Densho Digital Archive - Kenji Ogawa Interview (denshovh-okenji

<Begin Segment 16>

RM: Can I ask a question about Japan before we go back to the U.S.? I was just scribbling some things down. You mentioned that you learned, that you studied kendo in Japan. Can you tell us about that? Where you classes were and who your teacher was?

KO: Oh, it was in Japan, Kumamoto.

RM: What was that like?

KO: It's not easy. They're strict. You know, all the teacher is an ex-soldier, oh, mean. Bamboo, you don't it right, bamboo, hit it. It's not like here, the teachers are real soft. No, Japan, it's not easy.

RM: Did you like it?

KO: I didn't like it, but it was good, make you strong person, discipline, really you have to listen to those teachers. Not like here. Those days people don't... not like nowadays.

KL: You probably didn't bring your slingshot to kendo.

KO: [Laughs] They're too tough for me.

KL: Just checking.

RM: What about any holidays? Do you remember celebrating, like, Boy's Day, New Year's?

KO: Oh, yes.

RM: Can you tell us about Boy's Day?

KO: Boy's day, they got, you know that manju? What is that manju? You know manju...

RM: Oh, yeah, yeah. Do you remember making big carp, the flags that were --

KO: Oh, yeah.

RM: Koi?

KO: They did that koi.

RM: Where did you put those?

KO: Outside.

RM: On the house?

KO: Yeah, outside the house, yard, the bamboo stick, they fly. Girl's Day is different. The ningyo.

KL: The dolls?

KO: Doll, you know, whole bunch of different...

KL: Was Girl's Day hard for your mom? Did she associate it with her daughter?

KO: Yeah, she don't have Girl's Day.

KL: What about Buddhist festivals like Hanamatsuri?

KO: Well, they're so big.

KL: What were those like? How many people would...

KO: So many people, so many people. You know, Japan is hot, summertime, humid, sweat. It's not like here, way hotter. But I remember watermelon was so good, you know, fruits. When I came back, I used to tell these Nisei people, you know, Japanese, they don't know how good, Japan thing, nothing good. Well, I used to say, "You guys go over there," it's different. Sweet and everything. Even (the) meat, oh, it was good.

RM: Do you remember making, do you remember mochitsuki for New Year's?

KO: Oh, Japan, we call it shogatsu, New Year's shogatsu, big, making all the gotso, everything.

RM: Did you ever do any of the cooking or making the mochi?

KO: They are still doing, huh? You know, you want to come New Year's? Come to my place.

RM: Yes, please.

KO: We do a big thing. Today's Japanese, I still do it, New Year's. I like it. The soba, yeah. You got to taste my soba.

KL: Thanks for the invitation.

KO: Yeah, I'm not kidding. We do sushi.

RM: I also wanted to ask you, you said that your grandpa would get you out of trouble. I wanted to ask you what kind of, if you could tell us what kind of person he was, what your relationship with him was like.

KO: He was strict. When I get in trouble, he's always mad, but he always helped me. He'd tell my mom, "You got to do something, this boy." [Laughs]

KL: And what did she say?

KO: Yeah.

RM: What did he think when your family decided to leave Japan?

KO: Oh, you know, see, they have a lot of land, lot of... they have a peach farming, lot of big oranges, big family. So he said, "You don't have to go back. What you go back for? You can stay, we can take care, you guys stay here." But my mom wants to go home, come to the United States.

RM: Did your parents ever talk with him, or even with you or with each other about Manzanar and Tule Lake?

KO: I guess so, I don't know. He never went to Manzanar, he went back to Hawaii and Japan. (...)

RM: Do you remember what you talked about? If you talked about Manzanar, do you remember what people said?

KO: Yeah. That her parents?

RM: Yeah.

KO: I guess sad that lost (a) sister. So same thing, her mother lost brother, boys, so same position.

RM: That's all the questions I've written down, thank you.

KL: Alice, are there other stories that we should ask Kenji about from Japan, do you know?

Off camera: Nothing in Japan. It's what his parents would say, talk about. They would talk about Manzanar and Tule Lake some, but not like a whole lot.