<Begin Segment 22>

RP: You talked about how strong Issei women had to be to come over --

GK: Oh, goodness, yes.

RP: -- to a strange new country and start a new life. You talked about your mom taking a little more responsibility 'cause your father was unable to read and write.

GK: Yes, uh-huh.

RP: How have you seen the role of the Japanese American woman change in your lifetime using your life as an example? Do you feel there's, in your relationship with Frank, more equality there, less of a subservient role? Did your husband encourage you to find your own identity and voice?

GK: Uh-huh. Well, you know, I don't know if Frank told you, but when we were married, I'm not sure that my folks had anyone in mind for me, but when I married Frank, my folks disowned me. Did he tell you that?

RP: No, he didn't.

GK: Okay, so they disowned me for a year, and that was very hard because I was the first one to show any kind of independence in my family, and I just felt like some of my brothers and sisters, they were arranged marriages, and then there were a couple that found love on their own. But my folks did not want me to marry Frank, and so I was disowned. But I felt like we were in America and this was my life, so we were married. And there were times when I was really lonely for my parents, but then I also knew that this was a, this was my choice, I had made my choice. There were kind of hard times, but I know that that was not my mother's choice. If my mother had her say, I think it would have been okay, but my dad was the stronger one, so whatever he said was the way it went.

RP: What was the reason, what did he have against Frank?

GK: Well, I think, you know, back then, way back, I think the parents had different grudges, and I think Frank's dad was on the other side of whatever incident that happened, and just happened to be that way. And so my dad was that way, so for a year I didn't see them, but I know whenever, whenever I think about it, it seems so unreal now, but I always felt myself as more of a free spirit, I wasn't as subservient. So anyway, I made my choice, and of course, I've never regretted it, and I always felt like this was my life. I forgot what the question was, but anyway...

RP: So did I. [Laughs] Do you have any other family secrets you'd like to share with us?

GK: Family secrets? Let's see.

RP: How about gambling?

GK: Oh, gosh, no. No, my dad did not -- that's, I used to hear that my dad used to play pool. Back in those days it was not billiards, right? Pool. And then that's the smoky... but when he became a family man, he dropped that, he dropped drinking, and I remember Dad smoking. He dropped that, too, but I remember buying him, he smoked a pipe, and every Christmas I would give him a can of Prince Albert, that was standard, I'd go to the drugstore. Family secrets? Let's see. I was probably the most, the most independent, and they probably were afraid to say my name there for a year, you know. I didn't realize it until two or three years ago, one of my nieces said, "Remember when we couldn't even say Auntie Yuki's name?" and I thought, "Whoa." That was a painful time, but Frank was very cute during that time when I was disowned for a year. I would be very sad, he'd come home, got galoshes one time and got... [laughs] and different... but yeah, so from there, after we got married, he worked on his master's and did his doctorate. And then my dad, he never did apologize for my, for when he disowned me, but he was, told the rest of the family that they just thought that Frank was the best son-in-law he could ever have had, could ever ask for. So he was very proud, yes. So that meant a lot to me, to know that it was all right, that he was okay.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.