<Begin Segment 2>

KL: Back in their childhood though, your mother was born in Honolulu and then the whole family traveled to Japan, is that right? Her parents and her siblings and she? How long did they spend on that trip?

KM: I don't know how long they spent. They stayed long enough that the kids went to school.

KL: All three kids.

KM: My mother stayed home. And that's all I recall about her saying that to her mother.

KL: But was she raised with her siblings or was it later in life?

KM: Later that she was with them.

KL: Did she come back to Hawaii?

KM: I believe so. Did she? I don't know. She may not have, she may have finished school in Japan, and my mother went, stayed by, I think, other family members.

KL: Do you know the name of the grandmother that she lived with?

KM: Kimi.

KL: Kimi Fujimoto?

KM: Was it Fujimoto or... what does it say there?

KL: That's okay.

YI: We can look it up.

KL: "I don't know" or "I don't remember," is totally an okay answer if you don't know everything. What did she say about her schooling? Was there a particular subject she's studying or a career?

KM: No, we never talked about that, and I'm sorry that I never interviewed her, you know, that she went to school, what did she like. I know she took, you know, the lady things, flower arrangement and sewing and tea ceremony, what young ladies did in those days. Because they weren't, some of them were trained to go as schoolteachers, but my mother never mentioned a direction that her education went.

KL: Did she have a grandfather who was living at that time?

KM: No, she didn't have a grandfather. She had a father, he liked alcohol, and he went, he worked in Honolulu at one of the better hotels.

KL: Do you know its name by chance?

KM: No, I don't know if it was a famous one or not. But they would all go and work and bring home money and build a better place at home and improve their status.

KL: At home in Japan?

KM: At home.

KL: In Japan? How did he meet his wife?

KM: I believe it was an arranged thing where they say, "I understand you have a daughter that's not married and I have a son who's not married or a family friend," called a baishakunin, which was the marriage broker or something like that.

KL: What were your grandparents' names, your mother's parents?

YI: It's in there.

KM: It's in the book. [Laughs]

KL: Okay, we'll look later.

KM: And that's all I know about that.

KL: What about your father? Where was he from?

KM: Ehime-ken, which is on the island of Shikoku. And he went to school, and I think he didn't get to study because he was a younger son. So in the olden days, primogeniture, you didn't get anything, they kept diluting the size of the land.

KL: So you said he didn't get to study?

KM: No, he wanted to. A lot of the younger men wanted to, but not possible.

KL: His older brother did, though?

KM: Yes, his older brother did go to school. And he was a scholar, but he wasn't a businessman.

KL: Did he have a field?

KM: No, it was probably philosophy or writing or something like that. And they were merchants, and they did trade. And he says he remembers his uncle whose home he lived at on and off, he would trade bear skins. And he said it was real nice and soft to lay down to nap in.

KL: Where did the bear skins come from?

KM: Russia. And they traded because they traded salted fish.

KL: You said that your father's uncle was the trader?

KM: Yes, I don't know his name. Because my father's side is a mystery. We don't know too much.

KL: What about that older brother who was the scholar? Do you know his name?

KM: No. Because we never met them. Never met the grandparents on my father's side.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.