<Begin Segment 4>

RP: Let's shift gears over to your mom's side. Her name?

GI: My mom's name was Sueko, which means youngest child, Fukushima. Sueko Dorothy Fukushima.

RP: And she was from the same village in Wakayama?

GI: No, she's from, her father is from Kumamoto.

RP: Kumamoto?

GI: Yeah.

RP: Close by?

GI: No. Well, it's... no. Wakayama is kind of in the middle of Japan, and Kumamoto is further south.

RP: How did your father meet your mom?

GI: Well, it's kind of like bringing up all the -- see, my mother, I don't know if it was incest or what, but my mother, I think, was raped by her brother-in-law, and she had this child. And so then I always used to say the victim became like this person, maligned person, you know. Because I remember my mom said her father said, "Oh, we have to marry this girl," or I guess try to do something respectful with her. But here, it wasn't her fault. But anyway, so he, this child was adopted by her sister and this brother-in-law and raised by them. He later became Pat Morita, who became an actor.

RP: The child who was a product of...

GI: Yeah. And I didn't know it when we were little, I always thought he was my cousin. But later on, when we got older, I found out he was my half-brother. Yeah. So it's... it was like something out of the closet. I just never... but he was good. He was so happy to find out he had a sister, 'cause he never had a sister. So in his later years, we became very close.

RP: Did your father go back?

GI: Oh, so then, what happened then is, they said, "We have to marry her off to someone." And I guess this, her sister, the aunt, knew my father, who was a gambler, but they felt, "Well, maybe that's a good person to marry her off to," so they married her off to him. And actually, he was a very, you know, he never questioned or anything, he just accepted her. And together, they had five children after that.

RP: Can you give us the names of your siblings, oldest to youngest?

GI: Well, let me see. Counting him? He's Pat Noriyuki Morita, and then I'm the oldest, so the brother next to me, his name is Clarence Koichi Saika. And next to him is Teddy Shuji Saika, and then I had another brother, Richard Kenbo Saika, he passed away about fourteen, sixteen years ago, of lymphoma. And I have a younger sister, Peggy Kyoko Saika.

RP: You said that your father was very accepting of what had happened to your mother. Conversely, was...

GI: Yes, she accepted his gambling. [Laughs]

RP: It brought an income in.

GI: Yeah, but I used to tell her after I got older, I said, "You know what? If you were really smart, you should have shagged a little bit." 'Cause she used to tell me, "Oh, he'd bring home all this money and just throw it up in the closet and everything." And then when he had his lean times, I told her, I said, "If I were you, I would have taken a little bit." She said, "Oh, I would never stick my hands in his pocket, or his wallet." But I said, "Well, that's what you should have done."

RP: What do you remember most about your mom and your dad, and maybe also share with us some of their qualities that you see in yourself?

GI: Oh, that I see in myself? My mother was, she, her mother died when she was three, but she was self-taught. And she read, and she could do anything. She could cook, she could sew, she could decorate. She could do anything. And I guess my father liked that. She was very attractive. In her days, they used to always tell me, "Oh, your mom is so talented, so good-looking," so this and that, you know. My father was just this stoic Issei kind of guy. But he later, I didn't used to think much of him, 'cause all I thought of him was his gambling. But later, I thought, "I should have gotten to know him better." I think there was a lot more to him, you know. But he read, and he really, you know, he didn't go to school or anything, but he could speak English pretty well, and he understood. He could carry on a conversation with anybody. So, yeah, I really wish now I had gotten to know him better. As far as what I am, I really, I'm not like either of them. I don't care about style, and I don't like all those kinds of things that women usually do, like cook and sew and do all those things. I'd rather just go out golfing or something. So I don't think I really, on the face of it, I think I'm more like my father, because I'm very unemotional and stuff like that. I'm not unemotional, but I'm not the usual feminine-type person that people think Japanese women are. I'm not like that. [Laughs]

RP: Sense of independence?

GI: Yeah, I'm much more independent, and I'm much more outspoken.

[Interruption]

RP: How were your raised, your upbringing? Was it both American and Japanese?

GI: Let's see. My father, because he was away with his gambling business, was not always around. So I think most of the bringing up was by my mother. And she was very lenient, so she allowed me to do whatever I wanted to do. And later on, growing up, my mom did give me this freedom. And so some of my friends would have to lie to their mothers, or I wasn't going to do this, do that, they wouldn't tell their parents. But I told her everything because she let me do whatever I wanted to do as long as I was doing the right thing, I think.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.