL: Could you sing it for us?

AO: "Kimigayo"... oh my gosh, my voice. I'm going to have to sing bass. "Kimigayo, chiyo ni yachiyo ni, sazare ishi no, koke no musu made," something like that. Golly, I've forgotten it, too.

AL: What is Kimigayo?

AO: Something about... Kimigayo. For a thousand and, I don't know how many, ten thousand years, and like the big rock wears away until it's totally worn away. In other words, the empire will, this is... the emperor will continue until the, all of the stone is ground away.

AL: What is the significance of that song culturally?

AO: It's that the emperor, the empire will exist forever.

AL: But it's the national anthem.

AO: It's the national anthem, yeah. I don't know if they still consider it so, do they? I haven't heard it.

AL: I understand that's rarely sung, it's very controversial.

AO: Yeah, that's why. Because it's the emperor.

AL: So you could say it as a -- this might run out, I think we have a couple minutes -- but just as an explanation, like not with me asking you, but just explain what Kimigayo is and why? Because I don't think we've ever had anybody sing it or explain it if it was sung in the Japanese community before the war.

AO: It was always at special things, they would sing it, and I remember learning it in school, my mother teaching it to us, all the students, that that was the Japanese anthem, national anthem. But I haven't sung it for how many, sixty, seventy years. So I've forgotten it.

AL: Did people ever sing it in camp?

AO: They probably did in Tule Lake, but I don't think they ever sang it in Poston. But there was a diehard group in Tule Lake that intended to go back to Japan, be Japanese.

AL: What does it mean to you as an American, that song?

AO: I just like music. Keeps me going. And, I mean, if the Russian national anthem was something I could sing, I'd probably sing it. You know, not because it was something I believed in or anything, but if it's music... I think one of the beautiful ones is Finlandia, but anyhow... I just love music. And my sister and I were always singing these children's songs when we were little. And if we saw a movie, like Shirley Temple movie, we would regale my parents every night after dinner with a Shirley Temple song.

KL: How did they respond?

AO: Well, they would listen to us, then, "Okay, time to do homework."

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.