Densho Digital Archive - Kinge Okauchi Interview (denshovh-okinge-01-0005)

<Begin Segment 5>

RP: It sounds like you had little of your father's adventurism, too.

KO: Yeah, some of that. He had adventures all over the place. After the earthquake, he worked for the SP.

RP: Southern Pacific.

KO: Southern Pacific over towards Sacramento somewhere.

RP: What did he do? Was he on a section gang?

KO: No, he essentially, I guess, worked with the, whatever the... not the mess crew, but the support group for the section gang. And he had a living, comfortable -- not comfortable, but at least he made a living for that, until I guess he was able to start his business.

RP: That would have been the business in Sacramento?

KO: Yeah.

RP: Tell us a little bit about your dad from a personality point of view. Put yourself as a soon looking at your father.

KO: Well, he was a... I couldn't say that... fundamentally, he was sort of a taciturn character of sorts. Reasonably strict but reasonably friendly. He and I got along pretty well. Every now and then we'd have a fight, but this was when I was older. When I was a little kid, it didn't matter. He took care of me, and he and my mother used to get me toys every now and then. And so I was reasonably happy. And being the only kid in the family, I had a fair amount of freedom. So like I say, I tended to concoct all sort of tricks on my own, and they had to keep track of me. But on the other hand, I stuck to the rules. I figured that the rules were sort of a handy way of keeping out of trouble, you might say. I didn't really know it in those days, at that age, but I more or less stuck by the unwritten rules and kept out of trouble.

RP: Was your upbringing pretty much Japanese or American, or a combination of both?

KO: It's a little of both, really. At home it was almost all Japanese. And when my father visited friends, it was mostly Japanese, except that I would play with the kids on an American basis. So the kids were all Americanized, you might say. Then the result is that I essentially had pretty much two worlds to live in. When I went to school, that was essentially strictly American school. I think when we moved to Menlo Park, which we moved from Santa Rosa after about a year. I was in first grade, and I didn't know a bit of English to speak with. But I managed to get along and learn bits and pieces of English as I went. My father just knew just enough English to get me started, and then from there on, I picked up words. I read a lot. When I was a kid, I tended to read a fair amount. So I picked up all sorts of words and stuff, which was convenient. It always was sort of interesting that I was able to get along in the first grade without having any real skill in English. But I guess picked up enough words to get along with the teacher. And I got in trouble with the teacher -- I remember having to stand in the corner once. [Laughs]

RP: Oh, why?

KO: Yeah. I got into trouble in school. I wasn't paying attention, I think, is what happened. But like I say, I tended to be a little bit precocious at times. And I tended to do all sorts of things on my own. And of course, in school, class, that's a no-no.

RP: Doesn't work.

KO: Yeah. So I wound up standing in the corner. That taught me not to do things to wound me standing in the corner. So I think I, probably after that, I schemed very, schemed to stay out of trouble.