<Begin Segment 7>

RP: What was the greatest influence on you growing up? Was it your parents, was it sports, or...

KO: I'm trying to think. [Laughs] I know my, when I spent summers with my grandpa and grandma, I learned about work ethics because my grandmother had this little farm, a couple acres, but she worked for other people. Here she is in her sixties and just working every day, getting up at 4:30 in the morning, and she would read her Bible, she was a Christian. She went to a missionary school in Japan and she would read the Bible for half an hour at least every morning, then she would start the, she would have the wooden stove going and she would cook breakfast. Then she'd have it ready and by seven o'clock she was going to work. My grandfather couldn't work, he'd stay at home. So I guess maybe I picked up some of her work ethics. She, I never saw someone so disciplined, work hard.

RP: You mentioned her Bible study.

KO: Yes.

RP: And Christian...

KO: She read it, she was, yeah.

RP: Was your family and yourself particularly involved in religious activities, too?

KO: My mother -- this is rather odd -- my mother was a Buddhist, so she would take, she would take my younger sister to Buddhist church, but the rest of us all attended the Episcopal church, St. Peters, which was about a block and a half away. My dad, you know, my dad was more, I would say, agnostic, or you want to say, he didn't go. Of course, he did a lot of fishing on Sunday mornings. [Laughs] But he made sure we went to church. But my mother later became, after the war, became a very strong Episcopalian. You never saw one as strong as she was. I'm still, we're all still Anglicans to this day. I serve at the altar here in Seattle. I did that for twenty-something years back East. That was a refuge for me, really. Any new town I went to back East or in the Midwest, you start with a church, and that's the best basis for making friends, getting to know good people.

RP: Did your grandparents talk much about Japanese culture? Did they introduce you to the idea of you being Japanese?

KO: My grandpa was more that way. My grandma didn't talk as much, she was rather quiet but she was the strong one. My grandfather used to tell me about behaving and being proud, talk about pride, yes.

RP: Not bringing any shame to the family?

KO: That's right, that's the way he was. [Laughs]

[Interruption]

RP: Kats, we were just talking about your grandfather and talking about taking pride in your Japanese-ness. And he was the one that kind of shared that with you.

KO: Uh-huh. And also I think my mother was stronger that way, because my dad came over when he was quite young. He didn't get that, develop that sense of, what would you say, Japanese pride. But -- I'm sorry?

RP: Go ahead.

KO: No, no. I'm okay.

RP: I was just going to say, your dad, it sounds like your dad may have had a little more American perspective on... as a young Issei.

KO: Yes, coming over quite young, yes, uh-huh. Yeah, he seemed to get along with his customers, they thought a lot of him. And he worked hard, quietly. As long as he could go salmon fishing, he was known as a very good salmon fisherman.

RP: Would he go out on his own boat or...

KO: Well, I remember him later on having a motor. A lot of people didn't have a boat motor. He had a Johnson motor, I remember that. And he'd put it in a barrel and he'd test it out, tune it up. That was his pride. And the other thing was, he would take, I guess he had samurai swords from the family, from my grandpa, grandpa's parents or whoever it was, he would polish it, take it out and really oil it up. I used to sit there in amazement and watch him, you know, and I wanted that so bad, but it goes to the older brother. My brother has it in Florida at this time, so it's one of those things. It's a tradition that the oldest get it, you know, so I don't begrudge that.

RP: Yeah.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2007 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.