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KL: Did your, do you have any sense of what your grandmother's thoughts were about coming to the United States and living, arriving in California?

HK: Well, of course she wanted to be sure that Masao had changed, that he... I think when he told her that he had become a Christian, that he was trying to build a church, I think that convinced her that he had changed, and so then she was willing to come. But otherwise, as she remembered him, he was nothing but a playboy. [Laughs]

KL: Yeah, that'd be a lot to get over, huh?

HK: Yeah. But I guess since she had become a Christian and then he had become a Christian, then I think she trusted him enough to come over.

KL: When did she come, do you know?

HK: Let's see... yes, she came in 1996 -- 1906, I mean.

KL: 1906.

HK: 1906. She migrated from Kanazawa, and she...

KL: And what year was she born, Tsuneko?

HK: That's, I was going to say... you know, I didn't, I couldn't find that information. I know (...) she passed away in April 24, 1948. But, so I didn't get exactly the date of their marriage either, so I'm not quite sure, so I would say -- she was younger than Masao. Since he was born in 1857, I would say she was probably born in about 1864 or something, because she was quite a bit younger than he was.

KL: Okay. Well, what about your dad, then? What do you know about his early years?

HK: Well, my father had to work hard because he had to take care of his mother and his younger (brother).

KL: He had a younger sister too?

HK: I mean...

KL: His brother?

HK: His brother, younger brother. I'm sorry, (yes), younger brother. I think they lived with his half-sister, Nagaki, who had come from Japan with his mother. So they lived together, 'cause he was only about five when my grandfather died. But then as soon as he was old enough to work, they put him to work. Because he says he remembers driving tractors from the time he was twelve years old, so he was doing all the farm work, literally. Because my aunt's, his half-sister's husband didn't like farming, but he liked to own the farm. But he was working as a shoe repair man; that's what he preferred to do. And so my father was doing quite a bit of the work, and (their) sons too, of course.

KL: Did your, your aunt and her husband live with the family, with Peter and his family?

HK: (Yes), apparently so, 'cause they have a picture of them all together. But I think, from seeing the pictures of the houses, I think my grandmother and then my father and his younger brother, (...) lived in a separate house later. I'm not sure exactly what the timing was on that, but I think when he was old enough to work, I guess, or when my grandmother (...) was very strong-minded, so I think maybe she preferred to live with just her two sons later. 'Cause she had her own house, and then the Takegishis had built a new house for themselves. And there's a picture in this book here of the house they lived in. I'll show you those later.

KL: We'll look at them later. Yeah, that'd be good.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.