<Begin Segment 6>

KL: What did your mom think of Boyle Heights? She'd never been to California even before.

KO: She liked that, but she was working, she don't know nothing. But she had to work.

KL: Where did she work, or what was the job?

KO: Some kind of factory, she said.

KL: And she liked it?

KO: She didn't like it too much. Remember, the bridge, go to Boyle Heights?

KL: Oh, I don't know it. Third Street?

KO: Yeah, Third Street. She used to race, you know.

KL: Race cars?

KO: No, no, running. [Laughs] She was a typical tomboy.

KL: She stayed that way, huh?

KO: Yeah, stayed.

KL: So she would race other people?

KO: Uh-huh.

KL: And did she usually win?

KO: [Laughs]

KL: What was your dad's job?

KO: Came back?

KL: In Boyle Heights.

KO: Boyle Heights, I think he used to do some kind of market worker, yeah, market.

KL: What kind of market?

KO: Grocery.

KL: Was the market in Boyle Heights?

KO: Yes.

KL: Oh, that's convenient. Was your mom's factory in Boyle Heights?

KO: Yeah.

KL: Do you know what the factory created, what it made?

KO: I don't remember.

KL: Yeah, I always feel bad when I sit people down and ask them questions about things that happened way before they were born for an hour, it's kind of unfair. But you said your dad used to go to Little Tokyo and gamble and shoot pool. Did he still do that after the marriage?

KO: No.

KL: Did he miss it?

KO: I guess. Once in a while he'd take me over there.

KL: Oh, he did? He took you around and showed you?

KO: Yeah, yeah.

KL: Did he tell you the stories? What did he do for fun after he married?

KO: Oh, he does gardening, we did it, I helped. Yeah, I'm the oldest one, my brother never touched it, he don't like dirty work, so he went to school. I liked to go to school, too, but I'm the oldest one, so I did work.

KL: Were they part of a church in Boyle Heights, or a Buddhist community?

KO: Buddhist. What was that, the first one? Nishi Hongwanji.

KL: Did they go every week?

KO: No, they're not a real church people.

KL: When did they go?

KO: I guess special occasions.

KL: We were talking a little bit about butsudan and the role that it had in your house before we started. Did you guys have a -- well, you weren't there, but do you know if your parents had a butsudan in their home in Boyle Heights?

KO: I don't know.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.