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RP: What did your father do for business in Santa Monica when you guys moved out here?
DI: Well, I remember growing up in Santa Monica. I think he worked at some of those pier concessions like bingo parlor or some of the games they used to have on Ocean Park Pier.
RP: So he, he had a sense for business.
DI: I think he worked for somebody.
RP: He worked for somebody.
DI: Uh-huh, and he was a bookkeeper. He didn't actually run the games or anything, but he was an accountant, so he worked in the office. And I remember going there, we used to walk down to the pier and visit him in the office. So he was more of an office person, manager, rather than working in the bingo parlor itself.
RP: What do you remember most about your father?
DI: Oh, he was a very gentle soul. And the nice thing about him, he learned English so it was very easy for us to communicate with him. Japanese is a language, it's difficult, you know a few words as you're growing up, but it was much easier once we started elementary school because we went to and spoke all day long in English to our teachers and friends, and so it was much easier to speak in English. But we did go to Japanese school when we probably got to be, oh, maybe seven years old, eight years old. I remember going, went to school, and then the teacher would come by in his big car and pick us up and we'd go maybe for an hour or so to Japanese language school. But we enjoyed it because all our friends went, too.
RP: Did your mother also pick up English eventually, too?
DI: Not too... she spoke some, but not fluently. And I know she went to a... no matter what town we moved to, my mother and father always sent us to Sunday school. He was a Buddhist, but if there was a Christian church, we went to Christian church. But he thought as children we should to go Sunday school, so we did.
RP: Very early on, too.
DI: Uh-huh.
RP: How did your mom and dad meet? Was your mom a "picture bride"?
DI: I don't know that either.
RP: Did they meet here?
DI: But they came from the same town, so I think maybe it was an arranged marriage, but I'm not sure.
RP: What can you tell us about your mother and her family?
DI: Let's see. I think she had one brother. Is that right, one brother? And then she had a few sisters. But at my age, I'm closer to ninety than eighty, and my memory is not too good. [Laughs] And I keep thinking back when we used to go visit. I think she had one brother and then she had some sisters.
RP: And how about your mother? What do you recall about her?
DI: She was a very gentle person. I don't recall her getting upset with us. Yeah, she was, she was a good mother, that's all I remember.
<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.